Improvised Registers including Draft Cards from West Spanish Peak 1940s-50s.
Placed atop peaks by the Colorado Mountain Club, these summit registers record the names of people who climbed Colorado's mountains. They date to the early 1900s and document the rise in popularity of climbing as a sport and the Colorado mountains themselves as a tourist destination. The registers include receipts, scraps of paper, and even a few draft cards that climbers used when no provided official register was found.
These registers were all placed atop Colorado peaks by the Colorado Mountain Club and its members. They are mostly the Colorado 14ers, but also include many peaks across the state that stand from Boulder's Green Mountain at 8,150-feet to Mount Elbert's 14,433-feet. They date from before the Club's founding in 1912 to present-day. The collection also shows the variety of registers and canisters that people come up with. When the standard-issued Colorado Mountain Club registers were not available, inventive climbers used receipts, scraps of paper, and even a few draft cards. The CMC once issued bronze canisters with the registers inside to leave atop peaks. Early climbers used often used tin cans and glass jars when no canister was found. Today modified PVC pipes are commonly used.
Summit registers record the names of people who climbed mountains in Colorado. They date back to the early 1900s and document the rise in popularity of climbing as a sport and the Colorado mountains themselves as a tourist destination.
American Alpine Club
710 10th Street
Golden, CO 80401
United States