Who Owned the Springer Area?

A newspaper blog by Ronda Rich in the Fayetteville, GA Citizen published online on 9 January 2008 under the title "Who is the lucky one?" isn't really about the Appalachian Trail, but about contentment. In setting the scene, Rich says some things about her family roots "in a little place called Suches, Ga." including this:

"Our forebears owned the land that encompasses where the Appalachian Trail begins and until the end of his time on earth, Melissa’s daddy, my beloved Uncle Tom Berry, grumbled mightily about a 'thieving' government which would, from time to time, decide to lay claim to more of his land that borders the famous trail.

"'Just help themselves to it! That’s what they do,' he’d rail. 'Bunch of heathens.'"

And that little bit of A.T. oral history ought to be preserved.