The History of Orienteering in the U.S.

Beginning in 1967

Harald Wibye of Norway began public orienteering in the United States. Ever since his first event on November 5, 1967, at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, the Delaware Valley Orienteering Association, as his group became known, has held events regularly. In 1992 they became the largest club in the U.S. with over 600 members. Caroline and Kent Ringo have provided leadership for DVOA since 1968. During his two-year stay in North America, Wibye also founded the first Canadian orienteering club in Montreal, produced the first tow modern color orienteering maps on the continent, and helped orienteers in a dozen states. Today he is a computer consultant in Moss, Norway, where he regularly maneuvers his six and a half foot frame gracefully through the woods of Norway, map in hand.

Even earlier, apparently in the Summer of 1967, the U.S. Marine Corps Physical Fitness Academy at Quantico, Virginia, began orienteering activities under assistant director Jim "Yogi" Hardin. Within Two months of Quantico's first known public orienteering event on July 12, 1968 (Organized largely by Wibye), the second assistant director Bob Shoptaw arrived and began carrying out the goal of starting orienteering throughout the Marine Crops nationwide. He also became the primary founder of the U.S. Orienteering Federation on August 1, 1971. The motive, according to Don Davis, a Quantico orienteer since 1970, and editor of the USOF pages in the national magazine from 1986 to 1997, was to have the most sensible land navigation training strategy. At the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York, cadets began intramural score orienteering in pairs in the Spring of 1966. West Point's first known events open to the public did not occur until 1975-1976.

Early Successes

The first orienteering events in North America started on November 10, 1941, and continued until 1943 at Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, organized by Finnish army officer Piltti Heiskanen.

Bjorn Kjellstrom, the co-inventor in Sweden in the early 1930's of the protractor type, liquid-damped magnetic compass, moved to the U.S. in 1946 and remained an ever-present supporter and sponsor of orienteering well into the 1990's. In 1946 Bjorn put on orienteering events for Boy Scouts, in 1948 held events in Canada, and supported or organized compass events and some orienteering events throughout the fifties and sixties. A greater awareness of topographic map and compass use was developed, however there were no known cases of orienteering catching on for good.

In the 1965 to 1968 period, Kjellstrom organized compass and map game activities at Ward Pound Ridge Reservation just North of the New York City area, with Wibye adding a competitive orienteering course upon his arrival there in 1968. Apparently, orienteering activity at Pound Ridge did not resume until the 1972 U.S. Championships held by Hans Bengtsson of Massachusetts and his fledgling New England Orienteering Club.

Beginning in March 1970, Alex "Sass" Peepre, a physical education professor orienteering since 1965 in Guelph, Ontario, Hank Schafermeyer, cartographer Lowell Solterman, Paul Yambert, and Andy Marcec succeeded in starting orienteering at Southern Illinois University. The first U.S. Orienteering Championships was held there on October 17, 1970.

The Sport Evolves

After fading away around 1971-72, West Point orienteering was rejuvenated in 1975 by U.S. Army orienteering founder Bud Fish. The cadets have dominated U.S. intercollegiate competition from 1978 to the present except for 1983-85 when Gene Wee's University of Kansas orienteers won. Bill Gookin has been an orienteering organizer in the San Diego area since 1969. The San Francisco Bay area club with the leadership of Joe Scarborough and the clubs around the Seattle, Washington, area grew rapidly as the top western orienteering areas in the 1980's.

By March 1973, over 300 competitors attended the annual nationally sanctioned meet by the Ohio University club in Athens, Ohio, where the USOF office was operated by Eric Wagner. Joannie Gunther and Cindy Fuller, USOF leaders into the mid-1980's, began orienteering here. The growing St. Louis Orienteering Club's Bob Defer handled the USOF office from 1978-85. USOF membership rose to 1150 by 1975, 1900 with 80 clubs by 1978, then declined as ROTC withdrew military support in colleges and college clubs, both ROTC and others, began disappearing especially in the South and Midwest.

As the 1980's progressed, the New England club remained the largest club with over 700 members. The Hudson Valley Orienteers, led first by Linda and Larry Crane and later by tireless orienteering promoter Jon Nash, began hosting the lion's share of major international events including the first World Cup event in the United States in 1986. An equally effective leader and promoter, Mark Frank of Pennsylvania, coordinated the 1982 and 1992 U.S. Championships at French Creek State Park, with 705 orienteers attending the 1982 event.

Other than scout events, the 1982 Championships still holds the record for the most U.S. orienteers participating. There have been only five different larger events in the U.S. The Sept.-Oct. 1997 Veterans World Cup in Minnesota had over 2200 orienteers on a single day. Mappers and scout leaders Dave Linthicum in Maryland and Ed Scott in Pennsylvania have both had over 1000 orienteers on a single day at their annual scout events. The October 1993 World & U.S. Orienteering Championships in New York also cleared 1000 orienteers. The August 1990 A9sa-Pacific Orienteering Carnival had almost 900 orienteers.

In spite of such efforts as the Seattle area successful interscholastic league starting in 1983 and the work with educators by Hicks of New York, youth participation reached lows in the late 1980's and 1990's. These programs are good examples of the slow trend even with schools, scouts, and park services away from the peculiar American orientation toward compass games that are unfortunately sometimes labeled as "orienteering."

Championship Competitors

Marines won the first six U.S. men's orienteering titles. In the early and mid-1980's, five-time U.S. elite champion Peter Gagarin of Massachusetts founded and coached the U.S. Team which has represented the United States at every World Orienteering championships since 1974. Gagarin's personal results in masters categories in the 1980's and 1990's place him at the very top of all-time non-European orienteering results regardless of category.

Amongst the women, none have achieved the success of Sharon Crawford of Massachusetts, who was the top U.S. woman at seven straight World Championships and in 1989 at the age of 45 won her eleventh U.S. Championship in the elite category. In the late 1980's and the 1990's, Peggy Dickison of Kansas and then Maryland won numerous titles and coordinated the U.S. Team.

Eric Weyman of Pennsylvania, the top U.S. ranked orienteer for eight straight years in the 1980's, and Pat Dunlavey of Massachusetts were the pre-eminent national orienteering mappers of the decade, raising the quality of U.S. maps to world standard. Mikell Platt, a 1980 West Point graduate and many-time U.S. Champion, moved his orienteering mapping efforts to the central Rockies and began holding Summer orienteering festivals there in 1992.

Recent Developments

In 1988 after several years of delays, orienteering was accepted as a U.S. Olympic Committee Class C sport, later known as an affiliated sport. USOF membership finally surpassed the 1978 level and approached the 2000 mark. There were over 30,000 starts by over 5,000 club members and non-members at over 550 events by the 45 clubs. By 1998, there were over 55,000 starts at almost 700 events and over 7,000 club members in 65 clubs.

Larry and Sara Mae Berman of Massachusetts "completed the evolution toward an independent press" when they took over publication of the national orienteering magazine in 1986. Robin Shannonhouse of Georgia took over as USOF Executive Director in 1985. From 1985 to 1989 Per Stensby of North Carolina, a compatriot of Wibye's in 1968, served as USOF President and, with Linda Taylor of Massachusetts, carried through the awarding of the 1993 World Championships to the United States. Course setting for this October 1993 event was coordinated by Steve Tarry of New Hampshire. These nine days of orienteering attracted over 1000 orienteers from about 35 countries to New York's Harriman State Park.

For further information on pre-1972 U.S. orienteering history or pre-1990 English language O' literature (the most complete collection, excluding most club newsletters), contact Dave Linthicum at DaveLinthicum@earthlink.net  or at 6020 Pindell Rd., Bristol, MD 20711.

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