Mount Katahdin State Park

AN ADDRESS GIVEN BY
Hon. Percival P. Baxter of Portland
PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE
At the Annual Meeting of the
Maine Sportsmen's Fish and Game Association
Hall of Representatives, State Capitol
Augusta, Maine

January 27, 1921

Uupi/right. By jicniiissiiiH of William F. Dun-nun.
MT. KATAHDIN— CHIMNEY POND AND SOUTH BASIN

Mount Katahdin State Park

AN ADDRESS GIVEN BY
Hon. Percival P. Baxter of Portland
PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE
At the Annual Meeting of the
Maine Sportsmen's Fish and Game Association
Hall of Representatives, State Capitol
Augusta, Maine

January 27, 1921

In Senate, January 28, 1921.
Ordered, that twenty-five hundred copies of the address of
the President of the Senate relative to the Mt. Katahdin Park,
delivered before the meeting of the Maine Sportmen's Fish
and Game Association, be printed for the use of the Senate.
Read and passed. L. ERNEST THORNTON, Secretary.

Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen :
When your Committee invited me to appear
before you and speak upon the proposed Mount
Katahdin State Park, I accepted the invitation
with pleasure, for I well knew there was no organ
ization in our State to whom this project would
appeal with more force than to the Maine Sports
men's Fish and Game Association. You know the
out-of-doors; you study the hillsides, the valleys,
and the wild life of the woods, and you, of all our
citizens, appreciate that spiritual, as well as physi
cal, benefits are to be derived from a close contact
with nature.
Mount Katahdin is located in the very heart of
the great timberlands of Maine, the "wild lands" as
they usually are called, and in view of this it is fit
ting that in my remarks I should outline to you the
history of these wild lands, in which we are now
beginning to take an interest. The history of these
lands is fascinating. It is a story of violent specu
lation in which fortunes were lost and men's repu
tations ruined, and in which fortunes were won and
great timber-owning families were established, and
made wealthy for generations to come. It is a story
of intrigue and corruption, where powerful and
selfish men often took that to which they had no
right, from those too weak to defend themselves and
their property. It is a story in which the rights of
the people in a princely inheritance were given
away or bartered for a song, for the folly of which
future generations forever will pay.
There are today in Maine about 14,000,000 acres

of timberlands of which 9,100,000 comprise the so-
called "wild lands" which are situated in unorgan
ized townships and in plantations. The greater part
of these lands was once the property of the people
of this State, and, had our forefathers handed down
to us this great domain, what a transformation
would have been wrought in the life and institu
tions of our State !
In the early years these lands were sold for
trifling sums per acre to pay current expenses of
the State Government, to build roads, to pay min
isters of the gospel, and in 1828, twelve townships
were sold in order to raise funds with which to build
the State House. From 1836 to 1839 these lands
were sold by the State so freely that no taxes were
levied, because a sufficient number of townships
were disposed of to provide the revenue necessary
for State purposes. In 1793 the State sold the so-
called Bingham lands, comprising 2,100,000 acres,
and the price paid for them was twelve and one-half
cents per acre. As late as the year 1813 the people
of the State of Maine owned more than 11,000,000
acres of the finest timberland. The final act in this
tragedy occurred in 1868, only 53 years ago, and
this was the crowning calamity of all. This trans
action has been known as the "State Steal." The
Legislature of that year passed an act to "aid in the
construction of the European and North American
Railway" and for the munificent consideration of
"one dollar paid by said Railway Company," grant
ed to that Company "all the timber and lands be
longing to the State and situated upon the waters
of the Penobscot and St. John rivers to be used by
said Company to aid in the construction of its con
templated line of railway," which was to provide

Copyright. By permission of William F. Dawson. MT. KATAHDIN PROM SANDY STREAM POND

means for the defense of the Northeastern frontier.
In this deed it is recited that about 1,000,000 acres
of land "more or less" are conveyed to the railway
"for the purpose named in the act." A careful esti
mate shows that about 2,700,000 acres were given
away by that deed, which the Governor of the State
signed. The railroad, as a matter of fact, was
constructed for a distance of about twelve miles,
but the deed had been signed, sealed and delivered,
and thus ended the rights of the people in all that
was left to them of a great inheritance.
These facts are of the past; they are incidents
of a by-gone day, and regrets are fruitless. Today
it is necessary for us to face the situation as it now
exists, so that we may plan to build for future gen
erations better than our ancestors built for us.
Today the State of Maine, out of this vast area of
millions of acres of timberland, is owner of but the
paltry amount of 330,837 acres. This land is sit
uated in what is called the "Public Lots" scattered
all over the forest area.
The timberlands of Maine are fast passing
into the control of a few large corporations and in
dividual holdings. One company today owns more
than 1,000,000 acres of land, and as there are about
19,000,000 acres in the entire State, this great
company owns one-nineteenth of the whole State
of Maine. Thirty-one timberland ownerships own
5,800,000 acres in Maine, which comprise 30%
of the entire acreage of the State, or 64% of all the
wild lands of the State. This concentration of own
ership prevails in other New England States, for
the United States authorities show that fifteen own
erships in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont
own more than 15,500,000 acres of timberlands, or

one-fourth of the combined forest areas in those
three states. These large ownerships create a
great monopoly, which controls prices, dictates
terms to the owners of small areas, stifles compe
tition, and at times dominates State legislation by
means of their arrogant lobbies. The powerful
business and political connections of these great
corporations, together with their undoubted con
trol of the supply and distribution of news print
paper, gives them a position of extraordinary in
fluence over many of the activities of our State.
Having in mind the fact that the people of
Maine once owned these great areas of timberland,
is it not fitting that, upon payment of a fair price
therefor, the grandest and most beautiful portion
of all this great area which the people of the State
once possessed, should again become their property?
The Mount Katahdin National Park project
was under consideration by Congress for some
years. Ex-Congressman Frank E. Guernsey of
Dover when a member of the National House, intro
duced an act providing for the creation of a Federal
Forest Reserve in the Katahdin region, but this
failed of passage. In 1919 I introduced into the
State Legislature an act establishing a State Park in
the Katahdin region. I believed that the State of
Maine should establish the policy of acquiring waste
and burned-over timberlands, in order to make a be
ginning toward maintaining and increasing the sup
ply of timber and pulp, and in order to provide a
recreation ground in the most picturesque region of
the State. If this policy is established and con
tinued, the State in the years to come will acquire
large areas of lands which are now practically
worthless, but which in the future will yield a

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Copyright. By permission of William F. Dawson.

MT. KATAHDIN — GREAT BASIN

harvest that will bring to the State an annual in
come on the investment. This land can be bought
at a low price today, as much of it is of little use to
its owners, and the State can afford to carry it until
it is ready to be cut in a proper and scientific man
ner. This purchase by the State will prove a profit
able investment, and a direct income will be derived
from it when the crop of timber is harvested, while
an indirect income will be obtained from the tour
ist travel that is bound to come to these forest areas
if this land is purchased in mountainous and rugged
regions, such as that of Katahdin. In addition to
these advantages, protection will be afforded to the
sources of the waterpowers of the State.
The policy of the State's acquiring these lands
is approved by both Federal and State authorities.
Notwithstanding today's tendency to decry public
ownership, a cry that is often raised by those who
seek to perpetuate their long-standing private own
ership of natural resources, Mr. H. S. Graves, the
Chief Forester of the Federal Government, says:
"The States should acquire large forest tracts," and
Hon. Forrest H. Colby, Forest Commissioner of this
State, a practical forester of wide experience, says :
"Federal or State ownership of timberlands partic
ularly of cut-over and neglected lands is to be de
sired and in a great measure will help to insure a
future supply of lumber." Maine with every op
portunity and with all conditions favoring such a
policy, has done nothing while other states have
made splendid beginnings. New York has acquired
2,000,000 acres of timberland and thus controls
60% of the available pulpwood in that state. Penn
sylvania has bought 1,000,000 acres, while under
the Weeks Act 1,800,000 acres have been purchased

by the United States at an average price of $5.26
per acre. The Federal Government considers these
purchases a good investment and an annual income
already is assured from them. Now is the time to
establish this policy in Maine, and a trip to the
Mountain will convince even the most skeptical.
The value of timberlands is increasing constantly,
while the owners are becoming more reluctant to
sell. In a short time the land we can buy today will
be beyond our reach, and Maine will have lost its
opportunity. The Great Northern Paper Company
was responsible for the defeat of the 1919 act, but
that act like many worthy projects, once defeated
comes back to the 1921 Legislature with renewed
vigor, with a strong and growing public sentiment
behind it, and with a fair prospect that those who
caused its defeat before may not be able to do so
again. To most people Mount Katahdin is but a name.
To those who have both seen and climbed the Moun
tain it is a wonderful reality, and the memories of
a trip to its summit remain vivid through the years.
At present the great Mountain, weather-beaten by
time and scarred by the avalanche, is almost inac
cessible, the journey entailing expense, hardship
and discomfort. The grandeur of the Mountain, its
precipitous slopes, its massive cliffs, unusual forma
tion and wonderful coloring cannot be surpassed or
even equalled by any mountain east of the Missis
sippi river. Katahdin rises abruptly from the plain
to the height of 5,273 feet, and, without foothills to
detract from its solitary dignity, stands alone, a
grim gray tower overlooking the surrounding coun
try for hundreds of miles. It is small wonder that

s

the aboriginal Indians believed it to be the home of
the spirits of wind, storm and thunder.
The scenery of the White Mountains in New
Hampshire is tame and ordinary when compared
with that of Mount Katahdin and the range beyond,
and Katahdin is not unworthy of a place among the
great mountains of the world. To reach the base
requires a tedious tramp of from fifty to sixty miles
over old and abandoned tote-roads, through fords
and swamps, with but an occasional well defined
path leading over pleasant ridges covered with
great trees, that give welcome shade to the weary
traveler. At best it requires from six to seven days
of steady walking to make the trip from civiliza
tion to the Peak and return. There are several ap
proaches to the Mountain, but the most picturesque
is that which leads from the East into the South
Basin, where is located Chimney Pond, a beautiful
sheet of water, which, among ponds, is as unique
in its coloring and setting as Katahdin is among its
sister mountains. This pond is surrounded on the
South and West by a grand amphitheatre of per
pendicular cliffs rising from 1500 to 2000 feet.
The water in this remarkable pond is so clear and
cold that fish cannot live in it, and it is as unin
habited as the salt brine of the Dead Sea. Its sur
face mirrors the ever-changing aspects of the
clouds and the multi-colored cliffs towering around
it. These cliffs are gray, blue, pink, or brown, ac
cording as the atmosphere changes from hour to
hour, or as the position of the sun is altered.
By day man stands spellbound in that solitude
where man himself is an atom at the base of one
of nature's noblest creations; by night he is in
spired by the majesty of the moon as it rises and

moves westward in a stately curve over the ser
rated peaks, which throw themselves up into the
deep blue of the night as though to join the com
pany of the stars.
The climb to Pamola Peak by a rough trail
through stunted pine, over great granite boulders
that lie spilled in endless drifts on the side of
the Mountain, up the steep slope to the summit,
down into the "Chimney" where the rush of air
threatens to tear one's feeble grasp from the cliffs
to which one clings, and then across the treacherous
"Knife Edge" to Mountain peak, is both difficult
and dangerous. The passage of the Knife Edge requires a cool
head and sure footing, and I am not ashamed to
admit that I gladly availed myself of the friendly
and reassuring hand of my companion, as I crept
gingerly over the rough piles of loose and broken
rock. On every hand were countless marks of the
lightning's work, which looked like the spattering
of lead from bullets that had struck upon the stone
leaving a grayish film surrounded by the shattered
rock. Lightning has bombarded this Mountain top
for ages, but Katahdin, unconquered and unafraid,
still holds aloft its noble head.
Here man has provided none of those aids to
mountain climbing which one finds conveniently
placed in the difficult passes of the Alps, or in some
portions of the Rockies. On Monument Peak is
heaped up a pile of stones to mark the summit, in
the crevices of which is kept a copper box, and those
who have the courage and strength to attain that
peak are supposed to deposit their names in the box,
as proof that at last they are numbered among
those genuine mountain climbers who possessed
10

the endurance to climb the highest and the rough
est mountain in New England.
The great plateau extends for miles from the
South Peak to the North Peak. It is wind-swept
and strewn with huge granite boulders that seem to
have been shaken from the clouds by a giant hand.
It is covered in places with a dense growth of knee-
high scrub spruce and pine, through which it is im
possible for man to pass. This plateau once was
the home of a large herd of caribou, all of which
were killed or driven northward by the relentless
hunter. I have talked with woodsmen who dis
tinctly remember these strange animals as they
grazed over this elevated feeding ground, or stood
on the edge of the Mountain looking over into the
great space beyond.
There is a growth of moss and small plants in
places, that gives this area the appearance of the
sub-Arctic tundra. Standing here one sees the
Laurentian Mountains on the north bordering the
St. Lawrence River, and the Atlantic Ocean on the
south. At one's feet is a panorama of endless for
est, of great lakes that melt away into the distant
haze, countless ponds and winding streams with
their white markings of falls and rapids, while the
dark evergreen growth, here and there outlined by
the lighter growth of the hardwoods, extends in all
directions. The wilderness of the forest seems
endless. It is interesting to know that on this tableland
are springs of water flowing out from the rocks at
the height of 5000 feet above the surrounding coun
try, and on the hottest day in summer the water is
cool and refreshing. Here in August, 1920, in the
shade of a huge boulder and by the side of these
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running springs, gathered a little group of tired
men, among whom were Charles P. Barnes, Speaker
of the Maine House of Representatives, Arthur G.
Staples and Sam E. Connor of the Lewiston Jour
nal, Willis E. Parsons, Commissioner of Inland Fish
and Game, Burton W. Howe of Patten, Nathaniel
C. Howe of Ashland, Charles A. Fogg of Houlton,
George A. Houghton of Bangor, and the writer of
this address, who discussed the Mount Katahdin
Park from every angle and pledged their support
to the cause.
In 1903 a huge forest fire, the most destruc
tive in the history of the State, destroyed about
270,000 acres in this mountain region. Of this
area 115,000 acres were surveyed recently by the
United States Government and it is in this area
that Mount Katahdin Park is to be located. Today
the conditions for the establishment of this park are
ideal. The cost of the land should be low, as its
value for timber purposes is trifling. The park is
in the very heart of the mountain where the scen
ery is the grandest and most varied. Whatever
timber there is on the slopes of the mountain is so
inaccessible as to make it valueless, for its removal
is impossible ; while at the base of the mountain in
one section of the park is a new growth of poplar,
birch and other woods, which in a few years will
become of value, and when properly harvested will
furnish an income to the State. The land will be
worth to the State, as land only, all that it costs and
will prove a good investment. Unlike certain great
institutions of the State that are a constant drain
upon its resources with their ever-increasing de
mands, this project will prove self-sustaining, and
of increasing value in the passing years.
12

Copyright. By permission CaU Studio, Dexter, Maine.
CLIMBING ABOL SLIDE

The proposed park covers an area of 57,232
acres and comprises the whole of Mount Katahdin,
and Katahdin Lake, of itself one of the most beau
tiful of all Maine's lakes, and which abounds with
trout. The boundaries of the park can be extended
later if succeeding legislatures deem such extension
advisable. This park will prove a great attraction,
not only to the people of Maine who will frequent
it, but also to those who come from without our
State to enjoy the free life of the out of doors. The
park will bring health and recreation to those who
journey there, and the wild life of the woods will
find refuge from their pursuers, for the park will
be made a bird and game sanctuary for the pro
tection of its forest inhabitants. Roads, trails, and
camps will be built in the most favored locations,
and the camps will be rented for nominal sums to
those who wish to use them. For those who want
hard mountain climbing, trails will be laid out over
difficult routes to the top of the mountain, while
easier trails will be provided for those who do not
desire to make the supreme effort. Katahdin then
will become a great recreation center for those who
seek the woods that are unspoiled by fashionable
hotels with liveried attendants, or by costly club
houses frequented by the devotees of tennis and golf.
The establishment of this park is not connected
with party politics, but the Republican platform of
1920 endorsed it, and the Democrats of the same
year favored State ownership of burned-over and
denuded timberlands. Governor Parkhurst in his
inaugural message to the Legislature stamped it
with his approval ; your Fish and Game Association
has adopted resolutions supporting it, and all the

13

while public sentiment is rapidly being crystalized
in its favor.
Maine is famous for its 2500 miles of seacoast,
with its countless islands, for its myriad lakes and
ponds, and for its forests and rivers, but Mount
Katahdin Park will be the State's crowning glory,
a worthy memorial to commemorate the end of the
first and the beginning of the second century of
Maine's statehood. This park will prove a blessing
to those who follow us, and they will see that we
built for them more wisely than our forefathers did
for us. Shall any great timberland or paper-mak
ing corporation, or group of such corporations,
themselves the owners of millions of acres of Maine
forests, say to the People of this State, "You shall
not have Mount Katahdin, either as a memorial of
your past or as a heritage for your future?"

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