This blog post is preceded but 2 previous blogs: Sunday, August 21st, 2011 "Do we need a North Woods National Park" and Sunday, January 22, 2012, "The prize is always worth the fight". Both give the background and information of the ongoing subject and battle. These are articles of my opinions and heartfelt beliefs.
"Maine; The way life should be", our State slogan. You can see it in writing once you cross the Kittery bridge entering the base of Maine along Interstate 95. I started thinking about what that really means, what makes it so true and why it has never been more important. However this is not simply about me, which has partly to do with why this blog has taken me so long to complete. I needed to get beyond my anger and put the whole situation in proper perspective to be the most effective. So, just what makes Maine so special?
One person wants people to believe that the only thing that makes Maine special and unique is only natural beauty; the forests, mountains and waterways of central and northern regions surrounding Baxter State Park and the Allagash Wilderness Waterway. Really? Is that all that makes living in Maine the way life should be?
I believe that statement to be much broader. I can't speak for southern Maine; I have never lived there. Nor can I speak for the coastal regions of this beautiful State. However, when I think of those regions I think not only of their natural beauty, but of the people who live there that make them unique.
One cannot think of coastal Maine without picturing lobster boats, light houses and beaches but also the salty fishermen and folks with rosy cheeks saying "Ayuh, and Gawd Mawnin" is a downeast drawl.
Another part of what makes a region in itself special is the history. The fishermen of the coast are the lumberjacks and riverdrivers of the inner regions along with the guides and outfitters of the western mountains to Katahdin and beyond, to the farmers in the most northern and north east of this wonderful State of Maine. Let me tell you a little bit of my piece of the blueberry pie; the Katahdin region.
I was born in Millinocket; known as the "Magic City" for the way it seemed to magically appear out of the valley of the Penobscots West Branch River with the building of the Great Northern Paper Mill. The regions logging history dates back into the early 1830s on both the East and West Branches of the Penobscot River. The West Branch known more today for its exhilarating white water rafting and Salmon fishing was then known as one of the greatest log diving rivers of the whole north east from Chesuncook lake and watersheds like Nesownedhunk, flowed into the west branch supplying logs not only for the papermills, but further south to the saw mills in Old Town and Orono. The Millinocket Great Northern Mill was the first of two with a sister mill built along the river to the east ( therefore East Millinocket). The mills were the premier newsprint and other specialty paper supplier with Millinockets mill housing the infamous #11 paper machine, once the largest paper machine in the world. All this could never have existed if not for the people; the lumberjacks, river drivers, papermakers and their families that have lived here for generations creating all the towns and small communities.
On the East Branch of the Penobscot, from Grande Lake Mattagamon to the Atlantic Ocean, the lumberjacks and river drivers carved history literally in stone. The huge boom rings are still embedded into large rocks along the riverbanks. The Hunt Farm, built along the east side of the river in 1835 as well as Camps Lunkasoo approximately two miles upriver accommodated loggers and adventurous travelers who worked and recreated along the waterways and woods, all in the shadow of Mount Katahdin. Wassataquoik Stream flows into the East Branch across from Lunkasoo Camps, where the young Donn Fendler finally emerged to be rescued after getting lost on the mountain nine days prior.
The East and West Branches of the Penobscot River merge together at Nicatou (the place where two rivers meet) later named the town of Medway, is where I grew up listening and learning about the history; my history. My Dad told me stories of the big bombers landing at the Millinocket Airport to refuel during WWII and how he would go hang out with the pilots with dreams of someday flying. My Grandfather was a member of the CCC corps that carved out the roads of the region. Henry David Thoreau canoed from Bangor to Nicatou to meet his Native American Guide Joe Attein, who led the way on several of his adventures into the Maine Woods. When He wrote about his trips, he wrote of the loggers, Natives and woodsmen and the people who let him stay for the night here and there along the way.
Yes, things are not the same in the region with only the East Millinocket Mill operating along with the loss of other jobs, trades and businesses. However, things are not dead either and no one knows what tomorrow or the future will bring. The proud, strong, enduring peoples of the region are still here and with that not all is lost, there is always hope. (Please refer to one of my previous blogs for my view on the future in: "Do we need a North Woods National Park")
The Katahdin region, with all it has to offer, and all that it has had is because of the people who chose to make it home. One Woman, with her agenda does not value the history, natural resources or the people.. She claims to be a visionary but would destroy the history, heritage and traditions built by the people. To me, this makes her a tyrant. A true visionary,one that has affected me personally although we are of different era's, was Cornelia "Fly Rod" Crosby. She opened up a world the experiences of Maine's woods and waters to men and women alike, crediting her own vital health to the outdoors at it's best. She was instrumental to the creation of the Registered Maine Guide, and was honored with the very first Guides License as thanks and gratitude of a treasured way of life. I have held a guides license since 1989.
Tis true that if one has the ability and desire to purchase land they most certainly can, including for the most part with regulation to do what one wishes with it. However, to have a hidden agenda and motive for it's use should not be supported.
I did not want this blog to be about me although current events have made that very difficult. I'm very aware of others that have been forever effected by ones ravenous greed for glory. The aforementioned Lunkasoo Camps have been swallowed in the mist to only be enjoyed by a select few with no living to be made. Other guides and outfitters have lost traditional uses on many parcels of land that have been purchased and locked. I myself am being affected by such methods leaving not only my livelihood in question, but my families future as well. For the first time in my life, I will not be able to adorn my hunting clothes, sling my rifle or shotgun over my shoulder, walk out my front door, go into the woods and go hunting. My Grandson so young and new, may never know the same privilege to hunt, fish and access the outdoors like we have for so many generations. He may never know what it is to make a living loving what life, in the great outdoors as I had so hoped to hand down someday.
Roxanne Quimby should not be allowed to destroy what history has created for her and those who support her selfish endeavors, as a vision of what they claim will save, protect and restore, with the devastation and destruction of the very essence of what makes "Maine; The way life should be".
