The Trail Societies founder John O’Dell started publishing trail guides in 1995 with the first edition. John was the principal author of the first four editions of the guide but did get some help as noted in the guides. For the guide, the maps included there in were typically generated and provided by the Shawnee National Forest Service employees. John had the guides published and printed with a variety of different funding sources including a bunch of his own. He then promoted the guides and sold them through a variety of means. Many of the guides were mailed out to after they were paid for.

With the release of the new all electronic 5th Edition, we have decided to release the previous editions which have been scanned into PDF format and are now also available on line.

The Trail Society still has 4-5 copies of the latest printed edition 4 that are still for sale. If you are interested please just leave a comment on this website with your contact information.