99 Years and Counting

Superior Court Judge Clair S. Tappaan at the 1913 dedication of the Muir Lodge. The judge poses with a large portion of the Southern California Chapter, with whom he planted the little sequoia tree in the center foreground. The sequoia grew prodigiously, as did the Southern California Chapter, which grew up to be known as the Angeles Chapter. photo by Angeles Chapter Archives

The Chapter Kicks Off a Year of Centennial-Themed Celebrating and the History Committee Calls on the Membership To Help Plan
The Party of the Century

We have a mutual friend nearing 100 years of age who is going stronger than ever. That's right, it's the Angeles Chapter, known as the Southern California Chapter when it was founded on November 1, 1911. We can be proud that we were the first Chapter in the Sierra Club.

Now we are the largest and most active of the many Chapters covering the entire United States and Canada. We've come a long way in our first century, growing from an original membership of 300 in all of Southern California to well over 40,000 today in the Angeles Chapter alone.

To celebrate that growth and a century of service to its members and our communities, the Angeles Chapter has declared a Centennial Celebration Year, beginning this November and culminating in a special Celebration Program in November of 2011.

In addition to the Centennial Celebration Program, the Chapter History Committee urges each of the major groups, sections, and committees to help celebrate the year by picking out activities from their own glorious past to commemorate through group presentations, recreations of past outings or events, or articles in their entity's newsletter. The opportunities are boundless, and the Chapter History Committee will aid in any way it can by introducing researchers to the Chapter Archives.

The Centennial Celebration Year promises to be an exciting and nostalgic occasion for our Chapter, and a challenging episode for the Chapter History Committee. We need more volunteers-people to sniff out historical materials, to organize and synthesize existing archival material, and to carry the message of our heritage within the Chapter and to communities outside the Chapter.

Please contact the Chapter History Committee or attend the next Centennial planning meeting, Sunday, November 21, 9:30 a.m. at Chapter Headquarters located at 3250 Wilshire Blvd. #1106, Los Angeles, CA 90010.