Category: History
“This is a pathfinder, pure and simple. Therefore, it is about as colorful as a railroad timetable.” Ralph Larrabee, White Mountain Guide editor from 1917 to 1935, saw his publication in simple terms. But while the White Mountain Guide may be succinct, it has inspired more than a century of winding trails and colorful adventures. The […]
Take a walk through the countryside or forests of New England and there’s a good chance you’ll come across a stone wall. Maybe even several stone walls. Sometimes they mark clear property lines that stand today, while other times they’re deep in the woods—a man-made oddity in a seemingly wild place. At one point in […]
Forest fire lookout towers are a common feature of mountain summits here in the Northeast. Made up of a cement base with a wooden compartment above it on stilts, with a ladder or stairs leading to the top, it provides 360-degree views of the surrounding area. Sometimes hikers can climb to the top and take […]
This article first appeared in the Winter/Spring 2020 edition of Appalachia Journal. For five summers, from 1964 through 1968, I taught outdoor skills to Boy Scouts at Mead Base, a camp at the foot of Mount Israel, at the southern edge of New Hampshire’s White Mountain National Forest. The most popular trips of our six […]
AMC’s high-mountain hut system in New Hampshire’s White Mountain National Forest was well-established by the early 1970s, having provided shelter and beds to three-season hikers for decades. In December 1972, Zealand Falls Hut became the first hut to welcome overnight guests through the winter with the hiring of AMC’s first winter caretaker, Chris Hawkins. […]
Throughout our nation’s history, Black Americans have broken barriers and made great advancements in outdoor conservation and recreation—even in the face of racism that frequently impeded their access to outdoor spaces (and still does in many places). AMC celebrates the stories of five adventurous pioneers from history whose discoveries and ingenuity continue to make […]
The following interview highlighted Becky Fullerton’s presentation at AMC’s 2022 Annual Summit. Summit gives members of the AMC community a chance to hear from outdoor experts and honor our volunteers. Fullerton will be presenting again at our 2023 Annual Summit, with a talk called “Up the Mountain High: Early Ascents By AMC.” This year’s […]
First-time visitors to AMC’s Three Mile Island Camp often find themselves falling in love with the 121-year-old volunteer-led getaway on Lake Winnepesaukee in New Hampshire. Stepping off the boat at the 43-acre camp, visitors find a shoreline dotted with two-person cabins, each with its own dock. Campers eat together on the porch of the […]
Perched high in the rugged boreal forest in New Hampshire’s Franconia Notch, Liberty Springs Tentsite is a haven for backpackers seeking a place to bed down for the night and rest their aching muscles after a long day of hiking. Located directly off the Appalachian Trail, the tentsite turns into a bustling Grand Central […]
It’s been a century since regional planner Benton MacKaye first published his vision for an Appalachian Trail (A.T.)—a recreational route “to establish a base for a more extensive and systematic development of outdoors community life.” What transpired since 1921 is a testament to human ingenuity, volunteerism, teamwork, and love of the outdoors—values that thrive along […]
On January 1, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, which declared “that all persons held as slaves” in Confederate states “are, and henceforward shall be free.” However, more than two and half years would pass before this news reached African Americans in Texas, on a day that we now know as Juneteenth. What […]
The Connecticut Chapter of the Appalachian Mountain Club came into existence at approximately 6:45 pm, June 11, 1921, on the summit of West Peak, in Meriden, Conn. AMC members had assembled in response to an invitation “to learn what may be the general sentiment among Connecticut Appalachians as to the demand for the […]
George Masa, a Japanese immigrant to the United States, is often referred to as the Ansel Adams of the East Coast. His work photographing and mapping the southern peaks of the Appalachian Trail proved crucial for the establishment of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the most visited national park in the U.S. today. In […]
From virtually the moment the Appalachian Mountain Club formed in 1876, members were trying to make maps of the White Mountains. “Being unable to find a reliable map of the White Mountains, I made up my mind to try and make one for myself,” wrote AMC Recording Secretary John B. Henck in the April […]
The Wilderness Society and the Avarna Group published “Public Lands in the United States,” a curriculum introducing the history of public lands in the context of diversity, equity, inclusion, and access. AMC participated in the curriculum’s development and now uses it in programs and trainings. Here are several of the milestone events and policies that […]
We’ve been getting lots of questions about why AMC is so committed to increasing access to and engagement with the outdoors for all people. The simple answer is that everyone—regardless of sex, race, class, or orientation—should be able to fully enjoy our natural spaces, and AMC is a more vibrant and effective steward of […]
Editor’s note: This year marks the 100thbirthday of three AMC Chapters: Connecticut, Narragansett, and New Hampshire. In this post, Robert McLaughlin—New Hampshire Chapter member and editor of its Mountain Passages newsletter—offers the fascinating history of the AMC’s Chapter in the Granite State. The Appalachian Mountain Club was founded in 1876. About 30 years later the […]
In the mid-1960s, something new happened in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn: trees began to grow. Through a remarkable feat of grassroots environmental activism, 1,500 trees were planted along once barren city sidewalks in less than a decade. Many hands worked to plant them but the vision of a greener community belonged to one […]
In 1955, Emma “Grandma” Gatewood told her children that she was “going for a hike in the woods” – little did they know that this hike would be the entire 2,190-mile Appalachian Trail (A.T.), the longest hiking-only footpath in the world. Though hiking the entire A.T. is already an impressive feat, Gatewood’s trip was […]
Despite making many meaningful contributions to outdoor recreation and environmental movements, women are often less celebrated than their historical male counterparts. These nine adventurers and conservationists are just a few examples of women who have paved the way for a more equitable and inclusive outdoors. Arlene Blum Arlene Blum is a renowned alpinist and chemist. […]