Founding of a Dream
Although the organization that became Keystone Trails Association first emerged in Harrisburg in January of 1956, it had its initial conception a few months earlier in Catoctin, Maryland. For some years a group of trail clubs in the Baltimore/Washington area had been sponsoring a fall weekend get-together to which were invited various other hiking groups located within a reasonable travel distance. In 1955, the gathering was held on the weekend of October 1-2 at Camp Greentop in Catoctin, with some 135 hikers in attendance, including a number with an interest in Pennsylvania trails.
Among the Pennsylvania contingent was Mel Brinton, a low-profile figure who was nonetheless crucially important in shepherding the fledgling organization through its formative years. Although he actually resided in Delaware, Brinton headed a Boy Scout troop that assisted in the maintenance of the Pennsylvania portion of the Appalachian Trail (AT). The day after getting home from Catoctin, Brinton wrote in a letter to Murray Stevens, who was then Chairman of the Appalachian Trail Conference (ATC):
"Fred Blackburn, Earl Shaffer, Dick Roessler and myself got together at Greentop and talked about the possibility of an organization of the clubs in the Pa. district into a conference within the A.T. It has many possibilities among them being to publish a guide of the A.T. in Pa. (up to date). Also to co-operate on a series of shelters."
This ultimately resulted in the calling of a meeting of Pennsylvania trail clubs and others at the Harrisburg YMCA on Saturday, January 21, 1956. The gathering was attended by 32 persons, including ATC Chairman Stevens and Jean Stephenson, Editor-in-Chief of Appalachian Trailway News. A committee was appointed to draft by-laws for the new organization, and tentative plans were made for a spring meeting, at which the infant Keystone Trails Association would take its first hesitant steps.
The Early Years
Established with the best of intentions, KTA nonetheless proved to be a very fragile entity for its first year or two. More than once it seemed on the brink of collapse. There was a certain amount of internal disagreement relating to the proper role and direction for this new creation. In addition, the relationship between KTA and ATC was somewhat uneasy for a time. The group of organizations that came together in Pennsylvania to establish KTA were almost all clubs that maintained a portion of the AT. ATC had been used to dealing individually with each of the Pennsylvania maintaining clubs, and the Conference leaders were not at all sure how the insertion of an intermediate organization might affect established routines.
Except for KTA's first year when Ralph Kinter was president, George Spring of Williamsport presided over the new organization for its first ten years. Spring and Mel Brinton, of Wilmington, Delaware, who served as secretary throughout the period, were key figures in holding KTA together and keeping it on track. The importance of these two men has never been fully appreciated.
Focus on Appalachian Trail
The groups that came together to form KTA were almost exclusively Appalachian Trail maintaining clubs. It was natural therefore that the early focus was on the AT, a focus that extended through the first decade and beyond. (The recognition of Pennsylvania’s other hiking riches was to come later.)
One of the key motivators behind the initial drive for establishing KTA was the desire of a number of those involved to create a single guidebook for the AT in Pennsylvania, with KTA as the publisher. At that time, the Pennsylvania AT was divided between two different guidebooks. The trail north of the Susquehanna River was included in a guidebook published by the New York-New Jersey Trail Conference, while the trail south of the river was included in another book published by the Potomac Appalachian Trail Club. The proposal for a single Pennsylvania guide met with strong initial resistance from Jean Stephenson who was ATC’s editor-in-chief. In KTA's organizational phase, Stephenson was a strong supporter of the new group, but later when she thought that KTA was trying to grow too fast and to aspire too highly, she dug in her heels and attempted (with some success) to slow the process. When Stan Murray became ATC Chairman, however, he proved more receptive to a larger role for KTA in the guidance of AT affairs in Pennsylvania. By 1963, coordination planning was begun to mesh the publication date of a new Pennsylvania AT Guide with the publication schedules of both New York-New Jersey and PATC.
In 1961 the 15th General Meeting of ATC was held at the Glenwood Hotel in Delaware Water Gap, with KTA as the host. The six-day event was the largest General Meeting up to that time, with more than 275 in attendance.
Camp Michaux
For the first 16 years of its existence, KTA's annual fall meetings were held at Camp Michaux in Cumberland County. Built in 1932 within the Michaux State Forest as the first Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) camp in Pennsylvania, Camp Michaux accommodated about 200 boys between the ages of 18 and 25 who performed various types of work to improve the surrounding State Forest. In 1942, with the Second World War raging, the camp was closed after nine years of operation as a CCC facility.
The camp was then leased by the U.S. War Department for use as a prisoner of war camp. At first, it was used exclusively for German naval officers. Later, prisoners from Rommel’s Afrika Korps as well as some Japanese officers were interned there. (PERSONAL NOTE: The writer recalls his first visit to Camp Michaux in 1970 when he was shown a set of concrete steps in which were embedded various German names, presumably those of prisoners at the camp.)
With the end of the war in 1945, the camp was again abandoned and reverted to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Two years later it was leased to the Dickinson United Presbyterian Church which remained the leaseholder throughout the years of KTA's annual visits.
By 1965, after ten consecutive years of attendance, some grumbling was being heard from KTA members about the need to find a new location for the annual meetings. The principal reason seemed to be a desire to have new hiking territory to explore, along with some feeling that the facilities at Camp Michaux were deteriorating and not being maintained.
Other Achievements
On April 1, 1957, KTA published its first newsletter (no fooling).
From September 27-29, 1957, KTA held its second annual meeting.
In 1960, the first edition of Pennsylvania Hiking Trails was published, with a second edition in 1962, and a third edition
in 1965. Although these early editions were modest publications, they were the necessary stepping-stones toward the more elaborate and sophisticated versions that the future would bring.
In 1962, the KTA Hiking Awards program was launched, and in the same year, the first KTA patch was designed and made available to members.
By the end of its first decade, KTA had shown itself fully ready to play a major role in Pennsylvania’s hiking world, and stood poised for the still greater achievements that the future would bring.
More to come next month!