Talk:List of people who have walked across the United States

Dean Karnazes
He is currently in progress of doing so, as of March 2011. http://www.dadt.com/live/special/runacrossamerica/map/index.html —Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.210.229.254 (talk) 04:03, 16 March 2011 (UTC)

WikiProject Walking
To all users with a vested interest in this article. I have recently put forward a proposal for a new WikiProject called WikiProject Walking, with the intention of increasing the scope and accuracy of information about long distance walkers such as those contained within this article. If you could please visit the page and pledge your support, active or passive, it would be appreciated. Bezza84 (talk) 21:08, 4 June 2011 (UTC)

Jordan Dibb
Keep an eye on this guy. Currently walking across the US for charity.

https://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=206068152771867 http://support.actionagainsthunger.org/site/TR?px=1414208&fr_id=1030&pg=personal http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/18/jordan-dibb-to-walk-1800_n_504932.html

Bezza84 (talk) 00:53, 10 June 2011 (UTC)

Is there a person for Crossroads Pro-Life?
This is a list of individuals who have walked across the US, not groups. Crossroads Pro-Life looks like a fascinating project with a lot of committed individuals, but is there a person with Crossroads Pro-Life who has made the entire walk? If so, he or she should be listed, not the organization, which can be sourced and linked. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Jacksonthor (talk • contribs) 04:45, 10 November 2011 (UTC)

(Untitled)
My father just walked across America. How do I get him on this list? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Talismanhex (talk • contribs) 2010-10-12 23:34:58
 * You don't. You get him on the lists outwith Wikipedia.  This is an encyclopaedia.  It's not a publisher of first instance where the undocumented becomes documented.  That's done outside of Wikipedia.  See our Verifiability and No original research policies. Uncle G (talk) 00:02, 13 October 2010 (UTC)

Thoughts
This list needs serious checking for notability and would probably be better presented in a list format, with the columns: name (linked to associated blogs), time and location of departure, time and location of arrival, trip length, purpose, notes. Scientific29 (talk) 05:31, 30 November 2011 (UTC)

(1) Frank Ryan, (2) The massive deletion of the 'currently walking...' section, and (3) Subsequent additions
This needs to be addressed ASAP. On 13 AUG, user Janna18 added a 'Frank Ryan' to the 'currently walking...' section. The addition included superfluous information about this walker. After a brief back and forth deletion/re-addition, a user with the IP 24.3.114.242 saw fit to unilaterally delete the entire 'currently walking...' section without soliciting comment or sufficient justification here on the talk page. Since then, another person has been added to the list of persons who have already completed their walk. Subsequently, however, a 'Tom Fitzsimmons', who is CURRENTLY walking across the US, was added to the 'completed' list. IMO either justification for the entire section's removal needs to be done, or else the article should be reverted back to include that section, including the two additions (Harrison Milanian, Tom Fitzsimmons) since the deletion, and a much more trimmed-down version of the 'Frank Ryan' section before the deletion occurred. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.38.80.221 (talk) 14:22, 26 August 2013 (UTC)

I have re added the Currently Training to Walk Across the US section since I did not receive an email update regarding this deletion. Please let me know how to make this if you have any suggestions on how I can make this addition better. Thank you, — Preceding unsigned comment added by Janna18 (talk • contribs) 13:35, 4 September 2013 (UTC)

Where do you walk?
Are you allowed to walk/run beside a highway? 97.122.181.40 (talk) 16:25, 27 November 2013 (UTC)

Removal of a large amount of people from this list.
I just removed the majority of the people who used to be present on this list using the following rationale:
 * 1) Unsourced additions without a specific claim to notability were removed.
 * 2) Entries promoting books, websites, travel blogs and charities without a specific claim of notability were removed.
 * 3) Entries which generated news coverage solemny for a single event were removed par WP:NOTNEWS.

The people few remaining on the list have at least a basic claim to being notable outside this single event:
 * 1) People who have a stand-alone biographic article.
 * 2) People who have a specific claim to notability. For example, "Richard H. Noble" whose section claims to be the fastest walker and "Louis Michael Figueroa" whose section claims to have influenced legalization.

Merely "Having walked the distance" is not a claim to notability. Excirial ( Contact me, Contribs ) 19:10, 30 May 2014 (UTC)

Review of notability
Is Katie Visco's walk notable?

As best I can tell, Robert Sweetgall may have the longest walk in a year, but I cannot find a citation for this. Whoever owns this title is notable enough to include.


 * Also Barbara Moore's claim is transparently bullshit. That's 70 miles a day. --111.184.19.18 (talk) 03:27, 22 May 2015 (UTC)
 * I fixed it -- using the Chicago Tribune article and another newspaper from Columbia, Missouri. It was 85 days (April 13 to July 7) Antandrus (talk) 23:33, 16 January 2016 (UTC)

Alphabetical?
Should not this place this list in alphabetical order? Bearian (talk) 12:58, 8 October 2014 (UTC)

Tony Roddy
(moved from above) Hi Dean happy Saturday to you. I need some help in editing the one of the list in wikipedia, could you assist? Aroddy101 (talk) 19:41, 16 January 2016 (UTC)

Hi Jordan are you able to assist me in editing a list in Wikipedia? Aroddy101 (talk) 19:44, 16 January 2016 (UTC)


 * Hi Tony -- I added an entry about you. You are well-covered in the press so you can be added in compliance with our verifiability policy. Fantastic work! Wish I'd met you on the way. Antandrus (talk) 23:24, 16 January 2016 (UTC)

Barbara Moore claim
The Barbara Moore claim of walking from San Francisco to New York in 46 days is suspect. Digging around, I find the "46 days" claim frequently, probably copied from us. She arrived in New York on July 6, 1960, but according to this newspaper story, stopped in Columbia, Missouri on June 6. That article claims (more reasonably) that she left San Francisco on April 13, as does this Chicago Tribune piece, which would make the walk 85 days. That's only walking 40 miles a day, rather than the inhuman 74 miles a day required by the "46 days" claim (which would also require her to walk from San Francisco to Columbia in 16 days -- 121 miles a day). I can't find any record of her leaving on May 22, which is the necessary start date for a 46-day walk arriving on July 6. (I'm in pretty good shape but would have trouble keeping up with this marvel.) I fixed it using the Chicago Tribune and Columbia, Missouri newspaper sources. Antandrus (talk) 23:35, 16 January 2016 (UTC)

Polly Letofsky
She walked around the world? How exactly did she walk around the world? All I see listed are some US states and part of Canada. Tomada36 (talk) 09:13, 1 March 2016 (UTC)
 * I've removed as being completely unsourced. Meters (talk) 23:51, 24 May 2018 (UTC)
 * If someone wants to restore her entry it would be easy to source. I'm not doing myself since it's not clear to me that walk to one coast followed a few years later by returning to her starting point from the other coast qualifies as a walk across the country. Meters (talk) 02:49, 25 May 2018 (UTC)

Andrew Forsthoefel
Probably not independently notable. Though I think the "if for charity, then notable" bar is a little arbitrary. At this point, so many people have done the walk for charity it's no longer a very unique or remarkable justification.

Forsthoefel did it to document and record stories from across America, that seems a notable justification if only because of its novelty. It was notable enough to get singled out on a national radio program. It seems at least as notable as Grabosky, anyway, who just promoted a book about his own thoughts on religion. --68.100.141.9 (talk) 06:11, 21 April 2016 (UTC)

Dated list
Maybe this can be in a dated list, so it has some order to it. Starting with the first people that did the walk, ending with the most recent. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Cornersss (talk • contribs) 16:31, 29 June 2016 (UTC)

Steve Wescott and inline links
Regarding the removal of an inline link (by User:Sundayclose) I added in the Steve Wescott entry, are inline links a no-no? If so, why is there one in the Walter O. McGill III section?

Please provide feedback so that I may become a better WP editor.

Thanks. Dogscatsbirds (talk) 05:30, 18 January 2017 (UTC)


 * External links should generally not be used in the main article body, and should instead be added to an external links section if relevant for the article as a whole. This prevents people from accidentally clicking an external link and thus ending up on another website where they didn't intend to go (It also prevents any confusion between internal links and external links).


 * As for the Walter O. McGill III section: I assume someone decided to add those links over there, just like you decided to add a link in the Steve Wescott section. In your case another editor spotted them and cleaned them up but likely no-one noticed the Walter O.McGill links before. It's not a major issue in an article so this is really one of those edits that people eventually notice and get around to cleaning up. Excirial ( Contact me, Contribs ) 08:03, 18 January 2017 (UTC)

Can this entry be sourced by an article not behind a soft paywall? Even Steve's own blog doesn't mention the completion, and I could not find any other news article around October 1, 2016 mentioning the walk. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.63.207.46 (talk) 00:31, 7 October 2018 (UTC) Wescott removed. Not particularly fitting with page content, etc. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2600:1700:E100:4780:8424:2285:9A3B:3DD2 (talk) 10:52, 22 October 2018 (UTC)

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walked across?
Article is named "List of people who have walked across the United States", so why these people are in it? Pete Kostelnick, Chad Sigmon, Katie Visco, Jeffrey Grabosky and Bjorn Suneson and Jason P. Lester: They all ran across USA according to the text. As far as I know, running is different from walking. 85.76.47.69 (talk) 20:31, 20 January 2018 (UTC) I agree. There are several on here who ran, not walked. Maybe do a separate section or page for runners? Bgbg4444 (talk) 08:44, 3 March 2020 (UTC)

Walkin' Jim Stoltz
(Apologies in advance, I'm really rusty on editing!) I'd like to see Walkin' Jim added to this list (assuming the walks don't have to be all in one stretch). According to his website "Walkin’ Jim is widely known throughout the U.S. for his unique combination of long-distance hiking, original songwriting, and photography... In his lifetime, he accomplished numerous long-distance treks including the complete lengths of the Pacific Crest Trail, the Appalachian Trail, an east to west cross-continent hike, the entire U.S. Continental Divide, trips from Yellowstone to the Yukon, and many others. In total, he hiked over 28,000 miles of long-distance trips." (At https://walkinjim.com/the-walkin-jim-story/ ) BUT he doesn't currently have a Wikipedia page, although he is mentioned in four others, including Continental Divide Trail, so should meet notability requirements, I think. I can start a draft page on my sandbox, but thoughts from more established editors are welcome. Maybe there's someone else better qualified to take it on. Araucana (talk) 15:03, 31 January 2019 (UTC)

Hikanation and the American Discovery Trail
None of the 40 people who completed Hikanation nor any of those who have completed the American Discovery Trail are listed.

John Ball
Entry for John Ball (26) and John Ball (34) refer to the same person. LDCorey (talk) 02:23, 6 July 2019 (UTC)

make this a table
Could someone who knows what they are doing convert the list to a table so you can clearly see data, age, time, etc. Gjxj (talk) 12:46, 17 August 2020 (UTC)
 * I disagree with making it a table. Many items have significant description that would either be lost in a table or make the table a mess to include. If this article was about some sort of "fastest", "oldest", etc. a table might make sense. I'm not opposed to adding a brief table at the bottom, but others may consider that too redundant. Sundayclose (talk) 15:59, 17 August 2020 (UTC)

I was envisioning keeping all the text in a table cell, but you are right that might be too much. Gjxj (talk) 21:20, 17 August 2020 (UTC)

notability of entries
The header of this page says that the individual entries must be notable, but that goes against the Wikipedia list guidelines which say that the subject of the list must be notable rather than the individual entries

Notability

Bob Palin (talk) 13:59, 1 April 2021 (UTC)
 * If the person has a well-sourced Wikipedia article, that certainly qualifies as notable. I don't have a problem with names that do not have articles, but the sourcing must be thorough and high quality (widely accepted as a reliable source; no WP:SELFPUB). There have been a few attempts to add names of people who didn't walk the entirety of the country, or who did not travel part of the route by foot. It should be well sourced that the person began the walk in a state on the east coast (i.e., adjacent to the Atlantic Ocean) and finished in a state on the west coast (adjacent to the Pacific Ocean); or vice versa. The route must be walked entirely by foot (no vehicles, including bicycles). If that's not crystal clear, the name should not be added. I think the hidden criteria for inclusion are acceptable except for the first one ("1) Being the first or fastest to walk a specific distance"). The other two criteria are acceptable. Those criteria were added seven years ago by an editor who may no longer be active, apparently with no discussion. In my opinion, anyone who actually walks the entire distance is by definition notable. It's not a common phenomenon.
 * On a separate note, I think the list should be expanded to include Canada, or at least the lower third of Canada, which probably is as difficult or more difficult than walking across the USA. I have no idea how many people that might be or whether it should be a separate article. Sundayclose (talk) 16:05, 1 April 2021 (UTC)
 * I agree that simply walking across the US is notable in itself and that was the thought behind my comment here, I will enter well documented walkers to the list. If Canada crossers are to be included the name for the list would need to be changed, perhaps to North America and include Mexico too. Bob Palin (talk) 17:45, 3 April 2021 (UTC)
 * Actually I would disagree with Mexico. There's a section in southern Mexico that is only about 200 miles in length, which is much less of a trek that the USA or Canada. I'd say let's see if we can find data for Canada before making that change. Sundayclose (talk) 18:32, 3 April 2021 (UTC)

Don Shepherd
In 1968 Don Shepherd, from South Africa came to the United States for the expressed purpose of running it’s length. His book “My Run Across the United States”, published in 1970, details his record-setting journey which relied mostly on the kindness of strangers to accomplish. BlueJayVT (talk) 02:51, 15 November 2022 (UTC)

New addition to list of runner/walker across America
How to add an individual who has crossed America on foot? László Piringer 2021 LA to NYC 3110mi/5005 km in 78days avg: 40 min per day for charity No Kid Hungry

IG: @LazRuns multiple article and interview verifications on google… 2600:1700:A291:1E0:7DEB:CF38:C83B:46B3 (talk) 15:58, 5 February 2023 (UTC)
 * Red information icon with gradient background.svg Not done: please provide reliable sources that support the change you want to be made. Sundayclose (talk) 16:23, 5 February 2023 (UTC)

Walked halfway across America
In 2010 I walked along the back roads) from Nashville, Tennessee to Phoenix, Arizona. This 1700 mile trek took seven months to complete. I have read multiple articles where an individual claimed. They walked across America in three months or less. I know from experience there is absolutely no humanly way possible anyone on the planet can walk across America, every inch of it, in that short amount of time.

I wrote about my life story and the walk in three time New York Times best seller, Walk To Beautiful. 2600:1005:B1C3:4C62:ED30:59BD:2E6D:15A2 (talk) 19:33, 16 September 2023 (UTC)