Celebration to Mark 60th
Anniversary of First Appalachian Trail Thru-Hike
Harrisburg, Pa. -- Hikers from all over
Pennsylvania will gather Saturday, August 2 for a ceremony marking the 60th
anniversary of Earl Shaffer’s pioneering Appalachian Trail Thru-Hike and to
help preserve the Earl Shaffer Shelter. The three-sided primitive shelter is
the last remaining one built by Earl that is intact and still being used by
overnight hikers.
The shelter is being preserved by the Appalachian Trail Museum Society and will
be the featured artifact in its collection. The ceremony is being held in
conjunction with the club maintaining the shelter, the Susquehanna Appalachian
Trail Club. Also sponsoring the event is the Earl Shaffer Foundation, which is
dedicated to preserving his writings, poems and songs. The Smithsonian
Institution holds some of the Shaffer artifacts and is scheduled to feature
them in an exhibit in 2009.
The ceremony will be held at 11 a.m. at the shelter site along the Appalachian
Trail, three miles north of the crossing of Route 225. The ceremony will
include reminiscences about Earl, a native and lifelong resident of York
County, and speakers representing the Appalachian Trail Museum Society, the
Appalachian Trail Conservancy, the Keystone Trails Association, the Susquehanna
Appalachian Trail Club, the Potomac Appalachian Trail Club and the
Appalachian Long Distance Hikers Association.
Participants should park by 8:45 a.m. at the Dauphin County Agriculture and
Natural Resource Center on Route 225 (about 15 miles north of Harrisburg) just
north of the junction with Route 325 East (Clarks Valley Rd.), on right (east)
side of the road. 3B's Ice Cream on left side. For
information on the center go to http://www.dauphincd.org/general/location.html.From there carpools will be available
to the A.T. crossing for the three mile walk into the shelter. Some shorter
trails in may also be available.
After the shelter is dismantled, volunteers will be needed to carry out the
parts of the shelter for eventual reconstruction as part of the A.T.
Museum. The rain date is Sunday, August 3. Volunteers should bring water,
lunch and work gloves if available and practice “Leave No Trace” principles.
For additional information contact Larry Luxenberg at 845-634-0581 or hikerll@yahoo.com or Jeff Buehler at ATHikerJB@aol.com.
The museum society will also be honoring Earl in a
symposium at The Gathering at Concord College, Athens, W.Va., on Columbus Day
Weekend. The program will feature a presentation by Earl’s brother, John, and
his 1998 hiking partner, David Donaldson.
The shelter, which was built by Earl about 1960, is the
last remaining intact shelter that Earl built himself and one of the oldest and
smallest remaining on the trail. Not only was Earl a three-time thru hiker, but
he also served as corresponding secretary of the Appalachian Trail Conference,
a founder of the Susquehanna A.T. Club and the Keystone Trails Association, and
relocated a large stretch of the A.T. on both sides of the Susquehanna River as
well as building many trail shelters. As a man of varied interest, Earl also
wrote many poems, songs and essays as well as “Walking With Spring,” the
lyrical account of his 1948 hike.
The shelter project was the culmination of a two year
effort involving many organizations and the National Park Service to determine
what was the most appropriate way to preserve and protect this important trail
object. The A.T. Museum Society is pursuing a home at Pine Grove Furnace State
Park near the mid-point of the A.T. in Pennsylvania. If that is successful, the
Shaffer Shelter will be reconstructed only a short distance from where Earl
grew up and lived most of his life.