John Hugh Gillis - Cross-continent Walk

Cross-continent Walk

How did this cross-continent walk come about? Perhaps Jack read books about two men who had walked across the United States. He and his young brother-in-law, Donald Parker, who owned the Queen Hotel, cooked up a hare-brain scheme. John Hugh was to walk to San Francisco and back in 366 days, starting off without a cent in his pocket, selling souvenir cards, getting the signature of town mayors, and coming back with $200. Oh, add to that, he would leave 31 January, 1906in the dead of winter and walk across central Maine to Montreal on the railroad track. They did not realize how impossible it was.