The Sierra Club is founded on May 28, 1892, with John Muir as its first president.
The Sierra Club's original journal evolved over the years into the award-winning SIERRA magazine of today.
The Sierra Club establishes the first visitor's center, Sinning's Cottage, in Yosemite Valley. It is staffed by William Colby, a 23-year-old Sierra Club member who would later found the Sierra Club Outings program.
Congress establishes Mt. Rainier National Park in Washington State in response to efforts of the Sierra Club and other groups.
In the Sierra Club’s first outing, William Colby leads 96 participants on a multi-week trip to Yosemite Valley and Tuolumne Meadows. Understanding that people are more likely to value what they know and experience, the Sierra Club initiates an annual High Trip to take groups of people into the mountains to hike, climb, and camp. These popular trips convert city-weary folks into lovers of, and protectors of, mountains and wilderness. They are the beginning of the Sierra Club's expanded and continuing Outings Program, which today exposes over 200,000 people a year to natural landscapes all over the world.
Sierra Club founder John Muir convinces President Theodore Roosevelt to back a proposal to transfer management of Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Grove from the state of California back to the federal government, thereby making Yosemite National Park whole. The bill making it official passes in 1906.
The fourth Sierra Club Outing travels to Yosemite, Tuolumne Meadows, and Hetch Hetchy. Panoramic photo by Edward T. Parsons.
The San Francisco earthquake and fire destroy the Sierra Club's records and library.
To meet the water needs of a growing San Francisco, a dam is proposed to flood the Hetch Hetchy Valley within Yosemite National Park. The Sierra Club opposes the dam site as a violation of the protected status of national parks. Although the Sierra Club lost this battle, our strong and public opposition ultimately resulted in a widespread conviction that our national parks should be held inviolate.
Sierra Club membership reaches 1,000.
The Angeles Chapter is founded, starting first as the Southern California Section of the Sierra Club, then as the Southern California Chapter, and finally as the Angeles Chapter.
Congress votes to allow flooding of Hetch Hetchy Valley in Yosemite National Park.
John Muir dies in a Los Angeles hospital on Christmas Eve.
After John Muir’s death in 1914, the Sierra Club successfully lobbies the California state legislature to establish the John Muir Trail to run between the Yosemite Valley floor and Mt. Whitney -- over 200 miles. Sierra Club volunteers work with the Forest Service and the State of California to build the trail. Forest Supervisor Paul Redington describes the trail as “a State recognition of [Muir’s] inestimable service in bringing the wonderful mountains of California to the attention of the world”.
John Muir had long advocated the creation of a bureau to oversee and protect the national parks. After Muir's death in 1914, the Sierra Club continued to advocate for its establishment. On August 25, 1916, President Woodrow Wilson signs an act creating the National Park Service, a new federal bureau in the Department of the Interior responsible for protecting the 35 national parks and monuments then managed by the department and those yet to be established. The first director, Stephen Mather, is a Sierra Club member.
The Sierra Club successfully opposes a proposal for major dams in Yellowstone National Park.
The Sierra Club successfully opposes dam sites in the Kings River region, which is now part of Kings Canyon National Park.
The Sierra Club leads a successful effort to enlarge Sequoia National Park. Congress adds the Kern and Kaweah regions, including Mt. Whitney.
Aurelia Squire Harwood becomes the first female president of the Sierra Club.
The 1928 annual summer High Trip takes Sierra Club members out of the U.S. for the first time—to the Canadian Rockies. Ansel Adams is the trip’s official photographer.
Harwood Lodge is built as a memorial to Aurelia S. Harwood, past president of the Sierra Club and leader of the Angeles Chapter. The lodge in the San Gabriel Mountains above Pomona, CA, is a place to get away from the city and enjoy the solitude of clear mountain air and blue skies.
In the 1930s, the Sierra Club forms Rock Climbing Sections that begin teaching climbing techniques to members. The Sierra Club Decimal Rating System, developed at Tahquitz Rock by the Angeles Chapter Rock Climbing Section, soon becomes the American standard for determining the difficulty of rock climbs.
In 1934, a group of Sierra Club volunteers builds Clair Tappaan Lodge as a rustic retreat for hikers, skiers, and mountain climbers. The lodge is a charming home base from which to explore the riches of the Sierra Nevada.
Famed photographer and Sierra Club board member Ansel Adams journeys to Washington, D.C., to lobby the Roosevelt administration using his photographs of the High Sierra.
The Sierra Club produces its first film, "Sky-Land Trails of the Kings" to promote creation of Kings Canyon National Park.
Kings Canyon National Park is established after a long Sierra Club campaign.
A 1941 outings flier advertises a horseback trip.
During World War II, Sierra Club members, including David Brower, respond to the need for an alpine fighting force by using their mountaineering and skiing skills to found and train the 10th Mountain Division -- a unit that distinguishes itself from the Dolomites of Italy to the Hindu Kush of Afghanistan. More than 1,000 Club members serve in the war.
The Sierra Club successfully opposes repeal of the Antiquities Act, which is used to establish national monuments.
The Sierra Club succeeds in its campaign to preserve San Gorgonio Primitive Area in Southern California -- and works to protect Olympic National Park in Washington State.
The Sierra Club successfully opposes construction of Glacier View Dam, which would have flooded 20,000 acres of Glacier National Park.
At the Sierra Club’s urging, Grand Teton National Park is enlarged to include Jackson Hole National Monument.
The Atlantic Chapter becomes the first Sierra Club chapter outside of California and includes New York, Connecticut, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, Georgia, Rhode Island, Vermont, North Carolina, South Carolina, Pennsylvania, Alabama, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, Florida, and the District of Columbia.
47,000 acres are added to Olympic National Park in Washington State at the urging of the Sierra Club and other concerned citizens and groups.
A photographic exhibit called “This Is the American Earth” is assembled by Ansel Adams and Nancy Newhall and first displayed at the Sierra Club’s visitor center in Yosemite Valley. It later tours the country and inspires the Sierra Club’s successful series of "Exhibit Format" books.
The Sierra Club participates in a successful campaign to prevent dam construction in Dinosaur National Monument.
The Sierra Club's Outing Committee organizes the first service trips, where participants work on trail maintenance and other public-service projects.
Inspired by the success of the earlier traveling exhibit, the Sierra Club publishes "This Is the American Earth," the first in a series of "Exhibit Format " photographic books.
The Sierra Club Foundation is established. The Sierra Club Foundation works to educate, inspire, and empower humanity to preserve the natural and human environment by (1) providing resources to the Sierra Club and other nonprofit organizations for charitable programs that protect and restore the environment; (2) raising funds, donated for tax-exempt charitable purposes; and (3) preserving, enhancing and administering these funds so that future generations will inherit a healthy planet with wild places left to explore.
The Sierra Club assists in establishing Point Reyes National Seashore in California and Padre Island National Seashore in Texas.
The Wilderness Act is passed by Congress after a long campaign by the Sierra Club and others.
In 1966, the House of Representatives considers the Marble Canyon and Bridge Canyon dams, which would flood part of Grand Canyon National Park. Sierra Club leaders draft what will later be known as the “Grand Canyon Battle Ads,” a series that runs in the New York Times and other newspapers. The following year, plans to dam the Grand Canyon fall apart, but the cost of victory was high: Decision-makers chose to power the flow of water to the Southwest by building a massive coal-fired power plant on Navajo land instead.
The Sierra Club publishes its first calendars, which will go on to be bestsellers for the next 50 years.
The Sierra Club leads effort to create Redwood National Park and assists in a successful fight to expand the Land and Water Conservation Fund.
Efforts of the Sierra Club, Black community organizers, and others lead to passage of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) effective January 1, 1970. The act also establishes the President's Council on Environmental Quality to advise the president in the preparation of an annual report on the progress of federal agencies in implementing NEPA.
Sierra Club Chapters now cover all 50 states, and Sierra Club membership passes 100,000.
The Water Pollution Control Act establishes the goal of eliminating releases of high amounts of pollutants into water.
The Sierra Club leads a successful effort to open the Highway Trust Fund to mass-transit funding.
The Sierra Club successfully lobbies to establish Big Thicket Preserve in Texas and Big Cypress Preserve in Florida.
The Sierra Club persuades Congress to substantially enlarge Grand Canyon National Park and to establish Hells Canyon National Recreation Area.
We'd love to hear from you. Please send questions or feedback to the below email addresses.
Before contacting us, you may wish to visit our FAQs page which has lots of useful info on Tiki-Toki.
We can be contacted by email at: hello@tiki-toki.com.
You can also follow us on twitter at twitter.com/tiki_toki.
If you are having any problems with Tiki-Toki, please contact us as at: help@tiki-toki.com
Close