The Crawford Path of Mount Washington, the oldest mountain hiking trail in America, was laid out in 1819 as a bridle path from Crawford Notch to the summit. There is some discrepancy as to who discovered Potentilla robbinsiana, which some sources giving credit to its discovery in 1824 by English botanist and zoologist Thomas Nuttall, five years after completion of the Crawford Path. The more likely case is its discovery in 1829 by James Robbins. After its discovery it was described by the botanist and explorer William Oakes. It was soon recognized as a rare plant and over 850 specimens were collected and occasionally sold commercially to collectors and herbariums. In the 1970s a backpacker boom led to significantly increased use of the Crawford Path, making the plant's limited habitat vulnerable to hikers picking the flowers and trampling the plant.