We’ve all enjoyed hiking sections of the Art Loeb trail. Here is an interesting biography of Art Loeb and the history of the Art Loeb trail.

TRAILBLAZER: REMEMBERING ART LOEB, THE MAN WHOSE LOVE FOR HIKING HELPED CREATE A BELOVED FOOTPATH

On a November day 40 years ago, a dedication ceremony attended by 300 on the banks of the Davidson River near Brevard officially opened the Art Loeb Trail. The 30-mile footpath is bisected by the Blue Ridge Parkway and crosses some of the highest peaks in Pisgah National Forest, including Black Balsam Knob, and Tennent and Pilot mountains. Serious backpackers and casual hikers have explored portions of this revered trail, but few may realize how this popular track came to be or the story of the Philadelphia native from whom the trail gets its name.

In 1936, at 26, Art Loeb graduated from Yale and moved to Brevard to work at Ecusta paper mill. The demands of his job as general manager, coupled with raising a family, left little time to pursue other interests. But a heart attack in his mid-40s forced him to find a healthy hobby. Following doctors orders, Loeb walked—initially on the track at Brevard College and eventually in the woods.

Typically clad in a wool Pendleton shirt, hiking boots, and carrying a worn leather day-pack and hiking stick made of Carolina silverbell, Loeb spent nearly every weekend exploring new trails. “Dad had a quiet demeanor, but he loved people. Mostly he loved sharing his passion for the mountains,” remembers Joan Dickson, one of his three daughters.

While his regular jaunts restored his health, “He enjoyed the challenge of finding trails,” says Joan. “He was always looking for links.” Among his favorite projects was joining scattered sections of trail with the help of hiking partner Keith Argow. At this time, the U.S. Forest Service managed few trails, so there were no blazes, and trail junctions were ambiguous.

During his hikes, Loeb found enough junctures to connect Davidson River

Campground in Brevard with Daniel Boone Boy Scout Camp in Haywood County. Sadly, he didn’t live to see the trail system develop as a public resource. In 1968, at age 54, he was diagnosed with a brain tumor and died later that year. Picking up where he left off, the Carolina Mountain Club and U.S. Forest Service blazed the path the following summer and named it after him.

On the day of the dedication, two-dozen friends, family, and hiking partners walked in Loeb’s honor from the John Rock Fish Station (now the state fish hatchery) to the ceremony held at the trailhead. “It was not somber. It was the opposite,” says son-in-law John Dickson. “Everyone was so pleased the trail was happening.”

And four decades later, hikers are still walking in his footsteps.

Art Loeb: The man, his trail celebrated on 50th anniversary

Andrew Mundhenk andrew.mundhenk@blueridgenow.com

Nov. 25, 2019, 11:35 p.m. ET

Family and friends hiked the Art Loeb Trail earlier this month to pay tribute to its namesake – a man known as a trailblazer both literally and figuratively.

On Nov. 9, 1969, a 30-mile trail was dedicated to Arthur J. Loeb as a tribute to the “industrialist, conservationist and hiker who deeply loved these mountains.”

The dedication was made shortly after Loeb’s early death from a brain tumor on Dec. 5, 1968 at the age of 54. Today, the path sits in the Shining Rock Wilderness as one of the most popular long-distance trails in the Pisgah National Forest.

The U.S. Forest Service and Carolina Mountain Club linked several trails together in Pisgah National Forest, blazing the path with yellow paint. On the top of the paint, a stenciled image of a hiker with a walking stick carrying a ruck sack was emblazoned.

Fifty years later to the day on Nov. 9, family and friends hiked the trail up to Black Balsam Knob where a plaque pays tribute to Loeb. They popped a bottle of champagne to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the dedication.

“He would have been so moved to know that a trail had been named for him,” Loeb’s daughter, Joan Dickson, wrote. “The popularity of the Art Loeb Trail mirrors a man who deeply loved these mountains.”

“His home was within two miles of the trail,” she added. “I am honored, as his daughter, that such a fitting and unique tribute exists in his memory. A man, who blazed a trail both literally and figuratively, is honored and will live on forever.”

Dickson said Loeb was an avid hiker and trail blazer, exploring and locating many of the trails, which often necessitated bushwhacking, looking at maps and getting lost.

He loved sharing his passion for hiking, Dickson said. As a mountaineering enthusiast and general manager of Ecusta Paper Mill in Pisgah Forest, Loeb was unique among industrial executives.

“He loved people and they loved him,” said Dickson. “He was a good listener – fair, ethical, respectful, unpretentious, generous, humble, kind, and had a great sense of humor.

“He used his leadership skills and industrial background to promote local environmental causes for the Appalachian Trail and the Carolina Mountain Club,” she added. “He had deep feeling and appreciations for all the people who belonged in his work environment as well as his fellow hikers and friends. They, in turn, remembered him with high regard and affection.”

There was a huge sense of loss felt by many people who worked, hiked and knew Loeb when he died. Dickson provided a letter from Loeb’s friend and boss Phillip Brownell written five days after his death.

“Art Loeb has left a splendid legacy for all of us who will benefit from it, not only because of the work he has done but because of the spirit and character which he contributed to the traditions that influence life and work in our businesses here,” the letter reads. “The character he exemplified included integrity to a degree I have never seen excelled.” “It was a great loss,” wrote Brenard Elias, a past CMC member. “I had great respect for him; it was his warmth, understanding, and kindness that club members especially remember him.”

“We believe this trail will be a valuable service to the public and a distinct credit to the National Forests in North Carolina and to the name of Arthur J. Loeb,” Arch Nichols wrote in a letter to Peter Hanlon, forest supervisor of the National Forests in N.C., accompanying CMC’s proposal for the Art Loeb Trail.

Few people remain today who knew Loeb, Dickson said, but the vibrancy and popularity of the trail reflect who he was.

Dickson also expressed her deep gratitude to those who maintain and care for the trail. Fifty years later, it is well worn and loved.