Shawnee
The Shawnee are an Algonquian-speaking ethnic group indigenous to North America. In colonial times they were a semi-migratory Native American nation inhabiting areas of the Ohio Valley, extending from what became Ohio and Kentucky eastward to West Virginia, Virginia and Western Maryland. Pushed west by European-American pressure, the Shawnee migrated to Kansas. In the 1830s some were removed from the upper Midwest to Indian Territory west of the Mississippi River. Other Shawnee did not remove to Oklahoma until after the Civil War. Made up of different historical and kinship groups, today there are three federally recognized Shawnee tribes, all headquartered in Oklahoma: the Absentee-Shawnee Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma, Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma, Shawnee Tribe; the Shawnee language, an Algonquian language, was spoken by 200 people in 2002, including over 100 Absentee Shawnee and 12 Loyal Shawnee speakers. The language is written in the Latin script, it has a dictionary and portions of the Bible were translated into Shawnee.
Some scholars believe that the Shawnee are descendants of the people of the precontact Fort Ancient culture of the Ohio region, although this is not universally accepted. Fort Ancient culture flourished from 1000 to 1650 CE among a people who predominantly inhabited lands on both sides of the Ohio River in areas of present-day southern Ohio, northern Kentucky and western West Virginia, they were mound builders. Fort Ancient culture was once thought to have been an extension of the Mississippian culture. But, scholars now believe Fort Ancient culture developed independently and was descended from the Hopewell culture a mound builder people. Uncertainty surrounds the fate of the Fort Ancient people. Most their society, like the Mississippian culture to the south, was disrupted by waves of epidemics from new infectious diseases carried by the first Spanish explorers in the 16th century. After 1525 at Madisonville, the type site, the village's house sizes became smaller and fewer, with evidence showing the people changed from their "horticulture-centered, sedentary way of life".
There is a gap in the archaeological record between the most recent Fort Ancient sites and the oldest sites of the Shawnee. The latter were recorded by European archaeologists as occupying this area at the time of encounter. Scholars accept that similarities in material culture, art and Shawnee oral history linking them to the Fort Ancient peoples, can be used to support the connection from Fort Ancient society and development as the historical Shawnee society; the Shawnee traditionally considered the Lenape of the East Coast mid-Atlantic region, who were Algonquian speaking, as their "grandfathers." The Algonquian nations of present-day Canada regarded the US Shawnee as their southernmost branch. Along the East Coast, the Algonquian-speaking tribes were located in coastal areas, from Quebec to the Carolinas. Algonquian languages have words similar to the archaic shawano meaning "south". However, the stem šawa- does not mean "south" in Shawnee, but "moderate, warm": See Voegelin "šawa MODERATE, WARM.
Cp. šawani'it is moderating...". In one Shawnee tale, "Sawage" is the deity of the south wind. Curtin translates Sawage as ` it thaws'. Šaawaki is attested as the spirit of the South, or the South Wind, in this account, in one of Voegelin's tales, in a song collected by Voegelin. Europeans reported encountering the Shawnee over a wides geographic area. One of the earliest mentions of the Shawnee may be a 1614 Dutch map showing some Sawwanew located just east of the Delaware River. 17th-century Dutch sources place them in this general location. Accounts by French explorers in the same century located the Shawnee along the Ohio River, where the French encountered them on forays from eastern Canada and the Illinois Country. A Shawnee town might have from forty to one hundred bark-covered houses similar in construction to Iroquois longhouses; each village had a meeting house or council house sixty to ninety feet long, where public deliberations took place. According to one English legend, some Shawnee were descended from a party sent by Chief Opechancanough, ruler of the Powhatan Confederacy 1618–1644, to settle in the Shenandoah Valley.
The party was led by Sheewa-a-nee. Edward Bland, an explorer who accompanied Abraham Wood's expedition in 1650, wrote that in Opechancanough's day, there had been a falling-out between the Chawan chief and the weroance of the Powhatan, he said. The Shawnee were "driven from Kentucky in the 1670s by the Iroquois of Pennsylvania and New York, who claimed the Ohio valley as hunting ground to supply its fur trade; the colonists Batts and Fallam in 1671 reported that the Shawnee were contesting control of the Shenandoah Valley with the Haudenosaunee Confederacy in that year, were losing. Sometime before 1670, a group of Shawnee migrated to the Savannah River area; the English based in Charles Town, South Carolina were contacted by these Shawnee in 1674. They forged a long-lasting alliance; the Savannah River Shawnee were known to the Carolina English as "Savannah Indians". Around the same time, other Shawnee groups migrated to Florida, Maryland and other regions south and east of the Ohio country. D'Iberville, writing in his journal in 1699, describes the Shawnee as "the single nati
City
A city is a large human settlement. Cities have extensive systems for housing, sanitation, land use, communication, their density facilitates interaction between people, government organizations and businesses, sometimes benefiting different parties in the process. City-dwellers have been a small proportion of humanity overall, but following two centuries of unprecedented and rapid urbanization half of the world population now lives in cities, which has had profound consequences for global sustainability. Present-day cities form the core of larger metropolitan areas and urban areas—creating numerous commuters traveling towards city centers for employment and edification. However, in a world of intensifying globalization, all cities are in different degree connected globally beyond these regions; the most populated city proper is Chongqing while the most populous metropolitan areas are the Greater Tokyo Area, the Shanghai area, Jabodetabek. The cities of Faiyum and Varanasi are among those laying claim to longest continual inhabitation.
A city is distinguished from other human settlements by its great size, but by its functions and its special symbolic status, which may be conferred by a central authority. The term can refer either to the physical streets and buildings of the city or to the collection of people who dwell there, can be used in a general sense to mean urban rather than rural territory. A variety of definitions, invoking population, population density, number of dwellings, economic function, infrastructure, are used in national censuses to classify populations as urban. Common population definitions for a city range between 1,500 and 50,000 people, with most U. S. states using a minimum between 5,000 inhabitants. However, some jurisdictions set no such minimums. In the United Kingdom, city status is awarded by the government and remains permanently, resulting in some small cities, such as Wells and St Davids. According to the "functional definition" a city is not distinguished by size alone, but by the role it plays within a larger political context.
Cities serve as administrative, commercial and cultural hubs for their larger surrounding areas. Examples of settlements called city which may not meet any of the traditional criteria to be named such include Broad Top City and City Dulas, Anglesey, a hamlet; the presence of a literate elite is sometimes included in the definition. A typical city has professional administrators and some form of taxation to support the government workers; the governments may be based on heredity, military power, work projects such as canal building, food distribution, land ownership, commerce, finance, or a combination of these. Societies that live in cities are called civilizations; the word city and the related civilization come, via Old French, from the Latin root civitas meaning citizenship or community member and coming to correspond with urbs, meaning city in a more physical sense. The Roman civitas was linked with the Greek "polis"—another common root appearing in English words such as metropolis. Urban geography deals both with their internal structure.
Town siting has varied through history according to natural, technological and military contexts. Access to water has long been a major factor in city placement and growth, despite exceptions enabled by the advent of rail transport in the nineteenth century, through the present most of the world's urban population lives near the coast or on a river. Urban areas as a rule cannot produce their own food and therefore must develop some relationship with a hinterland which sustains them. Only in special cases such as mining towns which play a vital role in long-distance trade, are cities disconnected from the countryside which feeds them. Thus, centrality within a productive region influences siting, as economic forces would in theory favor the creation of market places in optimal mutually reachable locations; the vast majority of cities have a central area containing buildings with special economic and religious significance. Archaeologists refer to this area by the Greek term temenos; these spaces reflect and amplify the city's centrality and importance to its wider sphere of influence.
Today cities have downtown, sometimes coincident with a central business district. Cities have public spaces where anyone can go; these include owned spaces open to the public as well as forms of public land such as public domain and the commons. Western philosophy since the time of the Greek agora has considered physical public space as the substrate of the symbolic public sphere. Public art adorns public spaces. Parks and other natural sites within cities provide residents with relief from the hardness and regularity of typical built environments. Urban structure follows one or more basic patterns: geomorphic, concentric and curvilinear. Physical environment constrains the form in which a city is built. If located on a mountainside, urban structure may rely on winding roads, it may be adapted to its means of subsistence. And it may be set up for optimal defense given the surrounding landscape. Beyond these "geomorphi
ZIP Code
A ZIP Code is a postal code used by the United States Postal Service in a system it introduced in 1963. The term ZIP is an acronym for Zone Improvement Plan; the basic format consists of five digits. An extended ZIP+4 code was introduced in 1983 which includes the five digits of the ZIP Code, followed by a hyphen and four additional digits that reference a more specific location; the term ZIP Code was registered as a servicemark by the U. S. Postal Service, but its registration has since expired; the early history and context of postal codes began with postal district/zone numbers. The United States Post Office Department implemented postal zones for numerous large cities in 1943. For example: The "16" was the number of the postal zone in the specific city. By the early 1960s, a more organized system was needed, non-mandatory five-digit ZIP Codes were introduced nationwide on July 1, 1963; the USPOD issued its Publication 59: Abbreviations for Use with ZIP Code on October 1, 1963, with the list of two-letter state abbreviations which are written with both letters capitalized.
An earlier list in June had proposed capitalized abbreviations ranging from two to five letters. According to Publication 59, the two-letter standard was "based on a maximum 23-position line, because this has been found to be the most universally acceptable line capacity basis for major addressing systems", which would be exceeded by a long city name combined with a multi-letter state abbreviation, such as "Sacramento, Calif." along with the ZIP Code. The abbreviations have remained unchanged, with the exception of Nebraska, changed from NB to NE in 1969 at the request of the Canadian postal administration, to avoid confusion with the Canadian province of New Brunswick. Robert Moon is considered the father of the ZIP Code; the post office only credits Moon with the first three digits of the ZIP Code, which describe the sectional center facility or "sec center." An SCF is a central mail processing facility with those three digits. The fourth and fifth digits, which give a more precise locale within the SCF, were proposed by Henry Bentley Hahn Sr.
The SCF sorts mail to all post offices with those first three digits in their ZIP Codes. The mail is sorted according to the final two digits of the ZIP Code and sent to the corresponding post offices in the early morning. Sectional centers do not deliver mail and are not open to the public, most of their employees work the night shift. Mail picked up at post offices is sent to their own SCF in the afternoon, where the mail is sorted overnight. In the case of large cities, the last two digits coincide with the older postal zone number thus: In 1967, these became mandatory for second- and third-class bulk mailers, the system was soon adopted generally; the United States Post Office used a cartoon character, which it called Mr. ZIP, to promote the use of the ZIP Code, he was depicted with a legend such as "USE ZIP CODE" in the selvage of panes of postage stamps or on the covers of booklet panes of stamps. In 1971 Elmira Star-Gazette reporter Dick Baumbach found out the White House was not using a ZIP Code on its envelopes.
Herb Klein, special assistant to President Nixon, responded by saying the next printing of envelopes would include the ZIP Code. In 1983, the U. S. Postal Service introduced an expanded ZIP Code system that it called ZIP+4 called "plus-four codes", "add-on codes", or "add-ons". A ZIP+4 Code uses the basic five-digit code plus four additional digits to identify a geographic segment within the five-digit delivery area, such as a city block, a group of apartments, an individual high-volume receiver of mail, a post office box, or any other unit that could use an extra identifier to aid in efficient mail sorting and delivery. However, initial attempts to promote universal use of the new format met with public resistance and today the plus-four code is not required. In general, mail is read by a multiline optical character reader that instantly determines the correct ZIP+4 Code from the address—along with the more specific delivery point—and sprays an Intelligent Mail barcode on the face of the mail piece that corresponds to 11 digits—nine for the ZIP+4 Code and two for the delivery point.
For Post Office Boxes, the general rule is. The add-on code is one of the following: the last four digits of the box number, zero plus the last three digits of the box number, or, if the box number consists of fewer than four digits, enough zeros are attached to the front of the box number to produce a four-digit number. However, there is no uniform rule, so the ZIP+4 Code must be looked up individually for each box; the ZIP Code is translated into an Intelligent Mail barcode, printed on the mailpiece to make it easier for automated machines to sort. A barcode can be printed by the sender, it is better to let the post office put one on. In general, the post office uses OCR technology, though in some cases a human might have to read and enter the address. Customers who send bulk mail can get a discount on postage if they have printed the barcode themselves and have presorted the mai
Interstate 40 in Tennessee
Interstate 40 traverses the entirety of the state of Tennessee from west to east, running from the Mississippi River at the Arkansas border to the northern base of the Great Smoky Mountains at the North Carolina border. The road connects Tennessee's three largest cities—Memphis and Knoxville—and crosses all of Tennessee's physiographical provinces and Grand Divisions—the Mississippi Embayment and Gulf Coastal Plain in West Tennessee, the Highland Rim and Nashville Basin in Middle Tennessee, the Cumberland Plateau, Appalachian Valley and Ridge Province, Blue Ridge Province in East Tennessee; the Tennessee section of I-40 is 452 miles long, the longest of any state. I-40 enters Tennessee from Arkansas via the six lane Hernando de Soto Bridge, which spans the Mississippi River at river mile 736. Within the city of Memphis, the interstate passes across the southern half of Mud Island before crossing the Wolf River Harbor into downtown Memphis. Throughout Memphis, the highway contains a minimum of six through lanes, except through major interchanges.
About one mile from the state line is an interchange with the western terminus of Interstate 240, where I-40 abruptly turns north, following a route designated as part of I-240. About one mile the highway has an interchange with State Route 300, a connector to US 51 and the future Interstate 69. At this interchange, the interstate turns east and enters a stretch designated as the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Expressway. I-40 crosses the Wolf River three times in Memphis as the road passes near the neighborhoods of Frayser and Raleigh and turns southeast. A few miles I-40 has an interchange with I-240 southbound and Sam Cooper Boulevard eastbound, turns sharp northeast, leaving Memphis. For the next several miles the highway is known as the Isaac Hayes Memorial Highway and is eight lanes, the left lanes functioning as HOV lanes during rush hour, passing through several major suburbs of Memphis, including Bartlett and Lakeland. At exit 18, with US 64, the highway narrows to six lanes, to four lanes a short distance beyond.
Several miles near Arlington, is a cloverleaf interchange with I-269. East of Arlington, I-40 crosses the Loosahatchie River and leaves the Memphis area, traversing through the Gulf Coastal Plain in a flat and straight stretch of farmland with some rural woodlands, bypassing most cities and communities. South of Brownsville, about 40 miles east of Memphis, the highway turns north and enters the Hatchie National Wildlife Refuge and crosses the Hatchie River. Upon exiting the refuge, I-40 passes just southeast of Brownsville; the interstate continues for the next 20 miles though further agricultural terrain, at mile marker 78, the crosses the South Fork of the Forked Deer River into Jackson. Passing through the northern half of the city, I-40 has a total of six exits in Jackson. From Jackson, I-40 continues east northeast through a sparsely populated area of farmland and woodlands, near the community of Parkers Crossroads, has an interchange with SR 22, a major north-south connector route in west Tennessee.
Several miles I-40 proceeds for several miles through the northern half of the Natchez Trace State Park, has an interchange with US 641/SR 69, another major north-south corridor, at milepost 126. The route descends about 400 feet on a steep grade over the course of a mile before crossing the Tennessee River into Middle Tennessee on the Jimmy Mann Evans Memorial Bridge. East of the Tennessee River, I-40 traverses through vast woodlands in the rugged hills of the Western Highland Rim for a considerable distance; this section is characterized by several noticeable upgrades and downgrades, with minor curves. About 35 miles the highway passes southeast of Dickson, now within the Nashville metropolitan area. A few miles approximately 35 miles west of Nashville, is the western terminus of Interstate 840, the outer southern beltway around Nashville; the highway continues through woodlands and descends into the Nashville Basin between mile markers 186 and 188. Around Bellevue, the route widens to six lanes.
About ten miles I-40 has an interchange with the western terminus of State Route 155, the northern controlled-access beltway around Nashville. About two miles is the western terminus of I-440, the southern loop around central Nashville. Two miles I-40 enters Downtown Nashville, has interchanges with several major highways and surface roads. In Nashville, I-40 shares brief concurrences first with I-65 and I-24, before splitting off; the eastern terminus of I-440 is directly accessible from the easternmost interchange with I-24. About 1.5 miles I-40 has an interchange with SR 155 near the Nashville International Airport. The route continues east for the next 20 miles through a still-developing area with eight lanes, the left lanes functioning as HOV lanes during rush hour, passing near the suburbs of Mount Juliet and Gallatin. At mile 219, I-40 crosses the Stones River just downstream from the Percy Priest Dam. About 25 miles east of Nashville, the route narrows back to four lanes and has an interchange with the eastern terminus of I-840 a few miles east of Lebanon.
The interstate continues for 50 miles across open farmland, passing near small communities. In Smith County between mileposts 263 and 266, I-40 crosses the meandering Caney Fork River five times before ascending the Eastern Highland Rim, reaching 1,000 feet for the first time in the state near Silver Point; the interstate remains flat across the plateau, beginning at the edge of the table-top rim at mile marker 27
2010 United States Census
The 2010 United States Census is the twenty-third and most recent United States national census. National Census Day, the reference day used for the census, was April 1, 2010; the census was taken via mail-in citizen self-reporting, with enumerators serving to spot-check randomly selected neighborhoods and communities. As part of a drive to increase the count's accuracy, 635,000 temporary enumerators were hired; the population of the United States was counted as 308,745,538, a 9.7% increase from the 2000 Census. This was the first census in which all states recorded a population of over half a million, as well as the first in which all 100 largest cities recorded populations of over 200,000; as required by the United States Constitution, the U. S. census has been conducted every 10 years since 1790. The 2000 U. S. Census was the previous census completed. Participation in the U. S. Census is required by law in Title 13 of the United States Code. On January 25, 2010, Census Bureau Director Robert Groves inaugurated the 2010 Census enumeration by counting World War II veteran Clifton Jackson, a resident of Noorvik, Alaska.
More than 120 million census forms were delivered by the U. S. Post Office beginning March 15, 2010; the number of forms mailed out or hand-delivered by the Census Bureau was 134 million on April 1, 2010. Although the questionnaire used April 1, 2010 as the reference date as to where a person was living, an insert dated March 15, 2010 included the following printed in bold type: "Please complete and mail back the enclosed census form today." The 2010 Census national mail participation rate was 74%. From April through July 2010, census takers visited households that did not return a form, an operation called "non-response follow-up". In December 2010, the U. S. Census Bureau delivered population information to the U. S. President for apportionment, in March 2011, complete redistricting data was delivered to states. Identifiable information will be available in 2082; the Census Bureau did not use a long form for the 2010 Census. In several previous censuses, one in six households received this long form, which asked for detailed social and economic information.
The 2010 Census used only a short form asking ten basic questions: How many people were living or staying in this house, apartment, or mobile home on April 1, 2010? Were there any additional people staying here on April 1, 2010 that you did not include in Question 1? Mark all that apply: Is this house, apartment, or mobile home – What is your telephone number? What is Person 1's name? What is Person 1's sex? What is Person 1's age and Person 1's date of birth? Is Person 1 of Hispanic, Latino, or Spanish origin? What is Person 1's race? Does Person 1 sometimes live or stay somewhere else? The form included space to repeat all of these questions for up to twelve residents total. In contrast to the 2000 census, an Internet response option was not offered, nor was the form available for download. Detailed socioeconomic information collected during past censuses will continue to be collected through the American Community Survey; the survey provides data about communities in the United States on a 1-year or 3-year cycle, depending on the size of the community, rather than once every 10 years.
A small percentage of the population on a rotating basis will receive the survey each year, no household will receive it more than once every five years. In June 2009, the U. S. Census Bureau announced. However, the final form did not contain a separate "same-sex married couple" option; when noting the relationship between household members, same-sex couples who are married could mark their spouses as being "Husband or wife", the same response given by opposite-sex married couples. An "unmarried partner" option was available for couples; the 2010 census cost $13 billion $42 per capita. Operational costs were $5.4 billion under the $7 billion budget. In December 2010 the Government Accountability Office noted that the cost of conducting the census has doubled each decade since 1970. In a detailed 2004 report to Congress, the GAO called on the Census Bureau to address cost and design issues, at that time, had estimated the 2010 Census cost to be $11 billion. In August 2010, Commerce Secretary Gary Locke announced that the census operational costs came in under budget.
Locke credited the management practices of Census Bureau director Robert Groves, citing in particular the decision to buy additional advertising in locations where responses lagged, which improved the overall response rate. The agency has begun to rely more on questioning neighbors or other reliable third parties when a person could not be reached at home, which reduced the cost of follow-up visits. Census data for about 22% of U. S. househol
United States Census Bureau
The United States Census Bureau is a principal agency of the U. S. Federal Statistical System, responsible for producing data about the American people and economy; the Census Bureau is part of the U. S. Department of Commerce and its director is appointed by the President of the United States; the Census Bureau's primary mission is conducting the U. S. Census every ten years, which allocates the seats of the U. S. House of Representatives to the states based on their population; the Bureau's various censuses and surveys help allocate over $400 billion in federal funds every year and it helps states, local communities, businesses make informed decisions. The information provided by the census informs decisions on where to build and maintain schools, transportation infrastructure, police and fire departments. In addition to the decennial census, the Census Bureau continually conducts dozens of other censuses and surveys, including the American Community Survey, the U. S. Economic Census, the Current Population Survey.
Furthermore and foreign trade indicators released by the federal government contain data produced by the Census Bureau. Article One of the United States Constitution directs the population be enumerated at least once every ten years and the resulting counts used to set the number of members from each state in the House of Representatives and, by extension, in the Electoral College; the Census Bureau now conducts a full population count every 10 years in years ending with a zero and uses the term "decennial" to describe the operation. Between censuses, the Census Bureau makes population projections. In addition, Census data directly affects how more than $400 billion per year in federal and state funding is allocated to communities for neighborhood improvements, public health, education and more; the Census Bureau is mandated with fulfilling these obligations: the collecting of statistics about the nation, its people, economy. The Census Bureau's legal authority is codified in Title 13 of the United States Code.
The Census Bureau conducts surveys on behalf of various federal government and local government agencies on topics such as employment, health, consumer expenditures, housing. Within the bureau, these are known as "demographic surveys" and are conducted perpetually between and during decennial population counts; the Census Bureau conducts economic surveys of manufacturing, retail and other establishments and of domestic governments. Between 1790 and 1840, the census was taken by marshals of the judicial districts; the Census Act of 1840 established a central office. Several acts followed that revised and authorized new censuses at the 10-year intervals. In 1902, the temporary Census Office was moved under the Department of Interior, in 1903 it was renamed the Census Bureau under the new Department of Commerce and Labor; the department was intended to consolidate overlapping statistical agencies, but Census Bureau officials were hindered by their subordinate role in the department. An act in 1920 changed the date and authorized manufacturing censuses every two years and agriculture censuses every 10 years.
In 1929, a bill was passed mandating the House of Representatives be reapportioned based on the results of the 1930 Census. In 1954, various acts were codified into Title 13 of the US Code. By law, the Census Bureau must count everyone and submit state population totals to the U. S. President by December 31 of any year ending in a zero. States within the Union receive the results in the spring of the following year; the United States Census Bureau defines four statistical regions, with nine divisions. The Census Bureau regions are "widely used...for data collection and analysis". The Census Bureau definition is pervasive. Regional divisions used by the United States Census Bureau: Region 1: Northeast Division 1: New England Division 2: Mid-Atlantic Region 2: Midwest Division 3: East North Central Division 4: West North Central Region 3: South Division 5: South Atlantic Division 6: East South Central Division 7: West South Central Region 4: West Division 8: Mountain Division 9: Pacific Many federal, state and tribal governments use census data to: Decide the location of new housing and public facilities, Examine the demographic characteristics of communities and the US, Plan transportation systems and roadways, Determine quotas and creation of police and fire precincts, Create localized areas for elections, utilities, etc.
Gathers population information every 10 years The United States Census Bureau is committed to confidentiality, guarantees non-disclosure of any addresses or personal information related to individuals or establishments. Title 13 of the U. S. Code establishes penalties for the disclosure of this information. All Census employees must sign an affidavit of non-disclosure prior to employment; the Bureau cannot share responses, addresses or personal information with anyone including United States or foreign government
Justin P. Wilson Cumberland Trail State Park
The Justin P. Wilson Cumberland Trail State Park is a Tennessee hiking trail following a line of ridges and gorges along the eastern escarpment of the Cumberland Plateau in Tennessee; the trail begins at Cumberland Gap National Historical Park and ends at Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park and Prentice Cooper Wildlife Management Area just outside Chattanooga, Tennessee. The trail travels through two time zones; the Cumberland Trail became Tennessee's 53rd state park in the state's only linear park. The park is named for Justin P. Wilson in honor of his work to help make the vision of the Cumberland Trail a reality. Wilson served as the commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation in 1996 and deputy governor for policy for former Tennessee Governor Don Sundquist; as of 2014 he is Comptroller of the State of Tennessee, an attorney, longtime Republican Party and conservation activist who donated a considerable portion of the land involved. When completed, the Justin P. Wilson Cumberland Trail State Park is to contain a core corridor of trail stretching from Cumberland Gap National Historical Park to the Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park and Prentice Cooper Wildlife Management Area.
The Cumberland Trail is designed for hikers by hikers as a sustainable single file back country hiking trail, part of the Great Eastern Trail, through more remote areas of the Appalachian Mountains. An alternative to the crowded Appalachian Trail, it gives hikers access to areas preserved for their natural or scenic beauty that cannot be otherwise accessed. Providing a wilderness experience rare in the eastern US; the rugged trail follows numerous sparsely populated ridge lines where the trail designers have strategically routed the trail to spectacular overlooks and scarce drinking water sources. The trail dips into gorges, it is designed and built to minimize the potential environmental impact on sensitive wildlife habitat, unique aquatic or terrestrial habitats, or endangered and threatened species. Still a work-in-progress, as of November 2016, 210 mi of trail are ready for hiking and over 300 mi of trails are planned. Segments include: the Cumberland Mountain segment above La Follette and Jacksboro and in the Cumberland Gap National Historic Park.
Cumberland Trail State Park offices are located in Caryville and Signal Mountain. The State Park's professional crew for trail construction and maintenance is based in Soddy-Daisy. Volunteers from all over the US and several volunteer hiking organizations are working under direction of the Tennessee State Parks in building new sections of the trail. A number of private organizations support the Cumberland Trail financially and with volunteer efforts; the list of supporters is long. Wild Trails, the Chattanooga nonprofit that directs money to building and maintaining wilderness path projects through the region. A number of other individuals and volunteer organizations are assisting in bringing the vision of the Cumberland Trail closer to completion. Cumberland Trail Volunteers, based out of Soddy-Daisy, is an organization that concentrates on trail maintenance in the southern segments of the Cumberland Trail. Tennessee State Parks and the Tennessee Trails Association sponsor volunteer trail building programs several times a year to build new sections of trail.
The biggest of these programs is the BreakAway program. BreakAway program is an Alternative Spring Break program managed by the Cumberland Trails Conference that allows college students to engage in volunteer services such as trail building during their spring and fall college breaks. A big portion of the 235,000 hours donated to date to construct and maintain the trail have been BreakAway students. List of Tennessee state parks StumpJump 50k Official Tennessee State Park Site Cumberland Trail Conference Cumberland Trail Volunteers Friends of the Cumberland Trail BreakAway: the Alternative Break Connection CTC website
Media related to Crab Orchard, Tennessee at Wikimedia Commons
