Raymond H. Torrey

Raymond Hezekiah Torrey (July 15, 1880 – July 15, 1938) was the author of weekly columns, Outings and The Long Brown Path in the New York Evening Post in the 1920s and 1930s. The column played a major role in the development of the 2,100-mile (3,400 km) Appalachian Trail, the Long Path and the popularity of hiking generally. He was a founding member of the New York–New Jersey Trail Conference and one of the authors of the first edition of the New York Walk Book. He had extensive scientific knowledge, writing about everything from the short-billed marsh wren to marine fossils and lichens; he could identify over 700 plants. He was secretary of the Association for the Preservation of the Adirondacks, and also secretary of the American Scenic and Historic Preservation Society.

Born in Georgetown, Massachusetts, where his father was a sea captain, he began a career in journalism in newspapers in the Berkshires first, but soon moved to New York City. In 1903 he started at the New York American, then moved to the Tribune and finally the Evening Post (today the New York Post) in 1918. He became involved in the New York hiking scene at a time when the forests and mountains of the Hudson Highlands were relatively unknown but interest in the outdoors was increasing and city hiking clubs were coming into existence.

In the early 1920s Torrey developed a weekly outdoor column for the Post, called the Long Brown Path which was named for a line in Walt Whitman's "Song of the Open Road". Major William A. Welch, General Manager of the Palisades Interstate Park Commission, was interested in creating hiking trails in Bear Mountain-Harriman State Parks, but was lacking funds. Welch suggested that Torrey use his influential column to help organize New York metropolitan area hiking clubs into a volunteer trail-building confederation; this led to the creation of the Palisades Interstate Park Trail Conference, a precursor of the NY/NJTC.

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