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PENOBSCOTEAST BRANCH LANDS
A Journey rough Time
PROMINENT HISTORICAL, CULTURAL,AND SOCIAL FEATURES
David Little, John W. Neff and Howard R. Whitcomb
CONTENTS
Foreword by Lucas St. Clair 7
Introduction 11The Native American Presence 15The Monument Line 16Extensive Logging Operations Beginning in the 1830s 20Arrival of the Recreation Seekers– 1840s to 1920s 23The Sporting Camps – 1830s to Present 25Henry David Thoreau Canoes Down the Penobscot East Branch 26Artists and Photographers, Captivated by These Lands 29Teddy Roosevelt Climbs Katahdin in 1879 33Percival P. Baxter and His Magnificent Obsession 34Myron Avery’s Overwhelming Presence 37William O. Douglas and the Wassataquoik Valley 38Donn Fendler’s Survival Trek from the Wassataquoik’s Headwaters to the Penobscot East Branch 39The Arrival of the International Appalachian Trail (IAT) 40Afterword 43
Notes 44About the Authors 46Image Credits 47
Text copyright © 2016 by David Little, John W. Neff and Howard R. Whitcomb.All rights reserved.
Foreword copyright © 2016 by Lucas St. Clair. All rights reserved.
A complete list of image credits & copyrightsmay be found on page 47.
Published in the United States by Elliotsville Plantation, Inc. Portland, Maine(207) 518-9462
www.KatahdinWoods.org
Front cover photograph of Whetstone Falls on the East Branch of the Penobscot River © 2016 Scot Miller
Back cover photograph of Orin Falls on Wassataquoik Stream © 2016 Scot Miller
Cover and book design by Scot Miller and Marilyn Fox Miller
Printed in the USA First Edition 2016
FOREWORD
It was the summer of 2011 that I first saw the East Branch of the Penobscot River.
The previous day, Hurricane Irene dropped six inches of rain on northern Maine.My young family gathered on the banks of the Seboeis River, planning to paddledownstream to the East Branch and then on to Lunksoos Camps. Ten years earlier, my mother, Roxanne Quimby, had been deeply moved while flying over these lands,and inspired to protect them. It was the middle of winter and the frozen, white ribbon of water stretched out and away from the majestic peaks of Mount Katahdin.She understood how important the river system below her was to the entirety ofMaine's largest watershed, and knew she must do something to help preserve it. She began to purchase and conserve tens of thousands of acres along its banks.
That summer day in 2011, the river looked much different than I expected. It was not the rising torrent that I anticipated after such a storm, but a smooth sheet ofwater, moving silently through a giant forest. Silver maple trees brushed one another in the breeze from opposite banks. Game trails appeared here and there, where beaver,moose, deer, and lynx crept down to the water's edge. The river moved slowly and thelandscape began to soften -- from the harsh North Woods I had grown up exploringto a landscape reminiscent of the marshes and bayous of the Gulf States. Treesstretched and hung out over and into the river with tall grasses swaying slowly, hidinganything that could be lurking off the banks.
I am not sure when we actually joined the East Branch that day; the two riversmerged seamlessly. The flood plain slowly grew in size, and on we went. Our daughter,only six months old and barely able to sit up in the bottom of the canoe, stared at thesky. Bald eagles soared overhead. My great aunt Lily, born in Russia, 84 years young,exclaimed that she felt like Cleopatra on the Nile as she was paddled downstream.
Now, on the East Branch, we joined the historical journey of so many travelers before us. The Penobscots had come by this very spot as they paddled and portagedeach spring to Penobscot Bay on the ocean to fish in the summer months. Today, remnants of their tools can still be found here on the river’s higher banks. Henry David
Approaching Big Seboeis campsite, where the Seboeis River joins the East Branch of the Penobscot River.
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Haskell Rock Pitch on the East Branchof the Penobscot River
Thoreau, led by his Penobscot guide Joe Polis, was inspired by a trip down the East Branch in 1857 to write his essay “The Allegash and East Branch”, publishedposthumously as the third chapter of The Maine Woods (1864). Thoreau’s writings articulated the underlying philosophy for much of the conservation that followedthroughout the next century. Just downstream, young Theodore Roosevelt crossed theriver in 1879 on his way to the summit of Maine's highest peak, Katahdin. He is theonly U.S. president to ever reach this summit.
We made the last few turns in the river that day and took our canoes out atLunksoos Camps, the site of an historic farm and logging camp that housed and fedbrave lumberjacks and river drivers on their annual drives down the mighty Wassa-taquoik Stream. The river drives ended 45 years ago, and today, with access to theselands limited to one small, remote bridge for vehicles, this East Branch region remainssteeped in mystery, a jeweled asset, hidden to most. As we pulled the canoes up themuddy bank, we could hear the roar of the wild Wassataquoik cascading off the upperslopes of Katahdin and into the East Branch downstream, in a cycle of replenishment.
Our experience of quiet solitude on the river and inspiration from the forestedlandscape mirrored that of the Penobscots, artists, thinkers, writers, industrialists, explorers, politicians, adventure seekers, and philanthropists of the past. Now, at a timeof uncertainty, there is a great opportunity to create something new and different inthis inland part of Maine. Our family hopes that the leaders of this country will acceptthe gift that we are offering--87,500 acres of land to be made into a National Park and National Recreation Area. These designations will allow these lands to be seen for what they are: an evolving landscape with opportunities for traditional outdoor activities, an historic landscape with lessons from the past, and places where we canbear witness to the out-of-doors that is truly and uniquely Maine. Our hope is thatthis special landscape will inspire people, as it did our family, to continue and buildupon the legacy of Thoreau, Roosevelt and others.
The stories that follow highlight the rich history – people, places, and events – of the Penobscot East Branch lands. Thank you to the authors, David Little, John W.Neff, and Howard R. Whitcomb, and the book’s designers, Scot and Marilyn Miller,for their invaluable help in the creation of this special historical document.
I hope to see you on the river soon. – Lucas St. Clair January 2016
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INTRODUCTION
Nothing but moosetrails in the mist,today’s fog and wind,trees against sky.I want to disappear into cloud,wander my way to sunlight,follow the moose downsecret trails in the woodsto reach the places where the wolvesrest above the ridges, within us,where the heart wanders, wild.
Gary Lawless 1
The poet's journey of personal discoverydown secret trails suggests in spirit the lands encompassing Maine's East Branch of thePenobscot River. These lands and landscapesfrom Grand Lake Matagamon to WhetstoneBridge embody rich, significant historical, cultural and social features.2 The river and itstwo main tributaries, Wassataquoik Stream andthe Seboeis River, were first visited by nativepeoples after the glacial age. Over subsequent centuries human and commercial activity left indelible marks on the region. The following narrative seeks to identifymany of the primary features of this long and fascinating history.
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“It is all mossy and moosey.”
– Henry David Thoreau, from The Maine Woods
The Oxbow, on East Branch of the Penobscot River.
(right) Winter sports are a big partof the Maine Woods experience.
Residents of the Katahdin region and tribal members alike
would benefit, not only from the long-term protection of the
lands surrounding the rivers but from the economic activity
that a new national park and national recreation area would
bring to the greater Bangor and Katahdin regions.
– Kirk E. Francis, Penobscot Nation President
THE NATIVE AMERICAN PRESENCE
The native peoples began to inhabit the upland regions of Maine some 11,000 years ago, traveling by canoe up, down, and across the state’s many rivers and portaging from one river to the next. The entire Penobscot River watershed was the territory of the Penobscot Nation. Tribal members fully utilized the river’s East Branch, known to them as Wassategweweck, or “the place where they spearfish.” The native reverence for the land and all its gifts is legendary and still runs deep in their culture, inspiring all who wish to preserve and protect these wild places.
Few of the people who travel over the rivers and lakes of Maine realize the important role these waterways and birch bark canoes played in the history of the Indians, or of the European soldiers and settlers who fought over and tamed a forest empire. The advantages of canoe travel were so great for the Indians that canoes and navigable waters became the highways of prehistory.3
Our native brothers and sisters have a deep sensitivity toward the natural environment, strengthened over the thousands of years they have lived along the rivers. First, they believe everything has been created by the infinite one, the Great Spirit, who has infused all creation with life and energy. Second, they believe in the interdependence and interconnectedness of life. Third, they have embraced the concept of human stewardship over the creation. These are gifts native peoples offer to others living alongside them in our modern culture.4
Theirs is a gentler footprint upon the landscape east of Katahdin.
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THE MONUMENT LINE
A series of expeditions, authorized by the Maine Boundary Commission duringthe years 1820-1833, resulted in the first formal surveys of the Union’s newly admitted state. The surveys established a Monument Line, crossing the state in awesterly direction from the Canadian Province of New Brunswick to Quebec. It set a permanent base line for dividing all surveys to the north. It gave rise to designations, such as T3 R9, W.E.L.S., for the location of Katahdin’s summit.
The most celebrated of the surveys was that of 1825 undertaken by Joseph C.Norris, Sr. and his son. The pair started out at the Maine - New Brunswick borderjust north of Schoodic Lake.5 By September they reached the Seboeis River, a tributary of the East Branch of the Penobscot. After an interlude surveying elsewhere, the crew returned in early November and crossed the Seboeis, and in another mile the East Branch itself. Laura and Guy Waterman in their classic, Forest and Crag, describe the first major obstacles the surveyors encountered sinceleaving the St. Croix watershed:
The next seven and one half miles took them over a low swell of less than 2,000 feet, but if the skies to the west were clear, father and son must have been growing increasingly apprehensive. Immediately before them lay the wild valley of the Wassataquoik Stream, of which no record existed of any previous human visits. Beyond that, great lumps of mountain ridges loomed. Bad luck had aimed the Monument Line directly at the heart of the Katahdin group of mountains.6
After ascending the Turner Range the Norris party confronted the Katahdin massif directly in their westerly path. After reaching the northern portion ofKatahdin’s Tableland, they discovered the “perpendicular ledges and precipices”7
of the Northwest Basin with its glacial ponds, which are among the principal headwaters of Wassataquoik Stream. By then it was November 10th and, without descending into the basin 1,200 feet below, the Norris party retreated overthe course of the next several days via Katahdin’s summit and down the Abol Slide.
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The Monument Line wouldn’t be completed until 1833 and it would be morethan a half-century before the Northwest Basin would be seen again by non-Native Americans. A leading authority on the Monument Line claims “the notes of the surveyors who ran the Monument Line across Katahdin form one of the choicestpieces of Katahdin literature.”8
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This 1830s Monument Line marker was discovered and photographed in the area in the 1930s.
Orin Falls on Wassataquoik Stream
EXTENSIVE LOGGING OPERATIONSBEGINNING IN THE 1830S
Soon after Maine became a state in 1820, those traveling north on the new Military Road to the state’s remote Aroostook County spotted the vast timberlandsto the west toward Maine’s highest peak, Katahdin. Extensive logging began in the1830s in the forests surrounding the Seboeis River, along the wild WassataquoikStream, and everywhere in between. The East Branch of the Penobscot River servedas the main waterway to float the logs downriver to the mills just above Bangor. Thevast north woods became a major timber-producing realm. Despite several major firesand numerous changes in ownership, logging continues in the region except for theprotected lands in Baxter State Park.
The story of the Wassataquoik is an epic – an epic such as could develop only in Maine. Its history is the forward march of the lumber industry. It is the story of pioneering and of untold labor and hardship. The stream itself, in brief, is a brawling mountain torrent of the clearest water, tumbling along a bed choked with enormous pink granite boulders. It flows generally southeast, breaking through the mountain range composed of Lunksoos, Hathorn, Dacey and Hunt Mountains, to enter the Penobscot East Branch near the Hunt Farm, west of Stacyville….
The Wassataquoik has known all phases of lumbering; ithas floated the drives of the old pine days, now obscured in a dim tradition; it has battled the long spruce logs and finally yielded, subdued, when in the march of industry the long logs gave way to the pulpwood drives.9
Early logging operations on the East Branch of the Penobscot River.
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ARRIVAL OF THE RECREATION SEEKERS –1840S TO 1920S
After logging roads were built from Stacyville and Patten west to the PenobscotEast Branch, those recreationists who wished to climb Katahdin and explore its wildprecincts soon followed. They forded the East Branch at the Hunt and Dacey farmsand made their way toward the mountain by a variety of paths and trails. MarcusKeep arrived in 1846, cutting the first formal path to Katahdin in 1848. The following year he claimed to have guided the first women to the summit of Katahdinvia the East Branch and his new trail. From that time until the 1920s, the recreationseekers, along with botanists and geologists, crossed these lands in search of a wilderness experience and to observe the extraordinary flora and fauna, as well as its geological features. The venerable Appalachian Mountain Club of Boston arrived in 1886, heralding strong recreational use of these eastern approaches untilthe 1920s when a new giant lumber mill in Millinocket provided access to Katahdinfrom the south.
Restored wild areas…provide more convenient opportunities to be quiet, calm, and alone on remote trails and on patches of land evocative of an earlier, different time; to appreciate the awesome complexity, resiliency, and recuperative power of the natural world; and to be both humbled and uplifted. It is in such places that we can experience a renewal of the human spirit. Here we can become invigorated and empowered to think in fresh ways about our plans for the future, to contemplate our personal gifts and opportunities, and to see more clearly the steps we can take for a better life for ourselves, others, and our environment.10
Crossing the Penobscot East Branch at Hunt Farm, 1886.
Groups from Boston’s Appalachian Mountain Club first came to theKatahdin region in 1886. A 1920 AMC campsite is shown here.
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On the Penobscot East Branch, the Lunksoos Sporting Camps were establishedin 1881 at the old Dacey farm site. At one time, the camps maintained a crudeferry to carry hikers across to trails leading to Katahdin Lake and beyond. Portions of the cable that supported the ferry can still be seen at the site.
THE SPORTING CAMPS – 1830S TO PRESENTWhen in the early 1830s the Hunt and Dacey farms were established, in
close proximity to each other on the shore of the Penobscot East Branch, their first priority was toserve the emerging logging industry. It was not long,however, before the farms offered accommodationsfor those trekking into the Katahdin wilderness forpurely personal recreational reasons. Thus began asporting camp era that included not only the Huntand Dacey farms but also the Bowlin Camps upriver,camps at Little Spring Brook (later linked to RussellPond), the Lang and Jones Camps on KatahdinLake, and later the Katahdin Lake WildernessCamps.11 The camps offered overnight guest cabins,home-cooked meals, a central gathering lodge,
guides-for-hire, and often transportation from rail or road hubs. Given the era and the wilderness locale, these early farms and sporting camps provided comfort and safety away from home. It was an experience of wilderness while allowingwilderness the freedom to be itself.
Just after dawn at a typical camp, a pitcher of hot water was deliveredto each cabin for a morning “bath.” After a hearty breakfast, guests selected their activities, which ranged from canoeing and taking guided fishing trips to hiking nearby trails and preparing for the two- or three-day trek to Katahdin’s summit. Most sporting camps had simple outlying cabins or shelters on nearby ponds and rivers where one or more guests, often with a guide, stayed for a few nights of even more remote fishing and exploring….
As darkness fell at camp proper, proprietors, guests, and guides planned the next day’s excursions, shared tales, or retreated to the library and eventually to their cabins to sleep. There was usually a great mix of guests – politicians, businessmen, artists, the rich and the not-so-rich, the ordinary and the extraordinary – all sharing equally, socializing together as one….12
HENRY DAVID THOREAU CANOES DOWN THEPENOBSCOT EAST BRANCH
Henry David Thoreau, author, philosopher, and naturalist, came to the northMaine woods on three occasions. On his first trip in 1846, weather halted his attemptto reach Katahdin’s summit. On his third and final trip to Maine in 1857 (a northern circuit around the mountain), Thoreau and fellow-Concord friend, Edward S. Hoar, and their Penobscotguide, Joe Polis, canoed down Webster Stream, across Matagamon Lake, and down the East Branch. In so doing, they first passed the old Dacey Farm (now the Lunksoos Camps),and then passed the Hunt Farm.
Thoreau wrote, in his essay “The Allegash and EastBranch” in The Maine Woods: “We found that we hadcamped about a mile above Hunt’s, which is on the east bank—and is the last house for those who ascendKtaadn on this side. We also expected to ascend it fromthis point--but omitted it on account of the sore feet ofmy companion.”13
The May 2014 re-enactment of Thoreau’s mid-19th century canoe routes inMaine’s north woods should remind us of his iconic words - “In Wildness is thepreservation of the world.” The party, which included Maine guides, members of thePenobscot Nation, and Thoreau scholars, sought in their 16-day wilderness adventureto commemorate the 150th anniversary of the publication of one of the most significant travel narratives ever written and in doing so honor the life of its author.Thoreau described the sublime and picturesque qualities of the landscape and madethe case for its protection.
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“Wherever there is a channel for water, there is a road for the canoe.”
– Henry David Thoreau, from The Maine Woods
Participants on the 16-day adventure commemorating the 150th anniversary of the publication of The Maine Woods.
ARTISTS AND PHOTOGRAPHERS,CAPTIVATED BY THESE LANDS
In 1832 John James Audubon, distinguished American ornithologist and artist,canoed down the East Branch of the Penobscot, sketching the region’s flora andfauna for the 1838 publication of his Birds of America masterpiece. He was to be onlythe first of many eminent artists and photographers to discover the wild beauty of theEast Branch watershed.
Frederic Edwin Church, America’s greatest 19th century landscape painter and amember of the famed Hudson River School, discovered the wonders of the region ona trip with lumbermen down the East Branch route in 1852. This would be the firstof numerous trips to the Katahdin region, leading eventually to his building a campon Millinocket Lake with a stunning view of the mountain.
His 1877 trip from Stacyville with fellow Hudson River School members Sanford Gifford, Lockwood de Forest, and Horace Robbins is one of the most important recorded events in the history of the arts of the region.14 Church’s colleagues ventured into the interior simply on Church's say-so. A. L. Holley described the locale they eventually reached for their lengthy encampment:
Imagine that you are fifty miles from any railway, twenty-five from the nearest highway, and thirteen from a practicable footing for any apparatus of transportation other than human legs; that you have come to stay a month. . . .15
From 1900 on, the new promotional magazine In the Maine Woods would annually feature stories of many East Branch trips complete with black and whitephotographs of fishing and hunting trophies, wildlife encounters, scenic waterfalls,and family life in camp.
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Mt. Ktaadn, 1853, by Frederic Edwin Church
Church traveled to northern Maine soon after the publication of Henry David Thoreau's travel narrative Ktaadn (1848). In this canvas, the artist changes the foreground Thoreau called “exceedingly wild and desolate" to suggest a future civilized setting.
Swedish-born Carl Sprinchorn arrived in 1937 to paint numerous motifs in thelands west of Patten and Shin Pond.
Wherever Sprinchorn found himself, his roving eye didn’tmiss much. Icicles, frost, lamplight, lightning, rain, a blizzard, sunsets, sunrise, moonrise, apples, trees, stumps, rivers, mountains, ponds, tents, camps, rivermen, and woods characters were part of his repertoire.16
Boston artist George Hallowell painted and photographed in this region in the early 1900s, giving special attention to the great log drives along WassataquoikStream and the East Branch.
There are views of the forests in winter, then the cutting, the hauling, the yarding, and innumerable pictures of the labor of the river drivers on the Wassataquoik. This stream was reported to be the most difficult stream for long-log driving in Maine. The labor and hardships of the river driving apparently fascinated Hallowell, for the major emphasis in this photographic collectionis devoted to picking off logs and the breaking of log jams.17
Maurice “Jake” Day’s adventures tramping and camping with his friend LesterHall in the East Branch watershed (Matagamon Lake, Trout Brook, Webster Stream,as well as Wassataquoik Stream) are the stuff of legend. For more than twenty yearsbeginning in 1933 they hiked with cameras, sketchpads and notebooks into remoteareas where no trails yet existed and where roads were rough and sometimes nearlyimpassable. During those 18 well-planned campaigns together, the comrades faithfully chronicled the landscape in the back of beyond.
Day could recreate vivid scenes of river driving or historic dams and sluiceways. He painted the dramatic view of the narrow Knife Edge on Katahdin. He also had a lighter, playful side that showed his skills as a cartoonist. This “man of fantasy,” as [Edmund Ware] Smith once called him, could paint from imagination woodland scenes of forest animals playing sports (including basketball and hockey), as well as dancing and singing and getting into mischief.18
Boston artist George Hallowell painted and photographed in this region in the early 1900s, giving special attention to the great log drives alongWassataquoik Stream and the East Branch.
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Modern-day artists and photographers are still drawn to this iconic region, finding deep inner spiritual inspiration for their lives and work. One such artist isnearby Patten resident Chris Huntington, whose life work has been to celebrate thewild and rugged beauty of the cascading waters of the East Branch, its tributaries,and the scenic views of Katahdin from the east. Huntington is artist, explorer, andhistorian, having devoted many years to researching the lives of both Sprinchorn andMarsden Hartley.
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TEDDY ROOSEVELT CLIMBS KATAHDIN IN 1879President Theodore Roosevelt, late in life, reflected on his trek to Katahdin with
William “Bill” Wingate Sewall and his nephew, Wilmont Dow, both of Island Falls:“I still remember with qualified joy the ascent and especially the descent of Katahdinin moccasins, worn because, to the deep disapproval of my companions, I had lost one of my heavy shoes in crossing a river (the Wassataquoik) at a riffle.”19
Roosevelt’s family had retained Bill Sewall in September 1878 to determine if a wilderness experience under Sewall’s tutelage might improve the health and
stamina of the Harvard College junior.There were two more trips the followingyear, one during the winter, and the other in mid-summer that included the expedition to Katahdin. A lifelongfriendship ensued between the Mainewoodsman and the healthy man whowould become the 26th president of the United States.20
Without doubt young Teddy Roosevelt’s formative experience in thenorth Maine woods would be a crucial factor in his becoming one of America’sgreatest champions of conservation and the national park system. Of particular note was his signing of the Antiquities Act in 1906, which was used initially to protect the Grand Canyon.
(l to r): William Wingate Sewall, Wilmot Dow, Theodore Roosevelt
Modern-day artists and photographers are still drawn to this iconic region,finding deep inner spiritual inspiration for their lives and work.
PERCIVAL P. BAXTER ANDHIS MAGNIFICENT OBSESSION
Percival P. Baxter’s epiphany on the 1920 trek from Patten to Katahdin via the East Branch of the Penobscot and the Wassataquoik inspired an unwaveringcommitment to preserve the wild lands surrounding and including Katahdin.
Historically, there have been many treks to Katahdin from the east by surveyors,lumberman, scientists, artists, and excursionists. None perhaps proved to be as significant for the region as the ambitious expedition led by Patten lumberman Bert W. Howe in August 1920. The trip was designed to promote Portland legislatorPercival P. Baxter’s proposal for a park at Katahdin to commemorate the centenary ofMaine’s statehood. The trek included nights at the Lunksoos Camps and KatahdinLake.21 As challenging as the trek proved to be by buckboard, bateau, and on footfrom Patten, Baxter reportedly said upon reaching the summit: “I wouldn’t do it againfor a million; I wouldn’t have missed it for a million.”22
Although Governor Baxter’s efforts were spurned by the legislature, he remainedresolute that a park should be established at Katahdin. The indefatigable efforts ofthis twentieth-century visionary to preserve Katahdin as a wilderness area for thepeople of Maine covered the span of a half-century. In 1930, Baxter was able to acquire, with his personal funds, a 5,960-acre parcel that embraced the major part of the Katahdin massif. This was the first of 28 parcels, totaling 201,000 acres, which Baxter deeded to the state of Maine between 1931-1963.23
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Percival Baxter, front, in a bateau crossing the East Branch of the Penobscot River on an August 1920 expedition to Katahdin.
MYRON AVERY’S OVERWHELMING PRESENCELubec, Maine native, Myron H. Avery, was one of the greatest hikers and
trailblazers in the history of the north woods. His crowning achievement was building the Appalachian Trail across Maine to its northern terminus at Katahdin. As David B. Field aptly points out, without Avery’s tenacity, “the trail might haveended in New Hampshire.”24
Robert A. Rubin points out in his Avery profile that Benton MacKaye’s "renown as the dreamer who founded the Appalachian Trail would never have beenaccorded had there not been someone like Avery to actually build the thing. And, it is likely that Avery, for all his amazing drive and focused energy, would be forgottenas just another take-charge lawyer if he hadn’t discovered a great project that neededdoing."25
It would be left to others to dream of extending the trail across national, andeven continental boundaries, to reflect the full reach of the ancient Appalachianmountain chain.
Avery was a prolific author and historian in his own right and left an indeliblewritten record of the entire Katahdin region and, in particular, the East Branch of the Penobscot and Wassataquoik watersheds.26 As noted earlier, he wrote a marveloushistory of the Wassataquoik. Additional articles, circa late ‘20s – early ‘40s, on thelands east of Katahdin appeared in publications, such as Appalachia (AppalachianMountain Club), The Northern (Great Northern Paper Company), and In the MaineWoods (Bangor and Aroostook Railroad).
In them he explored a wide range of topics, such as the Monument Line surveyors; forest fires at Katahdin; and the Keep Path and its successor trails toKatahdin from the east and north. Of particular note, was his “Artists of Katahdin”27
which foreshadowed much of the contemporary scholarship on the Hudson RiverSchool artist Frederic E. Church’s work in the Katahdin region, and also his articleson “Nineteenth Century Photographers of Katahdin”.
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Myron Avery (center) and friends Albert H. Jackman (left) and J. Frank Schairer(right) pose on the summit of Katahdin on August 19, 1933, when they begancutting and marking the Appalachian Trail across Maine.
DONN FENDLER’S SURVIVAL TREK FROM THEWASSATAQUOIK’S HEADWATERS TO THE
PENOBSCOT EAST BRANCHOn July 25, 1939, twelve-year-old Donn Fendler was found alive along the East
Branch of the Penobscot River opposite the Lunksoos Camps, thus ending searchand rescue efforts that had captivated Maine and the nation for the preceding week.Donn’s Boy Scout training served him well as he had the good sense to follow waterdownstream. Lost initially on Katahdin’s vast Tableland, Donn descended into the remote Klondike, lying between Katahdin and The Brothers, where he encounteredone of the headwater branches of the Wassataquoik Stream. For the next week hefollowed the stream’s circuitous route until he eventually reached the East Branch of the Penobscot upriver from Hunt Farm. Nelson McMoarn, the proprietor of theLunksoos Camps, heard Donn’s call for help and rescued him by canoe.
Quite remarkably, Donn had no major injuries,although he suffered from severe malnutrition andweight loss. His epic survival story narrated in Loston a Mountain in Maine (now an all-time children’sclassic) demonstrated Fendler’s extraordinary self-reliance and faith in the face of adversity.
Press coverage of the Fendler search and eventual rescue galvanized the country’s attention tothis remote area in Maine. Among his post-rescueaccolades was the presentation by Franklin D. Roosevelt of the Army and Navy Legion of Valor’sannual medal for the youth hero of l939. Donn wenton to a distinguished military career, including service as a Green Beret in Vietnam. He retired fromthe U.S. Army in 1978 at the rank of Lt. Colonel.
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WILLIAM O. DOUGLAS ANDTHEWASSATAQUOIK VALLEY
William O. Douglas, longest serving justice in U. S. Supreme Court history, found solitude in the northern Maine woods from the Katahdin region to the Allagash. Douglas, himself a leading 20th century environmentalist, wrote elegantly of the valley of the Wassataquoik which he described as Maine’s “last retreat” withtwenty miles of unbroken wilderness:
God made it for man and all His other creatures—to use, to adore, but not to destroy. In this wilderness the body cells are once more in rhythm. The sound of wind in birches, the conversation of swamp crickets, the gentle swish of troutfeeding on the surface make the music man needs to survivethe mad rush of the machine age.
At the foot of Katahdin in the valley of the Wassataquoik there is heaven on earth that must be fought for, generation on end. It is safe now, because the new growth has no commercial value. When a new climax forest is reaching maturity some generations hence, greedy men will want the trees.28
At the foot of Katahdin in the valley of the
Wassataquoik there is heaven on earth that
must be fought for, generation on end. Donn Fendler at Baxter Sate Park in 1940.
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THE ARRIVAL OF THEINTERNATIONAL APPALACHIAN TRAIL (IAT)
Conceived by Dick Anderson, a Maine fisheries biologist, the idea for the extension of the AT beyond Katahdin into a novel International Appalachian Trailinvolved sections of the trail on all of the terrains of the North American, European,and African continental land masses that carry pieces of the ancestral Appalachians.29
The Maine Chapter of the IAT, founded in 1994, oversees 138 miles of trailfrom Katahdin Lake on the eastern boundary of Baxter State Park across the EastBranch lands and then ultimately to the international border near Fort Fairfield.There it enters the Canadian Province of New Brunswick on its eventual trek to the northern end of the North American Appalachians in Greenland. Along the way, portions of the ancient mountain chain are also found in the provinces of Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland and Labrador.
The initial segment of the IAT in Maine, The East Branch Section, encompassingapproximately 30 miles,parallels the Penobscot’sEast Branch for much of its route to itsheadwaters at Matagamon Lake.30
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An International Appalachian Trail hiker takes in the stunning view from atop Deasey Mountain.
Adding an IAT trail marker to a tree on the trail.
AFTERWORD
We have attempted in these narratives tobring attention to the remarkable historical, cultural, and social characteristics of the landsElliotsville Plantation, Inc. is striving to protectand preserve for those who seek the restorativepower of Maine’s great north woods and waters.These lands have many significant uses thatmight benefit the region and the state, amongthem, we assert, providing venues where solitude, recreation, quiet contemplation, and the opportunity to interact with a relatively untouched, uncultivated natural world are paramount. And in terms of the marvelous tapestry of history we have recounted herein, we suggest that any modern-day guide or parkranger would have plenty of stories to tell to visiting tourists of this countryside east ofKatahdin.
The extraordinary features of the woodsand waters east of Katahdin in the East Branchwatershed qualify these lands to be set aside andconserved for all the people. We must move from viewing land as an entity to be tamed and utilized toward one to be left alone at times and enjoyed in its more unaltered state.
It is thus our earnest wish that these landsbe allowed to return to their natural state for the good of those who seek the blessings theyafford.
The extraordinary features
of the woods and
waters east of Katahdin
in the East Branch
watershed qualify these
lands to be set aside
and conserved for
all the people.
43
East Branch at Whetstone
NOTES1. Gary Lawless from On Wilderness: Voices from Maine, Edited by Phyllis Austin,
Dean Bennett, and Robert Kimber (Tilbury House, 2003), p. 7.2. The East Branch of the Penobscot flows south from Grand Lake Matagamon for 48 miles
to its confluence with the West Branch at Medway.3. David S. Cook, Above the Gravel Bar, Self-published, 1985, p. ii.4. John W. Neff, from an unpublished manuscript.5. The original marker had been a yellow birch tree encircled by an iron hoop that had been
marked in 1797. It was replaced with a cedar post in 1817.6. Laura and Guy Waterman, Forest and Crag (Appalachian Mountain Club, 1989), p. 52.7. From Joseph C. Norris’s field notes as cited in Waterman, Forest and Crag, pp. 54 and 700. 8. Myron H. Avery, “The Monument Line Surveyors on Katahdin,” Appalachia ( June, 1928),
p. 33.9. Myron H. Avery, “The Story of the Wassataquoik: A Maine Epic”, The Maine Naturalist
(September, 1929), p. 83.10. Dean Bennett from On Wilderness, p. 135.11. Both the Bowlin Camps and the Katahdin Lake Wilderness Camps are still in operation.12. John W. Neff, Katahdin: An Historic Journey (Appalachian Mountain Club Books, 2006),
pp. 105-6.13. Henry David Thoreau, The Maine Woods, edited by Joseph J. Moldenhauer (Princeton
University Press, 2004), p. 283. J. Parker Huber, in The Wildest Country, 2nd ed. (Appalachian Mountain Club Books, 2008), p. 93, points out that had Thoreau’s companion, Edward S. Hoar, not been afflicted with seriously chafed feet resulting from the atrocious conditions they experienced on the Mud Pond portage between Umbazooksusand Chamberlain lakes several days prior, Thoreau’s plans for ascending Katahdin might have been realized. By 1857 there was a well-established tote road along the north side of the Wassataquoik that eventually turned southwest to Katahdin Lake. From there Thoreau’sparty would have availed themselves of Keep’s Path that led to the slide at the base of Pamola.
14. See the classic account of this trek up the Penobscot and Wassataquoik to Katahdin Lake, and eventually the Katahdin basin: A. L. Holley, “Camps and Tramps About K’taadn”, Scribner’s Monthly (May, 1878).
15. A. L. Holley, “Camps and Tramps About K’taadn”, p. 33.16. David Little, Art of Katahdin (Down East Books, 2013), p.100.17. Myron H. Avery, “Nineteenth Century Photographers of Katahdin,” Appalachia
(December, 1946), p. 222.
18. Little, Art of Katahdin, p. 79. 19. Theodore Roosevelt, “My Debt to Maine” in Maine My State: The Writers Research Club
(The Journal Printshop, Lewiston, Maine, 1919).20. See Andrew Vietz, Becoming Teddy Roosevelt: How a Maine Guide Inspired America’s 26th
President (Down East Books, 2010).21. There are two first-hand accounts of this trek from Patten across both the East Branch
and the Wassataquoik. The definitive account was written by Arthur G. Staples, “Katahdin – Highest Mountain in the Wildest Park of New England – The Story of a Seventy-Five Mile Trip to Its Summit, Told in Plain Prose with Many Adventures,” Lewiston Journal, October 2, 1920, Magazine Section. This lengthy article includes historic information on places such as the Lunksoos Camps and Hunt Farm. The second account was by Sam E. Connors, “O’er Katahdin’s Rugged Sides”, In the Maine Woods (1921).
22. Staples, “Katahdin – Highest Mountain in the Wildest Park of New England”, p. 5.23. It would not be until 2006, long after Baxter’s death, that Baxter State Park acquired a
4,768-acre parcel surrounding Katahdin Lake. This parcel, in the northwest quadrant of T3 R8, lies within the Wassataquoik watershed and abuts the so-called “East Branch Lands”. Baxter had included this quarter-township in his 1921 park proposal, but had been unable to acquire it during his lifetime. The 2006 land-swap, facilitated by The Trust for Public Land, represented the culmination of Baxter’s vision for a park at Katahdin. See, Howard R. Whitcomb, Governor Baxter’s Magnificent Obsession: A Documentary History of Baxter State Park, 1931-2006 (Friends of Baxter State Park. 2008) for the definitive account of the creation of Baxter State Park through to the addition of the Katahdin Lake parcel.
24. David B. Field, Along Maine’s Appalachian Trail (Arcadia Publishing Company, 2011), p. 7.25. Robert A. Rubin, “The Short, Brilliant Life of Myron Avery”, in “Trail Years: A History of
the Appalachian Trail Conference”, Appalachian Trailway News, Special 75th Anniversary Issue ( July, 2000), p. 29.
26. See entries under “Avery” in Annotated Bibliography of Katahdin, compiled by Edward S. C. Smith and Myron H. Avery, (Appalachian Trail Conference, Washington, D.C., 1936, reprinted 1950).
27. In the Maine Woods (1940), pp. 12-21.28. William. O. Douglas, My Wilderness: East to Katahdin (Doubleday, 1961), p. 289.29. In geological terms, drifting continental landmasses, or tectonic plates, first collided to
form the mountain chain and then separated to create today’s continental configuration.30. The International Appalachian Trail, Trail Guide, East Branch of the Penobscot River Maine:
Baxter State Park to Grand Lake Road, (Maine Chapter of the IAT, 2012), pp. 1-3.
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ABOUT THE AUTHORSDavid Little, MFA University of Iowa, has been painting the Maine landscape
for thirty years. He is the author of Art of Katahdin, Down East Books, which received a Boston Globe Award for 2013. He has curated art exhibitions at BatesCollege and the University of New England. He is the co-author, with Carl Little, of Art of Acadia (Down East Books, June, 2016).
John W. Neff, a retired United Methodist pastor, received his Master of Divinity degree from Boston University School of Theology. He is the author of a comprehensive history of the Katahdin area, Katahdin: An Historic Journey,published by Appalachian Mountain Club Books in 2006. He also co-authored with Howard R. Whitcomb the 2012 Arcadia Publishing Company’s photographichistory, Baxter State Park and Katahdin. He was a founding member and first president the Friends of Baxter State Park.
Howard R. Whitcomb, Ph. D. in political science from Rockefeller College of Public Affairs, University at Albany (SUNY), has spent the past dozen years researching and writing about Percival P. Baxter and the creation of Baxter StatePark. His publications include: Percival P. Baxter’s Vision for Baxter State Park: An Annotated Compilation of Original Sources, 4 volumes (Friends of Baxter State Park, 2005); Governor Baxter’s Magnificent Obsession (Friends of Baxter State Park,2008); and co-author (with John W. Neff ) Baxter State Park and Katahdin (ArcadiaPublishing Company, 2012).
IMAGE CREDITS
4746
1 1856 map of Maine courtesy of the Osher Map Library, University of Southern Maine
2 East Branch of the Penobscot River, photograph ©Mark Picard
4 Purple Trillium bloom, photograph ©Mark Picard
6 Approaching Big Seboeis campsite, photograph ©Scot Miller
9 Haskell Rock Pitch, photograph©Scot Miller
10 Bull moose amidst yellow leaves, photograph ©Mark Picard
11 Pileated woodpecker chicks, photograph ©Mark Picard
12 The Oxbow, East Branch of the Penobscot River, photograph ©Scot Miller
13 Cross country skier and Mount Katahdin, photograph ©Susan Adams
14 Newell M. Francis and Julia F. Mitchell Francis, early 1900s photograph by A.F. Orr courtesy Hudson Museum, University of Maine, HM7182.183
17 1830s Monument Line marker, photograph courtesy Appalachian Mountain Club Library and Archives
18 Orin Falls on Wassataquoik Stream, photograph ©Scot Miller
21 Early logging operations on the East Branch, photograph courtesy Maine Folklife Center, University of Maine
22 (top) Crossing the Penobscot East Branch, 1886, Rose Hollingsworth photograph courtesy Appalachian Mountain Club Library and Archives
22 (bottom) 1920 Appalachian Mountain Club campsite, photograph courtesy Appalachian Mountain Club Library and Archives
24 Lunksoos Sporting Camps on the East Branch of the Penobscot River at the old Dacey farm site, photograph courtesy Appalachian Mountain Club Library and Archives
25 Katahdin Lake Wilderness Camps in winter, photograph ©Scot Miller
26 Henry David Thoreau portrait, photograph courtesy Walden Woods Project
27 Thoreau commemoration canoe trip participants on the river, photograph©Gabor Degre/Bangor Daily News
28 Mt. Ktaadn, 1853, by Frederic E. Church, painting courtesy Yale University Art Gallery
31 Early 1900s log drive, photograph by Boston artist George Hallowell courtesy Maine Folklife Center, University of Maine
32 Artists painting at the Scenic Overlook on Elliotsville Plantation, Inc. lands, September 2015, photograph ©Marsha Donahue
33 March 1879 tintype photograph of Theodore Roosevelt in Maine with William Wingate Sewall and Wilmot Dow, courtesy Houghton Library, Harvard University (Roosevelt 520.12-015)
35 Percival Baxter in a bateau crossing the East Branch of the Penobscot River in August 1920, photograph courtesy Maine State Library
36 Myron Avery and friends on the summit of Katahdin in August 1933, photograph by Shailer S. Philbrick courtesy Potomac Appalachian Trail Club
39 Donn Fendler and Roy Dudley in summer of1940, photograph courtesy Donn Fendler
40 Marking the International Appalachian Trail,photograph ©Bill Duffy
41 IAT hiker atop Deasey Mountain with Katahdin in the distance, photograph ©Bill Duffy
42 East Branch at Whetstone watercolor painting by Marsha Donahue, photograph ©Marsha Donahue
48 Katahdin from the East oil on canvas painting by Marsha Donahue, photograph ©Marsha Donahue
Katahdin from the East
