2024-01-27 12:39:58
Walking was a bigger hobby 110 years ago. This is a story of a very long walk that passed through the area in 1914.
Fred Callahan was already a transcontinental walker when he traveled through North Dakota. He had hiked from New York City to San Francisco in 86 days in the summer and fall of 2013.
He decided to walk back to New York City. I would have taken the train and saved the shoe leather, but he decided to walk starting on Sept. 3, 1913. He also selected a more northern route for his return east.
That is why Callahan was hiking across North Dakota in January of 1914.
Not the ideal time to be on foot in North Dakota.
Callahan said he walked at a brisk 4 mph and covered regarding 25 miles per day. He stopped at hotels along the route where he would have the hotel management write him a letter confirming the date he had stopped.
Edward Weston had walked across the United States in 1909. His highly publicized trip took 100 days and likely generated others, including Callahan, to attempt to duplicate his feat.
Walkers, or pedestrians as the press sometimes called them, didn’t have support teams back in those days and just set out to cross the country.
Modern transcontinental walkers are often doing this as a way to raise awareness for charitable or social causes.
The current record for the fastest trans-America walk belongs to John Lee, who traveled from Los Angeles to New York City in 53 days, 12 hours and 15 minutes in 1972.
But we are pretty sure he didn’t include North Dakota in his planned itinerary.
Author Keith Norman can be reached at
1706412677
#Crosscountry #pedestrian #passes #North #Dakota #Jamestown #Sun
