trail, and in 1975 three Elizabethton boy scouts were among those who completed the first re-enactment of the overmountain march (approximately 214 miles in one direction) from Elizabethton to King's Mountain and were met at a ceremony by U.S. Vice President Nelson Rockefeller at the Kings Mountain National Military Park near Blacksburg, South Carolina. Many of these same OVT hikers, reenactors, and area citizens later sought federal recognition of the overmountain march to the Battle of King's Mountain as being analogous to the spontaneous response of the patriot Minutemen at Lexington and Concord during the American Revolutionary War. OVT supporters worked with representatives of other American trails to create what became known as the National Trails System and later carried scrolls petitioning Congress for national designation of the OVT route. The Overmountain Victory National Historic Trail was officially designated as a national historic trail during September 1980 by federal legislation authorized by the U.S. Congress, and later in 1980, President Jimmy Carter—recognizing the historical significance of the frontier patriots marching over the Appalachian Mountains to defeat the Loyalist army at the Battle of King's Mountain—signed federal law designating the historical overmountain route as the Overmountain Victory National Historic Trail, the first National Historic Trail in the eastern United States, exactly 200 years after the event it commemorates. In June 2019, the North Carolina General Assembly passed legislation which added the OVT's route within NC to the State Trail System. The enabling legislation directed the North Carolina Division of Parks and Recreation (NCDPR) to coordinate with the National Park Service on development of the trail within the state, and it gave NCDPR the authority to purchase or accept donations of land for the trail. See also Battle of Musgrove Mill References External links The National Park Service: Overmountain Victory National Historic Trail NC Division of Parks and Recreation: Overmountain Victory State Trail Special Silver Anniversary Report 1980-2005 Hiking trails in North Carolina Hiking trails in South Carolina Hiking trails in Tennessee Hiking trails in Virginia National Historic Trails of the United States Protected areas of the Appalachians Protected areas of Washington County, Virginia Pisgah National Forest National Park Service areas in Tennessee Protected areas of Carter County, Tennessee