Myron Haliburton Avery was an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 lawyer, hiker and explorer. Born in Lubec, Maine

Lubec, Maine

Lubec is a town in Washington County, Maine, United States. The population was 1,652 at the 2000 census. Lubec is the easternmost town in the contiguous United States . However, the Aleutian Islands in Alaska extend into the eastern hemisphere, and if territories are included, Point Udall in the...

, Avery was a protégé of Judge Arthur Perkins and a collaborator and sometimes rival of Benton MacKaye

Benton MacKaye

Benton MacKaye was an American forester, planner and conservationist. He was born in Stamford, Connecticut; his father was actor and dramatist Steele MacKaye. After studying forestry at Harvard University , Benton later taught there for several years. He joined a number of Federal bureaus and...

. He was president of the Potomac Appalachian Trail Club

Potomac Appalachian Trail Club

The Potomac Appalachian Trail Club, or ', is a volunteer organization that works to maintain hiking trails in the Washington D.C. area...

 from 1927 to 1941 and chairman of the Appalachian Trail Conference from 1931 to his death in 1952. The first 2000 Miler of the Appalachian Trail

Appalachian Trail

The Appalachian National Scenic Trail, generally known as the Appalachian Trail or simply the AT, is a marked hiking trail in the eastern United States extending between Springer Mountain in Georgia and Mount Katahdin in Maine. It is approximately long...

, he was also an alumnus of Bowdoin College

Bowdoin College

Bowdoin College , founded in 1794, is an elite private liberal arts college located in the coastal Maine town of Brunswick, Maine. As of 2011, U.S. News and World Report ranks Bowdoin 6th among liberal arts colleges in the United States. At times, it was ranked as high as 4th in the country. It is...

 and Harvard Law School

Harvard Law School

Harvard Law School is one of the professional graduate schools of Harvard University. Located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, it is the oldest continually-operating law school in the United States and is home to the largest academic law library in the world. The school is routinely ranked by the U.S...

. After his death, a mountaintop on the Appalachian Trail in Maine was renamed "Avery Peak" in his honor. A lean-to

Lean-to

A lean-to is a term used to describe a roof with a single slope. The term also applies to a variety of structures that are built using a lean-to roof....

was built below the peak's summit and named for him in 1953, but is now no longer standing.

"To those who would see the Maine wilderness, tramp day by day through a succession of ever delightful forest, past lake and stream, and over mountains, we would say: Follow the Appalachian Trail across Maine. It cannot be followed on horse or awheel. Remote for detachment, narrow for chosen company, winding for leisure, lonely for contemplation, it beckons not merely north and south but upward to the body, mind and soul of man." - Myron Avery, In the Maine Woods, 1934

External links

• Appalachian Trail Conservancy (formerly Conference)
• Appalachian Trail Conservancy - History section
• Potomac Appalachian Trail Club
• Maine Appalachian Trail Club

Sources

• Anderson, Larry. 2002. Benton MacKaye: Conservationist, Planner, and Creator of the Appalachian Trail. Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 0801877911.
• Luxenberg, Larry. 1995. Walking the Appalachian Trail. Stackpole Books. ISBN 0811730956.