The Friends of the Wapack has announced the completion of an archival project preserving the history of one of New England’s oldest hiking trails. With the collection now fully digitized, it will be permanently housed at the Monadnock Center for History and Culture, ensuring public access.
The Wapack Trail, a 21.5-mile route from Mount Watatic in Ashburnham, Mass., to North Pack Monadnock in Greenfield, was completed in 1923 and remains a destination for hikers and nature-lovers. Since the 1980s, the Friends of the Wapack’s historical collection has been housed at the Peterborough Town Library. Recently, Outreach Librarian Rebecca Enman oversaw the digitization of the collection in collaboration with the Friends of the Wapack, preparing it for its new permanent home.
Longtime FoW member and volunteer George Kocur contributed more than 40 hours of work to scan and organize the group’s newsletters and key documents.
“This archive is a time capsule of how the trail was built, maintained, and protected over the decades,” stated Bruce Myrick, president of the Friends of the Wapack. “We are deeply grateful to Jeannette Baker, FoW archivist, and Peterborough Town Library for preserving this collection for 35 years, and to the Monadnock Center for providing it a lasting home.”
The digitized archive includes newspaper clippings dating back to the 1920s, maps, FoW newsletters from 1983 onward, photographs, correspondence, Wapack Lodge visitor logs and other materials documenting the organization’s evolution and impact. These records highlight major milestones, conservation efforts and volunteer-led maintenance projects.
“We were honored to be stewards of this collection, which captures a unique aspect of conservation history for our region. Just as the trail has been maintained by many hands, it took many hands to collect, care for and finally digitize this collection. We are grateful to the Monadnock Center for History and Culture for accepting this new collection,” stated Library Director Corinne Chronopoulos.
Originally envisioned in the mid-1800s and brought to life in the 1920s by trail pioneers Frank Robbins and Marion Davis — who also coined the name “Wapack” — the trail has always relied on cooperation between hikers and private landowners. Much of the trail today still passes through privately owned land, making stewardship and relationship-building central to FoW’s mission.
“The Monadnock Center is thrilled to add this important collection to the center’s archives,” stated Executive Director Michelle Stahl, “The Wapack holds a significant place in the history of hiking, skiing, and land protection. The collection will illuminate these histories for scholars and enthusiasts for generations to come.”
The Friends of the Wapack, founded in 1980, is a nonprofit, volunteer-run organization that works to preserve, maintain and protect the Wapack Trail and surrounding landscapes. To find out more, visit wapack.org.