News

October 1, 2019

Trail Markers

John Omohundro

Fig. 1: A marker from before 1926 when the commission was changed to a department.

Fig. 2: When the Adirondack Mountain Club did trail work on Forest Preserve for the state before 2000, it posted its own logo. Now ADK markers are only on ADK land.

Fig. 3: A contemporary plastic marker on the N-P Trail.

Fig. 4: The DEC of today was created by legislation in 1970, so this older marker had to go: the name is changed.

Fig. 5: Four ways to say it: recent (post- 1970) markers.

Fig. 6: An old white ATIS marker and a modern red one. White was deemed too hard to notice on some trees.

Fig. 7: A recent ATIS marker for easement lands— a new category arising in the 1990s. The land is privately owned but the state owns the right to allow the public on it.

When Ebenezer Emmons and his party climbed Marcy in 1837, they didn’t have a clear path with trail markers guiding them. I presume they bushwhacked the entire route. Today, admittedly, the trails are so frequently trod that the hiker probably doesn’t need markers most of the time. But at junctions, it’s nice to know that blue goes that way and red goes that way… And on snowy winters before a snowshoer passes through, sometimes the only indication of the trail is a marker. So what’s the marker’s story?

For the Forest Preserve’s first three decades, there weren’t any official trail markers. The state’s conservation commission, the predecessor of DEC, thought of itself as timber protector; it didn’t make an effort to enhance outdoor recreation until after World War One. In 1922, a new activist DEC commissioner, George D. Pratt, began spending money on trails, campgrounds, and lean-tos in the Adirondacks. That year he also joined forces with some other New York notables to found the Adirondack Mountain Club, which further accelerated development for hikers and other outdoor enthusiasts.

In ADK’s first magazine, High Spots (Vol 6 no 2 June 1929) we learn that as it began this flurry of trail building, the state recognized the need for a relatively inexpensive and foolproof system of marking the trails. It decided that traditional paint blazes would not work to guide the inexperienced public, because surveyers, trappers, property owners, and lumbermen all used blazes, so confusion would result. (The White Mountains trails today still have only paint blazes, no trail markers, but those trails are very well defined, and the blazes often continue onto open rock above tree line, providing consistency of marking).

An early trail guide (Trails to Marcy by A. S. Hopkins, published by NYS Conservation Department, 1927, p 6) informed the reader that the state was posting three-inch round metal markers that read “State of New York Conservation Commission - TRAIL MARKER”, one intentionally similar in shape and size (but not image) to the markers put up where ADK was maintaining trails (Figs. 1 and 2). ADK’s markers were initially embossed as well as printed. Today on club property the markers are made of plastic.

Northville-Placid Trail by William G. Howard (published by ADK in 1924, page 10) reports that the N-P Trail set up the year before also had three-inch circular metal ADK markers — these in blue on white, with an image similar to this contemporary one (Fig. 3).

By 1929 the standard marker was a circular metal disk in bright color reading “Conservation Department Trail Marker” (the commission had become a department) nailed to trees where blazes used to be painted (Fig. 4). Some markers were made of leather or coated paperboard, probably due to wartime shortages. Most were aluminum, because they wouldn’t rust.

Markers came in three colors: blue for trails tending N and S, red for trails tending E and W, and yellow for diagonals. This color-coding eventually broke down somewhat as trails proliferated.

Tony Goodwin, my go-to guy for history, reports that in 2000 the DEC decided that only state markers could be posted on Forest Preserve. This is probably because many volunteer groups were helping with trail work and each wanted to post its own logo.

Today, besides generic trail markers the state also posts cyclist, snowmobile, horse trail, ski trail, nature trail, and carry trail markers, each with a slightly different image (Fig. 5). Adirondack Trail Improvement Society (ATIS) posts its own small round metal disks at Ausable Club (Figs. 6 and 7). The Olympic Regional Development Agency (ORDA) has nailed up a few small round metal markers with its own logo to mark its trail up Bear Den near Whiteface—so few I’ve gotten lost twice. The Champlain Area Trails System (CATS) uses diamond-shaped pieces of yellow plastic with a cat paw or an arrow (nice idea!).

I am indebted to Tom Wheeler, Laurentian Chapter, for sharing his extensive Adirondack book collection for this research. I also found a fellow enthusiast at the website “Hiking New York Adirondacks” (https://hikingnyadirondacks.blogspot.com).

News

October 1, 2019

Trail Markers

John Omohundro

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