The 40th Anniversary of the First Meeting of the IATC - A Day that will Live in Auspiciousness

On May 19, 1979, the first formal meeting of the IATC was held in the Issaquah Sportsmen’s Clubhouse.  The name “Issaquah Alps Trails Club” was voted-in by those in attendance.  After a few months of semi-organization, a board was selected and Harvey Manning, the rabble-rousing-ring-leader, was elected as president.

Sadly, there are no known photos of that first meeting, but here is a recent photo of the Sportsmen’s Clubhouse, along with two of the IATC’s charter members out front, David Kappler and Tom Mechler, reminiscing about that first meeting:

And here they are seated inside at the same table they were seated at 40 years ago (I like to pretend):

It was Tom Mechler who arranged for the use of the Sportsmen’s Clubhouse for that first meeting, as he was a member of the Sportsmen’s Club (and continues to be to this day). The clubhouse has since been listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

The meeting was pre-announced in the Issaquah Press, but apparently the date was shifted from May 23 to May 19:

If this piques your interest in club history, please come to the IATC History Program on June 8.  Read all about it here.