History of the Club

Surrounded by the rugged peaks of the Northern Presidentials and the Crescent Range, Randolph has a long history of mountaineering and pathmaking.

Pathmaking in the Randolph area dates back at least to the mid-Nineteenth Century when in 1852 the Stillings Path was constructed to run from near present-day Jefferson Highlands, across the western slopes of Mt. Jefferson and Mt. Clay, to the summit of Mt. Washington. In contrast, on Mt. Washington, a southern peak, the Crawford families had begun construction of the Crawford Path as early as 1819. By 1840 the Crawford Path had been completed to the summit of Mt. Washington as a bridle path for guests of the Crawford hotels.

The Stillings Path was passable for horses and was used to transport building materials for construction projects on Mt. Washington which appear to have increased with the traffic on the Crawford Path. No traces of the Stillings Path exist today.

In the mid-1850's, at the urging of famed Boston preacher, Thomas Starr King, Gorham mountain guide James Gordon opened a trail from Randolph to the summit of Mt. Madison. The rough trail became known as the Starr King Path, but, like the Stillings Path, it does not survive today. It ran from Broadacres Farm, over Blueberry Ledge to the summit of Madison.

Legend has it that, in a six-hour thrash, climbing companions Gordon and King bushwhacked from Mossy Fall to the head of the ravine that is now named after King, but they left no blazes to mark a King Ravine Trail.

Not a pathmaker himself, King did much to publicize the beauties of the White Mountain region in his book, The White Hills.

In 1875-76, Charles Lowe built the Lowe's Path from his house in Randolph to Mt. Adams. The path, the oldest of the present-day Randolph paths, still follows much of its original route. In its first year, 300 hikers paid the toll then charged for its use.

For decades, hikers arrived in Randolph by train and stayed at one of three hostelries: the Ravine House, the Mt. Crescent House or the Mountain View House. Visitors stayed for a month or even the whole summer.

The railroad continued to make stops in Randolph as late as 1960 with through service from New York. Freight service continued on the Berlin branch of the Boston and Maine Railroad at a diminishing level through the 1980s and then ceased. The line was acquired by the New Hampshire and Vermont Railroad, which abandoned it in 1995. The State of New Hampshire bought the right-of-way in 1998 and converted it to a multi-use trail.

The old winding US 2, now Durand Road, was replaced by a modern highway in 1966-67. Now you can drive through Randolph at high speeds without realizing that there is an active community there.

The Ravine House, the most important base for early Randolph mountaineers, began its existence as the Mt. Madison House. Laban Watson, one of Randolph's pathmakers, was its first proprietor. Evolving to The Ravine House, the hotel hosted generations of hikers until 1960 when changing transportation patterns and heavy truck traffic on US 2 drove clients elsewhere.

The "Randolph Hill House" opened in 1883, a frame structure erected with a community "raisin." Under the proprietorship of Charles Lowe, it was re-named "The Mt. Crescent House." J. George took it over when Charles Lowe died in 1907, hosting a continuing stream of walkers.

In 1923 John H. Boothman and his wife, Edith, bought the Mt. Crescent House. Mrs. Boothman was a Watson, daughter of Laban. When the elder Boothmans retired from the business, John H. ("Jack") Boothman Jr. and his wife, Gwen Shorey Boothman, managed the hotel until it closed in 1971, a victim of changing cultural patterns. After the Mt. Crescent House closed, it was torn down. The site is unmarked today.

The Mountain View House, at the angle of the Randolph Hill Road, had accepted boarders before the Civil War. First known as "the Kelsey farm," after the turn of the century it became the Mountain View House and was run by John H. Boothman's sisters--May and Belle Boothman and Rebecca Thompson. It closed shortly after the end of WWII and became a private residence.

In 1880, there were about 30 miles of trails, within five miles of the Ravine House. By 1890 this had increased to 80 miles, with 30 miles of new construction on the Northern Presidentials and 20 new miles on the slopes of Randolph Hill and the Crescent Range. This spurt of activity brought the local network of trails nearly to its present extent. There have been some abandonments and construction of new trails in the nearly 11 decades since, but never the level of activity to match that of the 1880s.

This pathmaking was carried out as a labor of love by a group of local woodsmen and summer visitors who stayed at the Ravine House. These included Charles Lowe and Laban Watson, James Gordon and Hubbard Hunt, with Eugene B. Cook, William H. Peek, George A. Sargent, William G. Nowell, Charles Torrey, J. Rayner Edmands and, later, Louis F. Cutter. These men laid out more than 100 miles of trails within five miles of the Ravine House. Many of the trails are still open today.

The trailmakers were an unusual group. Among them, Peek, a Providence, RI, bookseller and, later, Chicago furniture dealer, was an amateur botanist and painter. He came to Randolph in 1878 by accident on a trip following the death of his wife. In each of the following 25 summers he spent three months at the Ravine House. After his death, family members arranged for a small park in his memory on the north side of US 2, east of Broadacres farm. The park is still maintained by the town of Randolph. Peek is commemorated by a plaque on a large boulder there.

Cook was Hoboken, NJ, businessman who is remembered best for his skills in chess. A grandmaster, he collected the third largest library of chess books in the world. The library is now maintained at his alma mater, Princeton University.

Edmands, a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was a Harvard faculty member. He supervised the national time standard system until it was taken over by the Naval Observatory in Washington.

Sargent, a Harvard graduate with an M.D. degree, was in the cotton business in the south. He came to New Hampshire to restore his health and, after years at the Ravine House, bought a home in Randolph, Lookout Ledge Farm, with his wife, Sally Osgood. Nowell was a minister, physician and teacher.

All articulate men, they enlivened evenings at the Ravine House with philosophical discussions and inveterate punning. They were also men of great physical strength. One early September morning in 1882, Peek and Sargent left the Ravine House, ascended Mt. Washington, came down to Crawford Notch via Mt. Clinton, ate dinner, and walked back to Randolph by road with the light of the full moon--a distance of 42 miles in a little over 20 hours. Not until the 1930s were greater walking feats recorded.

Edmands' influence is still distinctive on the Randolph paths. He believed trails should be smooth and graded. He improved a number of older routes and laid out the Randolph Path and the Link along gentle grades. With the light traffic of the era, the footways remained smooth for decades. He paved a section of the Gulfside Trail (originally called the Highland Path) with carefully laid flat stones. Some of this construction was improved by the Civilian Conservation Corps during the 1930s.

Sections of Edmands' paths in Randolph still show evidence of his painstaking work. These include the Valley Way, Israel Ridge Path, Randolph Path and the Link below Cascade Brook.

Later Edmands turned his attention to the Crawford Notch area where he is remembered for building the Edmands Path to Mt. Eisenhower.

Early trail construction in Randolph, as in other parts of the White Mountains, was bolstered by the founding of the AMC in Boston in 1876. Many Randolph trail builders served as early officers of the AMC. It maintained a number of the early trails (Airline, Castle Trail and, until 1996, Lowe's Path). In 1888 the club built the Madison Spring Hut in the Madison-Adams col at the head of the Snyder Brook, the first of the AMC huts that now take in paying guests.

The Nineteenth Century pathmakers in Randolph are memorialized by a log and plank bridge over Coldbrook, just below Coldbrook Fall. Memorial Bridge was completed in 1923 and still offers a fine view of the waterfall.

By the 1890s, timber companies had acquired vast acreage of uncut virgin forests in the White Mountains. An extended period of heavy cutting was initiated in many parts of the region. Large clear cuts were the norm. Trails were obliterated.

The logging did not reach Randolph until 1903. During this very dry summer extensive forest fires broke out, many in the tinder-dry, recently logged areas. Except for Pine Mountain, the immediate Randolph vicinity escaped the flames.

In the years following 1903, most of the forest below about 3,000 feet on the Northern Slopes of Mt. Madison, Mt. Adams, and Mt. Jefferson was cut over. Above, the terrain was too steep and rough to remove logs economically. Much of the work was done in the winter when the timber could be slid downhill to where it could be hauled out by teams of horses.

When the lumbering ended late in the first decade of the 20th century, the extensive Randolph trail system was in shambles. Most of the lower trails no longer existed. Higher up, many were undamaged, but could not be reached without difficult bushwhacking.

In 1909 Edmands planned to return to Randolph to rehabilitate some the trails, but he died suddenly. The other pioneers were by then too old to do the heavy work needed. Many were anxious to see the trails restored. This set the stage for the founding of the Randolph Mountain Club in August, 1910, largely at the behest of John H. Boothman. The club was incorporated in 1915. By 1923 there were 214 members. In 1997, there were more than 750.

The first president was the Rev. Dr. E. W. Hincks of Andover Theological Seminary in Massachusetts. He served until 1922 when Dr. Arthur Stanley Pease, president of Amherst College and a distinguished botanist, succeeded him.

The passage by Congress of the Weeks Act in 1911 opened the way for the establishment of National Forests. The WMNF was formed in 1912 and, from the beginning, included most of the Presidential Range. This protected the area from large scale timber harvesting. Small timber sales at low altitude are made from time to time in accordance with the multiple-use policy of the Forest Service.

Long before the formation of the WMNF, some of the early mountain climbers built cabins for their private use on the slopes of Mt. Adams. Nowell's log cabin at 3,300 feet beside Lowe's Path was the first in 1890. At about the same time, Edmands built Cascade Camp near the Link's crossing of Cascade Brook between the first and second Cascades. The same year he built a birch bark structure known as The Perch at the head of Cascade Ravine. He also maintained a lean-to known as Cliff Shelter, midway up this ravine. Soon after 1900, C. C. Torrey and G. B. Moore built Spur Cabin, just west of the Spur Trail, near Chandler Fall. In 1906 the Nelson Smith family built Crag Camp at the upper Crag on the edge of King Ravine, beside the Spur Trail.

Cliff Shelter did not last very long. With the stipulation that they be maintained for the hiking public, the Log Cabin, Cascade Camp and The Perch were acquired by the RMC from the heirs of Nowell and Edmands. Cascade Camp was destroyed by the great flood of 1927 and The Perch blew away in the hurricane of September, 1938.

By the late 1930s, Forest Service policy no longer allowed private camps on National Forest land. The RMC took over Gray Knob and Crag Camp in 1939 and has maintained them for the public since, with caretakers in residence beginning shortly after World War II. The Town of Randolph jointly maintained Gray Knob with the RMC until the early 1990s, when the Club took it over completely. Spur Cabin was razed by the Forest Service after it fell into disrepair in the late 1920s.

A new Perch was built on the original site in 1948 and dedicated to the memory of Louis F. Cutter. In 1985, the Log Cabin was replaced with a new, three-sided cabin next to the site of the original structure. It is dedicated to the memory of John H. ("Jack") Boothman, the last proprietor of the Mt. Crescent House. Gray Knob and Crag Camp were replaced by completely new buildings in 1989 and 1993, respectively, when they could no longer be repaired.

From before the founding of the club until his death in 1945, Louis F. Cutter was one of its most active members. Trained as an engineer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he prepared and revised the base maps of the Mt. Washington Range that the AMC has used in its White Mountain Guides from 1908 until the present time. He served many terms as president of the RMC and built a number of trails.

Cutter coined the term "pleasure paths" for narrow, relatively primitive trails, intended for enjoyment of the scenery along the way rather than as routes to specific objectives. Examples of this Cutter genre include the Cliffway, Monaway, and Ladderback Trails which lead to several modest views below 3,000 feet on Nowell Ridge.

As the Twenties merged into the Thirties, there was a flurry of trail building, largely through the efforts of Cutter and H. M. Dadourian, a mathematician at Trinity College in Connecticut, who, with his wife, Ruth, was a long time Randolph summer resident.

Two new trails were built up the steep slopes of the King Ravine: the Chemin des Dames to the Air Line on the Knife Edge and the Great Gully Trail to the Gulfside. The Great Gully Trail is the RMC's steepest trail, rising 2,000 feet in its one-mile length. The Dadourians were also responsible for the Crescent Ridge Trail, connecting Lookout Ledge with Mt. Crescent and making possible several fine circuit hikes.

In October, 1921, a forest fire burned much of the lower part of Gordon Ridge on Mt. Madison. The summer had been extremely dry. There were reports that the light from the fire was bright enough for valley people to read by after dark. Luckily a heavy rain doused the flames the next day before they could spread farther.

Sad as the loss of the forest was, the fire opened new views. In the early 1930s, the Inlook and Kelton Trails, designed by Cutter, were constructed to give access to these views.

In the mid-1930s, the RMC and other outdoor organizations banded together to oppose a WPA project for a "Presidential Scenic Highway" that was to run from Randolph, across the Northern and Southern Peaks to Crawford Notch, with a connection to the Mt. Washington Auto Road. The club had affiliated with the newly formed New England Trail Conference as early as 1916 to coordinate trail interests. The highway would have closely followed the Gulfside Trail and Crawford Path. Intensive letter writing and personal visits to government officials killed the potentially disastrous project.

At about the same time, hotelier Herbert Malcolm became active in the RMC. He is remembered for his hiking speed and endurance. He set many trail records in the Adirondacks, but his most remarkable feat was the traverse of the entire chain of AMC huts, Lonesome Lake to Carter Notch, in under 24 hours. He did this twice in 1936 when he was more than 50 years old, once bypassing the summits and the other time, going over all of them. The distance is more than 50 miles. The total elevation gain approaches 18,000 feet for the the second trip.

The record stood for more than 20 years, despite many attempts to break it by much younger men. Finally, in 1959, Christopher Goetze broke the record for the traverse without summits.

The deaths of Cutter in 1945 and John Boothman Sr. in 1952 marked a changing of the guard for the RMC. Klaus Goetze, a music teacher from Cambridge, Massachusetts, emerged as the new leader. Goetze and his family summered in Randolph. Between the 1940s and 1980s, Goetze served many terms as trails chairman and president. His first major contribution was to plan and supervise the construction of a new Perch, near the site of Edmands' original. During the summer of 1948, the open shelter was built of native logs, with a board floor and shingled roof.

To make the new shelter more accessible, the RMC extended The Perch Path from the Randolph Path up to the Gray Knob Trail, shortening the walk from Crag Camp and Gray Knob. About 1970, the steep Emerald Trail was laid out up the east sidewall of Castle Ravine, connecting with the branch from the Israel Ridge Path to the fine outlook at Emerald Bluff. Goetze supervised both of these projects.

In the early 1950s, the RMC began to hire Randolph young people for annual trail clearing. The use of the trails and cabins increased during this era, beginning the explosion in popularity that we see today. Summer use of the cabins increased rapidly and abuses occurred. Resident caretakers were employed at Crag Camp and Gray Knob for July and August. By the 1970s, winter patronage at Gray Knob had increased to the point where the Club felt it advisable to have a caretaker there all year.

With the increasing traffic on the trails, erosion began to be a serious problem on some routes, such as the Spur Trail to Crag Camp. A new half-mile section, the "new" Spur Trail, was built but because of the steep terrain, this section soon became more eroded than the "old" Spur Trail and was closed within a few years.

The "new" Spur Trail was the last new trail built by the RMC on National Forest lands. In the 1960s, a new policy was adopted which allowed no new trail cutting or significant relocations. There was talk of reducing the number of existing trails, but this has not been done. Instead, standards have been tightened and all organizations are expected to follow Forest Service guidelines.

Trail maintenance used to consist simply of annual removal of blowdowns and occasional "brushing" (trimming growth on the sides of and above the trail). Now, modern heavy lug-soled boots speed up the erosion process. The treadway must be "hardened" with rocks where the soil is eroded. Water bars (log or stone) must be installed at close intervals to divert running water off the trail. Erosion control work is slow and strenuous, and requires strong people who know how to operate chain saws and other equipment safely.

By the late 1980s the RMC decided that trained trail crews were needed. The club now hires experienced workers. A senior trail crew focuses on annual patrolling of all the RMC's trails and undertakes major erosion control projects each summer. A second trail crew, consisting of first year workers, is hired through the Student Conservation Association, of Charlestown, NH. In recent years the RMC has received financial support for its trail efforts from contracts with the WMNF, from NH Bureau of Trails grants, and from the continuing generous support of RMC members.

Not only has there been rapid growth in back country hiking during the summers, requiring greater attention to trail maintenance, but over the past 30 years, traffic in the mountains has increased throughout the year. Mountain hiking and camping, snowshoeing, cross country skiing and ice climbing are all booming. Winter weekends at the camps are often as busy as summer ones.

Terrible weather, which has wreaked its share of havoc on RMC trails and camps over the years, has not diminished the mountains' popularity. The RMC has weathered some severe storms. The great flood of November, 1927, washed away Cascade Camp. Randolph's biggest snowstorm dropped 56 inches of snow in a 24-hour period on November 22, 1943. This stands as a record in the contiguous United States in non-mountain locations.

Randolph's worst storm was the great New England hurricane of September 21, 1938. An unusual meteorological situation allowed a severe Atlantic hurricane to move inland and over Connecticut and continue north to the vicinity of Burlington, Vermont, without losing tropical intensity. The White Mountains lay on the storm's stronger east side. Forest and trails suffered catastrophic damage, particularly in the Pemigewasset Wilderness area.

Around Randolph, during the hurricane, winds exceeded 100 miles per hour in some places. Trees were flattened across whole mountain slopes. Flooding and landslides added to the carnage.

WWII soon broke out so that paid labor, which the RMC employed for the annual clearance of its trails, became scarce, as did volunteer help. As a result, damaged trails were not restored to their previous condition until after 1945. Some parts of the WMNF remained closed through the war years because of the danger of fire in the downed timber.

The winter of 1968-69 was another period of severe weather. More than 300 inches of snow fell in Randolph and 563 inches on Mt. Washington. There were several large avalanches in the area, notably in King Ravine and on the east slope of Mt. Madison.

The most recent devastating weather occurred in January, 1998, when rain and temperatures hovering at freezing combined to coat every exposed surface with thick ice. Weighed down by thousands of pounds of ice, especially at elevations between 1,500 and 3,000 feet, tree braches broke and trunks shattered. Once again, views were radically altered. Trails disappeared in the chaos of broken trees. Eighty percent of the RMC trail system sustained damage. More than 150 downed trees and limbs were counted in just a half mile along the Pasture Path. RMC volunteers went to work immediately to clear the trails, hoping to have them open in time for the 1998 summer season.

Over the years, besides building, maintaining, and renovating the local trail system, RMC members ventured afield. They opened new paths in the Mahoosuc Range to Mt. Success, Goose Eye, and Mahoosuc Notch, and to Arethusa Fall in Crawford Notch. These trails were traded with the AMC for some AMC Randolph routes, notably the King Ravine Trail and Israel Ridge Path. Except for Owl's Head and Starr King Trails in Jefferson, today's RMC trail system remains a compact one, nearly all of it lying within five miles of Appalachia.

Founded strictly as a summer club, the RMC is now active year-round. Yet the members of the RMC carry on Randolph traditions that date back more than a century. Events such as the annual rendezvous, the Fourth of July Tea, the club picnic, charades, and weekly RMC hikes continue to prove timeless in popularity.

When you enjoy RMC trails, please remember that about one-third of them traverse private property. Please respect the rights and privacy of landowners. Fires must not be built on private land without the consent of the owner.

A fire permit, available from Lowe's Garage on US 2 or from Becky Parker at (603) 466-2332, is required in the town of Randolph.