Travel Reference
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is privately owned. Some 20% is owned by the federal government, and 16%
is owned by state and local governments. Management of the trail is shared
between federal agencies (Bureau of Land Management and US National
Park Service), local and state offices, private landholders and trail associations
(Threlkeld, 1997). Like most long-distance trails, many people use sections
of it for day hikes or weekend trips, although traveling its entire length by
car is a very popular holiday option among Latter-day Saints and others
today (Hudman & Jackson, 1992; Kimball, 1988; Olsen, 2006). The auto tour
route is marked with official National Historic Trail logos and extends
2665 km from Nauvoo, Illinois, to Salt Lake City, Utah (Threlkeld, 1997: 42).
The Chilkoot Trail
In 1896, gold was discovered in the Klondike region of Canada. Between
1896 and 1899, some 100,000 gold prospectors made their way via different
routes to mine and pan for gold in Canada's Yukon Territory. One of the
primary routes was over the Chilkoot Pass, traveling from the now-
abandoned village of Dyea, Alaska, to Bennett, British Columbia, also now
abandoned, on their way to Dawson City, Yukon - the center of the gold
trade (Rennicke, 1997a). While this popular migration route led many
miners to the gold fields, it only lasted three years, but it has lived long in
North American folklore in books and movies related to the Klondike Gold
Rush. Today, this 53 km cross-border hiking trail is part of the Klondike
Gold Rush International Historic Park, which connects the Klondike Gold
Rush National Historical Park (USA) and the Dawson Historical Complex
National Historic Site (Canada). On the Canadian side of the border, the
Chilkoot Trail is a National Historic Site and is administered by Parks
Canada. On the US side, it is a National Historic Landmark and protected
by the US National Park Service (Jackson et al. , 2003; Masson, 2001).
Case Study: Historic Route 66
Route 66 (nicknamed the Main Street of America and The Mother Road)
was one of the original long-distance highways in the US. It was created
in 1926 and extended 3940 km through eight states from Chicago,
Illinois, to Santa Monica, California (Figure 2.3). Route 66 became one
of the most famous and infamous thoroughfares in the nation, and was
popularized in fiction writing, music, television and motion pictures.
Even today, Route 66 invokes feelings of adventure, nostalgia and the
rural American idyll (Caton & Santos, 2007; Wallis, 1992).
With increasing numbers of households owning automobiles after
the 1920s, the highway became a popular holiday route in the 1920s
and 1930s. During World War II it was an important route for soldiers
( Continued )
 
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