The first dedicated hiking trail systems didn’t appear around Lake Martin until some 35 years after the construction of Martin Dam. Pleasure hiking actually is a fairly recent development around the world. Prior to the end of the 19th century, walking was a part of daily life, and the rare trek through the woods could be a dangerous endeavor fraught with robbers, wild animals and woodspirits (see page __), but the industrial revolution changed all that and eventually led to one of Lake Martin’s most popular winter activities.

Even as late as the mid-1800s, walking in nature was mainly a mode of transportation, a functional necessity among rural farmers; however, with industrialization, the country’s population shifted from an agrarian society to an urban society. A walk in nature became a luxury that workers in the mills and factories across the South could ill afford, as a recreational walk required time and access that laborers didn’t have. They worked 14-hour days six days a week.