Front from left are Sam Powell and Nathan, Huntley, Kristen, Noah, Hayden, Kim, Grace, Hannah and JoAnn Lockhart. Back from left are Glynn, Gary, Greg, Joe, Heath and Marseata Lockhart. Not present are daughter Dee Dee Sorohan and family from Atlanta.Between 1970 and 1975, the Beatles broke up, VCRs were introduced and the United States pulled out of Vietnam. Signal Mountain residents Glynn, Gary and Greg Lockhart were barely teenagers at the time, and as young Boy Scouts they helped Scoutmaster Sam Powell build a portion of the Cumberland Trail.
About 2 miles from what is now the trailhead that leads to Rainbow Lake, Powell told the three brothers to find a way to take the trail up the bluff, said the now-52-year-old Gary Lockhart, who’s between his brothers in age.
Greg Lockhart pointed to a hole located under a stone archway, and that became the route for the Cumberland Trail.
Powell, who with the help of his Scouts as well as college student volunteers built 13 miles of the Cumberland Trail in seven years, named the archway Lockhart Arch after the three boys.
Powell recently had a plaque made to identify the arch, and the Lockhart boys – now grown men – hiked out to the arch with their wives and children to show off their namesake landmark.
The boys’ parents, who had never been to see the arch, accompanied their sons as far as possible.
“We should have gone to see it when we were younger,” said their father, Joe Lockhart. “We’re proud of the boys. We give Sam Powell some of the credit for them winding up as good men.”
“I think Scouting has carried with them all through their life,” said Jo Lockhart, the boys’ mother. “Scouting is very worthwhile to every child.”
When Gary Lockhart was young, he said he saw Scouting and building trails as just something to do.
“I didn’t realize how much effort Sam Powell put into it,” he said. “It’s incredible that he had that vision years ago so we would have that trail here today.”
Gary Lockhart said he enjoyed the experience of rediscovering the arch with his family members and Powell.
“I really wanted to show Sam that he’s given us something that will last for generations,” he said. “It’s good to have a trail like that so we can get out and about. It was just a good thing to get him out there so he could realize what he helped build.”