The organization published the quarterly South American Explorer magazine, and sells maps, guidebooks, trip reports, and other materials.
Before founding the organization, Montague did a stint in South Korea with the Peace Corps in the 1960s, then joined United Press International Television News (UPITN) as a New York City-based assignments editor.
[6] Tired of his desk job, Montague decided to organize a camera crew in South America because it was the source of the agency's "worst film," and he figured it would be easy to do better.
[8] After filming a wide range of stories in Peru for UPITN and other organizations, they began covering events throughout South America, including Juan Perón's 1973 return to Argentina after 18 years of exile in Spain.
Soon after, the camera crew shifted its base of operations to Buenos Aires, but when Peron died in 1974, the state-sponsored Dirty War made conditions particularly unsafe for journalists.
[6] In the summer of 1977 Montague and Rosa were back in Lima, and found offices at 146 avenue Portugal in the city's Breña neighborhood for the newly christened "South American Explorers Club" (SAEC).
With the assistance of Teddy Ronalds, founder of the Las Dunas hotel in Ica,[11] the SAE attracted a group of supporters that included businessman and collector Miguel Mujica Gallo,[12] explorer John Hemming, horse breeder Fernando Graña,[13] surfing pioneer Carlos Dogny,[14] and Felipe Benavides, 1974 winner of the J. Paul Getty Award for Conservation Leadership.
The club's advisory board included Washington Post foreign correspondent Joanne Omang,[15] UPI journalist Daniel Doherty, and archaeologist Maria Reiche.
Two $500 life memberships would sign up over the coming years: Max Eiselin, a Swiss sporting-goods magnate and leader of the 1960 expedition that first ascended Dhaulagiri, seventh highest mountain in the world,[17] and later HRH Colonel Prince Chalermpol of Thailand, an orchid collector, when Rosa returned to Lima in the early 1980s to manage the clubhouse in the absence of Tom Jackson.
[5] Montague and Rosa arrived in Denver in late 1978 and soon found suitable offices at 2239 East Colfax Avenue, at the intersection of York Street.
A 1979 article in the Rocky Mountain News, "Explorer Club Cuts Red Tape by Getting Out of Peru," describes it as "a cramped office with scrounged equipment.
While the Lima Times no longer supported the SAEC financially, they donated a small reference library to the clubhouse and Don Griffis's daughter Ellie provided occasional assistance.
[21] In the fifth magazine, dated December 1979, alpinist and double-amputee Norman Croucher talked about the thermal advantages of not having lower legs during high-altitude ascents.
Explorer Robert Randall offered the humor-filled "Tales of the Tiger,"[25][26] and Neil Gow wrote about Peru's "Golden Age of Guano.
[32] And Honorary founder John Hemming, at the time director and secretary of the Royal Geographical Society, contributed "The Draining of Lake Guatavita,"[33] which was drawn from his book The Search for El Dorado.
These included Daniel Alarcón,[37] who penned a corrosive article on Lima; Johan Reinhard,[38] discoverer of the Mummy Juanita and winner of the Rolex Award;[39] Easter Island expert Georgia Lee,[40] D. Bruce Means, now president of the Coastal Plains Institute;[41] Kim MacQuarrie, documentary filmmaker and author of Last Days of the Incas; and National Geographic photojournalist Loren McIntyre.
Also found in the table of contents were Robert L. Carneiro, Nicolas Jaeger, Vince Lee,[42] Kenneth R. Wright,[43][44] Hugh Thompson,[45] Mark Plotkin, Stewart D. Redwood,[46] Hilary Bradt,[47] and Paolo Greer.
Montague cited numerous reasons for the shift, including his having been born in Duchess County, New York and the presence of a strong Latin American studies department at Cornell University, but a potentially decisive factor was that he "just didn't want to die in Denver.
The club member and later novelist Kate Wheeler[52] wrote a New York Times article about travel in Peru in 1994, something that would have been strongly discouraged not so long before.
Founded in 1977, when hot type was the state of the art, The group now maintains a website, publishes an online magazine, and continues its mission of advancing exploration and research as well as field sports in South and Central America.
No Bull: Written by William Hornyak[61] under the nickname "Big Bill," this column described the author's fictional exploits and offered spoofy advice to would-be explorers.
An exception to this pattern was a faux telegraph that appeared in issue six, in which Hornyak asked the South American Explorers Club for support in a supposed plan to excavate Machu Picchu with copious amounts of high explosives.