From Producing to Consuming: The End of the Volunteer Work Ethic in American Hiking Culture

Silas Chamberlin’s research on the history of the American hiking community explores the decline of what he calls the “producer-hiker.”  In contrast to historians’ abiding assumption that environmental institutions flourished during the 1960s and 1970s, his work offers an account of the disintegration of a remarkably rich culture promoted by organized hiking clubs during the previous one hundred years.  Between the end of World War II and the late 1960s, the size of the American hiking community grew exponentially, as millions of people went to the nation’s trails for the first time.  In a crucial departure from previous trends, most of these new hikers eschewed membership in an organized hiking club and instead hiked alone or in small, informal groups.  As a result, most never participated in trail building or maintaining activities, organized or led outings, cooked food, gathered firewood, or made camp for a group, or sacrificed weeknights and weekends to advance local conservation causes.  In other words, they became detached from the labor—both physical and mental—that traditionally accompanied participation in the hiking community.  Drawing from scholarship in American cultural history, environmental politics, and the history of consumerism, my comments will argue that during the late 1960s, the typical American hiker evolved from a net producer—of information, maps, well-maintained trails, advocacy, outings and club culture—to a net consumer—of equipment, national magazines, and federally-subsidized trails.  As Americans came to see trail access as a basic right provided by state and federal governments, the volunteer work ethic and significant personal labor that had defined American hiking culture for more than one hundred years was diminished.