Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1899-09-29
LOVERS OF NATURE.
SOMETHING ABOUT THE APPALACH-
IAN MOUNTAIN CLUB.

field meeting and excursion of which Is
coming to Bread Loaf Inn, Is an institu.
tion well known in Boston, its home, and
among the White Mountains, which have
been its chosen field of work.
The functions of the club are mani
fold, all of them in the direction of the
education of the people in the love for
natural scenery, and in the preservation
of picturesque places. 1t thus finds it.
self intimately connected with those
movements which have at heart the set
ting aside of mountainous and forest
land as public domain, the establishment
of public parks and reservations and the
preserving of the forests. These in
terests have brought together more than
one thousand kindred-thinking members,
and the club has attained this, not by the
process of "booming," but by healthy
and solid growth. Is is the largest and
strongest association of its kind in the
United States and lags not far behind
the most enterprising of European in
stitutions of the kind.
The Appalachian Mountain club main
tains library and social meeting place
In Boston, holds meetings in the winter
season as often as once month, and
> gives to its members numerous occasions
for meeting in a friendly way to view
some Photographic or artistic collections
pertaining to the mountains. Its meet
ings and gatherings are largely attended,
as many as foar hundred persons having
assembled on single occasion of the
kind. The library is unique in this
country. 1t is primarily a library of
mountain literature, and as subject
akin to this it has brought together a
great number of works on geography
and travel. Practically all the periOdi-
Gals and magazines which treat of travel,
geography and mountaineering are to be
found on its shelves, and it at times has
sent even to Europe its precious volumes
which the European libraries could not
furnish to their students.
AS a disciple of the doctrine Of preser-
vation Of the forests, the Appalachian
Mountain club was early in the field
1t Is the parent society to all the park
commissions and the trustees of public
reservations in eastern Massachusetts,,
and the forestry commission of New
. Hampshire. 1t has its own trustees of
public lands and to their care have al
ready been committed many pieces of
forest land in Massachusetts and New
Hampshire. One of these is the site of
the A. M. G. hut on Mount Madison in
the Presidential range. Another is the
viewpoint at Leadmine Bridge in Cor
ham, N. II. This was noted by Starr
King, and has ever since been a favorite
spot for artists and lovers of fine views.
/ The outlook upon the northern peaks of
the Presidential range is superb The
commercial advantages of fall In the
river have been in the ascendent for half
a century nearly, and mill was erected
to the injury of the prospect. This has
now been removed, and under the care
of the club little park has been es-
tablshed on the river bank and the view
will remain open for the benefit of lovers
| of nature.
In its work of bringing the people
nearer to nature the Appalachian Mount
ain club has found its greatest and most
important work. When it came into the
activity of early life the White mountains
were in sense uneXplored. The rail-
way had been constructed to the summit
of Mount Washington and there was a
chain of hotels in the valleys. But so
far as the peaks themselves were con-
cerned, few of them had been ascended
save by hunters in search of game, and
there were few paths whereby the way
could be practicable to those unused to
rough climbing. The club stepped in
and cut the paths needed, sought out
new and easier trails to the peaks,
opened up to the pedestrian new out
looks, new points of interest, discovered
new waterfalls, new cliffs and made
them accessible, until now the White
mountains are reticulated with paths
and thousands employ them to one of
twenty-five years ago. The White
mountains have been thoroughly ex-
plotted, the heights of the mountains
determined, the country mapped, until
the name of the club is almost house
hold word in New Hampshire.
With this work so we'll done the club
is on the lookout for new mountain dis
tricts to conquer. One of these fields is
in the far west, where the Selkirk and
the Rocky mountains togt ther form a
district before which even Switzerland
must bow. For five years parties of
club members have gone into these un-
explored mountains, where, as one
traveller expressed it, "there are up
wards of a hundred peaks of more than
ten thousand feet which have never felt
the tread of man." Each year the ex-
ploring parties return with fresh laurels,
with new snow peaks subjugated, with
new glacial fields mapped, and the work
to the credit of the club is yearly in
creasing.
But the Selkirks are too far distant for
large parties Of club members, and with
in the past two or three years the at
tention of the excursion committee has
been turned to the Green mountains and
the Adirondacks. A party of one hun
dred and fifty to Saint Hubert's In the
Keene valley attests the interest of the
club in this field, while the coming party