About Us

First AMC hiking trail, Lowe’s Path, is cut up Mount Adams, New Hampshire

AMC lobbies the Massachusetts Legislature for the rights of municipalities to set aside lands for public use. One result is the Public Domain Act of 1882, which grants towns and cities the right to set aside lands for preservation and conservation

The first August Camp is held at Katahdin, Maine

First AMC Hut at Madison Spring is built

The Massachusetts Legislature enlarges AMC’s charter to enable it to hold mountain and forest lands and historic sites

The Metropolitan Park Commission is formed in Boston with the help of landscape architect Charles Eliot. AMC throws its support behind the Commission to protect land in the Blue Hills and Middlesex Fells

AMC makes its first conservation land purchase by acquiring thirty-six acres along Snyder Brook in Randolph, New Hampshire, to protect a strip of old-growth forest from imminent logging operations

The city of San Francisco applies for water rights to the Hetch Hetchy Valley in Yosemite National Park, hoping to flood the valley for a reservoir. The Sierra Club, AMC, and other groups fight the plan, but it is eventually approved in 1914

First edition of the Guide to Paths and Camps in the White Mountains (aka the AMC White Mountain Guide) is published. Price: $1.00

Advocacy by AMC and other groups results in passage of Weeks Act (36 Stat. 961) which was signed into law March 1, 1911, authorizing the creation of Eastern National Forests

New York Chapter forms as first AMC Chapter

Worcester Chapter forms

Southern Chapter forms, but breaks away from AMC in 1923 to form the Carolina Mountain Club

Connecticut Chapter, Narragansett Chapter and Merrimack (New Hampshire) Chapter form

AMC purchases its first headquarters building at 5 Joy Street in Boston

AMC helps form the Appalachian Trail Conference

Berkshire Chapter (Western Massachusetts) Chapter forms

Joe Dodge, AMC Huts Manager, becomes the Weather Bureau’s official observer at Pinkham Notch, where weather data has been collected ever since. Two years later, Dodge helps found the Mount Washington Observatory

Maine Chapter forms

New Hampshire Four-Thousand-Footer Club forms

First Mountain Leadership School held

Delaware Valley Chapter forms

Youth Opportunities Program launched to get urban and at-risk youth outdoors

A seasonal caretaker is placed at Liberty Springs Tentsite to manage use, creating our Campsite and Caretaker program. Caretakers inform hikers on how to minimize their impact on campsites in the White Mountains

A Mountain Classroom (AMCR) begins as a weekend workshop to train teachers in mountain leadership, ecology, geology and environmental education. It eventually becomes a program for school groups incorporating active exploration outdoors

AMC partners with Friends of Bigelow and develops management plan for future Bigelow Preserve in Maine

AMC wins permanent injunction against I-93 construction north of Franconia Notch based on deficiencies in project’s Environmental Impact Statement

Boston Chapter forms

Southeastern Massachusetts Chapter forms

AMC starts the Adopt-A-Trail Program in White Mountains

AMC begins investigations into the acidity of cloud and rainwater on the upper slopes of the White Mountains at sites on Mount Lafayette and Mount Washington. The study continues today at AMC Lakes of the Clouds Hut

Washington D.C. (Potomac) Chapter forms

AMC plays a leadership role in founding the Northern Forest Alliance

AMC opens Mohican Outdoor Center in Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area in partnership with the US Park Service

AMC negotiates Deerfield River Agreement, which becomes a national model for achieving conservation goals through the dam re-licensing process

AMC launches Businesses for the Northern Forest with the Northern Forest Alliance

An air quality monitoring station is set up at AMC’s Camp Dodge Trails Training Center in Pinkham Notch, New Hampshire, which still runs today in cooperation with the NH Department of Environmental Science

AMC partners with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, U.S. Forest Service, and the New England Wildflower Society on restoration of endangered Robbins Cinquefoil in the White Mountain National Forest

AMC joins the Highlands Coalition, an advocacy group focused on land protection in the Highlands region of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Connecticut, and begins work on mapping critical treasures in the region

AMC, The Nature Conservancy, and the Conservation Law Foundation issue the Mountain Treasures report, calling for protection of roadless areas in the WMNF

AMC is granted a 30-year special use permit for operating its White Mountain hut system and Pinkham Notch Visitor Center

AMC’s Conservation Action Network (CAN) launches

AMC creates the Alpine Steward Program with U.S. Forest Service

AMC begins construction with the Maine Appalachian Trail Club on the new 42-mile Grafton Loop Trail

Robbins Cinquefoil removed from Endangered Species list after 22 years, thanks to restoration efforts by AMC and partners

AMC launches Leadership Training Institute

AMC opens the Highland Center at Crawford Notch, an outdoor program and education center based on an award-winning green architectural design

AMC launches the Maine Woods Initiative with the purchase of 37,000 acres in the 100-Mile Wilderness region from International Paper and the purchase of Little Lyford Lodge and Cabins

The Highlands Conservation Act is signed

AMC develops computer-based wind power siting model and begins work with states to encourage the adoption of uniform wind power siting guidelines

AMC’s Mountain Watch program is launched to monitor plants in the mountains of the Northeast

AMC launches Mountain Watch community science program, enabling members and guests to measure indicators of air quality and climate change

AMC purchases Medawisla Wilderness Lodge and Cabins, offering lodge-to-lodge skiing, as part of Maine Woods Initiative

AMC opens Greenville, Maine office as part of Maine Woods Initiative

AMC dedicates Gorman Chairback Lodge & Cabins (which opens in 2011), in recognition of the leadership of Leon and Lisa Gorman in conservation, education, and outdoor recreation

AMC completes conservation purchase of 29,500-acre Roach Ponds Tract in Maine, completing 63-mile corridor of protected land in the 100-Mile Wilderness

The New England National Scenic Trail (NET) is federally designated. AMC and the Connecticut Forest & Park Association enter a formal partnership with the National Park Service to be the NET’s principal trail stewards

Madison Spring Hut reopens after a major remodeling begun in September 2010. The entire structure is rebuilt except for the stone walls and foundation which date back to 1922

AMC’s 10,000-acre Katahdin Iron Works Ecological Reserve carbon offset project receives final registry approval from the Climate Action Reserve to sell more than 100,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide credits, with a 100-year commitment that the carbon remains sequestered in the forest

AMC expands its Maine Woods Initiative by purchasing the 4,300-acre Baker Mountain tract

The Stephen & Betsy Corman AMC Harriman Outdoor Center opens in New York, offering hiking, paddling, and camping adventures in the heart of Harriman State Park

The newly constructed Medawisla Lodge & Cabins opens to the public, expanding recreational access on in Maine’s 100-Mile Wilderness

The Northern Pass transmission line is unanimously rejected by New Hampshire’s Site Evaluation Committee after eight years of opposition work by AMC with thousands of citizens, towns, and conservation organizations

AMC launches the Alpine Flower Watch community science initiative with partners to track the flowering and fruiting times of alpine plants via the iNaturalist app to study the effects of climate change

DarkSky International designated the AMC Maine Woods as the first International Dark Sky Park in New England

AMC finalizes the acquisition of the nearly 27,000-acre Pleasant River Headwaters Forest in Maine, securing critical habitat for species like Atlantic salmon and native brook trout

AMC holds its first See the Dark festival at Medawisla Lodge in Maine with weeklong events dedicated to observing and learning about the night sky

With seed funding from L.L. Bean, AMC launches the Outdoor Journey Fund, designed to provide outdoor experiences for groups that face significant barriers to outdoor participation

AMC opens the Cardigan Mountain All Persons Trail in Alexandria, NH, a half-mile nature trail designed to meet U.S. Forest Service Trail Accessibility Guidelines and be suitable for people using mobility devices