The AdAmAn Club is a unique group of dedicated and enthusiastic mountaineers. Did you know that they also bring these attributes to the research table? Since July 2020, members have spent their Saturdays in the CSPM Archives, researching the history of the club. The products of their hard work will be a book and documentary film celebrating the AdAmAn Club’s 100th anniversary.
On December 31, 1922, five courageous and fun-loving men—Fred Morath, Willis Magee, Harry Standley, Fred Barr, and Ed Morath— set out to do something different to celebrate New Year’s Eve; summit Pikes Peak and provide onlookers below with a spectacular fireworks show at Midnight.
The Morath brothers had been planning this night with the Colorado Springs Gazette throughout the month of December. Fred Barr—by then well known for building the trail to the summit of Pikes Peak—joined the scheme on December 24. Standley, renowned local photographer, and Magee of Colorado Springs, joined four days later. The fireworks were provided by local sportsman, John W. Garrett. That night these five men—soon to be known as the “Frozen Five” —would begin a decades-long tradition in the Pikes Peak Region. It was agreed that the trip would be repeated the next year, and that each year to follow the club would add a man.
Each New Year’s ascent holds its own set of stories; some recorded in newspapers, some only known by those who experience the climb. As the archivist, I am lucky to hear a few from the reading room as photograph albums and documents spur memories. The Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum is proud to preserve and share these stories in the AdAmAn Club Collection. This collection—which includes photographs, letters, newspaper clippings, recordings, climbing gear, and more —was compiled by the club from its inception and was entrusted to the Museum in 2006.
AdAmAn Club Collection
COS@150 Exhibit
During the Sesquicentennial Scholar Series in 2021, Don Sanborn, past president of the AdAmAn Club, second female member Cindy Bowles and associate member Don Kallaus will review the myths and realities of the AdAmAn club. We will explore the myth of how the club was started vs the reality unearthed through research and with the help of the Pioneers Museum. We’ll also share a number of real or imagined stories from the verbal history of the club. Cindy will share the good, the bad and the ugly of climbing with a large group of men each year.\\
Hillary Mannion, Archivist
Interested in your own research about our community’s history? The Special Collections and Archives of the CSPM are housed in the Starsmore Center for Local History and include [s] manuscripts, photographs, ephemera, maps and blue prints, and a non-circulating reference library. Request an appointment to research.
719.385.5650 | Hillary.Mannion@coloradosprings.gov