Walk, Don’t Run

Duncan Jamieson
Ashland University

While Donald Trump and Kellyannne Conway may claim to have coined the term “fake news,” sadly they are more than a little late on that score. Together, along with Fox News, bloggers and influencers they certainly popularized the phrase, doing much to downplay fact checking while misleading a gullible public during the 2016 presidential election. Earlier, the rise of sensationalist newspapers in the 1850s demonstrated the need to check sources as far too many people were getting their exercise by leaping to unfounded conclusions. To cite just a few examples, either the result of maliciously misleading the public or simply not checking the facts, consider the famous 1948 photograph of Harry Truman holding the Chicago Daily Tribune stating, “Dewey Defeats Truman.” Go further back to the late 1890s and the rise of “yellow journalism” which pushed the United States into the 1898 Spanish American War. Changes in printing technology in the 1850s led to a dramatic expansion of newspapers that played fast and loose with the truth and the facts in a desire to sell copies. Seventy-five years earlier Paul Revere’s inaccurate engraving of “The Bloody Massacre in King Street” raised anti-British feelings that ultimately led in 1775 to the American War for Independence.

Alternatively, Lyell D. Henry Jr.’s Trekking Across America is a carefully researched, thoroughly readable example of a popular sport. Through careful fact checking and deep research, Henry, Professor Emeritus of political science, Mount Mercy University, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, examined “seventy-six vignettes and accompanying images [to] treat nearly one hundred of these eccentric expeditions and vividly depict a remarkable activity in the history of American popular culture” (1). Between the 1850s and the 1930s pedestrianism was the most popular sport in the United States before baseball moved to the number one spectator sport in the 1880s. Singly or in small groups, men, women and children determined to walk prodigious distances across North America and Europe, though Henry limits his study to the United States.

More than just walking, trekkers represented the performative arts as they sang, danced, read prose or poetry, did acrobatic stunts, magic tricks or sleight-of-hand performances staged in the evening to raise money through the sale of tickets or a free will offering.

What persuaded people to leave their ordinary lives, home and hearth, family and friends? Monetary reward, wanderlust, notoriety, adventure and/or escape from what they perceived to be a boring existence likely played major roles. Frequently the trekker reported a sizeable wager encouraged them. Bets of several hundreds to thousands of dollars were reported to anyone willing to travel on foot from point A to point B within a specified length of time. The trekker might be required to start penniless and return with a certain amount of cash earned along the way. More than just walking, trekkers represented the performative arts as they sang, danced, read prose or poetry, did acrobatic stunts, magic tricks or sleight-of-hand performances staged in the evening to raise money through the sale of tickets or a free will offering. They also had postcards of their adventure printed which they carried and sold along the way. A collector of vintage postcards, Henry became interested in the activity when he saw cards produced by trekkers for sale at antique and rummage sales. His discovery resulted in this book.

Edward Payson Weston (1839-1929) made pedestrianism (and himself) famous, at least at the time. In 1860 he accepted a bet that Stephen Douglas would win that year’s presidential election. When Lincoln won, Weston was obliged to walk the 439 miles from Boston, Massachusetts to Washington, DC, which he did in ten days and four hours, missing the inauguration but attending the inaugural ball and shaking Lincoln’s hand. In addition to the publicity for Weston, the walk encouraged countless others to follow in his footsteps while making him the leading trekker. Several year later he won a four thousand dollar bet he could walk the 1082 miles from Portland, Maine, to Chicago, Illinois in less than thirty days. He continued walking throughout his life which, ironically, ended from injuries from being hit by a taxicab. Two years later he died, never having walked again.

To me, the wagers are the most amorphous parts of pedestrianism. For example, on August 25, 1908, Harry Garrepy left Boston, Massachusetts to walk to San Francisco, California and return to Boston within eighteen months, a distance of 6,200 miles. If he did, he would receive one thousand dollars from two unnamed uncles in New Haven, Connecticut. Newspaper articles along the route reported that he earned money to finance the journey through concerts (he had a beautiful baritone voice) and performing high dives. Reaching San Francisco on June 30, 1909, he started for home, claiming the walk had cured his asthma and greatly improved his health. A newspaper reported he had reached Akron, Ohio in mid-December, expecting to reach Boston in time to claim the reward. No further reports would indicate he neither achieved his goal nor collected the wager. A few years later a newspaper article reported he left Boston again, this time accompanied by his wife and three children, for an undisclosed destination. Unfortunately, performing his high dive in Trenton, New Jersey, he hit the side of the tank and died a few days later.

For both adventures while there are reports of Garrepy’s singing and diving along the way, there appears to be little about the walk beyond his taking a southern route to reach California. As with so many of these accounts, how were the events monitored? How would the two men making the wager know that Garrepy actually walked the entire way? What would prevent him (or any other pedestrian) from taking trains or hitching rides along the way? Unless someone chaperoned the trekker, what’s to prevent cheating?

On my trans-America charity bicycle ride several of the fifty-five riders, myself included, pledged to cycle the entire distance. In Kansas one woman who had taken the pledge fell about ten miles from the evening’s stop and had to ride in one of the minivans that monitored our route for just such an emergency. Not seriously injured, in the morning while the rest of us headed east after breakfast, she had the van driver take her west to the place where she fell. Getting out, she mounted her bicycle and started east to fulfill her pledge. She, myself and many of the other riders did in fact pedal every inch of the way. A few riders had to leave before reaching Boston due to illness or injury, and one left in Pennsylvania for some unknown reason.

Given the sheer number of people seeking fame and fortune from long distance walking, it became so pedestrian (pun intended), people adopted unique approaches to set themselves apart. They walked backwards or barefoot or wore distinctive costumes. If solo trekking, missing friends and family and having no one to talk to would have been an incredible strain. Tom Turcich left New Jersey alone on a 28,000-mile adventure walking around the world (The Long Walk, 2024). In the southwestern United States, he adopted a dog from a shelter for protection but soon realized he provided much needed companionship.

While decidedly interesting and readable, casual readers may not fully grasp the challenges associated with long distance walking. Living in the United States with paved roads and climate-controlled automobiles cruising at seventy-plus miles an hour, it may be difficult to imagine the primitive travel conditions pedestrians faced and overcame. Poorly paved, if paved at all, roads made travel slow, painful and torturous. The arrival of the railroad offered alternative surfaces, but walking on railroad ties or ballast is hard on the feet. Poor signage and inaccurate maps often led travelers astray. The lack of conveniently spaced places to resupply meant having to carry the necessary provisions, clothing and gear that might weigh thirty pounds or more. Some pushed or pulled carts or used dogs, ponies, goats or other animals to lighten the load and provide companionship.

In our modern society where people feel the need to drive the two blocks to a store to pick up a loaf of bread makes it hard to believe these men, women and children not only attempted but completed such activities. Trekking Across America: The Up-Close Look At A Once-Popular Pastime is a must read for anyone interested in adventure.

Copyright © Duncan R. Jamieson 2026