New AT Museum Opens

If your travels are taking you through southern Pennsylvania this summer, you should stop at the Pine Grove Furnace State Park. The Appalachian Trail (AT) wanders through these parts and the park now hosts the recently opened Appalachian Trail Museum. The museum is a stone’s throw from the AT in a 200-year old grist mill. Features include artifacts from AT hiker pioneers, a children’s discovery area, as well as photographs of over 18,000 through-hikers as they made their way through Harpers Ferry West Virginia. It also showcases a shelter built by the first AT thru-hiker, Earl Shaffer. The idea for the museum was inspired by a volunteer Larry Luxenberg (a 1980 thru-hiker) and he and a board of directors spend 17 years bringing the idea to fruition.