George Meegan (2 December 1952 – 10 January 2024) was a British adventurer and alternative educator best known for his unbroken walk of the Western Hemisphere from the southern tip of South America to the northernmost part of Alaska at Prudhoe Bay. This journey was 19,019 miles (30,608 km) on foot, completed in 2,426 days (1977–1983) and is documented in his book The Longest Walk (1988). He received substantial media coverage (including appearances on the Today Show, CBS Morning News and Larry King Live) and was featured in numerous public speaking forums.
In the course of his walk and subsequent worldwide residencies, Meegan developed a profound interest in indigenous cultures; he sought innovative ways to teach native peoples how to flourish in modern technological society while retaining their language and identity. In 2014, he wrote Democracy Reaches the Kids,Meegan, George, Democracy Reaches the Kids: Rekindling the joy of learning, Free Man Publishing Company, 2014 a book about how persons of all cultures may best learn what they truly want to know in life, naturally and joyfully, without centralized government compulsion.
Early life
Shortly after George was born, his father left and his mother died from cancer. He was raised by his mother's older brother, Geoffrey Meegan, a former Royal Engineer, and Geoffrey's wife, Frieda, who was an auxiliary nurse at Keycol Hill Hospital. Legally adopted at age three, George's name was changed from Killingbeck to Meegan. He grew up in Rainham, Kent, England. At 16, he signed on as a cadet aboard the T.S. Worcester, under the Thames Nautical Training College at Greenhithe. From there he went to sea in the Merchant Navy, first, on the MV Trecarne (1970), then the other tramp freighter Hain-Nourse, which was then a part of P&O—embarking on his childhood ambition for a life of 'high adventure.'
Seafaring took him to more than 100 international ports of call, including Hong Kong, Bombay, Calcutta, Melbourne, Port Elizabeth, Cape Town, Antwerp, Dar es Salaam, and Mombasa. A crossing from Japan to Chile took over 30 days. A notable incident (during his anchorage off Lagos, Nigeria) in which Meegan played an important role—maintaining order aboard his ship, the Omar—is now called The Great Cement Scandal of 1975.Keeley, George Meegan: The Longest Walk Companion, A Biography, Free Man Pub., 2013, , Appendix – 'Nigeria Great Cement Scandal,' Letter, 18 Sept. 2013. Meegan's career at sea spanned six-and-a-half years, serving in eleven ships. He finished in 1976 as second mate in navigation.
The Longest Walk In 1976 Meegan retired from the Merchant Navy, beginning a several-year odyssey: walking from the bottom of South America to the top of North America. He documented his journey in his self-published book The Longest Walk: The Record of Our World's First Crossing of the Entire Americas (Xlibris). According to the book, George Meegan: Took 41 million steps. Wore out pairs of Italian hiking boots. Married his Japanese sweetheart. Had two children. Traversed the historically impassable Darién Gap, where he was shot at and survived a knifing attack unscathed. Visited President Jimmy Carter at his homeLangdon, Dolly, "A Modern Marco Polo", People Magazine, 10 August 1998 Garnered 8 world records.
The book was listed in Guinness World Records.
In America, the 'world walker' was preceded in town-to-town media coverage signifying that, for many Americans, while in their country, Meegan had discovered the American Dream. In 1981, Jimmy Carter invited Meegan for a chat at the president's Plains, Georgia, home.Meegan, The Longest Walk: The Record of our World's First Crossing of the Entire Americas (Xlibris), 2008, pp. 297–299, Later that year, Meegan reached Washington, D.C., where People magazine greeted him. Friends and followers arranged several meetings with high government officials and dignitaries.
The crossing continued through the northern United States, Canada, into the Yukon, and on to the final step above the Arctic Circle. On the afternoon of 18 September 1983, he crossed a strip of tundra to the edge of the Arctic Ocean.Meegan, The Longest Walk: An Odyssey of the Human Spirit, Dobb, Mead, 1988, , p. 19 At the age of 31, Meegan had walked 19,019 unbroken miles from end to end of two continents. Walking from Patagonia to Alaska was later done by Karl Bushby (1998 to 2006) and Holly "Cargo" Harrison (2016–18), though they did not detour to the East Coast, making their trips shorter.
Publication and publicity From the Arctic, he returned to his home in England. Meegan held a 600,000-word handwritten manuscript of the journey that he felt was invaluable to the world. Meegan believed his feat was a historic 'first crossing'. It also carried an inspirational calling to modern youth that it was still possible to 'live your dream.' After being turned down by the major houses in London, he took a job as a courier for DHL and flew to New York City aboard the Concorde.
Door-to-door attempts to convince others to publish the manuscript failed until he met American war hero John Walker, who introduced George to Dodd, Mead and Company. However, the 199-year-old firm, after a series of non-familial corporate ownerships, later went bankrupt, so in 2008, he self-published The Longest Walk: The Record of our World's First Crossing of the Entire Americas.
Paragon Press acquired the title and the book sold well, including translations in Japan and Italy.'Interview to George Meegan the Britishman Longest Distance Walker' , L'Italo In 1988, Dodd, Mead and Co, which did the first Lewis and Clark journal, published the more familiar edition with Meegan's preferred subtitle The Longest Walk: An Odyssey of the Human Spirit.Meegan, The Longest Walk: An Odyssey of the Human Spirit, Dobb, Mead, 1988,
Following the Dodd, Mead publication, strong reviews led to appearances on the Today Show, CBS Morning News, and Larry King Live. Meegan was invited back multiple times to various programs, and held dozens of TV appearances and radio broadcasts, along with hundreds of worldwide lectures—colleges, Rotary clubs, The Explorers Club of New York, Sing Sing Prison, Ghana, Italy, Japan, and the RMS (Royal Mail Ship) Queen Elizabeth. He was listed as an inspirational speaker by Sports Illustrated.
People magazine, having produced a four-page story on him in 1981, followed with a three-page feature after the 1983 finish.Reed, Susan, "19,000 Miles Later, George Meegan Says His Way Is No Longer the Highway", People, 10 October 1983 People editor John Drake wrote that Meegan was the most unknown Bio person they ever did. (One photographer, Peter B. Kaplan, would go on to shoot world-famous pictures of the Statue of Liberty.) Following the People publicity, New Yorker, Backpacker, Voice of America, Studs Terkel, various primetime TV interviews, and numerous newspaper articles from The New York Times to The Washington Post showcased the "witty, clean-cut globetrotter".
Having arrived in the United States from Britain via fourteen countries, Meegan's fascination with America grew during his millions of steps across it to Washington, D.C. Everyday citizens helped and cheered him. In frequent letters to notable politicians and public figures, Meegan extols the land's open space, an innate drive of its people to achieve, and the availability of the American Dream to all. "It is the national ethos of a set of ideals found nowhere else he has walked," he said. "It includes the opportunity to prosper and succeed, and an upward social mobility achieved through hard work that is available to the common man like him, an orphan, school dropout who ran away to sea."Meegan, The Longest Walk: An Odyssey of the Human Spirit, Dobb, Mead, 1988, , p. 20
Back in England, the Royal Geographical Society made him a fellow in 1983. Also in 1983 a newspaper competition for 'The Best Legs in UK' included Meegan. Other candidates were the captain of England's soccer team, winner of the Derby (the horse) flat race, and so on. World decathlon champion Daley Thompson won the competition, but Daley, during training from the LA 1984 Olympics, said, "George deserves it more." The shield for 'Champion Legs of Great Britain' was presented to George by Ernest Saunders, Chairman of Guinness.
Though he earned up to a thousand dollars for each lecture, most were free of charge and he needed to work to support himself. Throughout 1983–84, he worked in plaster, sheetrock, demolition, and cleaning, and thus was able to finance his way back to England, then to Japan.
Meegan returned again to New York in 1988 for a promotion of the new release of The Longest Walk by Dobb Mead. He also lectured in NYC and made other public appearances. Brooklyn borough president Howard Golden proclaimed George Meegan Day in Brooklyn with dancers and music.'America's Greatest Achievement – The 11 September Memorial,' The Brooklyn Record, 20 December 1988. "Only in America may such a dream come true", said Meegan.'Interview with George Meegan – American Dream' by Steve bo Keeley, South Palm Beach, FL, 25 September 2013.
Alaska 2000 In 2000, at age 47, and 17 years after completing the 19,019-mile Longest Walk, Meegan returned to the Arctic Circle and extended his journey by walking almost 500 kilometers further, from Prudhoe Bay northwest to Barrow, Alaska.Reed, Susan, "19,000 Miles Later, George Meegan Says His Way Is No Longer the Highway", People Magazine, 10 October 1983 This put a finishing touch on the hike at the northernmost land point of North America. The last 14 km leg of his walk from Barrow village to Point Barrow, with windchill values reaching , set his 8th Guinness record for the first crossing of the Americas by any means—whether walking, road travel, ship, or airplane.
On 23 January 2001 Meegan reached his goal – land's end of North America – with about 100 Barrow villagers and adventurers from the world,Paxton, Hugh & Midori, 'Walking into the Millennial Sunrise,' The Japan Times Life, 1 Sept. 1999. including Lt. Col. Norman D. Vaughan. The purpose of the Alaska 2000 effort was to complete the hemispheric walk and to bring hope to the indigenous world by developing an alternative educational route whereby they could maintain their endangered culture and yet be a part of the 21st century.
The Alaska 2000 march was delayed due to weather. Meegan's arrival at Barrow on 23 January 2001 coincided with the winter sun finally reappearing above Barrow's horizon after two months of darkness (Barrow is the northernmost settlement in the United States, at 71.29° N). Participants were encouraged to bring a flag, banner, or sign on the march. Arctic survival gear was provided and John 'Jumper' Bitters,Hrubes, J. Dana, 'North Pole and the High Arctic- Introduction,' "…Kiwi born John 'Jumper' Bitters" formerly of New Zealand's elite Special Air Service, parachuted down with flags as the thirty walkers reached Jumper DZ from Point Barrow.