The One-Term Maine Governor Best Known For Creating A State Park

MAINE PUBLIC • January 29, 2021

One-hundred years ago Sunday, Maine got its second new governor in a month. Frederick Parkhurst, who’d been elected the previous fall to a two-year term, died not long after his inauguration. That elevated the brand new state Senate president to the governorship. His name was Percival Baxter, who is maybe best known for the park he created that bears his name, but that wouldn’t come until after his four years as governor. Maine State Historian Earle Shettleworth told Morning Edition Host Irwin Gratz that Baxter’s interest in preservation had emerged as a young lawmaker in 1917.