Historical records

The First Finishers

The earliest historically confirmed completions of the U.S. state highpoints.

LOWER 48

First lower 48 finisher

Arthur Harmon Marshall

Completion date
July 13, 1936
Final state
Indiana
Status
Historically confirmed

Arthur H. Marshall completed the highpoints of the 48 states that made up the United States at the time, establishing one of the earliest documented milestones in American highpointing.

50 STATES

First 50-state finisher

John Vincent Hoeman

Completion date
July 1, 1966
Final state
Minnesota
Status
Historically confirmed

John Vincent “Vin” Hoeman became the first historically confirmed person to complete the highpoints of all 50 states after Alaska and Hawaii joined the Union.

U.S. Highpointing Milestones

  1. 1936

    Lower 48 completed

    Arthur H. Marshall reaches all 48.

  2. 1959

    The United States reaches 50 states

    Alaska and Hawaii make it 50.

  3. 1966

    All 50 completed

    Vin Hoeman reaches all 50.

  4. 2026

    Summitr launches

    A new home for the highpointing journey.

Historical records

Summitr independently reviews historical highpointing records and updates them as better information becomes available.

Explore all finishers →