René Hokans Reprinted from American Hiking Society Publications.
Jefferson County, Colorado and Anchorage, Alaska Top List
July 1, 1996 Contact: Gwyn Fletcher Hicks (301) 565-6704
Washington, DC-----Looking for a great place to live or locate your business? How about checking out some of America's great trail towns. After scouring the countryside, American Hiking Society is pleased to announce Jefferson County, Colorado as the United States' top trail town with Anchorage, Alaska pulling in a close second. This announcement comes as the result of American Hiking's call last October for the nation's true trail towns to step forward and be recognized for their efforts to make trails an intricate part of their communities. Towns possessing exemplary trail systems were asked to nominate themselves for Trail Town USA status.
"We asked for nominations from places that went beyond using trails purely for recreational purposes," explains American Hiking President David Lillard. "Recreation is one important aspect of a healthy trail system, but we were also looking for areas where trails promote nonmotorized transportation, bring added economic benefits to the area, and connect to other trail systems, adding to the ongoing effort to create a nationwide system of trails and greenways."
American Hiking Society introduced Trail Town USA to acknowledge places working toward the goals of Trails for All Americans, a plan to bring trails to within 15 minutes of every American's home or workplace. Entrants were asked to submit a brief essay describing their town's trail system, and three letters of recommendation. Supplementary materials, including photographs, maps, press clips and brochures were also considered.
"We were overwhelmed by the quality and quantity of nominations we received," says Lillard, commending all the entrants for their efforts. "It was exciting to see all the innovative plans going on out there on behalf of trails. Narrowing the list down to ten was a lot tougher than we thought it would be."
The nominations for the first annual Trail Town USA were so exceptional that American Hiking altered its original plan to limit Trail Town USA status to ten places each year. "We've created a Trail Town USA Hall of Fame," explains Lillard. "Every year, we'll open the gates for more nominations and then add the top places to the list. For those places that didn't make it this year, we'll let them know where they received low marks and encourage them to update their submissions in 1997."
Although the towns that are inducted into the Trail Town USA Hall of Fame do not have to renominate themselves each year, Lillard says American Hiking will continue to check on these towns' progress every few years to make sure they are maintaining their Trail Town status.
"If a place gets listed as a Trail Town based on its future trail development plans, then we'll check in a few years to make sure some progress has been made," says Lillard. "Trail Town USA awards towns for their ongoing efforts, not merely end results."
The nominations received by American Hiking were graded in a series of categories by a panel of judges that included: Leslie Heffner of the U. S. Bureau of Land Management's Department of Education and Volunteers; Steve Loucks, Director of Public Relations for the American Society of Travel Agents; Tom Ross of the National Park Service's Recreation Resources Assistance Division; Gene Sloan, Travel Editor for USA Today; and Karen Walters, Manager of Marketing Services for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Planning and Marketing Division.
"Our judging panel was representative of the diverse benefits trails provide, such as travel, business and recreation," explains Lillard who also had a hand in selecting Trail Town USA's charter members.
In 1996, 30 towns will be inducted into the Trail Town USA Hall of Fame. The top ten towns (in ranking order) are: Jefferson County, Col.; Anchorage, Alaska; Pinetop-Lakeside, Ariz.; Manchester, Conn.; Xenia, Ohio; Los Angeles County, Calif.; Lincoln Neb.; Perinton, N.Y.; Orinda, Calif.; and Raleigh, N.C. Other inaugural inductees (in alphabetical order) include: Juneau, Alaska; Tucson, Ariz.; LaCanada Flintridge, Calif.; Santa Clara County, Calif.; Thousand Oaks, Calif.; Boulder, Col.; Caribou, Maine; Bowie, Md.; Marquette, Mich.; Akron and Summit Counties, Ohio; Lake Oswego, Ore.; Pierre, S. D.; Austin, Texas; Damascus, Va.; Bellingham, Wash.; Pocahontas County, W. Va.; Cable Area, Wis.; Dane County, Wis.; and Cheyenne, Wyo.
All 30 towns will receive signs to place at their trail heads, announcing their status. Each year, American Hiking will add new towns to the list. The announcement of America's top trail towns comes as American Hiking gears up for the fourth, annual National Trails Day celebration. Slated for Saturday, June 1, National Trails Day is a nationwide day of public events aimed at creating increased awareness of and appreciation for trails. Since its debut in 1993, National Trails Day has grown to more than one million participants take part at over 3,000 events throughout the country. American Hiking, who continues to act as the national organizer of the day, is anticipating an even greater turnout for this year's celebration. For more information about National Trails Day events taking place in your area, contact (301) 565-6704.
American Hiking Society is a national, nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting hiking and to establishing, protecting and maintaining foot trails in America. With more than 100 member trail clubs, American Hiking represents half a million outdoorspeople and serves as the voice of the American hiker.
Reprinted from American Hiking Society Publications.
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