Men and Mountains Meet: Journal of the Appalachian Mountain Club, 1876–1984

Abstract

A t the turn of the century a rising interest in the aesthetic and spiritual benefits of America's wildland regions crystallized in the establishment of several regional organizations dedicated to nature appreciation, outdoor recreation, and preservation. These organizations drew upon the compelling religious naturalism of men like Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and John Muir, and they found inspiration in the romantic movement, with its emphasis on natural landscapes. In the West, the most prominent mountaineering and conservation clubs were the Sierra Club, founded in California in 1892, the Mazamas (Oregon, 1894), the Mountaineers (Washington, 1906), and the Colorado Mountain Club (1912). Eastern enthusiasts, however, anticipated these western efforts by several years. Inspired mainly by New England's rugged and austere White Mountains-at the time still largely unexplored, unmapped, and unknown-a few dozen men met in Boston on January 8, 1876. The purpose of the meeting was to consider the advisability of forming a society or club devoted to mountain exploration and kindred subjects. It is not known who first suggested the name Appalachian Mountain Club; early records indicate only that the first comment from the floor was "How do you spell it, two p's or one?" Nevertheless, the name was favored by the group, principally because it provided a wide geographic scope to the club's activities. Charter membership numbered only thirty-nine, and total receipts to the club that first year were just $295. Yet, in June 1876 the club published a sixty-two-page journal titled Appalachia. Although the 500 printed copies required half the club's yearly receipts, this first issue initiated what would become a quiet but unfaltering commitment to the outdoors; Appalachia has since been published in Boston continuously, at first one