~*~ Appalachian Trail Names ~*~

~*~ Appalachian Trail Names ~*~

Ever wonder the meaning behind some of the names of shelters, towns, peaks, gaps and mountains? Virtually every name on the A.T. has a story leading up to it. Some are named due to an association with the landscape around it, some by an incident that occurred in the area. Others are commemorative of a person of influence. If you are interested in reading all of them, I highly recommend you get the book Appalachian Trail Names: Origins of Place Names Along the A.T. by David Edwin Lillard. It is a great read and very interesting to discover the history behind some of the most popular names on the trail.

I’ve pulled out some of the more interesting ones that I found and hope you enjoy them (they are alphabetical)!

Abol Bridge/Abol Pond, ME

Blood Mountain, GA

Button Hill, VA

Chunky Gal Mountain/Chunky Gal Trail, NC

Greasy Creek Gap, NC/TN

Happy Hill Shelter, VT

Hog Camp Gap, VA

Jacobs Ladder, MA

Kites Deadening, VA

Little Haystack Mountain, NH

Mahoosuc Notch, ME

Marys Rock, VA
Mt. Katahdin, ME
No Business Knob, TN

Overmountain Shelter, NC/TN

Pickens Nose, NC

Roan Mountain, NC/TN
Silas Knob, VA

Springer Mountain, GA

Tar Jacket Ridge, VA
Toe River Valley, NC/TN

Trapper John Shelter, NH
Tray Gap/Tray Mountain, GA

Walasi-Yi Center, GA

Abol Bridge/Abol Pond, ME

This is one of the most lyrical place names of the entire AT corridor but unfortunately one we rarely hear in its original form. From the Abenaki word Aboljackarnegassic, meaning “bare” or “devoid of trees”, it was shortened by the white settlers. I can’t imagine why? (back to top)

Blood Mountain, GA

The reddish tint of the local lichen may give the mountain its name, but the Indian folklore is more colorful. Legends describe a terrible battle between Cherokee and Creek Indians, during which the mountain ran red with blood. A Cherokee legend tells of the Yunwee Chuns Dee (little folk) who dwelled in caves and made “magic music” heard on the mountain. Also living in the vicinity were the Nunnehee, an invisible race of normal-size people “who always aided those lost or injured in the mountains,” watching over the Cherokee like guardian angels. (back to top)

Button Hill, VA

The former site of a garment factory dump, buttons are still found in the area. (back to top)

Chunky Gal Mountain/Chunky Gal Trail, NC

One legend tells of a chubby Cherokee maiden who left her family to be with her lover of another tribe. Other researchers say a more likely origin is that Chunky Gal is the anglicized form of an unknown Cherokee word. (back to top)

Cube Mountain, NH

Historically called “Cuba” Mountain because the man living at its base had visited Cuba and bestowed the name on his farm. As has happened with countless place names in the Appalachians, its name was transformed by a map-maker’s misspellings. (back to top)

Damascus, VA

Henry Mock was on his way to settle in KY in 1821 when he happened onto the confluence of Laurel and Beaverdam creeks. He decided to stay, purchasing and building a home and a gristmill. The town that grew up around the mill was known as Mock’s Mill. In 1886, Confederate general John D. Imboden purchased tracts of the Mock family acreage. Surveying the mountains, he believed that they contained vast deposits or iron ore and other minerals, and so named the place Damascus – predicting that it would become as well known as the Syrian capital. Unfortunately, the iron Imboden found on the surface was all there was. After the mountain was logged of old growth, it was sold to the US Forest Service. (back to top)

Edmands Col, NH

J. Raymer Edmands was a founder of the Appalachian Mountain Club in 1876. An influential path-builder, he believed that foorpaths should follow landscape contours rather than simply head straight up a mountainside. Edmands bosted that his trails were so blended into the contour that “anyone’s mother could walk to the summit of Mt. Washington.” Although none of his trails actually approached this summit, he did build well-graded trails throughout the northern Presidentials. His ideas were at odds with those of another AMC founder, Eugene Cook, whose devotees believed that the straightest line between bottom and top created a rugged, wild experience most hikers would favor. These opposing philosophies influenced trail-building throughout the eastern US. To this day, footpaths in NY tend to be vertical, while those in the Blue Ridge make use of switchbacks and hug the terrain. One thing both Edmands and Cook agreed on was a kibosh on the word “trail,” which evoked images of wagon trains. “Path” or “footpath” was the favored term. Among Edmands’ innovations are an early version of the backpack and the use of cairns – stacks of stones- to mark paths above treeline. (back to top)

Fuller Lake, PA

The lake, in Pine Grove Furnace State Park, is named for Col. Jackson C. Fuller, who owned the property in 1877. The lake was formed when the water pumps failed on a 90-foot-deep mine here. (back to top)

Garvey Spring, NJ

Named for Edward B. Garvey (1914-99), an AT legend for his activism and writings. In an unsubstantiated but quintessentially Garveyesque story, he once wrote to the AT Conference to complain about the scarcity of water sources along the trail. So many springs were located too far from the trail, many with no signs to guide hikers to the water. NJ hikers soon blazed well-marked trails to the water so Garvey would have no trouble finding it. At this one, they made it even easier by painting a rock to make a sign at the side trail to the spring. The top line caught his attention: “Garvey.” The bottom line pointed the way: “Spring.” (back to top)

Greasy Creek Gap, NC/TN

In the 19^th century, the practive of skinning and gutting bears at the creek in autumn left the stream ripe with fat peeled from the hides. (back to top)

Happy Hill Shelter, VT

Newly built in 1998, it replaced the historic Happy Hill Cabin, built in 1918, the oldest shelter on the AT. The name Happy Hill is likely transferred from nearby Happy Valley, a place that received its name, says Esther Munroe Swift in her Vermont Place Names, because people there “have found it a congenial place to live.” (back to top)

Hog Camp Gap, VA

Hogs were driven here throughout the early 1800s to be fattened before they were sold. More than 12 miles of stone “hog walls” were built; many of them can still be seen today. Various stories credit this work to slaves or Irish laborers. (back to top)

Jacobs Ladder, MA

The origin of the name is nearly as colorful as that of the road’s history. Most interesting is that the name was born when the automobile was coming into vogue. A favorite legend involves Deacon Daniel Camp, who lived east of the summit and sported a long gray beard. Because early cars couldn’t make the steep and treacherous ascent under their own power, Camp would pull them up with oxen. According to A Bicentennial History of Beckett, when a motorist from Springfield was telling friends about his trip to Pittsfield, he described Camp’s assistance in biblical terms: “The last pitch was as steep as a ladder but an old chap who looked like the prophet Jacob pulled me over with his oxen!” The route became known as Jacobs Ladder. (back to top)

Kites Deadening, VA

“Deadening” refers to an area where early settlers killed trees by cutting away a ring of bark. The dead trees remained standing, but because they grew no leaves, the sun could get through, enabling settlers to plant crops or pasture animals among the trees. The trees would later be cut for firewood. The original name here may have been Hites Deadening, after Joist Hite, the first settler of the Shenandoah Valley, in 1734. At the time, Lord Fairfax controlled some 5 million acres of VA, with claims west to the Ohio River, including the area settled by Hite. Fairfax filed suit against Hite in 1736. This incident led Fairfax to hire a young surveyor named George Washington to map his holdings. How the name was changed from Hites to Kites is a matter of conjecture, but Kites is a name that appears only in AT literature. Perhaps early AT trail builders made a transcribing error, mistaking the handwritten H for a K. (back to top)

Little Haystack Mountain, NH

At one time, Lincoln, Lafayette, Liberty and Garfield mountains all had the name ‘Haystack” because they resemble haystacks when seen from the town of Lincoln. This is the only peak to retain its original name. (back to top)

Mahoosuc Notch, ME

Thought to be Abenaki for “home of the hungry animals,” which may refer to the Mohegan-Pequot refugees who fled from CT to ME after the Pequot War of 1637. Another theory is that the word is Natick for “a pinnacle.” (back to top)

Marys Rock, VA

The popular legend is that it is named for the wife of Francis Thornton, one Mary Taliferro. A wealthy 18^th century landowner, Thornton is said to have proposed to her here, and the couple returned each year afterward to camp on the “Great Pass Mountain.” On one such trip, they climbed to the summit, and he named the rock there for her. When Francis died, Mary insisted that the land near the pass be include as part of her “dower” right to the estate – in those days a wife of a man of Thornton’s means would not have automatic rights to the full estate. Many years later, Mary left her valley estate and moved close to the pass to live in a log house. From here she could look upon Marys Rock. Thearea was known as “Madame Thornton’s Quarter” during the last third of the 18^th century. (back to top)

Mt. Katahdin, ME

At 5,267 feet, the northern terminus of the AT is also the highest point in ME. The name comes from the Abenaki word Kette Adene meaning “The Greatest Mountain.” The first recorded ascent was by Charles Turner in 1804. AT history begins here on August 19,1933 when Shauler Philbrick, Albert Juckman, and Frank Schairer followed Myron Avery and his trusty measuring wheel to the summit and officially established the trail by placing a mileage marker. Avery’s words to commemorate this event: “Nail it up.” (back to top)

No Business Knob, TN

The name is used for various features throughout the Appalachians, and the story is always similar. In this version, a severe fire here once burned the vegetation down to rock. Soon after, a man tried to climb the knob, but it had become overgrown with thick brush, making it nearly impassable. After his unsuccessful attempt, the man declared that he had absolutely “no business” climbing the knob. (back to top)

Overmountain Shelter, NC/TN

The Overmountain Men were colonists who had defied King George’s 1763 proclamation that settlers stay east of the mountains. On September 7, 1780, John Sevier led a group through the Yellow Mountain Gap en route to King’s Mountain, SC. There they defeated the British, freeing the south from British control and allowing George Washington to focus on the north. (back to top)

Pickens Nose, NC

Resembles a nose when seem from the valley. The nose honored by the name is probably that of Revolutionary War colonel Andrew Pickens. (back to top)

Roan Mountain, NC/TN
English and Scottish settlers likened the mountain ash trees in the area to their rowan trees back home. The spelling transformation was likely caused by the clipped-vowel pronunciation of Scots – hence “Roan.” (back to top)

Silas Knob, VA

Sometimes it’s hard to live down a foible. This hill is named for a local surveyor who got lost here in the 18^th century. (back to top)

Springer Mountain, GA

Previously called Penitentiary Mountain, it is thought to be named for John Springer, the first Presbyterian minister to be ordained in HA (July 1790). Springer Mountain became the southern terminus of the AT in 1960. From 1930 until 1959, the trail ended at Mr. Oglethorpe, named after British general James Oglethorpe, who founded the colony of GA in 1733 as a debtors’ colony, and as a buffer between SC and Spanish-held FL. The trail’s southern terminus was moved because of the expansion of chicken farming in Oglethorpe. (back to top)

Tar Jacket Ridge, VA
Called Buck Mountain until about 1927, legend has it that Natural Bridge AT Club president Cecil DeMott gave the ridge its current name because brush on this ridge was so dense that when you walked through it, it was likely to t’ar yer jacket. (back to top)

Toe River Valley, NC/TN

Cherokee legend tells of a woman named Estatoe, whose family disapproved of a love affair she was having and so killed her suitor. She then threw herself into the river and drowned. (back to top)

Trapper John Shelter, NH
There are a few places in America, such as Truth or Consequences, NM, named for television shows. This shelter, built by the Dartmouth Outing Club, follows in that tradition. It was named for Trapper John McIntyre from the novel, film and the TV series M*A*S*H. Apparently, someone really liked the show and the character. (back to top)

Tray Gap/Tray Mountain, GA

Believed to be a corruption of Trail Mountain, a name given by Cherokee because there were many trails leading to the summit and over the mountain. (back to top)

Walasi-Yi Center, GA

Walasiyi, meaning “frog place” recognizes an odd Cherokee legend. After the Cherokee captured the magician Shawano, he convinced them to spare his life in return for his capture of Uktena, the evil serpent. When the Indians and their prisoner came into this place, they encountered a giant frog, which terrified the Indians. Shawano got a big laugh out of the fact that his ferocious captors were so frightened of a big frog. The point of the parable is lost. The AT goes through the center of the building, constructed of American chestnut and local rock in the 1930s by the Civilian Conservation Corps. It is now on the National Register of Historic Places. (back to top)

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