Appalachian Mountain Club - Appalachian Mountain Club

Appalachian Mountain Club (AMC) is one of the United States' oldest outdoor groups. Created in 1876 to explore and preserve the White Mountains in New Hampshire, it has expanded throughout the northeastern U.S., with 12 chapters stretching from Maine to Washington, D.C. The AMC's 150,000 members, advocates, and supporters (as of 2013) mix outdoor recreation, particularly hiking and backpacking, with environmental activism. Additional activities include cross-country skiing, whitewater and flatwater canoeing and kayaking, sea kayaking, sailing, rock climbing and bicycle riding. The Club has about 2,700 volunteers, who lead roughly 7,000 trips and activities per year. The organizat ion publishes a number of books, guides, and trail maps.

History

Appalachian Mountain Club was organized in 1876, incorporated in 1878, and authorized by legislative act of 1894 to hold mountain and forest lands as historic sites. The club was formed by the efforts of Massachusetts Institute of Technology Professor Edward Charles Pickering and Samuel Hubbard Scudder, who invited fellow Boston academics and vacationers to form a group interested in mountain exploration. The club aims to preserve the beauty of mountain forests, waters, historic sites and resorts; to render them attractive to visitors and excursionists; to publish accurate maps thereof; and to collect scientific data concerning the mountains. The group helped map the White Mountains and in 1888 built the first of eight High Huts in the range, modeled on Alpine shelters.

In 2003, Appalachian Mountain Club purchased 37,000 acres (150 km²) of land east of Moosehead Lake and southwest of Baxter State Park, along the 100-Mile Wilderness portion of the Appalachian Trail, as part of their Maine Woods Initiative. It has converted a portion of the purchase to a nature preserve, logged a portion, and runs a sporting camp called Little Lyford Pond camps about two miles (3 km) off the trail. The Club is considering purchasing more sporting camps in the vicinity.

In September 2016, it was reported in The Boston Globe that Appalachian Mountain Club sold their Joy Street headquarters to a group of real estate investors for $15 million. The deal would turn the 22,000 square feet of office space on Beacon Hill into residential units. Appalachian Mountain Club is looking for a new headquarters location and focusing on the Boston neighborhoods of Dorchester, Allston, and Brighton where the group would have more parking, neighborhood diversity, and better technology infrastructure.

Organization

Appalachian Mountain Club's headquarters is located at 5 Joy Street in Boston.

Appalachian Mountain Club employed 686 individuals in 2014. AMC estimated that 16,000 individuals volunteered for the organization in 2014.

Appalachian Mountain Club earns over $13,000,000 per year from its outdoor program centers, educational activities, membership dues, trail activities, and advertising. Sale of products nets over $700,000 per year. Appalachian Mountain Club receives $11,000,000 per year of charitable contributions and $2,000,000 of revenue from its investments.

In 2014, Appalachian Mountain Club paid two outside telemarketing firms $108,837 for fundraising services. The telemarketing firms raised $146,842 for Appalachian Mountain Club.

Appalachian Mountain Club has chapters located in Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Washington, D.C.

Activities

The High Huts

Appalachian Mountain Club owns and maintains a series of eight mountain huts in the White Mountains. Modeled after similar shelters in the Alps, the various huts hold between 36 and 90 people. Hikers may reserve bunks; at most huts dinner and breakfast are included with an overnight fee.

Although extremely popular, the huts are also controversial, facilitating thousands of hikers entering the back woods and environmentally sensitive areas above tree line. Four years and an environmental impact statement were required to get the huts' permits renewed by the U.S. Forest Service in 1999.

The Four Thousand Footer Club

A committee of Appalachian Mountain Club administers the Four Thousand Footer Club. Anyone who has climbed to and from each of the 48 New Hampshire Four-thousand footers is eligible to apply for membership to the club. Members are given a patch and new inductees are invited to attend a yearly celebration dinner. The Four Thousand Footer Club also recognizes individuals who complete the New England Four Thousand Footers (of which there are 67) and the New England Hundred Highest.

Publications

Appalachia, the club journal, has been published since 1894. Books relating to subjects such as mountaineering and touring trips are published under the auspices of the society.

National Register of Historic Places

The Club's Ponkapoag Camp is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.