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Sierra Club history
Sierra Club company history timeline
Olney drafted the club's articles of incorporation, which were signed in his law office on June 4, 1892.
1893 - The first Sierra Club Bulletin, forerunner of SIERRA magazine, is issued.
The Sierra Club Bulletin (first published in 1893 and continuing today as Sierra) included reports of excursions, guides to Sierran geography, and scientific papers on the range's natural history.
1894 - Sierra Club climbers place registers on the summits of six peaks and begin recording ascents.
1895 - John Muir and professors Joseph LeConte and William Dudley speak on preservation national parks and forest reserves at the Club's annual meeting.
1896 - Club publishes a map of Yosemite Valley and the central Sierra Nevada.
Recognizing a need to extend its educational activities beyond San Francisco, the Club established an information center for visitors to Yosemite Valley in 1898.
1899 - Congress establishes Mt.
A graduate of the University of California's Hastings Law School, Colby became Secretary of the Sierra Club in 1900, retaining that position for 46 years, with the exception of the two years he served as President.
By 1901 the Club's Board of Directors had determined that an annual summer outing would be a valuable addition to Club activities.
Run nearly every summer for more than 50 years as the Club's chief cultural event, the High Trips were not small excursions: 96 people went to Tuolumne Meadows in 1901, more to Kings Canyon the next summer, and the annual number of participants would grow to 200.
1902 - Sierra Club High Trip visits Kings Canyon.
In 1902 Muir led a group of campers from the annual outing to the summit of Mt.
Muir escorted President Theodore Roosevelt through Yosemite in 1903, and two years later the California legislature ceded Yosemite Valley and Mariposa Grove to the Federal government.
A close friend of Muir's daughter Wanda, Randall joined the 1904 outing as her first venture into the wilderness.
In 1905, 56 members of the annual outing, including 15 women, made the ascent of Mt.
Among its first successes was the defeat of efforts to constrict the size of Yosemite National Park, which in 1905 was transferred from state to federal control.
The final straw was the water company's failure to provide adequate water to fight the fires that destroyed much of the city following the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.
1907 - Club submits a resolution to the Secretary of the Interior opposing damming of Hetch Hetchy Valley.
1909 - Club sponsors trail construction to make the High Sierra above Kings Canyon accessible.
1910 - Club advocates establishment of Glacier National Park.
A planned dam at Hetch Hetchy Valley to secure hydroelectric energy for the San Francisco community flared into a national controversy in 1910 that raged for a decade and left dividing scars.
1911 - Devil's Postpile National Monument established, largely through the work of Club member Walter Huber.
1912 - Club urges establishment of a National Park Service and buys inholdings at Soda Springs in Yosemite National Park.
The bill to dam Hetch Hetchy passed Congress in 1913, and so the Sierra Club lost its first major battle.
John Muir died on Christmas Eve, 1914, crestfallen over the outcome of the Hetch Hetchy affair.
Some Club members had been interested in skiing from the beginning, and in 1915 Hazel King had written for the Bulletin of her "wonderful flight on hickory wings" at Tahoe.
Joseph LeConte, son of one of the original founders, followed Muir as president in 1915.
In retaliation, the Club supported creation of the National Park Service in 1916, to remove the parks from Forest Service oversight.
1917 - Club protests grazing in national parks as an unnecessary wartime measure.
1918 - Club urges enlargement of Sequoia National Park to include headwaters of Kings and Kern rivers.
Some were documented by legendary photographer Ansel Adams, who joined in 1919.
1920 - Club opposes plan to build dams in Yellowstone National Park.
1921 - Club urges purchase of redwoods in California's Humboldt County for a state park.
1924 - Club advocates establishment of a California State Park Commission and a statewide survey of land suitable for state parks.
1925 - Club inaugurates a photographic collection for loan to educational and other institutions.
1927 - California legislature establishes a State Park Commission, with Sierra Club Secretary William Colby as its first chairman.
1928 - Club contributes $1,000 toward purchase and donation to the National Park Service of a private inholding in Sequoia National Park.
During the winter of 1929-30, Club member Orland Bartholomew solo-skied the crest of the Sierra from Lone Pine to Yosemite Valley.
In 1930 William Colby led his last High Trip.
In 1930 the Angeles Chapter constructed Harwood Lodge in San Antonio Canyon, and a few years later the chapter built San Antonio Hut and Keller Peak Ski Lodge.
Such lighthearted interest in art continued; Ansel Adams wrote and produced The Trudgin' Woman and Exhaustos, performed during the 1931 High Trip.
The year 1931 brought to the Club a major technological innovation that promised to change the nature of mountaineering.
1932 - Club urges National Park Service to investigate Alaska's Admiralty Island as a national park.
1933 - Muir Lodge destroyed by flood.
1934 - Club builds Clair Tappaan Lodge near Donner Pass and publishes A Guide to the John Muir Trail by Walter Starr.
In 1934 Eichorn, Leonard, and Robinson climbed the Cathedral Spires in Yosemite, using pitons for the first time in the Sierra.
Skiers from the San Francisco Bay Area built Clair Tappaan Lodge near Donner Summit in 1934, and others followed.
1935 - Legislation introduced to establish Kings Canyon National Park; Club opposes a road into the area.
1936 - Ansel Adams travels with his photographs to Washington, D.C., to lobby the Roosevelt administration to preserve Kings Canyon and the surrounding High Sierra.
Under the auspices of Richard Leonard, who became chair of the Outing Committee in 1936, outings were diversified.
1937 - Club opposes construction of a tunnel to divert water under Rocky Mountain National Park
The Club obtained appropriations from the California Legislature and did much of the exploration and planning; even before the trail was completed in 1938, the Club published Walter Starr's Guide to the John Muir Trail, and it has keep the book in print ever since.
First came the Burro Trips in 1938, begun by Joel Hildebrand's son, Milton.
1939 - Club produces its first film, Sky-Land Trails of the Kings, and publishes a booklet to promote establishment of Kings Canyon National Park.
1940 - Congress establishes Kings Canyon National Park.
Already a volunteer, and a board member since 1941, he was hired to campaign against the Upper Basin project that threatened to place seven dams in the Colorado River basin.
1942 - Club contributes $2,500 toward Park Service acquisition of privately owned property on Tenaya Lake in Yosemite National Park.
1943 - Club successfully defends Jackson Hole National Monument and opposes repeal of the Antiquities Act, which allows establishment of national monuments.
1946 - Club supports legislation to establish Joshua Tree National Monument.
1947 - Club succeeds in campaign to preserve San Gorgonio Primitive Area and works to protect Olympic National Park and Jackson Hole National Monument.
And in 1947 Richard Leonard coauthored the article "Protecting Mountain Meadows" with Lowell Sumner, an influential Park Service biologist.
1948 - Club opposes construction of Glacier View Dam, which would flood 20,000 acres of Glacier National Park.
Held in 1949, the conference was attended by about 100 federal and state land managers, outing leaders, and professional outfitters and guides.
1950 - Interior Secretary orders study of alternatives to damming Oregon's Rogue River.
The first chapter outside of California--the Atlantic, organized by Tom Jukes to serve members on the East Coast--would be chartered in 1950.
In 1951 the Board of Directors recommended that the Club's statement of purpose be revised from "explore, enjoy and render accessible . . ." to "explore, enjoy and preserve the Sierra Nevada and other scenic resources of the United States." Soon after, this change was approved by the membership.
Going Light--With Backpack or Burro, edited by Brower, was published by the Club in 1951.
1952 - Interior Secretary Oscar Chapman temporarily protects Dinosaur National Monument by ordering a study of alternative dam sites.
1953 - More than 200 Club members take six-day raft trips down the Yampa and Green rivers in Dinosaur National Monument; Club produces Wilderness River Trail to promote Dinosaur's values.
Dave Brower, a publicist for the Yosemite Park hospitality operator, became the club's first executive director in 1953--the beginning of professional Sierra Club staff.
1954 - Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay renews plan to build dams in Dinosaur National Monument; Club continues battle to save the park.
1956 - Federal water developers drop plans to dam Dinosaur National Monument, but begin construction of Glen Canyon Dam.
1957 - Club sponsors 5th Biennial Wilderness Conference on "Wildlands in Our Civilization." Wilderness Alps of Stehekin is filmed to publicize the North Cascades.
1958 - Outing Committee organizes the first service trips in which hikers work on trail maintenance and backcountry management projects.
1959 - Sixth Wilderness Conference focuses on "The Meaning of Wilderness to Science." Participants raise the issue of the environmental effects of world overpopulation.
1960 - The Sierra Club Foundation established.
1961 - Seventh Wilderness Conference discusses "The American Heritage of Wilderness," emphasizing the role of wilderness in molding the American character.
1962 - Congress establishes Point Reyes and Padre Island national seashores to preserve endangered coastlines in California and Texas.
1963 - Club launches campaign to protect the Grand Canyon following congressional proposals to dam and flood parts of it.
Though much of its early work was concentrated in California and the West, after mid-century the Sierra Club expanded its efforts nationally, opening an office in Washington, D.C., in 1963.
The Wilderness Act became law in 1964, though it still allowed mining.
1966 - Club's full-page newspaper ads urging protection of the Grand Canyon prompt Internal Revenue Service to rule that donations to the Club are no longer tax-deductible.
In 1966, Congress introduced legislation to authorize construction of two dams on the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon.
1967 - Club celebrates 75th Anniversary.
Even in a changing environment, where quotas frequently must be used to limit recreational impacts, and in a Sierra Club with priorities that have come to include protecting clean air, soil, and water as well as wilderness, the original philosophy of outings continues. It has been clearly stated in On The Loose, a book written by young members Terry and Renny Russell, published by the Sierra Club in 1967:
1968 - Club succeeds in campaigns to stop dams in the Grand Canyon and to establish Redwoods National Park.
The club published controversial open letters in national newspapers and by 1968 the beginnings of the park were in place.
The first division of the Atlantic Chapter came in 1968 with the formation of the Southeastern Chapter.
1969 - Club wins suit to stop pollution in Lake Superior and joins a coalition on environmental groups opposing development of a jetport in Florida's Everglades.
The National Environment Policy Act, which became law in January 1970, required impact studies for future federal projects.
The Clean Air Act also was passed, the Environmental Protection Agency was created, and April 22, 1970 was designated the first Earth Day.
1970 - Congress enacts the National Environmental Policy Act, establishes the Environmental Protection Agency, and denies funds for Everglades jetport.
1971 - In a victory for a coalition that included the Club, Congress defeats funding for the supersonic transport (SST). Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act passes, granting the Secretary of Interior authority to set-aside up to 80 million acres in national-interest lands.
1973 - Club launches campaign to defend the Clean Air Act against auto industry opposition.
1974 - Club successfully lobbies to establish Big Cypress Thicket Preserve in Texas and Big Cypress Preserve in Florida.
Hoping to gain more sway with elected officials, the group began funding electoral campaigns in earnest (thanks to a 1974 campaign finance reform law), during a time that also saw the emergence of more radical groups such as Greenpeace.
1976 - Club wins campaign to repeal obsolete land disposal policies and establish a wilderness review program for the Bureau of Land Management's 341 million acres.
1977 - Club joins successful effort to strengthen the Clean Air Act.
1978 - Club wins a 48,000-acre addition to Redwood National Park, protecting the watershed of the Earth's tallest trees.
1979 - Following the nuclear accident at Three Mile Island, Club calls for phased closure of all commercial reactors.
1980 - Congress passes Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act designating more than 103 million acres of parks, wildlife refuges, and wilderness areas.
In 1980 she stood unsuccessfully for the federal House of Commons from a Nova Scotia riding as a candidate of the fledgling Small Party, of which she was a founding member and which laid the groundwork for the formation of the Green Party.
1981 - Sierra Club and other conservation groups gather more than one million petition signatures urging the ouster of Interior Secretary James Watt.
However, in 1982 the Chapter began publishing The Mountain Laurel again.
1983 - Club holds its first International Assembly in Snowmass, Colorado.
1984 - Congress passes wilderness bills that protect 6.8 million acres in national forests and 1.4 million acres in national parks.
Ansel Adams died in 1984 while working on "Manifesto of the Earth," a response to these policies.
More recently, in 1984, pressure from Potomac Chapter members encouraged the Maryland General Assembly to enact landmark legislation on the Chesapeake Bay.
More Chesapeake Newsletters are archived at the University of Maryland College Park library. It was renamed the Chesapeake in 1984.
1985 - Club successfully supports reauthorization of strengthened Superfund law and Clean Water Act.
In 1985 the club bought a new office building in downtown San Francisco, where it kept its staff of 250.
1986 - Club helps win congressional designation of 270,000-acre Columbia Gorge National Scenic Area and supports enactment of a 76,000-acre Great Basin National Park in Nevada.
1987 - Congress passes reauthorization and expansion of the Clean Water Act over veto by President Reagan and designates wilderness areas in Michigan and Virginia.
1988 - Club awards Clean Air medals to 270 congressional representatives for their efforts on behalf of clean air legislation, and the EPA releases a study showing that 135 million American live in communities that fail to meet air pollution standards.
1989 - Club runs full-page ad in The New York Times condemning Exon Valdez oil spill in Prince William Sound, Alaska, North America's largest spill to date.
It was successful in pushing through legislation that created the Dolly Sods, Otter Creek, and Cranberry Wilderness Areas in West Virginia. For example, in 1990 the Chapter was instrumental in having undeveloped parts of Fort Meade taken over by the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service and incorporated into the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center and National Wildlife Refuge.
1992 - Club begins its second century.
In 1992, the Delaware Group broke away from the Potomac Chapter.
1993 - After a decade-long Club campaign, Colorado Wilderness bill enacted.
Most recently, in 1994, the Potomac Chapter formally changed its name, becoming the Maryland Chapter.
1995 - Club delivers over a million signatures on Environmental Bill of Rights to defend against the "War on the Environment" waged by Republican-led Congress.
1996 - Club's Utah wilderness campaign helps pressure President Clinton to create Escalante-Grand Staircase National Monument, protecting 1.7 million acres.
1998 - Club's "Clean Air for Our Kids" campaign leads to adoption of tougher air quality standards to protect human health.
The group spent $7 million on the 1998 elections, including advertising and its first get-out-the-vote campaign.
1999 - Club protests global trade without adequate environmental controls, and joins with Amnesty International in publishing Environmentalists Under Fire: 10 Urgent Cases of Human Rights Abuses.
2001 - Outgoing President Clinton moves to protect 60 million acres of wild national forests, including the Tongass National Forest in Alaska.
2002 - A bill was signed into law protecting nearly 500,000 acres of Mojave Desert wilderness in southern Nevada.
2004 - Club and allies block proposals to allow oil and gas development in Montana's Rocky Mountain Front and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
2005 - Club legal victory forces Bush administration to abandon plans for a logging project on the Grand Canyon's north rim.
2006 - Club lawsuit succeeds in protecting Giant Sequoia National Monument from Bush administration plan to allow commercial logging.
May won the right to participate in the party-leader debates in the 2008 federal election, but the Green Party failed to win representation in the House of Commons.
In the 2011 federal election, however, May became the first Green Party member to win a seat in the House of Commons.
2012 -- Influenced by Club petitions and member support, the United States Department of the Interior releases plan to protect 11 million acres of the Western Arctic Reserve from oil and gas drilling.
In 2013 she launched a tour titled Save Democracy from Politics, during which she encouraged discussion of the “democracy deficit” that she alleged had been created by the country’s first-past-the-post electoral system at town hall meetings across Canada.
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Sierra Club competitors
| Company name | Founded date | Revenue | Employee size | Job openings |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| National Audubon Society | 1905 | $99.7M | 600 | 82 |
| The Nature Conservancy | 1951 | $1.3B | 3,000 | 11 |
| Resources for the Future | 1952 | $14.6M | 127 | - |
| 350.org | 2008 | $15.0M | 216 | - |
| The Trust for Public Land | 1972 | $25.0M | 350 | 5 |
| The Heartland Institute | 1984 | $5.5M | 20 | - |
| NARAL Pro-Choice America | 1969 | $14.3M | 166 | - |
| Earth Island Institute | 1982 | $11.2M | 50 | - |
| Citizens' Climate Lobby | 2007 | $99,999 | 125 | - |
| Save the Redwoods League | 1918 | $21.7M | 75 | 3 |
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