New Paths Toward a History of Pennsylvania Outdoor Recreation

In his study of nineteenth-century southwestern Pennsylvania, historian Scott Martin describes leisure as “a contested cultural space, in which ideas about ethnicity, class, and gender were articulated and developed.”¹ Studies of outdoor recreation, a specific type of leisure taking place in natural settings, are valuable to historians of Pennsylvania for what they reveal about the ways groups chose to spend their free time and the implications for the state’s environmental, social, and political history. While outdoor recreation of various forms has always been a salient feature of life, the acceleration of industrialization and economic growth during the second half of the nineteenth century brought many Americans increased time and disposable income to spend on pursing various forms of recreation. As we know, this trend has continued through the twentieth and twenty-first centuries to the point where outdoor recreation drives a multibillion-dollar industry that annually services more than 159 million recreationists.²

In Pennsylvania, forms of outdoor recreation vary widely, from walking along a trail through Gifford Pinchot State Park and plunging a raft through the Youghiogheny River’s whitewater to peering through binoculars at a scarlet tanager and seeking a geocache (a hidden outdoor treasure sought in a game whose results are shared online). A majority of Pennsylvanians participate in some form of outdoor recreation and have done so for most of the Commonwealth’s history. Furthermore, this form of leisure is relatively egalitarian—both the wealthiest and poorest residents can participate in the same type of recreation, albeit perhaps in very different ways.

Outdoor recreation has a special relevance to environmental historians. Under Donald Worster’s well-known definition of environmental history as understanding “how humans have been affected by their natural environment through time and, conversely, how they have affected that environment and with what results,” outdoor recreation represents an explicit, self-conscious, and voluntary relationship with the environment.³ When environmental historians study how people interacted with the environment to clear land, grow food, extract minerals, and fight disease—activities done out of necessity rather than choice—they explain how people survived and the implications for the environment. In contrast, historians who study outdoor recreation can reconstruct Pennsylvanians’ idealized visions of nature and, through leisure, their desired interactions with it. This article surveys the contributions of outdoor recreation to the history of Pennsylvania—especially in terms of environmental, social, and political history—and, in the process, suggests areas for future study.

Creating and Preserving Recreational Landscapes

In Pennsylvania, recreationists have formed a powerful constituency for the protection of fish and game, natural places, and public access to land. Historians have long recognized the influence of sportsmen in enacting regulations and protecting habitat, which spurred the early conservation movement, led to regulation of resource extraction, and created the state park system.⁴ A host of prominent Pennsylvania recreationists have made significant contributions to the creation and preservation of recreational landscapes. Historian Thomas Smith notes that the Allegheny River Valley alone produced such nationally recognized figures as John P. Saylor, Howard Zahniser, Rachel Carson, and Edward Abbey.⁵ Pennsylvania was also home to lesser-known figures such as Daniel K. Hoch, the two-term U.S. Representative from Reading who in 1945 championed the first campaign for National Trails System legislation. “There is no pleasure in walking along an open hot road in an area of gas fumes, with the constant danger of being struck by cars,” he testified to the House Committee on Roads, which controlled potential trail funding. “We want to walk away from roads.”⁶ Members of the Audubon Society, Sierra Club, Izaak Walton League, Boone and Crockett Club, and the state’s other outing and sportsmen organizations spread news about threats to their chosen recreations and galvanized support for conservation legislation throughout the twentieth century.

The emergence of the environmental movement in the late 1960s and 1970s broadened the concerns of Pennsylvania recreationists, but their primary focus remained on protecting the land and game fundamental to their sports. For example, as Richard Albert recounts, canoers and hikers joined environmentalists and displaced property...