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Lancaster Hiking Club Historical Highlights 

1927 - Our Beginning 

On May 8, 1927, The Sunday News had a feature article on the new "adult hikes inaugurated several weeks ago by the local Recreation and Playground Association under the direction of Grant D. Brandon". Professor H. Justin Roddy and Grant Brandon jointly led the hikes, with Dr. Roddy pointing out interesting geological features, identifying wildflowers, and giving natural history lessons along the way. The hikes met at the Science Building on the F&M Campus, and from there they might walk west to the nearby fields and woods (i.e., the area now known as the "Brickyards"). Sometimes they would take a trolley and begin the hike at the end of the trolley ride. There was a colorful cross section of people, from F&M professors, factory workers, students, to professional people. There were usually more women than men, and the writer noted the women wore "high laced boots, knickers, sweaters and other trappings of the Zane Gray heroine" and "seem to have given the matter a bit too much attention". The men didn't bother much with their "costuming", typically wearing "an old fishing hat, gardening shoes, nondescript coat and pants, perhaps leggings or puttees". The hike described in the newspaper article "started from Millersville, covering about five miles in a rough semi-circle west of the town"; Dr. Roddy picked up a rock that he claimed was a lava rock from an extinct volcano, and later showed them what he described as the crater of the volcano. One suspects he was pulling their legs, and the reporter was apparently taken in too. There were 35 hikers. 

 

December 9, 1946 

The Club met at the St. James Parish House to make the hiking club a separate organization. Until then, the club was "The Lancaster Hiking Club of the Lancaster Recreation Association". Bylaws were established. Dues were set at $1.00 per year and 25 cents would be collected from each hiker to reimburse the drivers. Forty-five members attended. The president at the time was Jay Bomberger. 

 

1947

The first issue of the Club newsletter was published.

 

1948 

The Club decided to adopt and maintain a section of the Horse-Shoe Trail, from the Cornwall Fire Tower to Rt. 501. 

 

1950

The Club joined the Appalachian Trail Conference as a "Class A" (i.e., trail-maintaining) club, and was given responsibility for the section from Port Clinton to Rt. 183. Establishing a clubhouse was considered but later abandoned after a meeting space was offered at the Grubb Mansion in Musser Park.

 

1956 

The Club joined a newly organized association called the Keystone Trails Association (KTA)

 

 January 7, 1959 

The Club changed its name to “The Lancaster Hiking Club” instead of "The Lancaster Hiking Club of the Lancaster Recreation Association" 

 

1970

The Club surrendered its maintenance section of the Appalachian Trail.

 

September 21, 1975 

Dick Tobias presented the idea of establishing a Conestoga Trail System which would be 25-30 miles long. Later, it was to be over 62 miles. 

 

1976

The Conestoga Trail System was cleared and blazed and opened to the public. 

 

Late 1970s or early 1980s 

The Club surrendered its section of the Horse-Shoe Trail, since it now had the 62-mile Conestoga Trail System to maintain. It also stopped maintaining a section of the Tuscarora Trail, which it had been doing unofficially for a number of years.

 

​2016

LHC was incorporated as a 501(c)(3) charitable organization.

2017

LHC new website was created.

 

          LHC

PAST PRESIDENTS

 

1946 Jay Bomberger

1947 Roy K Albright

1948 Robert Ingram

1949-50 Douglas Smith

1951 Richard Laube

1952 David Miller 

1953 Harold Keller

1954-55 Roy Albright

1956-57 David Miller

1958 Leo Grasser

1959 Roy Albright

1960 Leo Grasser

1961 Leah Mellinger 

1962 Harold Keller

1963-64 Leo Grasser

1965 Burnell Ulmer

1966 Roy Albright 

1967-68 Jack Chambers

1969 Robert Carvell

1970-71 Doris Martin

1972-73 Elizabeth Frederick 

1974-75 Doris Martin 

1976 Susan Baer

1977-78 LeRoy Greenspan 

1979-80 Ann Tobias

1981-82 Glenn Thompson

1983 Margaret Trower

1984-85 Lee Greenawalt

1986-87 David Haines

1988-89 Ken Foster

1990-91 Jeff Brethauer

1992-93 Bev Beats

1994-95 Joan Drake

1996-97 Ted Kaufhold

1998-99 Doug Kutz

2000-01 Jeanne Schopf

2002-03 Ron Miller

2004-05 Joan Drake

2006-07 Joe Patterson

2008-09 Karen Shaffer

2010-11 Karen Shaffer

2012-13 Doug Rupp

2014-15 Doug Rupp

2016-17 Rick Manix

2018-19 Rick Manix

2020-21 Cynthia Krom

2022-23 Randy Schulz

2024-25 Randy Schulz

ADDRESS

The Lancaster Hiking Club

PO Box 7922
Lancaster PA, 17604

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