Harvey Manning (July 16, 1925 in Ballard,

Seattle Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...

, Washington - November 12, 2006 in

Bellevue, Washington Bellevue ( ) is a city in the Eastside (King County, Washington), Eastside region of King County, Washington, United States, located across Lake Washington from Seattle. It is the third-largest city in the Seattle metropolitan area, and the f ...

) was a noted

author In legal discourse, an author is the creator of an original work that has been published, whether that work exists in written, graphic, visual, or recorded form. The act of creating such a work is referred to as authorship. Therefore, a sculpt ...

hiking A hike is a long, vigorous walk, usually on trails or footpaths in the countryside. Walking for pleasure developed in Europe during the eighteenth century. Long hikes as part of a religious pilgrimage have existed for a much longer time. "Hi ...

guides and

climbing Climbing is the activity of using one's hands, feet, or other parts of the body to ascend a steep topographical object that can range from the world's tallest mountains (e.g. the eight thousanders) to small boulders. Climbing is done for locom ...

textbooks, and a tireless hiking advocate. Manning lived on

Cougar Mountain Cougar Mountain is a peak in the Issaquah Alps in King County, Washington. It is part of the highlands in the Eastside suburbs of Seattle, and at it is the lowest and westernmost of the Alps. About two-thirds of Cougar Mountain has experienc ...

, within the city limits of Bellevue, Washington, calling his home the "200-meter hut". His book ''Walking the Beach to Bellingham'' is an

autobiography An autobiography, sometimes informally called an autobio, is a self-written account of one's own life, providing a personal narrative that reflects on the author's experiences, memories, and insights. This genre allows individuals to share thei ...

and

manifesto A manifesto is a written declaration of the intentions, motives, or views of the issuer, be it an individual, group, political party, or government. A manifesto can accept a previously published opinion or public consensus, but many prominent ...

fleshing out his journal of a hike along the shore of

Puget Sound Puget Sound ( ; ) is a complex estuary, estuarine system of interconnected Marine habitat, marine waterways and basins located on the northwest coast of the U.S. state of Washington (state), Washington. As a part of the Salish Sea, the sound ...

over a two-year span. From 1954 to 1956, Harvey Manning managed Seattle radio station KISW. Harvey Manning died November 12, 2006, in Bellevue.

Books

Manning is most famous for being the editorial committee chair for the first edition of '' Mountaineering: The Freedom of the Hills'', a textbook for climbing and scrambling. The first edition was so successful that it created

Mountaineers Books The Mountaineers is an alpine club in the US state of Washington. Founded in 1906, it is organized as an outdoor recreation, education, and conservation 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, and is based in Seattle, Washington. The club hosts a wid ...

, the publishing outlet of The Mountaineers. Manning is also noted for writing the "100 Hikes" series of hiking guidebooks, along with Ira Spring: * ''50 Hikes in Mount Rainier National Park'' (1969) * ''101 Hikes in the North Cascades'' (1970) * ''102 Hikes in the Alpine Lakes, South Cascades, and Olympics'' (1971) * ''100 Hikes in the South Cascades and Olympics'' (1985) ISBN * ''100 Hikes in the Glacier Peak Region'' (1988) * ''55 Hikes in Central Washington'' (1990) * ''100 Classic Hikes in Washington'' (1998) (Winner

National Outdoor Book Award The National Outdoor Book Award (NOBA) was formed in 1997 as an American-based non-profit program which each year presents awards honoring the best in outdoor writing and publishing. It is housed at Idaho State University and chaired by Ron Watte ...

, Design and Artistic Merit, 1998) * ''55 Hikes around Snoqualmie Pass'' (2001) These guidebooks are the standard books for hiking throughout western

Washington Washington most commonly refers to: * George Washington (1732–1799), the first president of the United States * Washington (state), a state in the Pacific Northwest of the United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A ...

. Manning also wrote many other books on outdoor activities, including: * ''Backpacking: One Step at a Time'' (1972) * ''Footsore, Vols 1-4'' (1977) (a series of guidebooks to hiking near Issaquah, Washington). * ''Walking the Beach to Bellingham'' (1986)

Advocacy

Manning advocated trail protection and maintenance for much of his life, based on his extensive experience in the Washington outdoors (having backpacked since the 1930s). He was the bane of mountain bikers in the Seattle area. Manning believed foot traffic (both the boots and the horseshoe variety) cannot coexist with the greater speeds of bicycle enthusiasts and disdained local politicians beholden to wheeled-recreation advocates for "spouting pure Lycra". Largely as a result of his efforts,

is off-limits to bikes and even Tiger Mountain has very limited single-track mileage where bikes are permitted. Manning was a member of the North Cascades Conservation Council (NCCC) since its founding in 1957, serving as an editor of the NCCC journal "The Wild Cascades." Back issues are available on the NCCC website, see link below. A DVD of images of the North Cascades with his writing as the script is released by Crest Pictures as "The Irate Birdwatcher," which was a moniker he used in his early writings. His final book, published by NCCC, is "Wilderness Alps: Conservation and Conflict in the North Cascades," and details the history of the preservation movement there. It is available at the NCCC website. Many of the names for peaks, creeks, wetlands, and trails on

were invented by Harvey Manning. He discovered Coal Creek Falls and beat a trail to it, and discovered the foundation for the steam hoist in Red Town. With the goal of preserving wildlands within urban King County, Manning designated (in the pages of ''Footsore 1'') the odd twenty mile-long (32.2 km) spur of Cascade Mountain foothills along

Interstate 90 Interstate 90 (I-90) is an east–west transcontinental freeway and the longest Interstate Highway in the United States at . It begins in Seattle, Washington, and travels through the Pacific Northwest, Mountain states, Mountain West, Great Pla ...

near

as the " Issaquah Alps" and founded the Issaquah Alps Trails Club in 1979. The club serves to improve and publicize hiking around

Issaquah, Washington Issaquah ( ) is a city in King County, Washington, United States. The population was 40,051 at the 2020 census. Located in a valley and bisected by Interstate 90, the city is bordered by the Sammamish Plateau to the north and the " Issaquah ...

. A bronze statue of Manning stands in an Issaquah park. Today, many of his conservation goals are carried on by the American Alps Legacy Project, an initiative of NCCC and the Mountaineers.

References

External links

Mountains to Sound GreenwayNorth Cascades Conservation CouncilAmerican Alps Legacy Project
{{DEFAULTSORT:Manning, Harvey 1925 births 2006 deaths American environmentalists American non-fiction outdoors writers American male non-fiction writers Hikers Writers from Seattle 20th-century American male writers 20th-century American diarists