William F. Shanaman Monument
Bethel Township, Berks County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
In appreciation of Hon. William F. Shanaman, President Blue Mountain Eagle Climbing Club, 1934
The Story
This monument was raised in 1934 to honor William F. Shanaman, a civic leader who served as president of the Blue Mountain Eagle Climbing Club. Founded in Reading in 1916, the club is one of the oldest hiking organizations in the country and devoted itself to opening and maintaining trails across the wooded ridges of eastern Pennsylvania's Blue Mountain. Its volunteers were among the many local clubs that helped scout and build sections of the Appalachian Trail as that footpath took shape through the state in the 1920s and 1930s.
Why it matters
It marks the early-twentieth-century movement in which ordinary citizens organized to protect ridgelines and forge the long-distance hiking trails, like the Appalachian Trail, that remain part of American outdoor life today.
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Related people
- · William F. Shanaman
Themes & tags
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