Introduction

From 1930-1952, the Appalachian Trail (AT) followed a very different route between Roanoke, Virginia, and Damascus on the Tennessee border. Instead of passing to the west of Blacksburg and crossing the New River at Pearisburg, from Roanoke, the trail turned due south into Floyd County, and from there passed down into Patrick Country, crossing briefly into North Carolina at Fisher's Peak, then hooked back northwest through downtown Galax, Virginia, before crossing the New River at Dixon's Ferry. On the west bank of the river, the trail then turned north until it reached Byllesby Dam, at which point it climbed up onto the Iron Mountain ridge, which it followed all the way to Damascus. In 1952, the Appalachian Trail Conference (ATC) pulled the trail more than 50 miles west to its current location, abandoning the original route in Southwestern Virginia, a route that encompassed 300 miles, or 15 percent of the entire trail at the time.

The AT was always intended to be a place for hikers to spend a few hours, a day, a few days, a week, a few weeks, or more out in the forest, away from the stresses and sounds of the city.  The AT provides an escape, an outlet, and a sanctuary for those wishing to find a connection to the natural world.  Whether a pioneering thru-hiker in 1951 or a day hiker in 2020, the people who walk along the footpath seek a sense of freedom and release.  Year after year, the trail provides that for them.

For those earliest thru-hikers, the trail experience differed greatly from today.  The men and women, who hiked along Virginia’s Lost AT as thru-hikers encountered curiosity and scrutiny as well as kindness and generosity.  

This module challenges students to look at the hardships and triumphs found by those hiking Virginia’s Lost AT.  Students will base their understanding of the past on a current clip of life on the AT. With a shared perspective, students will then analyze trail related documents and create their own understanding of what trail life may have looked like in the 1940s and early 1950s.  This enrichment lesson can incorporate a brief lecture on the growth of the AT over the decades and an analysis of the change in routes. The module culminates with the creation of seven social media posts about the trail in its early years using the collection of sources below.

Collection of Sources (17)

1. Gene Espy Passes through Galax & Image of Espy
2. Chester Dziengielewski Passes through Galax
3. Dixon’s Ferry (1940’s) & Sally Dixon Rakes Interview (2019)  Copy at end of plans.
4. Rocky Knob Shelter (2019)
5. County Line Primitive Baptist Church
6. Graysville Store (Floyd) & Bluemont Hotel (Galax)
7. Letter from George Miller to John Barnard
8. Pinnacles of Dan #1 & #2
9. Mrs. Sue Hall
10. Byllesby Dam (1912)
11. Poor Mountain & Cabin in Hemlock Dell
12. Tuggle Gap to Route 58 (1941)

Virginia Standards of Learning:

VUS.1 The student will demonstrate skills for historical thinking, geographical analysis, economic decision making, and responsible citizenship by

1. a)   synthesizing evidence from artifacts and primary and secondary sources to obtain information about events in Virginia and United States history;
   j)   investigating and researching to develop products orally and in writing.

Objective:

1. Students will analyze primary and secondary sources and draw conclusions about life on the Appalachian Trail in the 1940s and 50s.
2. Students will create social media style posts displaying their interpretation of places and people on the trail.
3. Students will compare and contrast current hiker experiences to those in the past.

Teaching Strategies

1. Discussion and thought-holding note taking on videos and images.
2. Question and answer sessions to help students interpret primary and secondary sources.
3. Optional brief lecture on the change over time of the Appalachian Trail route through Southern Virginia.
4. Independent work creating social media posts.

Lesson Plan

• Ask students to explain what they know about the Appalachian Trail.  This will give you perspective as to what how much prior knowledge exists within the group.
• Students view a contemporary hiking experience on the Appalachian Trail (AT).  There are countless pieces to watch accessing Youtube that show what a day in the life of current thru hiker is like.  Students should identify and list hardships that they spot from this lifestyle (5-7). The following clip will give them a clear idea.  Into the Wild: My Journey on the Appalachian Trail. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJduf7v4Wwo  
  Start at 3:03 and watch through 11:55 or longer.  The clip paints a pretty clear picture of the experience, both the highs and lows.
• Lead a discussion with your students of what stands out the most to them.  Let the discussion cover many aspects of the experience.
• Ask students to write why they believe someone would choose to undertake something like thru-hiking the AT.  Students will take 5 minutes to reflect.
• Create a Venn Diagram on the board labeled “2020” and “1952.”  Write three motivations for people to travel the AT today.
• Either electronically or on paper, direct students to read the introduction to the history of the AT http://appalachiantrailhistory.org/exhibits/show/lostapptrail/lostatintro
• Make certain that students see and understand the two major purposes behind Benton MacKaye’s brainchild of the AT:  a chance for urban workers to commune with nature, and rural community development as seen in the reading.
• Optional 10 minute lecture:  Summarize the development of the AT-- it was a process of collecting land easements, rights of way from private land holders, and routing along existing roads.  Use the following links to maps of the trail in its infancy, its routing through the “Lost” section, and its current route.
  • Early trail:  Benton MacKaye’s original proposal for the AT http://appalachiantrailhistory.org/items/show/342
  • Virginia’s Lost AT: http://appalachiantrailhistory.org/items/show/1110
  • Current Route: https://appalachiantrail.org/home/conservation/landscape-protection
• Hiking the Trail:  With or without the lecture, students can begin the hiking portion.  Students will read the brief explanation of hiking the trail in its early years for background on their upcoming task.  http://appalachiantrailhistory.org/exhibits/show/lostapptrail/lostathiking 
• Using the “Hiking the Trail” and “Intro” readings as overviews, students will access the collection of sources concerning the trail.  The sources range from newspaper stories and letters to pictures of people and places. Students will read and/or analyze the sources and create social media posts as if they were reporting their life on the trail.
• Before students create their “posts,” revisit the Venn Diagram and see what different motivations existed for hiking in 1952 and what similarities can be found.
• Students will create a series of seven social media posts concerning a thru-hike of the AT in the late 1940s, early 1950s. 
• A summary discussion before the end of class will benefit the whole group as students share their ideas.
  
  

Writing Prompt and/or Warm-up Activity:

Warm-up Activity:  Students will begin class by viewing a contemporary hiking experience on the Appalachian Trail (AT).  Students should identify and list inconveniences that they spot from this lifestyle (3-5).

Social Media Written Assignment:
In the posts, students should write from a first-person account as though they are hiking the trail.  They will choose 7 of the 12 sources and create an authentic post for each

• Posts should identify major issues facing thru-hikers: weather, logistics, interactions with the local community, and other hardships.  Posts could also identify the positives hikers experienced in their adventures/interactions.
• Posts should be dated, a maximum of 140 characters, and have a relevant hashtag.  If using a computer, there should also be an image.
• When assessing posts, students should display familiarity with each source they choose.  Strong posts will incorporate an understanding of the struggles of solitude, and the general public that is skeptical of “hikers,” and the isolated nature of rural communities.  Students should also spot the kindness and generosity of families along the trail in helping the hikers complete their journeys.

Additional Resource:

Interview with Sally Dixon Rakes, May 2, 2019 by Mills Kelly

Sally Dixon Rakes, age 79, grew up on the New River in Carroll County. Her father and grandfather operated Dixon’s Ferry, bringing local residents back and forth across the river where the Dixon’s Ferry Bridge stands today, just north of Fries. Until recently, the Dixon family had been living on on the river since 1838 on land that had been given to their ancestor Alexander Dixon as a grant. Hikers on the Appalachian Trail cross the New River using the Dixon family’s ferry. If they came from the east, hikers simply went to the family’s door, knocked, and asked for a ride across the river for five cents. If they came from the west, hikers had to shout across the river, which is quite wide at that point, until someone hear them and poled across to get them.

Sally’s memories of life on the river are very clear and she still remembers a few Appalachian Trail hikers who came to her parents’ house during their hike through the region.

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Interviewer: What was it like growing up on the river?

Sally Rakes: It was nice. It was fun. I enjoyed it. We at a lot of fish, squirrels. That’s what normal people did. We had floods sometimes. Daddy told me that once a Pentecostal church washed away and floated right by the house. That might have been in 1940 when the big flood happened.

My great grandfather built the ferry. He had a blacksmith shop out back. He used to “put people across.” That’s what we called it. They would holler from across the river and someone would go get them. That was quite a holler. Yes, but it carried pretty well there. We could hear them. Daddy or sometimes Momma would go and get them.

Interviewer: Where did you go for shopping and things like that?

Sally Rakes: We went to Galax. Fries was closer, but it was on the other side. So we went to Galax. Harvey Dixon used to go to Fries sometimes to sell vegetables.

I remember white markings for the trail along the railroad tracks on the other side of the river. We used to walk down the tracks sometimes and would see them there. I also remember seeing them on rocks on the Fries Road. A big old rock that came out to the edge of the road had a white mark on it. I knew it was for the trail. That rock is gone now. The took it away when they widened the road years ago. Maybe the 1960s. It was just before the convenience store. York Hill Road.

I still remember one hiker [Gene Espy]. He sent us a Christmas card. He had a beard and a walking stick. When Daddy brought him over, he sat and talked with us a while. I was seven or eight then. Sometimes the hikers would sit and talk with us for a while. I remember thinking they were probably hiking the trail.

Interviewer: How did your family come to be on the river?

Sally Rakes: Back in 1835 my great great grandfather got a land grant. Alexander Dixon. He got 3200 acres. I wonder what it was like then. Probably all trees. But he built a home there on the river. His son built the blacksmith shop. He made some moonshine too.

Interviewer: What was it like growing up on the river?

Sally Rakes: We were just river rats. There were six of us. My mother had six children in six years. I was the oldest girl.

Interviewer: Tell me about the boats.

Sally Rakes: It would just skim across the top of the water. There were sloped gunnels. It was 30’ long and only a few inches high. Lower at the ends. It wasn’t very wide at all. It was painted red. We called it Red Bird. 

I’ve seen my daddy put eight square bales of hay in that boat. All 8 of us could fit in it. We would go across the river to Fries. Sometimes Daddy would pole us all at once. Every spring he put a fresh coat of tar on it.

Interviewer: Did the river ever freeze.

Sally Rakes: Oh yes. One year it froze so much that Daddy drove a jeep across. It scared us to watch that. When the ice would push up on shore, sometimes it would push fish out with it and we’d just walk along and pick them up.