One in a series of historic Acadia hiking trail highlights
Travel along two of the oldest paths in Acadia National Park, from Asticou to Jordan Pond, and step through history, starting at the Map House in Northeast Harbor and ending at a plaque off Jordan Pond that honors a modern-day couple’s contributions to Acadia trails forever.
Map House, where novelist Willa Cather and many others have stopped to rest
We were inspired to make this 7-mile round-trip hike along the Asticou & Jordan Pond Path and the Jordan Pond Path by a recent talk about Acadia’s historic trails by Gary Stellpflug, retired Acadia National Park trails crew foreman.
Begin at the Asticou & Jordan Pond Path, a woodland path that starts outside the park at the Map House across from the Asticou Inn. The Map House, located in the Mount Desert Land & Garden Preserve, is a pavilion constructed in the village of Asticou by the late Charles K. Savage, in 1938, according to historic documents in the Northeast Harbor Library’s digital archives. Former longtime owner and manager of the Asticou Inn, Savage was also “creator and original designer of both the Asticou Azalea Garden and Thuya Garden,” according to the website of the Land & Garden Preserve, which runs the gardens.
Willa Cather, the early 20th century novelist who spent some summers in the 1940s, staying at the Asticou Inn, loved stopping for a rest at the Map House, per the Northeast Harbor Library’s digital archives. Savage built the Map House “at his own expense and on his own land for the use of all walkers and passers-by,” according to the library’s digital archives.