John Smith trail extended up tributaries Expansion allows
National Park Service to collaborate with sites on rivers.
Captain John Smith may not have made it to New York or the Blue
Ridge Mountains, but the trail that bears his name may now take
modern adventurers to such far-flung destinations. U.S. Interior
Secretary Ken Salazar on May 16 announced that he was adding
four connecting rivers — the Susquehanna, Chester, Upper
Nanticoke and upper James — to the Captain John Smith Chesapeake
National Historic Trail. Their designation as “historic
components” allows the National Park Service, which administers
the trail, to provide technical and financial assistance to
state agencies and local organizations to promote and manage the
trail. “Today’s action really is a model of conservation in the
21st century,” Salazar said during a ceremony on the shore of
the Bay at Sandy Point State Park in Maryland. Expanding the
trail was part of the Obama administration’s America’s Great
Outdoors initiative which, among other