Peek at the Past

The date is January 25, 1931, and posing with the cook, the cook's assistant, and their dog at Colby's Ranch are some of the most distinguished hikers and leaders of the 1920s and '30s. Among them are no fewer than eight Great Leaders(*) -members who distinguished themselves by having led outings for spans exceeding 10 years, and in some cases for several decades. Standing on the left between the cook and his assistant is H.R. 'Bob' Sturdevant*. To the right of the cook, wearing white pants, stands John Banks* (Chapter Chair, 1950). Next to him, in a plaid shirt with dark pants, is Art Johnson* (Chapter Chair, 1951). The woman sitting in the back row is Luella Todd*, while standing to the right of her, wearing glasses, is Bob Schonborn* (Chapter Chair, 1938). The only other figure identified in the back row is Byron Schmidt, standing at the far right. Sitting left to right are Dessie Daler*, Frank Noel*, Harry 'Mutau' Wilson, and Russell Hubbard*.

This peek at the past comes courtesy of H.R. 'Bob' Sturdevant, a railroad worker who was an active Chapter outings leader from 1930 through 1955. Among Sturdevant's many accomplishments was his single-handed maintenance of the Sam Merrill Trail to Echo Mountain after Merrill's death in 1948, a task he dutifully fulfilled until his own passing in 1960. Sturdevant was an accomplished photographer and his albums provide an invaluable record of the Great Hiking Era of the 1920s and '30s, and of the Sierrans who partook in it. To date, 135 high quality photographs have been scanned from the Sturdevant Collection into the Angeles Chapter eArchive. They are among the nearly 2000 historic images that can be browsed on the library computer at the chapter office.

-Bob Cates, Angeles Chapter Historian