New Smithsonian Museum Exhibition on the AT

Does the name “Earl Shaffer” ring a bell? He is thought to be the first person to thru-hike the Appalachian Trail. The Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History recently opened an exhibition about his adventure entitled “Earl Shaffer and the Appalachian Trail”! This is available for viewing until October 11, 2009 or also permanently on their webpage. But Smithsonian wants you to share your experiences, memories, and pictures of life on the trail to build an online map populated with these photos and stories. The goal is to help connect a wider audience, that may have never set foot on the fabled AT, with the trail and its allure. You can do this by submitting geotagged photos and stories from the trail to a Flickr group which are then displayed in a map on the Museum’s exhibition Web site.