Benton MacKaye is largely regarded as the father of the Appalachian Trail. In his article An Appalachian Trail: A Project in Regional Planning, MacKaye proposed the idea of an Appalachian Trail. The trial would extend from New England to Georgia within the Appalachian Mountain region. His idea was that the trial would provide a form of oxygen to the industrial workers of the 1920s and a form of escape from industrial America. One important element of MacKaye's trail proposal was that they would consist of community camps, for recreational purposes, summer schools, field courses, or study. With this idea of community camps, MacKaye laid down the foundation for the creation of civil society in the Appalachian Trail

Later MacKaye wrote another journal, The Appalachian Trail: A Guide to the Study of Nature, in which he argues that the industrial age of America is destroying human values and civilization and that establishing a connection between nature and man will allow democracy to find it's central role in the central political attitudes of the nation again. He reminds the reader that the Appalachian Trail and its development were critical to the democratic health of the nation.

Benton MacKaye's Map of the Appalachain Trail

When MacKaye proposed the original trail, he longed for the establishment of "Community Groups." These community groups would live near the trail that was communally owned, and he emphasized it would not be a "real estate venture." He proposed that these community groups would be used for activities like recreation but also activities outside of hiking such as study, summer schools, or seasonal field courses that taught science along the trail. 

This interesting proposal shows that MacKaye had a vision of a strong, cohesive civil society along the trail, where people worked together to not only create an Appalachian Trail but to educate one another and to take advantage of non-industrial life in the mountains. Although this aspect of MacKaye’s trail never came to be, the Appalachian Trail nevertheless created strong civil societies that cooperated to accomplish a herculean task.