ASSOCIATED PRESS • July 20, 2025
The founder of Burt’s Bees envisioned a tribute to Henry David Thoreau when she began buying thousands of acres of logging company land to donate for what would become the Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument. But there was a major pivot: The monument’s new welcome center tells its story not from the perspective of the famed naturalist but through the eyes of the Wabanaki tribes who were the land’s original inhabitants. Roxanne Quimby’s family collaborated with four tribal nations, private entities and federal officials to create the $35 million center that the National Park Service opened to the public on June 21, providing a focal point for the 87,500-acre monument.