In many spiritual traditions, water is symbolic of life. But not just any water. Specifically clean water that is good tasting. This is a fitting analogy that any backcountry traveler can understand deeply. When you are hot and thirsty, nothing is more refreshing than clean, cool water. Sadly, safe drinking water is hard to find. This is especially true in the backcountry. What did people do before modern technology?
In the nineteenth century, most people had only a limited understanding of waterborne disease, and illnesses caused by contaminated water were common.1 William HH Murray ignited the camping movement in the United States with his how-to guide to the Adirondacks in 1869. He makes no reference to filtering or boiling water in his guide. Instead, he informs campers where to find fresh, clean drinking water in springs. Campers avoided many illnesses through a combination of luck, fresh spring water, and the widespread habit of boiling water for coffee and tea. A camper may not have understood germs, but he certainly understood that a hot cup of coffee at dawn tasted better than muddy creek water.
By the early twentieth century, outdoor educators were beginning to teach a lesson that would have sounded strange to many frontier travelers: clear water was not necessarily safe water. Springs were still prized, but campers were increasingly being taught that disease could lurk in even the most inviting stream. George O. Shields’ book Camping and Camp Outfits is one of the earliest books to advise campers to boil their water.2 While doctors had experimented with filtration as early as 1855, portable filters suitable for campers remained far in the future.3
Boy Scouts became a major force in the United States in 1911. Its programs introduced generations of youth to the noble sport of camping. An early issue of Boy's Life illustrates how to make a water filter from natural sand and stones layered into a bucket. The point was to filter out visible sediments not pathogens. Having experimented with this Boy Scout method, I can confirm it is as unpleasant as it sounds. The water may emerge looking cleaner, but it still tastes like something better left to the frogs. For early campers though, it was better than getting violently ill.4
Chemical treatment was first used in in the United States around this same time in 1908 when Dr. John Leal secretly began treating New Jersey's water supply with chlorine. He kept his chemical treatment operation a secret for fear backlash from a general public that did not understand this new science. His solution was effective and US water systems have been chlorinated ever since.5 However, this did not help campers in the backcountry.
An easy field solution to treat water chemically was developed by Col. William Lyster in 1913. He perfected a portable water bag system for chlorinating drinking water for the U.S. military.6 The Lyster bag worked well for large groups, but its weight and reliance on liquid chlorine limited its appeal for backpackers. It was perfectly at home in a military camp or summer camp kitchen, but much less welcome on the back of a tired hiker climbing a mountain. Chlorine tablets offered a more portable alternative.
Chemical treatment was first used in in the United States around this same time in 1908 when Dr. John Leal secretly began treating New Jersey's water supply with chlorine. He kept his chemical treatment operation a secret for fear backlash from a general public that did not understand this new science. His solution was effective and US water systems have been chlorinated ever since.5 However, this did not help campers in the backcountry.
An easy field solution to treat water chemically was developed by Col. William Lyster in 1913. He perfected a portable water bag system for chlorinating drinking water for the U.S. military.6 The Lyster bag worked well for large groups, but its weight and reliance on liquid chlorine limited its appeal for backpackers. It was perfectly at home in a military camp or summer camp kitchen, but much less welcome on the back of a tired hiker climbing a mountain. Chlorine tablets offered a more portable alternative.
Lyster Bag (alt spelling "Lister")
Halazone chlorine tablets were first advertised to campers in a 1933 issue of Boy's Life and were produced by Bauer & Black.8 For the first time, a camper could carry dozens of water treatments in a shirt pocket instead of hauling fuel to boil every questionable water source.7
Chlorine tablets degraded in just three days after being opened. During WWII, Harvard University worked along with the U.S. Army to develop portable iodine tablets that had a much longer shelf life. Their research resulted in Potable Aqua iodine tablets. Following the war, as camping exploded in popularity, Potable Aqua found a new market, and campers gained a more user-friendly product to make safe drinking water.9
Water treatment tablets allowed backpackers and campers to tightly control the chemical dose. So, they could easily treat water right in their canteen. The Lyster bag remained useful for larger groups well into the 1950s.10 Chemical treatments were certainly preferred to getting sick, but they had two main drawbacks, time and taste. Chemical treatment requires at least 30 minutes to purify water. They leave a dissatisfying taste also. Many hikers accepted the tradeoff. Water that tasted vaguely like a swimming pool was still preferable to a week spent regretting a careless drink from a stream.
The earliest portable backcountry filter option was the Katadyn Pocket Filter, invented in Switzerland in 1929. While highly reliable, it was a heavy, Maglite-sized metal and ceramic device. Carrying one made it feel as though you had packed a small municipal water department. Such early devices were expensive, premium tools engineered for international aid groups, and wealthy globetrotters—not casual weekend hikers looking to have fun on a budget.11
Katadyn Pocket Filter
For most backpackers in the midcentury, boiling and chemical treatment remained the standard methods. Clear, flowing water was generally assumed to be safe, and treatment was often reserved for visibly contaminated sources.12 Countless hikers dipped their canteens into mountain streams without a second thought. For generations, that had simply been how backpacking was done.
It was not until 1962 that a camping guidebook even recommended a commercially made filter.13 The First-Need by General Ecology is remembered fondly as many hikers first filter. It came to market in the late 1970s as a pump purifier built especially for human powered travel. Plagued by rapid clogging and poor marketing, it never achieved the popularity of later models. Nevertheless, the First-Need line survived through continuous refinement and remains available today.
It would take an epidemic to push backpackers towards making water filters and chemical treatment mandatory. Giardia lambelia outbreaks proliferated in the early 1980s.15a Suddenly, all backpackers were confronted with the reality that no water source was safe. Everyone was debating water treatment.16 The carefree confidence of earlier generations gave way to suspicion. A sparkling alpine stream might look inviting. Backpackers who once judged such a source by how it looked now found themselves wondering what microscopic horrors might be swimming through it.
Ads for water filters and purifiers lauded their ability to make water safe from the dreaded giardia. One model was cheekily named The Giardia Trap.17. It might be the only product in outdoor history named after the disease it promised to prevent. Many competitors entered the market. Every conceivable design was tried, most failed.18 By the late 80s, water filters became an essential piece of backcountry gear. However, performance was unreliable and few products could withstand the rigors of the backcountry. MSR released their first filter, The WaterWorks Total Filtration System, in 1991. It was elegant and easy to use and lightweight and pushed the boundaries of water filter design.19.
Pump filters were a mainstay of the 1990s and early 2000s. A revolution in thinking came in 2005 with the introduction of the LifeStraw, a straw water filter that required no pumping or hoses. It generated enormous interest among outdoor enthusiasts. The marketing promised that drinking from a muddle puddle could be as simple as sipping from a juice box. Reality proved slightly more complicated. It clogged easily and cannot readily be shared among a group. These limitations kept the LifeStraw and similar designs from greater popularity. However, it found a niche among day hikers and preppers for emergency situations.
While the LifeStraw has seen limited adoption, it’s design has influenced the whole category of water filters based around an inline filter. One notable example is the Sawyer family of filters. Starting in 2009, Sawyer released a small, black filter meant to be used in the line of a water bladder hose. Their combination of a lightweight, reliable product and a price point below $50 helped them become one of the most common brands on the trail. By the 2010s, it was difficult to walk a long-distance trail without seeing a Sawyer filter hanging from someone's pack.20
LifeStraw Filter (photo by Badri Sheshadri)
One last honorable mention in this saga is the SteriPEN UV water purifier. It was so popular and revolutionary, it made Time Magazine's list of 100 greatest and most influential gadgets.21 Not bad for a device whose primary purpose is shinning a flashlight into your drinking water. However, it does have its limits. Prefiltration is often required. Also, it is limited by the weaknesses common to all electronics. Nevertheless, it is a great feat of engineering.22
After more than a century of innovation, hikers now carry ceramic elements, charged iodine matrices, hollow-fiber membranes, and ultraviolet sterilizers into the wilderness. All this effort is devoted to accomplishing a task that our ancestors routinely performed by squinting at a stream and declaring it "probably fine." The challenge remains the same as it was for Murray and the first generation of campers: finding water. The difference is that modern hikers can carry their own treatment plant into the wilderness.
Written by David F. Garner
Sources
1. https://www.bethelhistorical.org/legacy-site/Drinking_Water_in_the_Civil_War.html
2. https://northernbush.com/wp-content/downloads/woodcraft/Shields-George-Camping-and-Camp-Outfits-1890.pdf (see pg 51)
3. https://nepis.epa.gov/Exe/ZyPURL.cgi?Dockey=200024H9.txt
4. https://books.google.com/books?id=GP19Dn55Qq8C&lpg
5. https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2014/10/30/1331082/-How-John-Leal-Put-Poison-In-Our-Drinking-Water-And-Saved-Us-All
6. https://history.amedd.army.mil/booksdocs/misc/evprev/ch7.htm
7. Russell, Philip. 100 Military Inventions that Changed the World. United Kingdom: Little, Brown Book Group, 2013.
8. https://books.google.com/books?id=xQVf9FBnxdQC&pg=PA30&dq=halazone&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjM-O6JgtLxAhUHheAKHRFQCcYQ6AF6BAgLEAI#v=onepage&q=halazone&f=false
9. https://www.potableaqua.com/history/#:~:text=Potable%20Aqua%C2%AE%20iodine%20water,disinfection%20for%20over%2050%20years
10. The Camping Magazine. United States: American Camping Association, 1949. https://archive.org/details/sim_camping-magazine_1932-01_4_4
11. https://de.zxc.wiki/wiki/Katadyn
12. Colin Fletcher, The Complete Walker, 1968, pg 94.
13. https://books.google.com/books?id=749LR15uQzoC&pg=PA140&dq=water+filter&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjR7rKRksrxAhUHmGoFHfI3CIk4FBDoATABegQICxAC#v=onepage&q=water%20filter&f=false
14. https://books.google.com/books?id=8N8DAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA77&dq=water+filter&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjVqKH7jcrxAhWFlGoFHTbiDAUQ6AEwAXoECAQQAg#v=onepage&q=water%20filter&f=false
15. https://books.google.com/books/about/Field_Stream.html?id=AQoUSNNI5h8C
15a. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5150856/
16. https://www.health.state.mn.us/diseases/waterborne/prevention/backcountry.pdf
17. https://books.google.com/books/about/Backpacker.html?id=8d8DAAAAMBAJ
18. https://books.google.com/books/about/Backpacker.html?id=o-EDAAAAMBAJ
19. https://www.msrgear.com/blog/gear-archives-trusted-source-evolution-miniworks-ex-microfilter/
20. https://sawyer.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/UNC-Handout_2015-10-21.pdf
21. http://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/completelist/0,29569,2023689,00.html
22. https://bangordailynews.com/2011/12/14/outdoors/blue-hill-outdoorsman-inventor-paves-the-way-to-safe-water-any-time-anywhere/