Curated by Jordis Rosberg, MHS Archivist, with the support of MHS’s Tilly Laskey and Sofia Yalouris and the IAT’s Richard Anderson and Don Hudson. Design by Patricia Cousins.
The International Appalachian Trail (IAT) is a long-distance hiking trail along the remnants of the Central Pangean Mountains, geological ancestors of the modern-day Appalachian, Caledonian, and Atlas Mountain ranges. The IAT begins near the end of the Appalachian Trail (AT) at the Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument in Maine, and extends through portions of eastern Canada, Greenland, Iceland, the Faroe Islands, north and western Europe, and into northern Africa.
As of 2023, the IAT includes 6,000 miles of trail across more than a dozen countries on three continents, but it began as an idea on an October morning in 1993. Richard B. Anderson, a biologist and former Commissioner of the Maine Department of Conservation, envisioned an extension of the AT across the US-Canadian border, providing opportunities for hikers to walk the Appalachian Range from Georgia to Cap Gaspé, Québec, where the range tumbles into the sea. Anderson reached out to Don Hudson, a biologist and President of the Chewonki Foundation, to help realize this vision. For five years, Anderson, Hudson, and a team of dedicated volunteers worked to establish the route. On June 5, 1999, IAT members and supporters celebrated the official inauguration of the trail to Cap Gaspé.
From its founding, the IAT was a grassroots effort. Enthusiasts in Maine, Canada, Europe, and Morocco mapped, marked, and championed the spirit of thinking beyond borders, creating a global community through once connected mountain ranges.
In 2022, Anderson and Hudson donated the IAT archive to Maine Historical Society. The collection includes foundational documents and records of the Maine Chapter, publications, correspondence, and photographs. The international network of trails that makes up today’s IAT continues to grow, its paths walked by people around the world.
Richard Anderson
Richard Anderson, founder of the IAT, affixed the trail’s first blaze
to a tree along a portion of the route in Mars Hill.
Item Contributed by
Maine Historical Society
Richard Anderson, founder of the IAT, graduated from the University of Maine in 1957 and immediately began what became a long and impactful career caring for Maine’s natural resources. Anderson’s service included roles as Director of the Portland Society of Natural History, Executive Director of the Maine Audubon Society, and Commissioner of the Maine Department of Conservation.
By 1993, when Anderson began his quest to create an international Appalachian hiking trail, he knew well Maine’s environment and the potential challenges of establishing the IAT. He brought to the project nearly four decades of experience managing and preserving land in the state, garnering support and clearing obstacles. Anderson served as the inaugural president of the IAT’s Maine Chapter, and he, Don Hudson, and many volunteers walked trail routes, planned campsites, managed financial and legal agreements, and nurtured and coordinated with other IAT chapters.
Acknowledging his tremendous contribution to land conservation in Maine and hikers’ ability to enjoy the IAT region, officials in New Brunswick, Canada, named a bridge along the route the “Dick Anderson Bridge,” and Maine designated the state’s portion of the trail the “Richard B. Anderson Trail.”
Routing the Trail
On Earth Day, April 22, 1994, former Maine Governor Joseph Brennan officially endorsed the proposal to establish a trail following the Appalachian Range across the border into Canada. Supporters gathered that June to outline basic principles of cooperation that guide IAT development to this day, and to map river and border crossings between Katahdin and Cap Gaspé. Cartographers sketched various routes, volunteers walked portions of trail, and the IAT secured agreements for passage through public and private lands.
By 2000, the IAT stretched from Maine to the easternmost edge of Québec, fulfilling Anderson’s original vision. Over the next eight years, volunteers established the trail across Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia to Belle Isle, Newfoundland, the endpoint of the Appalachian Range in North America.
In 2009, Scottish geologists learned of the IAT. Knowing that the Scottish Highlands are remnants of the same Pangean Range as the Appalachians, the geologists contacted IAT members about extending the trail across the Atlantic Ocean. Between 2009 and 2023, over a dozen countries established IAT chapters.
Hikers
By the late 1990s, inquiries from hikers interested in walking the IAT began arriving in the mail. Chapter members responded to every letter, sending information and early trail maps.
In October of 1997, John Brinda, the first thru-hiker to traverse the entire IAT from Maine to Cap Gaspé, completed his journey. More thru-hikers soon followed, as did day and section hikers. Richard Anderson and fellow IAT members kept in close contact with many, championing their journeys and offering support, just as hikers shared feedback and helped to improve and establish the trail.
Over decades, long-distance hikers along the Appalachian Trail developed a shared vocabulary, including the use of trail names, or nicknames that hikers give one another based on a unique trait, behavior, or, even, item of gear. Trail names often stick, and hikers use them in conversation or to exchange messages in trail registers, which are notebooks attached to lean-tos for hikers to record thoughts or leave feedback.
Friendly URL: https://www.mainememory.net/exhibits/IAT
