The first known competitive orienteering events in the U.S. were held from 1941 to 1943 in
New Hampshire by a
Finnish army officer named Piltti Heiskanen. There were military orienteering events for cadets only at
West Point Military Academy in
New York state from 1966 to 1972, and at
Quantico Marine Base in
Virginia by 1968, where the Marine Corps Physical Fitness Academy's first event was held on July 12, 1968, on Harald Wibye's photogrammetric color
orienteering map, the first such map in the English-speaking world. This was also the origin of the Quantico Orienteering Club, currently the largest and most active club in the US. The
Norwegian Wibye also hosted the first known public competitive orienteering event in the U.S. at
Valley Forge in
Pennsylvania on Nov. 5, 1967. From this event would emerge another large club in the U.S., the Delaware Valley Orienteering Association. The most influential early benefactor to and promoter of U.S. map and compass use and orienteering, and easily the most well-read author on these topics, was
Bjorn Kjellstrom, a 1930s
Swedish orienteering champion. From his events with
scouts as early as 1946 to his guidance and support in the 1990s, he provided impetus and inspiration. His map and compass events from 1965 to 1967 in
Westchester County, NY had competitive orienteering courses added in 1968 by Wibye. Bill Gookin's first events in 1969 in the
San Diego area were the earliest known competitive public orienteering events west of the
Mississippi. Kjellstrom assisted several Quantico officers is establishing the U.S. Orienteering Federation in 1971. The early 1970s would see the founding, in part, by orienteering book author Hans Bengstsson, of the
New England Orienteering Club, the largest in the U.S. from the late 1970s through the 1980s. ==Organization==