Katherine Sleeper Walden | |
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| Born | November 27, 1862 Roxbury, Massachusetts, United States |
| Died | March 3, 1949 (aged 86) Wonalancet, New Hampshire, United States |
| Resting place | Wonalancet Union Chapel, Wonalancet, New Hampshire, US |
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| Known for | Environmental conservation activism |
| Spouse | Arthur Treadwell Walden (1902) |
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Katherine Sleeper Walden (November 27, 1862 – March 3, 1949) was a Boston-born environmental conservationist and community activist in Wonalancet, New Hampshire. The Sleepers, a pair of mountains in the White Mountains, and nearby Mount Katherine are named after Katherine, as is the Kate Sleeper Trail which traverses both peaks of The Sleepers.[1][2]
Katherine was the founder of Wonalancet Farm and the Wonalancet Out Door Club and married famed explorer and dog breeder Arthur Treadwell Walden in 1902. Her efforts succeeded in protecting thousands of acres of old-growth forest in the White Mountains.[3]
Katherine Sleeper was born on November 27, 1862, in the greater Boston area and was the daughter of Zilpha Loring Thomas and Charles Frederick Sleeper. The Sleepers were a well respected and wealthy family in the Boston area. Katherine's grandfather, John Sherburne Sleeper, was a sailor, shipmaster, children's book author, journalist, newspaper editor, and politician.[4] He held public office as mayor of Roxbury and as a Massachusetts state senator.[5][6]
In 1872, when Katherine was ten years old, her mother passed away. This caused Katherine and her father to move into the home of Katherine's grandfather in Roxbury.[7][8] In Roxbury, Katherine completed her education, participated in the community, attended the Berlitz School for French, learned music, and avidly attended a local women's athletic club. She frequented the Chocorua area of Tamworth to visit family and through these trips came to love the White Mountains and rural New Hampshire.[1]
At the beginning of her adult life, Katherine began working in her father's newspaper and became a journalist.[1][8] Her journalistic career began within a decade of when the first woman to be employed in a writing role at a Boston newspaper, Sallie Joy White, was hired by the Boston Press.[9]
In 1890, Katherine was faced with serious health complications and so went on a trip to Tamworth on a doctor's recommendation that she leave the city. While at a local inn, Katherine made the decision to open an inn in the area. During her time in Tamworth she grew close to her friend and cousin by marriage, Arthur Walden.[1][3]
Katherine was 28 at the time but often claimed that she was much younger. She is believed to have been under five feet tall and was described by contemporaries as having a high pitched voice and being very slight and youthful.[1] Her claims of youth are often attributed to the age of her friend and eventual husband, Arthur Walden, who was 10 years her younger.[3] Her youthfulness was such that she was "by tradition eighteen years old."[10]
Arthur and Katherine went to the small settlement of Birch Intervale, and Katherine made the decision to purchase Theophilous Brown's 1,300-acre (530 ha) farm on the south side of Sandwich Ridge, which included 600 acres (240 ha) of cleared fields, 700 acres (280 ha) of woodland, and a farmhouse built in 1814 that Katherine believed was ideal for being an inn.[11] Once in sight of the property, Katherine famously announced, "This is where I'm going to live!"[10] She hired Arthur to manage the property and work the land while she ran the inn. In managing the large property, Arthur was given the opportunity and means to breed and train sled dogs. These efforts produced the Chinook breed which is now the official state dog breed of New Hampshire.[12][13]
In 1958, Majory Gane Harkness wrote:
"[...] she was practically the first outsider of either sex when she settled in this pocket of the hills in 1890, as well as the first inhabitant with a talent for organizing, and further, that she was a woman of exceptional charm and originality no matter in what society she might be placed."
Katherine named the property Wonalancet Farm after a poem by Lucy Larcom, who was herself enamored by the White Mountains.[8]
During the winter of 1890–91, Sleeper made major renovations on the farmhouse and quickly became a respected member of the community.[1][14] That August, Appalachian Mountain Club (AMC) President Charles E. Fay and Councilor William Ladd stayed at the inn during a visit to the area. Katherine believed that the town of Birch Intervale, which was nicknamed "Poverty Flats", could be revitalized by an untapped tourism industry and so invited the AMC officers to meet with local landowners at Wonalancet Farm.[1][7] At this meeting, Katherine explained the AMC's work in creating trails throughout the country to locals and pitched the idea of clearing a hiking path from the village to the summit of Mount Passaconaway.
The town was persuaded, and within days the AMC leaders and a group of local farmers began work on the proposed path, Dicey's Mill Trail. That path remains the most popular on the mountain.[3] Over the subsequent years, Katherine organized efforts to clear and beautify residents' properties, repair the town's roadways, and renovate the local chapel.[3] In 1893 Katherine made the decision that Birch Intervale would benefit from a post office and so became the town's first postmistress.[1][15] In order to avoid confusion with the nearby town of Intervale, Birch Intervale was renamed Wonalancet.[10][15]
Katherine's encouragement of tourism began to show its worth within months of Katherine's efforts and the trails found immediate success as reporters began to praise Wonalancet Farm as a perfect Summer resort. Wonalancet was soon regarded as being among the foremost rural destinations in New England. Newspapers referenced the natural beauty of the area with details of the newly built trails.[16]
In 1898, in order to further encourage tourism and improve the area, Katherine successfully formed the Wonalancet Out Door Club (WODC) saying, "Its purpose shall be the building and maintenance of paths, to improve the place and develop its natural beauties for the attraction of summer guests."[2][7] The WODC cut paths, created maps, set guide boards, planted roadside trees, and established a campsite at the foot of a nearby mountain. Prior to 1891, no hiking trails or routes to the local summits existed. By 1901, at least nine unique trails were maintained for public use.[3]
In 1902, Katherine Sleeper married Arthur Treadwell Walden, with whom she had lived for twelve years, in Tamworth, New Hampshire.[17] The pair hosted and sponsored winter sports and activities, such as Arthur Walden's pastime of dog sledding, long before other destinations in the northeast. Wonalancet quickly grew to be the foremost year-round tourist hub in the White Mountains, earning widespread renown.[3][8]
Arthur had no small part in contributing to Wonalancet's popularity. The renown for his sled dogs and his breeding program attracted hundreds of visitors to Wonalancet. Interested visitors would often receive personal, in-depth tours from Arthur.[18] The fame of Wonalancet through to the modern day is in part owed to Arthur Walden's personal renown and the massive impact he had on sled dog racing in New England.[19]
Often considered her most important and lasting achievement was her fight against the New England "Timber Barons" and her protection of the Bowl. By the 1880s rural residents of New Hampshire were becoming increasingly alarmed by the widespread clearcutting and wildfires caused by unsustainable logging and the expansion of railroads through the state. A cycle began in which a wide swath of forest would be clearcut, the logging companies would leave downed logs, dried brush, and slashings littered over large areas, and hot coals and sparks from neighboring railways would ignite the readily supplied kindling.[3] The WODC explained the situation and cause for alarm:
"Fires raged for days, and the billows of smoke were viewed with alarm; dust and smoke restricted visibility. Rapid water run-off from rain and melting snow brought on spring floods, and produced low water levels throughout the summer and fall."
By the spring of 1903, the wildfires alone had destroyed over 84,000 acres (340 km2) of forests in the White Mountains, accounting for over a tenth of the entire region.[3] In response to the crisis Congress enacted the Weeks Act of 1911, which was tasked with the protection of forests. The issue of land costs became the primary concern of the newly formed commission and where best to place the boundaries of newly formed National Forests. The White Mountains National Forest initially did not include the lands north of the town, known as The Bowl, which were the most popular to both residents and visitors.[1][10] In 1914, Katherine became aware of a logging company's intention to purchase The Bowl and the land surrounding it. She personally went to meet with the president of the Publishers Paper Company, who owned the area. She succeeded in persuading him to grant her an option on three thousand acres in and surrounding The Bowl. The price of the region made it undesirable to the Forest Reservation Commission, but the WODC, Katherine, and countless other clubs and individuals succeeded in the protection of The Bowl.[1][3][7][10] In response to Katherine's efforts at revitalizing Wonalancet and conserving the surrounding landscape, Edgar J. Rich, who had been an 1899 visitor to Wonalancet Farm and later became a wealthy patron of the Wonalancet Out Door Club and White Mountains National Forest, said:[20]
"Wonalancet is not a geographical expression, it is a spirit, and it owes its existence to a young woman who came here twenty years ago - Miss Katherine Sleeper"
The Bowl, now officially called The Bowl Research Natural Area, is one of the last untouched old-growth forests in the American Northeast and is thus regarded as an important and valuable site for research.[2][3][21]
In 1914, Katherine organized a local festival to celebrate the centennial of her inn's construction and the passage of the Weeks Act. Later, during the First World War, she organized local women to create surgical dressings and clothing for those affected by the conflict. Her efforts were successful enough that the French government awarded Katherine an official recognition and award for her efforts.[1]
Katherine and Arthur ran Wonalancet Farm until the early 1930s when the couple fell on hard times due to the Great Depression and the advent of the automobile's impact on travel. They decided to retire and chose to move to nearby Brook Walden, a vacation home that Arthur's father had owned.[3] There are sources that instead claim that the couple's move was a result of Katherine's health deteriorating to the point of her becoming incapable of running the farm while Arthur was on an expedition to Antarctica. These sources claim that Katherine was forced out of the farmhouse and into a small cottage on the property by business partners who obtained power of attorney over the infirm Katherine in Arthur's absence. These sources further claim that Katherine's husband, Arthur Walden, was unable to retrieve the couple's belongings from the house and had many of their sources of income taken. This ordeal, as reported, resulted in Arthur selling his share of the property and moving to Brook Walden.[22]
In either case, the couple fell on hard times and left Wonalancet Farm in favor of Brook Walden. During this time, Katherine's health continued to deteriorate and she became largely incapable of walking. Arthur decided to retire from dog breeding and exploration in order to live a quiet life with and care for the infirm Katherine.[10]
Despite financial difficulties and pervasive health issues, Katherine continued her conservation efforts. In 1934, she donated a further 215 acres of land to the White Mountains National Forest.[23] She also owned a 57-acre tract of land which the WODC created the trails of Gordon Path and Ainsworth Trail. This land is now owned and kept by the Lakes Region Conservation Trust and the trails link Chinook Trail to the trails of the National Forest.[24]
On March 26, 1947, an oil burner inside Brook Walden caused a fire which quickly spread. Katherine was unable to walk on her own power and was thus unable to escape the house. Arthur, hearing Katherine's calls for help, rushed into the kitchen where she sat and carried her to safety. He then attempted to fight the fire and was killed by the blaze.[25] Katherine is quoted as having said that Arthur "went as he would have liked to go, in a glory of fame." She never fully recovered from the mental trauma and physical injuries she sustained as a result of the fire and died two years later on March 3, 1949.[3]
She is buried with her husband in the graveyard at Wonalancet Union Chapel, a church which she organized the reconstruction of and which has a steeple and bell dedicated to her.[26][27]
Katherine's achievements include leading conservationist groups in securing thousands of acres for the White Mountain National Forest and her successful protection of The Bowl. She is also remembered through her foundation of the Wonalancet Out Door Club and the revitalization of the now vibrant community of Wonalancet, New Hampshire.[1]
Three individual mountains, a mountain range, and multiple area trails are named after her and her community contributions have led to multiple novels, articles, and biographical pieces on her life and the influence she had in shaping the history of the White Mountains.[2]