News & Updates

State park absorbs Katahdin 'jewel'
By Kevin Miller
August 25, 2007 - Bangor Daily News

Maine Department of Conservation commissioner Patrick McGowan flys a Cesna 180 on a flight from Pushaw Lake to Baxter State Park on Wednesday, August 22, 2007. (Bangor Daily News/Bridget Brown)

A view of of Mount Katahdin from Katahdin Lake taken on Wednesday, August 22, 2007.(Bangor Daily News/Bridget Brown)

Signs of the abundance of wildlife surrounding the Katahdin Lakes Wilderness Camps adorn the doorway. The camps, which are in a recently added section of Baxter State, have been continuously operated since 1885. (Bangor Daily News/Bridget Brown) 

Cruising about 1,200 feet above the ground, it’s a challenge to identify the lakes, ponds and streams that dot the landscape around Millinocket without referring constantly to a detailed map.

But as the plane closes in on mile-high Mount Katahdin, one water body stands out against the deep green landscape, its surface glistening in the midday summer sun.

"Katahdin Lake is just ahead of us," Patrick McGowan, the commissioner of the Maine Department of Conservation, said over the headset of the four-seater Cessna 180 that he was piloting.

McGowan, an experienced pilot who often uses his personal plane to do state business, estimated that he had made this flight into Katahdin Lake "at least 20 times" during the past year and a half or so.

Those trips, as well as dozens more led by others over land, were key to raising the $14 million needed to add Katahdin Lake to Baxter State Park. Banking his float plane around the lake perimeter, McGowan pointed out the lake’s proximity to Mount Katahdin and the pristine forests that surround the clear waters.

"See those old-growth trees in there? Those trees are pretty old," McGowan said moments before landing with a splash on the lake.

Fewer float planes land on Katahdin Lake these days now that the property is squarely within state ownership. But use of the property is on the rise among day-hikers and casual visitors thanks to all the publicity over the state’s acquisition of the land and some recent maintenance.

The sporting camp that has occupied part of the lake frontage for more than 120 years has received a minor makeover. Crews also upgraded the increasingly popular trail leading into the lake from the park’s main road.

All of this is part of park officials’ efforts to absorb one of the "jewels" of Maine’s North Woods into 209,500-acre Baxter State Park.

"It’s started to become an option in the park for day use," Jensen Bissell, park director at Baxter, said during an interview. "We look at this as a long-term effort to make it look like Katahdin Lake was always a part of the park."

Bissell said more than 160 people have hiked into Katahdin Lake in recent months, according to the sign-in sheets placed at the beginning of the trail. The overwhelming majority of those were hikers completing the roughly six-mile round-trip trek in the same day.

The hike in is now a bit easier thanks to 1,000 feet of bridge work installed earlier this summer over wet portions of the trail. The new bog bridges and other improvements have helped Bissell feel more comfortable about a trail that was in questionable shape last year.

"Walking it this summer, I changed my mind," he said. "It’s really become a nice trail."

After landing and docking his plane, McGowan took several visitors on a tour of the rustic sporting camp set back in the dense forests that surround the lake.

Built in the 1880s, Katahdin Lake Wilderness Camps is one of the few remaining sporting camps in Maine accessible only by trail or float plane. The camp’s owner, Charles FitzGerald, acquired a lease agreement from Baxter officials to continue operating the camp.

The camp includes 10 rental cabins and two lodges, all made of rough-hewn logs. Wood stoves provide heat while propane lamps provide interior light. The only running water is in a nearby spring, but guests have their choice of a variety of outhouses in which to take care of their private business.

McGowan also pointed out the beach where Frederic Church, an acclaimed 19th century landscape artist, painted one of his pieces on Katahdin Lake.

Artists and tourists are still drawn to that landscape, which has barely changed since Church’s day. The camp had to undergo a few minor changes under its newfound status within Baxter State Park, however.

Before renewing commercial operations, camp managers Holly and Bryce Hamilton had to bring the dozen or so cabins up to snuff in the eyes of park officials with liability concerns.

They upgraded the propane lamps as well as some of the cabin stoves. Camp staff are also in the process of replacing some of the large logs that comprise the cabin walls.

"They have worked very deliberately and cooperatively to address some of the safety concerns we had with the camps," Bissell said.

It’s literally taken a lifetime to get to this point.

In 1921, then-Gov. Percival Baxter included Katahdin Lake in his original vision for what would become Baxter State Park. Despite repeated attempts, however, Baxter was never able to purchase the land before his death in 1969.

State officials finally received the deed to the lake property last December, but only after a heated political debate that nearly scuttled the entire land deal. And Katahdin Lake remains a touchy subject among some groups, especially Millinocket-area sportsmen and local officials angry about losing access to the land for hunting and snowmobiling.

Tensions burst to the surface again recently following several land purchases by conservationist Roxanne Quimby and delays in the planned state acquisition of another 8,000 acres near Katahdin Lake that would be open to sportsmen.

Back at the controls of his float plane, McGowan acknowledged that concerns persist over the lake deal. The state is working to address access issues that arose during the lake deal negotiations and since.

In the latest development, a nonprofit land conservation group working on behalf of the state has secured an option to purchase the 8,000-acre Wassataquoik Valley lands from Gardner Land Co., which also sold Katahdin Lake to the state. But first supporters will have to chip in more than $6 million in the next three months.

McGowan and other state officials, including Gov. John Baldacci, are also optimistic that negotiations between Quimby and Millinocket-area leaders will lead to agreements over access.

But as he steered his Cessna deeper into Baxter State Park airspace and away from Katahdin Lake, McGowan said people must look at the bigger picture of what the state gained by permanently protecting the lake property.

"We completed Gov. Baxter’s vision, which was the objective, and added this to the ownership of the people of Maine forever," he said.

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