Forest and Crag

Guy Waterman, Laura Waterman

Description

Thirty years after its initial publication, this beloved classic is back in print. Superbly researched and written, Forest and Crag is the definitive history of our love affair with the mountains of the Northeastern United States, from the Catskills and the Adirondacks of New York to the Green Mountains of Vermont, the White Mountains of New Hampshire, and the mountains of Maine. It's all here in one comprehensive volume: the struggles of early pioneers in America's first frontier wilderness; the first ascent of every major peak in the Northeast; the building of the trail networks, including the Appalachian Trail; the golden era of the summit resort hotels; and the unforeseen consequences of the backpacking boom of the 1970s and 80s. Laura and Guy Waterman spent a decade researching and writing Forest and Crag, and in it they draw together widely scattered sources. What emerges is a compelling story of our ever-evolving relationship with the mountains and wilderness, a story that will fascinate historians, outdoor enthusiasts, and armchair adventurers alike.

Sujets

• Sport
• Autour du sport
• Histoire du sport
• Mountains
• Local history
• History of sport
• Region
• History of the Americas
• Regional
• Mountain

Informations

• Publié par: State University of New York Press
• Date de parution: 28 février 2019
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781438475325
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 3 Mo

Extrait

Praise for Forest and Crag
“This is a superb, monumental history. The Watermans are adept at the capsule profile, whether of peaks or persons. A gallery of characters unrolls, as diverse as those in a novel by Dickens.”
— Paul Jamieson, former editor, The Adirondack Reader
“Written with grace, style, and good humor, seasoned with a refreshing sense of wonder, Forest and Crag reads more like a gripping novel than the serious research work it really is.”
— Magnetic North
“In its quality, comprehensiveness, and regional orientation, Forest and Crag is unprecedented in American letters. It will become a classic in social, intellectual, and environmental history.”
— Roderick Frazier Nash, author of Wilderness and the American Mind, Fifth Edition
“Forest and Crag presents an incredible gift for today’s hikers—the opportunity to take a thoughtful and vigorous ramble into the past, and to explore the Northeastern mountains of yesteryear. What an adventure—and what better way to contemplate how we shape the region’s future?”
— Peter Crane, Mount Washington Observatory
“Forest and Crag traces the Northeast’s human and natural history by following the hiking experience from the early adventurers to the more recent development of an environmental ethic. The Watermans tell this story with clear respect and deep joy for the mountains that shaped the stories of the region’s hikers and hiking clubs.”
— Mary Margaret Sloan, Chief Operating Officer, Positive Tracks
“The Watermans’ true genius is their ability to string all the facts together in a narrative so lively that even the footnotes and endnotes are read as eagerly as one would devour dessert at the end of a good meal.”
— Tony Goodwin, coeditor of High Peaks Trails, 14th Edition
FOREST AND CRAG
A LSO BY L AURA W ATERMAN
Losing the Garden: The Story of a Marriage
Starvation Shore (A Novel)
A LSO BY L AURA AND G UY W ATERMAN
The Green Guide to Low-Impact Hiking and Camping (previous editions published as Backwoods Ethics)
Wilderness Ethics: Preserving the Spirit of Wildness
Yankee Rock & Ice: A History of Climbing in the Northeastern United States
A Fine Kind of Madness: Mountain Adventures Tall and True
FOREST and CRAG
A History of Hiking, Trail Blazing, and Adventure in the Northeast Mountains
L AURA AND G UY W ATERMAN
Cover, Crawford Notch in the White Mountains of New Hampshire.
Detail of Thomas Cole’s “The Notch at the White Mountains” (1839).
Maps, Judy Jacobs
Text design, Dede Cummings Design
Cover design, Aimee Harrison
Published by State University of New York Press, Albany
1989, 2003 editions published by Appalachian Mountain Club Books, Boston
© 1989, 2003, 2019 Laura Waterman
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.
Excelsior Editions is an imprint of State University of New York Press
For information, contact State University of New York Press, Albany, NY
www.sunypress.edu
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Waterman, Laura, author. | Waterman, Guy, author.
Title: Forest and crag : a history of hiking, trail blazing, and adventure in the Northeast Mountains / Laura Waterman and Guy Waterman.
Description: Thirtieth Anniversary Edition, 2019 edition. | Albany, New York : State University of New York Press, 2019. | Series: Excelsior Editions | 1989 and 2003 editions published by the Appalachian Mountain Club”—T.p. verso. | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018040413 | ISBN 9781438475301 (paperback : alk. paper) | ISBN9781438475325 (e-book)
Subjects: LCSH: Hiking—New England—History. | Mountains—New England—Recreational use—History.
Classification: LCC GV199.42.N38 W38 2019 | DDC 917.4-dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018040413

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
To Johnny
For whom these forests and these crags were a beginning
For free as an eagle,
These rocks were his eyrie;
And free as an eagle
His spirit shall soar.
—F ROM A S COTTISH LAMENT
Mountains of the Northeast
Contents
Figures and Tables
Illustrations
Foreword, Rebecca Oreskes
Foreword, Tony Goodwin
Preface to the Thirtieth Anniversary Edition
Preface to the E-book Edition
Preface to the Second Edition
Preface to the First Edition
Acknowledgments to the Thirtieth Anniversary Edition
Acknowledgments to the First Edition
Abbreviations
Introduction: The mountains
PART ONE.  Mountains as “daunting terrible”: Before 1830
1 Darby Field on Mount Washington
2 Ira Allen on Mount Mansfield
3 The Belknap-Cutler expedition to Mount Washington
4 Alden Partridge: The first regionwide hiker
5 The Crawfords of Crawford Notch
6 The Monument Line surveyors on Katahdin
7 Janus on the heights during the 1820s
PART TWO.  Mountains as sublime: 1830–1870
8 The first mountain tourists
9 Katahdin: A test for the adventurous
10 The Adirondacks at last
11 The mountain guides
12 The Austin sisters and their legacy
13 The elder Hitchcock and Arnold Guyot
14 Wintering over on Moosilauke and Washington
PART THREE.  Mountains as places to walk: 1870–1910
15 The pleasures of pedestrianism
16 Adirondack Murray’s Fools
17 The younger Hitchcock and Verplanck Colvin
18 The first hiking clubs
19 The first mountain guidebooks
20 The first trail systems
21 Three Adirondack trail centers
22 Randolph
23 Other trail systems
24 Trails that failed
25 Backcountry camping in the eighties and nineties
26 Psychowskas ascendant
27 Death in the Mountains
28 Trail policy issues
29 J. Rayner Edmands and Warren Hart: a study in contrast
30 The last explorers
31 The conservation movement
32 The first mountain snowshoers
33 Winter pioneering on Mount Marcy
34 The first mountain skiers
PART FOUR.  Mountains as escape from urban society: 1910–1950
35 The Long Trail
36 Unification of the White Mountain trails
37 The Adirondacks become one hiking center
38 Baxter State Park
39 Metropolitan trails
40 Connecticut’s blue-blazed trail system
41 The proliferation of hiking clubs
42 Backcountry camping in the twenties and thirties
43 Trail maintenance comes of age
44 Regionwide consciousness
45 The Appalachian Trail
46 Superhiking
47 The Bemis Crew
48 Katahdin in winter
49 Snowshoes versus skis: The great debate
50 Depression, hurricanes, and war
PART FIVE.  Mountains as places for recreation: Since 1950
51 The backpacking boom
52 Environmental ethics and backcountry management
53 Backcountry camping in the seventies and eighties
54 The clubs cope with change
55 Northeastern trail systems mature
56 New paths for trail maintenance
57 Points of controversy
58 Peakbaggers and end-to-enders
59 “The school” of winter mountaineering
60 The winter recreation boom
Epilogue
Appendix: Mountains over 4,000 feet in the Northeastern United States, their elevations, and first known ascents
Glossary
Reference Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index
About the Authors
Figures and Tables
Figures
frontispiece Mountains of the Northeast
0.1 The High Peaks region of the Adirondacks
0.2 The Green Mountains
0.3 The White Mountains
0.4 The mountains of Maine
1.1 Darby Field’s itinerary, 1642
1.2 Darby Field’s route for ascending Mount Washington, 1642
2.1 Ira Allen’s mountain travels, 1772
5.1 Changing approaches to Mount Washington, 1642–1862
5.2 The Northern Presidentials
6.1 Earliest ascents of Katahdin, 1804–1819
6.2 Monument Line surveyors on Katahdin, 1825–1833
7.1 Greylock in 1830
7.2 The Catskill Mountain House in the 1820s
7.3 The Grand Monadnock in the 1820s
7.4 Bradhead’s Adirondack survey, 1797
8.1 Paths on Mount Washington, thirty-year intervals: 1825–1885
8.2 Mountaintop buildings in the Northeast
8.3 Mount Mansfield in 1860
9.1 Routes to Katahdin, ca. 1850
10.1 Explorations around Mount Marcy, 1836–1837
11.1 Changing approaches to Mount Marcy, 1837–1860
16.1 Three centers of Adirondack hiking, late nineteenth century
17.1 Areas covered by the Hitchcock survey, 1869–1871
17.2 Explorations of the Colvin survey, 1872–1875
18.1 Early routes up Mount Carrigain, 1857–1898
20.1 Waterville Valley trails, 1850s
20.2 Trail building activity throughout the Northeast, 1870–1910
20.3 Trail building in the White Mountains, 1876–1880
21.1 Trail building in the Ausable Lakes region, 1870–1910
21.2 Trail building in the Heart Lake region, 1878–1903
21.3 Trail building in the Lake Placid region, the 1890s
21.4 The great fires of 1903 and 1908
22.1 Trail building at Randolph, 1880s
22.2 White Mountain trail clusters, ca. 1900
22.3 Trail building at Wonalancet, 1890s
23.1 Trail building on the Grand Monadnock, 1890–1910
23.2 Trail building on Mount Greylock, 1897–1910
24.1 The rise and fall of Katahdin’s northern trails, 1882–1906
24.2 The short-lived trails of Mount Mansfield, ca. 1875
24.3 The Camel’s Hump trails to Ridley’s hotel, ca. 1860
24.4 Vermont mountains with trails, ca. 1910
26.1 The Scott-Ricker adventure of 1882
29.1 The trails of J. Rayner Edmands, 1890–1910
29.2 The trails of Warren W. Hart, 1908–1910
30.1 Selected Adirondack bushwhacks, 1875–1905
30.2 The explorations of George Witherle in the Katahdin area, 1880–1886
33.1 Pioneering winter ascents of Mount Marcy, 1893–1908
35.1 The Long Trail: First Sections, 1910–1911
35.2 The Long Trail: The Monroe Skyline, 1916–1918
35.3 The Long Trail: The southern front, 1915–1931
35.4 The Long Trail: On to Canada, 1923–1930
36.1 White Mountain trails: Strategic links, 1903–1906
36.2 W