It is named after naturalist John Muir and was constructed in 1972 through the efforts of the Youth Conservation Corps and the Senior Community Service Employment Program.
[2] The trail is said to follow the path taken during Muir's travels from Kentucky to Florida in his book A Thousand Mile Walk to the Gulf.
Its channel is very rough, as it crosses the edges of upturned rock strata, some of them standing at right angles, or glancing off obliquely to right and left.
Thus a multitude of short, resounding cataracts are produced, and the river is restrained from the headlong speed due to its volume and the inclination of its bed.
Such a river is the Hiwassee, with its surface broken to a thousand sparkling gems, and its forest walls vine-draped and flowery as Eden.