The Potomac Appalachian Trail Club administers and manages the 250-mile Tuscarora Trail in Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania. PATC built the southern half of this trail—from the Maryland/Pennsylvania state line to the North District of Shenandoah National Park—beginning in the 1960s. The northern half of the trail was constructed by member clubs of the Keystone Trails Association while PATC started further south. The KTA clubs that laid out and constructed the trail in Pennsylvania called it the Tuscarora Trail after the Tuscarora tribe of Native Americans whose traditional lands were in central Pennsylvania. PATC called its section “The Big Blue.”

Why? Originally, this trail was to be a major section of the Appalachian Trail since that trail was threatened by encroaching development. However, the passage of the National Trails System Act of 1968 (amended in 1974) provided for the protection of the AT. The Big Blue-Tuscarora Trail was, by that time, a contiguous trail and so, in 1997, PATC dropped the name “Big Blue” to unify the trail in name as well as on the ground.

Today, PATC administers the Pennsylvania sections of the Tuscarora on behalf of the Keystone Trails Association. The club coordinates maintenance and management of the Tuscarora with the constituent KTA member clubs to keep the Trail open for the public.

This plan was prepared by PATC to establish with our federal, state, and local partners the procedures and policies used to manage the Tuscarora Trail.

For more information about the Tuscarora Trail, go to the Web site for the Potomac Appalachian Trail Club .