Friends of the Smokies was awarded a grant from the Richard Haiman National Parks Foundation for more than $18,000 to support reconstruction of Alum Cave Trail and backcountry privy improvements in Great Smoky Mountains National Park (GSMNP). Nineteen years ago, Richard Haiman’s gift made possible Friends of the Smokies’ first major trail reconstruction project in the park.
In 1995, Hurricane Opal devastated the east coast, toppling trees and causing significant trail damage in GSMNP.
One trail in particular, Alum Cave Trail, was closed for cleanup from October 1995 to May 1996. Richard Haiman, then battling terminal liver cancer, donated $65,000 to Friends of the Smokies to help repair Alum Cave Trail. That May, Haiman was the first hiker to set foot on the newly reopened trail.
Now, Richard Haiman’s generosity is once again making significant improvements to Alum Cave Trail possible, this time through a donation of $15,000 from the Richard Haiman National Parks Foundation to Friends of the Smokies’ Trails Forever program.
The Trails Forever program began in 2008 with a $2 million challenge grant from the Aslan Foundation of Knoxville. The program, now an endowment, has since grown to more than $5 million and currently funds a third full-time trail rehabilitation crew in GSMNP. The Trails Forever crew recently completed a three-year rehabilitation project on Chimney Tops Trail and will begin work on Alum Cave Trail in May 2015.
The Richard Haiman National Parks Foundation also awarded $3,600 in grant monies to fund improvements to two backcountry privies in GSMNP.
Since 1999, the Richard Haiman National Parks Foundation has provided more than $390,000 to Friends of the Smokies in support of backcountry shelter and privy renovations, trail improvements, and the Parks As Classrooms program which educates thousands of local schoolchildren.