From 1930 to 1958, the southern terminus of the A.T. in Georgia was at Mt. Oglethorpe near Jasper. Early hikers like Earl Shaffer, Gene Espy, Mildred Norman (Peace Pilgrim) Ryder and Emma (Grandma) Gatewood and others less well known, would have hiked from Oglethorpe. In the mid-1950’s because of the deterioration of trail conditions on the private lands through which the trail traveled from Mt. Oglethorpe northward to Amicalola Falls State Park, the Georgia Appalachian Trail Club petitioned the Appalachian Trail Conference to change the terminus to Springer Mountain. In the spring of 1958, Murray Stevens, the chair of the ATC, traveled to Georgia to have a look at what the GATC was proposing. On completion of his hike to Springer, Stevens said that the change would be “one of which we can all be proud” and supported the recommendation.
But that wasn’t the only proposal considered here in Georgia in 1958. The members of the GATC also proposed changing the name of the “mountain named ‘Springer.’” They wanted to honor the Cherokee nation, whose traditional territory the A.T. travels through in much of the deep south. GATC members consulted members of the Eastern Band of the Cherokee to identify a name they could recommend to the Georgia Legislature. Suggestions included names such as “Cherokee” and “Tickanetly." Club members at that time ultimately determined any name in the language of the Cherokee wouldn’t roll off English-speaking tongues easily. The “mountain named Springer” remained so despite how we may think today. As the northern terminus of the A.T. at Katahdin honors the Penobscot, it may have been fitting to honor the Cherokee on the southern end of the trail.
