Base Camp Book, 1951

This book documents the 1951 Sierra Club Base Camp outings, held along the Ritter-Minaret Range in California Sierra Nevada. This year marks the extension of the base camp, from two sessions at two weeks each to three sessions at two weeks each. This was the largest Base Camp outing to date, including 48 children in attendance. This book documents the activities, accomplishments, and thoughts of the participants, from poetry and other creative works inspired by the natural environment to day hikes and mountain climbing excursions. There were also a number of educational programs documented in the book, including botany, entomology, mineralogy, geology, glaciology, and astronomy. Notable trip participants include the then Sierra Club president Dr. Harold Crowe, and Chiura Obata, a Japanese-American artist and UC Berkeley faculty member in the Art Department. Four of Obata's sketches are included in this book, as well as numerous black and white photographs of the Ritter-Minaret Range.