Appalachian Mountain Club
The Appalachian Mountain Club is the oldest outdoor group in the United States. Created in Boston in 1876 to explore and conserve New Hampshire's White Mountains, it has expanded throughout the Northeastern United States with 12 chapters stretching from Maine to the District of Colombia. While the AMC no longer publishes their membership numbers, in 2024 they reported 65,729 people connected to the outdoors through a mix of outdoor recreation, particularly hiking and backpacking, with a focus on 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 organization 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.Though it's the oldest mountain club in America, the AMC was preceded by the Rocky Mountain Club, White Mountain Club, the Alpine Club of Williamstown, and The Exploring Circle. Each of these were short-lived organizations.
In 2003, Appalachian Mountain Club purchased 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 the Katahdin Iron Works portion of the purchase to a nature preserve, logged a portion, and runs a sporting camp called Little Lyford Pond camps about two miles off the trail. The Club purchased an adjacent, including Baker Mountain, in 2015, and is considering purchasing more sporting camps in the vicinity.
In 2011, the Appalachian Mountain Club opened the newly built Gorman Chairback Lodge.
In September 2016, the Appalachian Mountain Club sold their Joy Street headquarters to a group of real estate investors for $15 million, who planned to turn the 22,000 square feet of office space on Beacon Hill into residential units. In December 2016, The Appalachian Mountain Club purchased Roughan Hall in the Charlestown neighborhood of Boston, and moved their headquarters there in September 2017.
In 2022, the AMC purchased another adjacent to their previous holdings near the 100 Mile Wilderness, bringing the total to over of contiguous land.
Organization
Appalachian Mountain Club's headquarters is located in Roughan Hall at 10 City Square in the Charlestown neighborhood of Boston, with an adjunct facility at 6 Spice St.Appalachian Mountain Club employed 755 individuals in 2022. AMC estimated that 5,000 individuals volunteered for the organization in 2022.
In 2022, the Appalachian Mountain Club earned over $14.7 million from its outdoor program centers, educational activities, membership dues, trail activities, and advertising. Sale of products netted over $1.2 million, rental income netted a loss of $0.6 million, investment income was over $2.2 million, and charitable contributions and grants received were almost $30.3 million.
Appalachian Mountain Club has twelve chapters located in Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Washington, D.C. The largest chapter is the Boston chapter, with over 20,000 members, followed by the New Hampshire chapter with over 12,000 members, and the New York-North Jersey chapter with over 10,000 members.
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 for a fee; at most huts dinner and breakfast are included.The huts' 30-year special use permits were renewed by the U.S. Forest Service in 1999 following a four-year process that included an environmental impact statement.
| Hut Name | Location | Elevation |
| Lonesome Lake Hut | Franconia Notch State Park | 2,775 |
| Greenleaf Hut | Below the summit of Mount Lafayette | 4,200 |
| Galehead Hut | Between South Twin and Galehead Mountains | 3,775 |
| Zealand Falls Hut | In Zealand Notch | 2,635 |
| Mizpah Spring Hut | Between Mount Pierce and Mount Jackson | 3,783 |
| Lakes of the Clouds Hut | Below the summit of Mount Monroe | 5,014 |
| Madison Spring Hut | Between Mount Adams and Mount Madison | 4,795 |
| Carter Notch Hut | In Carter Notch | 3,288 |