The nascent attempt by some Alabamians to have the southern terminus of the Appalachian Trail moved to their state is more than a little questionable, particularly given what is, apparently, the overriding reason for the effort. According to a Saturday report in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the movers and shakers behind the initiative are undertaking it with "hopes an expansion would lure more young professionals and, consequently, jobs" to the state.
Granted, there are some reasonable arguments for extending the famed 2,175-mile Georgia-to-Maine trail an additional few hundred miles into Alabama. As boosters of the proposal to extend the trail argue, the Appalachian Mountains don't end at the top of Georgia's Springer Mountain, the current end of the trial, but in Alabama.
It's also true that the trail has been a somewhat fluid entity. In 1921, the man behind the trail, Benton Mackaye, laid out a route from the highest point in Maine to the highest point in North Carolina. Four years later, the trail was extended to Georgia's Cohutta Mountain, due west of Springer Mountain, and in 1930, the trail's southern terminus was established at Mount Oglethorpe, 20 miles south of Springer, according to the Atlanta newspaper story. Twenty-eight years later, as a chicken farm encroached on Mount Oglethorpe, the Appalachian Trail's southern endpoint was established at Springer Mountain, where it has remained.
How much do the Georgians really care if they let a chicken farm move the terminus?
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