People are driving across America every day to enjoy the land and its people. In July of this year, almost a million vehicles were numbered inside Yellowstone National Park—many of them cross-country recreational vehicles. But few people have walked across America. Yet, that is exactly what Peter Jenkins did in the 1970s, and he wrote about it in the timeless book, “A Walk Across America.”
From October 1973 to January 1979, Jenkins walked from upstate New York through the Deep South and finished on the West Coast, in Florence, Oregon. With him was his Alaskan Malamute dog, Cooper. Instead of having a deadline for completion, he made his way gradually, letting people, places, and basic and financial needs dictate where he would stop and for how long.
