PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • June 17, 2021
Five years ago, then-President Barack Obama created the Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument on 87,000 acres of woodland donated to the people of the United States by businesswoman Roxanne Quimby. Visitation to the monument has increased every year. There were 41,000 visitors to the park in 2020, a 10 percent increase over the previous year. They came for the hiking, canoeing, snowmobiling, biking, fishing, hunting and stargazing under the darkest skies in the Northeast. These visitors spent $2.7 million in communities near the park gates, which, according to the Park Service, supported 38 jobs in the area and generated $3.3 million in economic activity. Now that the fighting is over, it’s good to see the national monument grow, bringing people to the region and showing how much it has to offer.