The original intent of OutInUnder.com was to allow existing communities to share stories.
I started with folks from the backpacking biz and that locked in. Now OIU, along with the History of Gear, gets top Google rankings in outdoor topics provided you search for sufficiently obscure shit.
The thing is, the outdoor biz is a love but the role of stories in our lives is a passion. You may have noticed the decreasing frequency of newsletters? That's symptomatic. I'm spinning up a new site, storycircle.us (currently in pre-pre-pre-alpha), to channel the original impulse.
What about this site?
My commitment to OutInUnder:
To chase down a good story now and then.
To keep the fires burning on into the future.
To not allow material entrusted to OutInUnder to wander off and disappear like, say, your photos on Flickr or files on MySpace...the big guys that seem safer but get bought and sold and change terms.
This means simple things like regular backups.
It, also, means thinking 20 years out and creating, perhaps, a mini-endowment, or tag team collaboration, or finding a safe harbor for the site.
So, want to help develop or create content?
I could use you joining in. Adventure 16 is/was the path in for lots of Outdoor Industry folks. I'd love someone to start adding A16 tales or simple interviewswith A16 alum chronicling how they got involved. I'd love more from the Colorado branch of the family, more from (currently under-represented) Sales Reps and Athletes, and, of course, everyone's Tales of Adventure, Rescue, and Daring-do...in other words, stories about you!
And meanwhile, an example of what I mean by safe-harbor.
Our catalog page caused the inestimable Gordon Wing (Marmot retail) to aim 1000+ catalogs our way. We felt this really wanted to be a protected public resource and contacted the folks in the Outdoor Products program at USU-Logan. Net net, the catalogs are there and heading for a scanning and public display ala this current Jack London page. More below.
Hail Xaos,
Al
Stories
Jim Thomsen of Wilderness Experience (to pick one of his many endeavors) has graciously joined the story-tellers here with his Jim Thomsen Intro. This is a great tale of 20-somethings grabbing the ears of the tiger and staying on for the ride!
I [Woody] started to reply only to be cut off by Snyder’s calm voice coming from behind Ginsberg saying, “let it go Allen, let it go.” Allen Ginsberg shops at SD Retail in City Lights? Flash Lights? Beat it.
Utah State University Special Collections and Archives, in conjunction with the school’s Outdoor Product Development and Design program, is building a research collection for scholars and enthusiasts of outdoor recreation history in the Intermountain West.
To date, our collection consists of approximately 1,000 outdoor product catalogs dating from the early 1900s to the early 2000s, More are desired.
We're also looking for personal and business records (correspondence, field journals, reports, photographs, etc.
Last, we are also interested in collecting outdoor recreation guides
If you think you might have any materials like these, or know someone who does, please contact our manuscript curator, Clint Pumphrey at clint.pumphrey@usu.edu to discuss your potential contribution. Through this effort, we hope to capture the legacy of this important and growing industry for generations of researchers and recreationists to come.
A quick note: there have been some weird bot subscribes to this newsletter using hijacked email addresses. While I think everyone, even bots, would likely fall in love with what we've got here, please note it's easy to unsubscribe.
We need the backcountry. The backcountry needs us.
Jim Thomsen of Wilderness Experience (to pick one of his many endeavors) has graciously joined the story-tellers here with his 
I [Woody] started to reply only to be cut off by Snyder’s calm voice coming from behind Ginsberg saying, “let it go Allen, let it go.” Allen Ginsberg shops at SD Retail in 
See 
Meet Rachel Gross, PhD. She provides us with a teaser to her PhD Thesis, now becoming a book, in 
If you think you might have any materials like these, or know someone who does, please contact our manuscript curator, Clint Pumphrey at 
