maintained over two hundred miles of trails, three stone huts
and nine open log shelters, all in the White Mountains, and
a clubhouse on Three Mile Island in Lake Winnepesaukee. It
has also acquired sixteen reservations, held purely in trust
for the benefit of the public, in New Hampshire, Maine, and
Massachusetts. It annually conducts four long excursions: one
in February for snowshoeing, one in July, one in August, for
those who prefer camp life, and one in early autumn, besides
the same number of shorter trips in February, May, early
September, and at Christmas. These are mainly in New England
and New York. In addition there are Saturday afternoon walks
to various points of interest in the country around Boston
and New York City, the latter under the New York Chapter.
Occasionally there are special walks for those interested in
natural history. Those wishing to go farther afield can obtain
privileges in connection with the annual outings of the western
mountaineering clubs.
“From October to May monthly meetings are held in Boston and
to these members may invite friends. In connection with these
meetings illustrated lectures are given upon mountain regions
and other outdoor subjects of interest.
“Clubrooms are maintained in the Tremont Building [in Boston],
where committee meetings and small informal gatherings are
held, and where the fine library, many maps, and a large
collection of photographs are kept.…
“Members are kept informed of the activities of the Club by
a monthly Bulletin, and at least once a year an illustrated
magazine, entitled _Appalachia_, is published.… In addition the
Club has published a ‘Guide to Paths in the White Mountains
and Adjacent Regions’ ($2.00), a ‘Bibliography of the White
Mountains’ ($1.00), ‘Walks and Rides about Boston’ ($1.25), a
booklet ‘Equipment for Climbing and Camping’ (10 cents), and a
‘Snowshoe Manual’ (10 cents).
“In January, 1919, there were about 2300 members (the New
York Chapter numbers 145). Membership in the Club costs eight
dollars for the first year and four dollars a year thereafter.
No climbing qualification is necessary, but candidates must
be nominated by two club members, to whom they are personally
known, and approved by the Committee on Membership. Application
blanks and further information may be had by addressing the
Corresponding Secretary, 1050 Tremont Building, Boston.”
THE GREEN MOUNTAIN CLUB
The Green Mountain Club, of Vermont, was organized March 11, 1910, with
the object of making the remotest and wildest regions of the Green
Mountains accessible to pedestrians. As rapidly as its income permits,
it is building the Long Trail, which when completed will be a “skyline”
trail for walkers, following the mountain ridges and ascending the
peaks, throughout a course of about 250 miles, from the Canadian line to
Massachusetts.
Two portions of the trail have already been built and are in use: one,
a stretch of thirty miles, extending north and south near Rutland;
the other, a continuous section of sixty-seven miles, extending from
Middlebury Gap, fourteen miles east of Middlebury, northward, to
Smugglers’ Notch, on the east side of Mount Mansfield. It requires eight
days to cover this section of the Trail. There is a cabin of the Club, or
a clubhouse, farmhouse, or hotel available at the end of each day’s hike.
It is better to carry food and blankets, though blankets may be hired and
food sent in under arrangements made in advance. There is good prospect
that by the end of the summer (of 1919) new trails will be built,
connecting the two portions mentioned, and extending the northern stretch
some miles further, to Johnson. The Club will then have built and brought
under its care 130 miles of continuous trail.
Some account of walking the Long Trail may be found in “Vacation Tramps
in New England Highlands,” by Allen Chamberlain.
The dues of the Club are $1.00 a year; the membership exceeds 600.
There are several sections or branches, each of which has charge of the
construction and maintenance of a section of the Long Trail.
The Burlington Section in the course of the year holds a number of
outings in the vicinity of Burlington, and conducts two or three trips
into the mountains. On Washington’s Birthday, each year it makes a trip,
either to Mount Mansfield or to the Couching Lion.
The New York Section, organized in 1916, has 212 members. It conducts
many half-day, full-day, and week-end outings in the vicinity of New York
City, and an occasional excursion to the Green Mountains. During the year
1918-1919, in addition to the activities indicated, it gave three social
reunions with camp fire suppers, four illustrated lectures, conducted a
pilgrimage to the home of John Burroughs, and held a membership dinner at
a New York hotel.
For information regarding the Long Trail, advice about shelters, for
maps, and for suggestions regarding particular hikes, write to the
Corresponding Secretary, 6 Masonic Temple, Burlington, Vt.
THE AMERICAN ALPINE CLUB
The American Alpine Club requires the highest qualifications for
membership of any walking club. Its one hundred members come from all
parts of the country. An annual dinner is given in Boston, New York, or
Philadelphia. The address of the secretary is 2029 Q St., Washington, D.
C.
WALKING CLUBS OF NEW YORK
Mr. Albert Handy is the historian of the walking clubs of New York, and
his account of them is, with his generous permission, here given. It
appeared first in the New York _Evening Post Saturday Magazine_, for May
6, 1916, and has been revised for the purposes of this handbook.
“The first walking club in America of which any record is found
was the little Alpine Club organized by some of the professors
at Williamstown, Mass., which came into being about 1863 and
went out of being a few years later. But before its demise Mr.
and Mrs. Henry E. Buermeyer and William B. (better known as
‘Father Bill’) Curtiss had formed the habit of exploring the
wilds of Staten Island or the highlands of the Hudson--there
were no developments then, and it was a wilderness--on Sundays.
‘Father Bill’ Curtis was the premier athlete of America and the
founder of the New York Athletic Club. Mrs. Buermeyer was one
of the first women to ride a bicycle in this country, and Mr.
Buermeyer was a noted swimmer.
“This little group constituted the beginnings of the Fresh Air
Club, which is today the oldest walking club in New York, and
which can alone contest the claim of the Appalachian Mountain
Club to the premiership of the United States. Shortly after its
foundation the winged-foot organization sent a score of its
members on these walks and Mrs. Buermeyer dropped out. Later
some members of the old American Athletic Club, in conjunction
with others from the Manhattan Athletic Club, developed a
walking cult, and for a time pedestrianism seemed destined to
become a popular pastime. In this group was E. Berry Wall,
whose name is associated with dancing rather than athletics in
the minds of the majority of New Yorkers.
“Then interest diminished gradually until each organization
furnished but a negligible number of walkers. Followed
something in the nature of a renaissance, the two groups
consolidated, and the present Fresh Air Club came into being.
“In the early eighties interest in athletics increased, there
were organized baseball clubs, tennis clubs, cricket clubs, but
for a long period the Fresh Air Club was the only organization
devoted to walking, with the exception of the Westchester
Walking Club, otherwise known as the Westchester Hare and
Hounds (whose members were recruited from the then prosperous
but long since defunct Harlem Athletic Club), which rose,
flourished, and decayed, leaving its spirit and traditions to
be carried by the Fresh Air Club, which in February, 1890, was
incorporated.
“What the Appalachian Mountain Club did for New Hampshire the
Fresh Air Club did for the country within a fifty-mile radius
of New York; there is not a section of northern New Jersey, or
of Rockland, Westchester, or Orange County, which has not been
explored by some of its members. On Friday of each week during
the tramping season ‘Father Bill’ who was official pathfinder,
would go over the route of the walk projected for the following
Sunday, when necessary blazing a trail, so that the party might
proceed without any delay or casting about for the right road,
until finally the paths up Storm King, Bear Mountain--there
wasn’t any Interstate Park then--Anthony’s Nose, and the
highlands of the Hudson became as familiar to him as the path
to his own door.…
“Today the Club has about seventy-five members, of whom some
forty are active. Its walking season extends from October to
December and from March to June, and walks are scheduled for
all Sundays and holidays, to a few of which women friends
of members are invited. During the winter months skating
excursions, when weather conditions are favorable, are
substituted for walking. The Fresh Air Club does not seek an
increase in membership; in fact, a member remarked to the
writer that it did not desire publicity or even a considerable
amount of inquiry from would-be candidates for membership. Its
bulletin states:
“‘That its constitution, by-laws, and rules have not been, and
will not be, published; that it accepts no members who are not
good cross-country walkers, and that membership can be obtained
only after personal acquaintance and such participation in the
excursions of the Club as is needed to prove the candidate’s
fitness and ability.… Participation by non-members in the
excursions of the Club is by invitation only.’
“As a veracious chronicler it becomes incumbent upon me
to here set down that during its long existence of nearly
half a century it has exercised practically no influence
and has never attained a place in the sun as a constructive
factor in the encouragement of general walking, although its
object, according to its certificate of incorporation, is the
‘encouragement and promotion of outdoor sport for health and
pleasure.’
“The year 1911 was momentous in the history of walking.
Outdoor life was enjoying a popular boom; for this condition
the motor car and the country club were in large measure
responsible. The open-air enthusiast found a ready hearing,
his preachments falling upon fertile ground. In this year a
little group of about ten walkers organized the Walkers’ Club
of America, and almost simultaneously Charles G. Bullard, of
the Appalachian Mountain Club, established a New York branch
of that organization, the membership being drawn principally
from the members of the Boston Club residing in or near this
city. Prominent among the organizers of the Walkers’ Club was
James H. Hocking, one of the most enthusiastic pedestrians in
this country, and one who believes that walking will cure most
of the ills to which mind and body are heir. This organization
was opposed to hiding its light under a bushel; its conception
of its functions was thoroughly democratic; its primary purpose
was to induce the largest number of people possible to use
their legs in the way that God intended that they should.
“Now, while walking could scarcely be said to be attaining
widespread popularity, there was in the ensuing year or two
a steady growth in interest. A walking organization was
formed by some of the members of the Crescent Athletic Club
in conjunction with the Union League Club, also of the ‘city
of homes and churches,’ and a programme of Sunday walks was
prepared. But it was in 1913 that the actual recrudescence
in walking occurred, when the _Evening Post_ and the _Times_
gave considerable space to articles on walking. In the late
winter of that year, too, there began to appear inconspicuous
paragraphs on the sporting pages of the Monday morning papers
to the effect that on the previous day members of the Walkers’
Club had hiked from City Hall to Coney Island, or perhaps from
St. George to New Dorp or from Columbus Circle to Hastings.
“The schedule time of the Coney Island walk, for the novice
squad, to be completed before noon, was about two hours and a
half. And the average New Yorker, who regards a long sleep and
a good breakfast on Sunday mornings as his inalienable rights,
gazed gloomily at these items, and then turned to an account
of a murder or a break in the stockmarket, anything in fact
radiating a more cheerful influence. Even the enthusiastic
golfer sighed to himself as he thanked God that he was not as
some other man.
“It was in 1913, too, that the Ladies’ Walking Club, affiliated
with the Walkers’ Club of America, was organized, but it
has never had many members or attained any marked degree of
popularity. Prior, however, to its formation, the Alumnæ
Committee on Athletics of Barnard College prepared a programme
of intercollegiate outings for Saturdays, Sundays, and
holidays, which included several pleasant hikes; and these
attracted a much greater number of participants than did the
events of the Ladies’ Walking Club.
“Under the impetus derived from the Walkers’ Club several of
the evening high schools formed pedestrian organizations which
turned out with the parent body. One of the morning newspapers
offered century medals, which seems to have materially
stimulated interest, and by the beginning of 1915 there were
six or eight schools that sent out their squads of hikers every
Sunday.
“It was early in 1915 that the Walkers’ Club, with a membership
of over two hundred, was incorporated. Shortly thereafter a
schism arose in its ranks, which resulted in the birth of the
American Walkers’ Association. At a meeting of the Walkers’
Club, held in June, seven members withdrew. Within a week
twelve men had formed the Walkers’ Association, which was
almost immediately incorporated. Of the split it may be said
that it was deplorable, and beyond that its history must occupy
a blank page in the annals of American walking.
“The Walkers’ Association immediately began an aggressive
campaign to secure members. It adopted a small emblem which the
majority of the one hundred and twenty men on its rolls wear.
It also adopted the walking associations of most of the evening
high schools, as well as all promising material which it could
discover. Finally it organized a women’s branch with a schedule
of walks of its own. It points with pride to a membership of
over 135, a record of 17,856 miles covered by members on its
hikes, so that if a message had been relayed it might have
crossed the continent five times; to one hike on which 107 men
turned out, and to another--not the same hike--when fifty miles
was covered in a day.
“The walks of the Walkers’ Club and the Walkers’ Association
invariably start from New York, and up to the present time have
invariably been along the high roads which the pedestrian must
share, in unequal distribution, with the motorcar and other
vehicles. A speed of four to six miles an hour is maintained
and the walks vary from ten to fifty miles in length. The
walkers are divided into squads, graded according to speed
and the distance to be covered. The hikes of the Fresh Air
Club, on the other hand, start from some point reached by
train, twenty to forty miles from New York, and the trail leads
through the woods and over the hills, through streams and bogs
and over rocks and fallen trees, with an occasional stretch of
road as an incident to the walk.
“Like the Walkers’ Club it has a schedule, and where the going
is good a speed of four miles or better is maintained. The
walks terminate at a railway station which must be reached
before train time. The Appalachians, however, saunter, they
rarely exceed ten miles on their local tramps, they proceed
leisurely cross country, if they see a hill that appeals
to them they climb it and enjoy the view, or they linger
on the shores of some lake. The Club walks are all held on
Saturday afternoons and holidays, Sunday walking being mildly
disapproved.
“As a purely constructive factor in the development of
pedestrianism in the eastern United States, the Walkers’ Club
and Walkers’ Association probably lead. Other clubs have
conceived theories--ideals, perhaps--these organizations have
created pedestrians. Their walking season extends from the 21st
of June to the 22nd of December, and from the 22nd of December
to the 21st of June. Both clubs have trained people to walk. An
officer of one of them once remarked to the writer that fifty
per cent of the members did not know how to use their legs.
“The Walkers’ Club has to its credit an extended list of
activities. It fathered the evening high schools’ walking
movement; it inaugurated a campaign of publicity; it has
through Pathfinder Hocking planned walks of from one day to
one week for individuals and groups; it has done much to raise
pedestrianism from its low estate to an equality with other
sports and the end is not yet. ‘Hocking,’ said a member of a
rival organization, ‘has done more for walking than any other
man in America, but--’ and the rest of the sentence I have
transferred to that unpublished page in the annals of walking
on which the recording secretary spilled his ink.
“A few years ago the Walkers’ Association mapped out a most
elaborate program. With the consummation of its plans, however,
the war materially interfered. It was intended to create a
large number of walking squads. There was to be a squad for the
‘tired business man’--that variety of the genus homo of whom we
read much and whom we never see; a cross-country squad, which
would take tramps similar to the hikes of the Fresh Air Club;
an afternoon squad for the man who desired to spend his Sunday
mornings in dreams; and any other kind of squad that anyone
might desire to suggest.
“It planned the establishment of affiliated clubs in other
cities, and ultimately an organization which would in some
respects resemble the _Wandervogel_, the great national
pedestrian body of Germany. At the present time it has a
prosperous branch at Cleveland with a membership in excess of
five hundred.
“In the meantime, before a consummation of their more ambitious
plans can be hoped for, much less realized, it were well if a
federation of all the walking clubs in New York was perfected,
with a common headquarters, where maps and data of much value
might be made available to all hikers, and where frequent
gatherings might be held for the interchange of ideas and
experiences. And to the attainment of this object the Walkers’
Association may well address itself.”
WANDERLUST
“Wanderlust” is the appellative under which Saturday afternoon walks in
the vicinity of Philadelphia are organized. They have been conducted for
now ten years. Schedules of walks are published quarterly in advance, and
the leaflets bear this advertisement:
“These walks are arranged for the general public. There are no
fees, dues nor other requirements. Everyone is welcome, on one
walk or all. All that is necessary is to be at the starting
place at the time appointed. The only cost is that of carfare.
The walks are all about five miles, and often include some
points of interest, although no special effort is made by the
leaders toward that aim. No fast walking is done, as new people
come each week, and might not be able to keep up. The whole
aim of the walks is to get people out into the open, to learn
how even a simple exercise like walking can mean strength and
health for those who seek it, and pleasure for all.… Copies
[of this announcement] will be mailed only to those who send
a stamped, addressed envelope to any active member of the
Committee, or to the Secretary.”
The secretary (address 351 East Chelton Avenue, Germantown, Pa.) writes
(June 13, 1919):
“The Wanderlust goes on about the same as it has done since
1910, though our numbers have been much smaller during and
since the war. So many of our followers were engaged in war
work, or working overtime, that we noticed their absence very
much. For many years our average was about fifty, but for the
past two years it has been around thirty.
“We have two classes of walkers, the regulars, many of whom
have been along from the start, and the irregulars, who come
from one to a dozen times, and seem to drop away for no reason
we can learn. Many people come once and never again, probably
disappointed to find the walkers a happy lot, who apparently
need little to satisfy them. That conclusion we arrived at
after hearing their remarks on many occasions. But the critics
were not ‘hikers’ and did not have the spirit.
“About the permanence of such an undertaking, I can only
say that I feel sure we have lasted so long because we
avoided any form or attempt at organization, and kept it a
free-for-all-come-once-or-always outing party.
“We profited by the mistakes of some other cities, where they
organized, with the usual factional rivalry, and breaking-up
of the club, and in another case, the growth of an exclusive
club, shutting out many who could not afford to continue. So
we have fought all attempts (on the part of a few) to organize
in any way. Of course that means that someone must head the
committee and volunteer to be the secretary or chairman. Being
an assistant to the Director of Physical Education, I was
asked to take charge of the Wanderlust about eight years ago
and am still a willing secretary, and believe that by keeping
the hike under the Department we are keeping it from breaking
up or changing into a less desirable form. Our aim is to give
an opportunity to grown people to get some of the physical
training and efficiency that the school children get in our
schools, and at the same time to encourage outdoor ‘play’ for
young and old.
“Unfortunately this year our Board felt unable to bear the
small expense necessary, so we are charging a small sum for the
announcements and so far have been able to be self-supporting.
But it is not in keeping with our ‘free’ policy, and we hope
soon to do away with the charges, small as they are.”
THE PITTSBURGH HEALTH CLUB
This organization, now fifteen years old, conducts weekly walks. The
secretary’s address is 249 Martsolf Ave., Pittsburgh, Pa.
THE PRAIRIE CLUB
The Prairie Club, of Chicago, was organized in 1908 by a committee of the
Playground Association of Chicago as “Saturday Afternoon Walks.” It was
incorporated in 1911 as “The Prairie Club.” The objects of the club are:
“The promotion of outdoor recreation in the form of walks and outings,
camping, and canoeing; the encouragement of the love of nature and the
dissemination of knowledge of the attractions of the country adjacent
to the city of Chicago and of the Central West; and the preservation of
those regions in which such outdoor recreation may be pursued.” There
are three kinds of memberships: active, associate, and honorary. The
initiation fee for active membership is $2.00, and the annual dues are
$2.00. The club maintains a Beach House and Camp, situated in the heart
of the Indiana dunes, on the south shore of Lake Michigan, 47 miles from
Chicago, the privileges of which are available to active members of the
club and their guests. The club also publishes an attractive monthly
bulletin. During the year 1918 the club conducted 42 Saturday afternoon
walks, 8 all-day walks, 4 week-end outings, and 1 extended outing. Up to
March, 1919, the club reported 645 active members.
THE SIERRA CLUB
The Sierra Club, of San Francisco, California, is the largest of American
pedestrian clubs, with a membership of more than 2,000. It was founded in
1892, and was further distinguished in having as its president, until his
death (in 1914), John Muir. Its purposes are defined in these words:
“To explore, enjoy, and render accessible the mountain regions of the
Pacific Coast; to publish authentic information concerning them; to
enlist the support and cooperation of the people and the Government in
preserving the forests and other natural features of the Sierra Nevada.”
The annual dues of the Club are $3 (for the first year, $5). The club
headquarters are at 402 Mills Building, San Francisco. A Southern
California Section of the Club exists, and advice concerning it may be
had of its chairman, address 315 West Third Street, Los Angeles.
THE MOUNTAINEERS
The following note has been furnished by the secretary of the
organization: