CACrown ArchivesThe cinema collection
Menu
Research dossier · General Reference

Allegheny Trail

hiking trail in West Virginia

Cross-disciplinary reference desk with index cards, atlas, dictionary and catalogue
General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 5, 2026
Entity authorityQ4731350
Source-derived summary

The Allegheny Trail is a 330-mile (530 km) hiking trail that passes through the Allegheny Mountains in West Virginia, and part of western Virginia, United States. It is the longest named trail in the state excepting the Appalachian Trail, 4 miles (6.4 km) of which traverses the state at Harpers Ferry.

History

The trail was formed in 1975 by Nicolas B. Lozano and Robert (Bob) Tabor Jr. After a chance encounter at meeting of the Izaak Walton league and a long discussion in the parking lot about a shared dream of a trail connecting to the Appalachian Trail and the West Virginia – Virginia border, the idea for the Allegheny trail first took form in 1971. After scouting out potential locations for the trail in Pocahontas County, West Virginia in July 1971, the two and three others founded the West Virginia Scenic Trails Association, then known as the West Virginia Scenic Trails Conference in October 1971. After some organizational meetings, flagging began on the trail from Peters Mountain to the Salt Sulphur Springs Turnpike in August 1973. In April 1974, the West Virginia Scenic Trails Conference was renamed the West Virginia Scenic Trails Association, and remains so to this day. Also in 1974, this time in July, the original routing and blaze color for the Allegheny Trail were selected. Although International Orange was the first selection, the color was off limits due to having recently been given a national designation for trial use by off-road vehicles, so the color yellow was chosen instead. The first official agreement was signed in regard to the trail in August 1975, between the West Virginia Scenic Trails Association and the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources, with more agreements following after.

Editorial summary

“Allegheny Trail” enters the record as hiking trail in West Virginia. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Allegheny, Trail and hiking can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1975, 1971, 1973, 1974—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Allegheny, Trail and hiking.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Allegheny Trail” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Allegheny, Trail and hiking provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 5, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4731350. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1975, 1971, 1973 and 1974.

Critical limits

Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Allegheny Trail”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Allegheny Trail primary sources, Allegheny Trail archive and Allegheny research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Allegheny Trail”?
  2. Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
  3. What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Allegheny Trail” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.