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Mark Trail is a daily newspaper comic strip created by the American cartoonist Ed Dodd. Introduced April 15, 1946, the strip centers on environmental and ecological themes. Mark Trail, the main character, is a photojournalist and magazine writer whose assignments lead him into danger and adventure.

Contents 1 History 2 Honors 3 Controversy 4 Radio 5 Books 6 Characters 7 Listen to 8 References 9 Notes 10 External links

Mark Trail was introduced and syndicated through the New York Post in 1946 to 45 newspapers. Dodd, working as a national parks guide, had long been interested in environmental issues. The character is loosely based on the life and career of Charles N. Elliot (November 29, 1906 - May 1, 2000), at the time a U.S. forest ranger who edited Outdoor Life magazine from 1956-1974.

Mark Trail, a soft-spoken outdoor magazine writer and photojournalist lives in the fictional Lost Forest National Forest with his St. Bernard, Andy; veterinarian Doc Davis; Doc's daughter, and Trail's girlfriend and eventual wife, Cherry, and her son, Rusty. His assignments inevitably lead him to discover environmental misdeeds, most often solved with a crushing right cross.

During the 1940s, the cartoonist Jack Davis worked one summer inking Mark Trail, which he later parodied in Mad as "Mark Trade". Jack Elrod, an advertising illustrator, joined the Mark Trail team at its Atlanta, Georgia studio in 1950. The strip's popularity grew through the mid-1960s, with Mark Trail appearing in nearly 500 newspapers through the North America Syndicate.

Sunday's edition is devoted to wildlife education, drawn by naturalist and artist Tom Hill until 1978. Dodd retired in 1978 shortly after the death of Hill. Elrod continued the strip, adding new characters and taking over the Sunday edition. Based on the complaint of a reader in 1983, Mark Trail abandoned his trademark pipe. In 1993, Mark and Cherry married. Though the strip featured inept art work, and insane story lines, in 2006, King Features still managed to syndicate the strip to nearly 175 newspapers.

In 1991, Congress allocated 16,400 acres (67 km²) of former logged forest along the Appalachian Trail in Georgia to be designated the Mark Trail Wilderness. As of 2006, Mark Trail remains the only comic strip character to be recognized in such a manner, although an official association between Walt Kelly's Pogo and the Okefenokee Swamp was established in 1987, with an Annual Pogo Fest, followed by Pogo and the U.S. Postal Service's 1989 inauguration of a National Wetlands postcard dedicated to the Okefenokee Swamp.

An annual Mark Trail Award is presented to individuals, organizations or corporations that assist in expanding the radio network, or recognizing courageous effort in saving lives during weather or civil emergencies. Mark Trail has also appeared in a number of publications by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in efforts to educate children concerning conservation and environmentalism.

According to the Fish and wildlife Service, "Elrod's comics typically present information promoting public awareness of imperiled species."^[1] This is most typically true of the Sunday strips, which are presented not as part of the plot continuity of the weekday strips, but as a lecture, frequently with Mark Trail in the foreground addressing the audience about the interesting facts and perhaps the vulnerable plight of a creature illustrated in the background.^[2]

A notable exception is the strip that ran on March 11, 2007, which depicted the African Elephant not as imperiled, but as a peril itself.^[3] Letters to the editor appeared in numerous papers where the strip had long run with little note, taking particular issue with the strip's contention that "The two main killers in East Africa are HIV/AIDS and wild amimals, particularly elephants."^[4]

On January 30, 1950, Mutual Broadcasting System launched a radio adaptation, Mark Trail, featuring Matt Crowley in the title role. The 30-minute episodes aired three times weekly, and 174 episodes were produced, running until June 8, 1951. A second radio series, starring Staats Cotsworth, was broadcast on ABC beginning September 18, 1950, with 51 half-hour shows that ran thrice weekly until January, 1952. The series then switched to a 15-minute format, producing 125 episodes that aired weekdays through June 27, 1952. Only a handful of the 15-minute episodes are known to have survived.

The Minneapolis-St. Paul, public radio station KFAI hosted Mark Trail Radio Theatre starting in 1991. Produced by Babs Economon, its 17 adventures aired in 228 weekly installments on Friday evenings through September 2002.

In 1997, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) began using Mark Trail as its official mascot, making him the voice of the National Weather Service and NOAA Weather and All Hazards Radio.

Between 1955 and 1959, Mark Trail's adventures were reprinted in comic books by Fawcett Publications and then Standard/Nedor/Pines. Through the 1950s and into the 1980s, Ed Dodd did numerous books and coloring books, including:

• Mark Trail's 2nd book of Animals: (North American Mammals) by Ed Dodd (1959)
• Mark Trail's Book Of Animals (North American Mammals) by Ed Dodd (1965)
• Mark Trail's Hunting Tips by Ed Dodd (1969)
• Mark Trail's Cooking Tips by Ed Dodd (1971)
• Mark Trail's Camping Tips by Ed Dodd (1971)
• Mark Trail in the Smokies!: A Naturalist's Look at Great Smokey Mountains National Park and the Southern Appalachians by Ed Dodd (1989)
• Wetlands Coloring Book
• Take Pride in America: A Coloring Book
• Mark Trail Tells the Story of a Fish in Trouble

• Mark Trail - Wildlife photographer and writer for Woods and Wildlife Magazine. In his early 30s.
• Rusty - Introduced in 19??, Rusty is the son of an alcoholic and abusive father. Mark's intervention saved his life and he was adopted by Trail in 19??
• Andy - Mark's faithful Saint Bernard.
• Cherry Davis - Longtime girlfriend of Mark. Until they married in 1993, she lived with Mark and her father (Doc) at Lost Forest.
• Doc Davis - Veterinarian; Cherry's father.
• Ranger Rick - Assistant photographer and writer along with Mark.

• Bill Sparks OTR: Mark Trail

• Mark Trail radio log by Dick Judge and Frank M. Passage

• King Features' description of the Mark Trail comic
• Comics Curmudgeon: Mark Trail