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Appalachian Trail Conservancy

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The Appalachian Trail Conservancy (ATC) (formerly Appalachian Trail Conference) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the conservation of the Appalachian Trail, which runs from Maine to Georgia. The Conference works to protect the trail's 2,175 miles (3,500 km), 250,000-acre (1,000 km²) greenway, and coordinates the work of some thirty hiking clubs performing trail maintenance. The trail was originally conceived by forester Benton MacKaye who envisioned a grand trail that would connect a series of farms and wilderness work/study camps for city-dwellers. In 1922, at the suggestion of Major William A. Welch, director of the Palisades Interstate Park Commission, MacKaye's plan was publicized by Raymond H. Torrey with a story in the New York Evening Post under a full page banner headline reading "A Great Trail from Maine to Georgia!"; the idea was quickly adopted by the new Palisades Interstate Park Trail Conference as their main project, and on January 4, 1924, the first twenty mile stretch from the Hudson to the Ramapo Rivers was complete. The entire trail was completed in 1937. The ATC was formed in Washington, DC on March 2 and 3, 1925, with Major Welch as chairman and Torrey as treasurer. In 1927, Welch was replaced by Judge Arthur Perkins and in 1928, J.A. Allis became Treasurer. Its headquarters are located in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia.