History

The History of Building a Legacy

It was back in the early ‘60s that the dream of a trail spanning the backbone of America began.

Several individuals and groups were the visionaries for this magnificent idea, including Benton Mackaye, founder of the Appalachian Trail, and members of the Rocky Mountain Trail Association and the Colorado Mountain Club.

According to David Maceyka, he and others from the once established Rocky Mountain Trail Association, were the first to walk and mark the proposed CDT in Colorado and gain Congressional support. Their group called the soon-to-be CDT the “Blue Can” trail because they marked the trail by nailing blue cans to trees so the Forest Service could locate and approve of its location.

According to the 1966 Bureau of Outdoor Recreation’s report, Trails For America, “consideration of a National Scenic Trail route along or near the Continental Divide of the Rocky Mountains would make available to recreationists a challenging stretch of country possessing awesome scenic grandeur, great aesthetic value, and significant historic interest.”

Finally in 1966, the idea of the Continental Divide Trail was proposed to Congress. Congress in turn authorized the study of the Trail under the National Trails System Act of 1968.

Five years later a Baltimore attorney, Jim Wolf, walked the Divide from the Canadian border to Rogers Pass, Montana. He soon published a guidebook to that section of the trail and devoted time to advocating its official designation. Later in 1978 he would form the for-profit Continental Divide Trail Society and continue to focus his efforts on writing a series of guidebooks and commenting on route selection.

In 1976 a study report completed by the Bureau of Outdoor Recreation found the scenic quality of the CDT to surpass anything available elsewhere in the country. The study report notes, “trail users would wind their way through some of the most spectacular scenery in the United States and have an opportunity to enjoy a greater diversity of physical and natural qualities than found on any other extended trail. The route of the CDT would cross five ecological life zones where visitors would find much of the topography, climate, vegetation and wildlife for which the Rocky Mountain West is noted.”

The CDT was described as a 3,100 mile trail, traveling from Canada to Mexico, through five western states- Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado and New Mexico. The 1968 study report identified approximately 1,900 miles of existing trails and primitive, seldom-used roads were available as part of the CDT, with hopes of expediting the completion and reducing the costs.

The Trail would be designed to the most simple, yet high quality standards for the hiker and horseman. No gross or significant alteration of the land, vegetation or other resource values were envisioned. None was needed or desired.

In November 1978, the Congressional Oversight Committee of the National Trails System designated the CDT as a National Scenic Trail. A 50-mile wide corridor was identified on either side of the Continental Divide in which to locate the final route.

The designation provided Congressional directive that the wide range of recreation opportunities would continue to be available to the public and the national goal was to promote public enjoyment and appreciation of America’s scenic outdoor areas.

The vision for the CDT is to create a primitive and challenging backcountry trail on or near the Continental Divide to provide people with the opportunity to experience the unique and incredibly scenic qualities of the area. For many of the same reasons National Parks are established, National Scenic Trails are created to conserve the nationally significant scenic, historic, natural and cultural qualities of the area. In addition, National Scenic Trails are designed for recreation and the enjoyment of these very special places.

The CDT will serve hundreds of thousands of people each year and provides a resource for many recreation activities, including hiking, horseback riding, mountain biking, cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, wildlife viewing, fishing, hunting and sight-seeing. Because of its remoteness, the CDT provides a unique experience that is more and more difficult to find and increasingly sought.

Inasmuch as the U.S. Forest Service controlled the greatest amount of land along the CDT, the Secretary of Agriculture was made responsible for the overall coordinated management of the CDT after consultation with the Secretary of Interior and with the Governors of the five respective states through which the Trail passes. The Secretary, in turn, delegated all actions attributed to him/her in the National Trails System Act to the Chief of the Forest Service.

The Chief of the Forest Service, upon consultation with the Regional Foresters from Regions 1, 2, 3 and 4 and the BLM State Directors for Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado and New Mexico and the Regional Director of the National Park Service for the Rocky Mountain Region, has the overall responsibility for the coordination, planning, location, development and management of the Trail. The Regional Forester for the Rocky Mountain Region 2 located in Denver, Colorado, was given the overall administrative responsibility for the CDT.

The Study Report recommended the creation of an advisory council similar to those created for the Pacific Crest and Appalachian National Scenic Trails. The purpose of the advisory council was to promote the coordination of all the various interests and to advise and counsel the Secretary charged with administration of the CDT on matters pertaining to its establishment. An advisory council was established in 1980 and completed its work by the end of that decade. Council members worked with the land managers on an extensive public involvement process in preparation for writing the Continental Divide National Scenic Trail Comprehensive Plan, a requirement of the National Trails System Act.

The Comprehensive Plan for the CDT was completed in 1985. This plan serves as a coordinating document providing broad-based policy, guidelines and standards for establishing and managing the CDT over time and in such a manner as to insure it’s continued utility as a high quality national recreation facility. The plan also provides a continuous record of issues, concerns, and public attitudes identified as a result of public involvement regarding the development and management of the CDT in the early 1980’s.

When Congress designated the CDT in 1978, they did not specifically allocate funds for the completion of the Trail. Although the existing trails available for the CDT system could help significantly reduce the cost and resources required to complete the Trail, 1,300 miles of those existing trails required upgrading to bring them up to National Scenic Trail standards.

Limited budgets precluded the federal agencies from allocating sufficient resources to complete the Trail. By the mid 1990’s the CDT was still suffering from minimal coordination amongst these agencies. Public involvement was virtually nonexistent because few people were aware of the Trail. Unfortunately, while progress on the Trail was stalled, the demand for the experience that the CDT offers grew exponentially as opportunities for the ideal route were slipping away.

Lack of progress, due to shrinking budgets, lack of public involvement, and increased demands on America’s public lands, prompted the Forest Service to look for a more creative way to complete the CDT.

In 1994, the U.S. Forest Service contacted Dr. Stephen Fausel of the Fausel Foundation to create a public/private partnership that would support the efforts of the federal agencies. The Fausel Foundation stepped in and placed a special emphasis on the Continental Divide Trail project and hired husband and wife team Bruce Ward, formerly the president of the American Hiking Society, and Paula Ward, a landscape architect.

Under the Fausel Foundation umbrella the team worked for one year to promote the significance of this national treasure, raise funds for the Trail, and build a grassroots constituency and volunteer program for long-term sustainability. By 1995, their efforts evolved into the Continental Divide Trail Alliance (CDTA) a non-profit organization devoted to the completion, maintenance and protection of the CDT.

It was the formation of the CDTA in 1995 that finally created public and private enthusiasm for the CDT. Within two years CDTA-coordinated volunteers had inventoried all 3,100-miles and thousands of volunteer hours had been dedicated to trail improvements. In addition, media coverage had bolstered awareness among the general public and as a result private sector financial support began.

In 1998, CDTA initiated and coordinated the development of the CDT 2008 Strategic Plan. For the first time, federal land management agencies had identified the full scope of work necessary to complete the Trail across their jurisdictions. As a result of this process land managers at the local level began to recognize the national significance of this immense project.

A year later in 1999, due to the CDTA’s significant role with the Trail, the Chief of the Forest Service and the Directors of the Bureau of Land Management and National Park Service recognized the CDTA as the leading non-governmental partner in the completion of the CDT at a Memorandum of Understanding signing in Washington, D.C.

We still have a long way to go to complete this unique resource. Increased recreation needs, the dramatic population boom in the West and competition for our public lands are now focusing the nation on the urgency of protecting this national treasure.

We estimate approximately 71% of the CDT is usable today. However, many of those miles are in desperate need of repair, rerouting for scenic, environmental or cultural reasons, or removed from roads and motorized trails.

The coming years are very critical to protect the vision of the Continental Divide Trail. We must all pitch in now and help. After all, this unique treasure does belong to you and the generations to follow.

To help and to continue to learn more about the continued progress along the CDT, join the CDTA and receive the CDTA News, the quarterly newsletter for members of the Alliance.