August 26, 2017

"The chief architect of the Pacific Crest Trail, Clinton Clarke, saw the project in explicitly racial and religious terms."

"The 'negro boys”' of America, he complained in 1937, had remained 'closer to the soil' and so were taking 'all the athletic prizes,' while whites suffered from 'too much sitting on soft seats in motors, too much sitting in soft seats in movies, and too much lounging in easy chairs before radios.' Only a long trip in the woods by 'clean, strong young Christians,' Clarke’s assistant wrote, could 'preserve our Christian civilization,' while eradicating communism as well. The great attraction of the new trail, according to a young man who blazed a section, was 'the fact that I was one of the first fellows to participate in such a conquest of this kind.' Back east the founder of the Appalachian Trail, Benton MacKaye, was a rather different figure, a supporter of the Soviet Union and a friend of Sinclair Lewis, John Reed, and Lewis Mumford. MacKaye believed his trail would provide a solution to the labor unrest of the period—much of which was led by Wobbly lumberjacks and miners—by offering land and work in government-owned towns, newly built along the trail in the forest; no less a man of his time than Clarke, MacKaye termed his scheme 'colonization.'"

From "Take a Hike!" in The New York Review of Books, by Charles Petersen, discussing 2 new books about hiking. 

30 comments:

Sebastian said...

Face it: all of our ancestors are deplorable. As we are or will be.

rcocean said...

Sounds like a pretty cool guy. Glad he built the trail - its very beautiful.

J. Farmer said...

Clinton Clarke was correct but for the wrong reasons. See David Epstein's The Sports Gene: Inside the Science of Extraordinary Athletic Performance.

Wince said...
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Wince said...

The Dream achieved?

I have a dream, when all of God's children can 'sit on soft seats in motors, sit too much in soft seats in movies, and too much lounging in easy chairs' [wearing Beats wireless headsets].

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...

Well, that explains why I see so few Brothers in the backtrails. Or actually anyone other than fit, white, middle-class people. A PNW website, Crosscut, had a hilarious story not long ago, explaining that Black folks are hesitant to access America's natural beauty because they might see a Trump bumper sticker on their way to the park. Seriously.

Roughcoat said...

Clarke must have had a cloistered upbringing and life. The white boys at the mixed race high school I attended and where I played football and lacrosse were plenty tough and athletic. Our sports teams were racially mixed as a result. My football team, which won the Illinois state championship when I was a senior, had more white starting players than black. I was one of those white starters. Sure I was Irish but as we all know the Irish became white in the mid-to-late 19th century. Our, the basketball team, which also won the state championship the same year (what a year that was for ETHS) had four black starters and one white starters. Which, ya know, is because white men can't jump, heh heh. But that one white kid could consistently drill perfect rainbow-arcing no-net shots from beyond the top of the key. He led the team in scoring.

Ray - SoCal said...

Obviously need to destroy the trail due to its racist origin.

Freeman Hunt said...

So unless one is a follower of strange doctrines, there's no trail one can hike in solidarity with one's political sympathies. That's just as well. Let nature be unitive.

Mark said...

the founder of the Appalachian Trail, . . . MacKaye believed his trail would provide a solution to the labor unrest of the period . . . by offering land and work in government-owned towns

Some of the worst poverty in America today is in Appalachia.

Freeman Hunt said...
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Freeman Hunt said...

"To devote oneself to strange doctrines is injurious indeed!"

Confucius was right of course, except perhaps as regards the planning of hiking trails as shown here.

mockturtle said...

By all means, let's make our national trail systems into part of a devious racist agenda.

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

J. Farmer said...
Clinton Clarke was correct but for the wrong reasons. See David Epstein's The Sports Gene: Inside the Science of Extraordinary Athletic Performance."

I just ordered that book, J. Farmer. It looks fascinating! Thank you for the link.

Paddy O said...

It takes a lot of circumlocution to talk about original sin in practice while dismissing original sin in theory.

It turns out people are depraved. Everyone has a different forbidden fruit.

It's always curious when orienting philosophies bump into core conventional religious truths while trying to avoid buying into those religious truths. Which then goes to why religions are the way they are. They're not oppressive by design, they actually formed as ways to prevent oppression by people who are trying to solve the same problems.

Racism is sin. Some want to drown others in guilt without offering atonement. Some will offer atonement based on sufficient devotion and sacrifice. You can buy indulgences by giving to the right causes, while still perpetuating the same evils in other ways.

Who will save us from this body of death?

Howard said...

Saving comes from acceptance instead of fear of death. That's why most religions preach of an afterlife to soften the blow. The fact remains as far as we know, YOLO. Deal with it.

hombre said...

The former, greater America was built by people with many diverse views. The current, lesser America is being dismantled by sheeple who reflect only the view of the flock.

hombre said...

Roughcoat: "Sure I was Irish but as we all know the Irish became white in the mid-to-late 19th century."

That is just perfect! If my grandfather were alive, he would love that.

ALP said...

GOOD LORD - do the people of Seattle know this yet? Its a big hiking outdoorsy town. Heads will explode. Activists will descent on the trail to...tear it down or show it 'resistance'.

Paddy O said...
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Earnest Prole said...

Only a long trip in the woods by 'clean, strong young Christians,' Clarke’s assistant wrote, could 'preserve our Christian civilization,' while eradicating communism as well.

Surely this deserves an "annoyingness" tag.

Kevin said...

Ike wasn't a big fan of Brown vs. Board of Education. When do we start tearing down the federal highway system?

Kevin said...

GOOD LORD - do the people of Seattle know this yet?

Hiking itself is an overly-white activity in this country. Anyone who does it must be a white supremacist.

Fernandinande said...

That's nearly as racist as programs which try to get black kids to do better in school.

Are there any statues of Clinton Clarke or his "assistant" to set fire to?

Fernandinande said...

"Too much candy and gum!" -- a drunk on late-night call-in talk radio years ago, ranting about kids these days and "Dimseyland".

YoungHegelian said...

Most calls to moral action in 1880 to 1930 America were framed in racial and/or religious terms. It was just the lingua franca of the society of the times.

Modern Progressives work very hard to forget the religious & racial roots of American Progressivism.

Marc in Eugene said...

I smiled at the fact that the paragraph in Petersen's review specifically about racist ideology ("... The 'negro boys' of America...") was imported from two academic theses, one by an undergraduate and one by a doctoral candidate, not from the authors of the two books reviewed who, evidently, aren't woke enough to have mentioned it themselves.

Dude1394 said...

Get rid of the pacific crest trail. How can we stand to live with it still out there.

Jael (Gone Windwalking) said...
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Mountain Maven said...

How far the NYer has fallen.
When everything is politicized, the left won't like the result.