Tag Archives: Baxter State Park

There are non-national park options that make everybody a winner

Maine Forestry Products.
The are other options than a National Park in our area. Read the opinion of James L. Robbins. Former president and owner of Robbins Lumber in Searsmont. photo: Tim Pasanen

By Jim Robbins, Special to the BDN

In 2000, Robbins Lumber put a conservation easement on the 20,767 acres surrounding Nicatous and West Lakes to protect the land forever. In addition, the state acquired 76 islands and 243 acres connecting to the Duck Lake Public Reserve Unit.

I told Roxanne Quimby about this project in 2011 at a meeting of the Maine Forest Products Council because I wanted her to know she had other options — options that would unite Mainers, not divide them. Her answer was, “There is no plan B. It is a national park or nothing. There are no other options.”

I oppose her park and national recreation area because she only owns 87,500 acres of the 150,000 acres she promises to donate. The other 63,500 acres are owned by many individual landowners — many of the parcels have been in these landowners’ families for generations. How would you like it if someone promised to give your land away? Threatened? You bet.

Maine's working forests around Mt Katahdin are still working for the economy.
Maine’s working forests around Mt Katahdin are still working for the economy.

She has tried to win over the people of the Katahdin region with the prospect of jobs based on the theory that her park would attract 15 percent, or 375,000, of Acadia’s visitors each year, leading to the creation of 450 jobs. But her park would never attract six times as many visitors as Baxter State Park. Baxter has 200,000 acres, including Mt. Katahdin, compared to the proposed 150,000 acres of the national park. Baxter employs only 21 full-time and 40 part-time workers.

National parks and monuments are built in areas of spectacular beauty or historical significance. The proposed park is mostly cut-over timberland and has very little to attract tourists. The only exceptional beauty in the area already is included and protected in Baxter State Park. The park proponents always show pictures of Katahdin, which won’t be in the proposed park, in their videos and advertisements, which is very misleading to the public.

National parks don’t allow timber harvesting, so they soon become full of over-mature, insect-infested and diseased trees. A National Park Service publication on forest management in Yellowstone National Park states that large fires are mandatory in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem in order to maintain it in a natural manner. Since the 1970s, park officials have allowed some 300 natural fires to burn themselves out. In recent decades, 1,250 square miles burned in Yellowstone, 402 square miles burned in Yosemite and many square miles burn virtually every year in Glacier National Park.

Have we already forgotten the devastating forest fires out West last summer? Do we want that policy to exist in our beautiful managed forests in Maine? I think not. Forest fires don’t respect boundary lines, so all lands surrounding the park will be threatened.

An average acre of woodland in Maine produces 0.35 cords of wood per year and is worth $1,280 with value added. Some 150,000 acres of forest should, therefore, produce 52,500 cords per year, which works out to an annual loss to the Maine GDP of more than $67 million. At a recent conference on Maine’s paper industry, speakers stated that one reason paper mills are having a hard time surviving is because of the high cost of wood. Taking the equivalent of six townships out of production certainly isn’t going to help. Even though the paper mills in the Millinocket region are gone, that wood is needed by other mills in the state, as Maine is still a net importer of wood.

Our family has operated a sawmill in Searsmont for five generations. I know we need to manage all of our productive woodlands wisely to supply wood products for the earth’s ever-growing population, which is expanding at a rate of 80 million people per year. The United States already has 266 million acres of national parks, wilderness areas and preserves where no wood can be cut. That’s about 13 times the size of the entire size of the state of Maine. How much more do we need?

If a national park is established, there will always be the danger of it expanding. Acadia National Park is constantly expanding and just recently added 1,400 acres on Schoodic Peninsula despite a 1986 law that the park service would never expand beyond then-agreed-upon boundaries.

I urge Quimby to establish a conservation easement such as Nicatous Lake. It would be available for recreation, it would remain in the tax base, wildlife and other resources would be protected and the wood would still be available. Everyone comes out a winner.

James L. Robbins is former president and owner of Robbins Lumber in Searsmont.

source:  BDN

Sasquatch Sightings | Bigfoot / Pomoola | Mt Katahdin Maine

Sasquatch / Pomoola Sightings in Maine

Photo of pomoola or injun devil in Maine. Is this a squatch?
Photo of a Maine Bigfoot from summer of 2013 – Grant Brook Road. photo: copyright TPasanen 2013

The local Native Americans (the Abenaki) called Bigfoot, Pomoola, long before the white man came to mid-Maine. It is often described as a “large, manlike creature with red fur.”

(all photos subject to copyright)

Summer/Autumn 2013: My brother lives in Medway, Maine and spends a great deal of time in the north Maine woods. Hunting, fishing and working; he spends a majority of his time in the broad wilderness area around Mount Katahdin. He was driving along the Grant Brook Road (map below) and saw this… Bigfoot or Pomoola or Sasquatch or… Whatever it is. Unfortunately, he didn’t have his camera so this was only taken with his phone.

He said, “It ran off.  I’m sure it wasn’t a stump but, not exactly sure what it was.  All I know is it looked like bigfoot to me.”

Three close-ups of the shot:                 The Finding Bigfoot Shop

Mid-Maine Sasquatch or Injun Devil. Photo of a squatch in Maine.
Close up of the Maine Bigfoot or Pomoola on Grant Brook Road. photo: Tim Pasanen

Pomoola zoomed photograph.  Do you think it is a squatch?
Depixelated close up of Sasquatch in Maine – pic from Grant Brook Road – 2013

Maine Injun Devil or Pomoola is the local Sasquatch.  On the hunt for a squatch!
Picasa “Heatmap” version of the Maine Bigfoot photographed by Tim Pasanen.

This was shot northwest of Millinocket, Maine in the Debsconeag Lakes Wilderness area. Just a bit south of Baxter State Park.

Is this bigfoot in Maine?
Zoomed in version of Tim Pasanen’s photograph of Bigfoot in Maine. Can it be a squatch, tho?

It sure looks like, something. And, I did a bit of research with the links, below and found that the “wild men” of Maine were very often described as having red hair, which this one obviously does.

My brother’s boss and avid Maine outdoorsman , Jim Stanley, says, “I know it was a squatch.  I’ve see two together within a mile from where this pic was taken.   We are currently working with game cams.”

Here are some other photos from the area taken by Stanley.

Location of recent Maine Bigfoot sighting:

Pomoola or Injun Devil - Maine's Sasquatch.
Sasquatch sightings in Maine. Historic bigfoot or Pomoola encounters.

If you have photos, videos, stories about the Maine Bigfoot or “Pomoola” please email info@mt-katahdin.com.

Pomoola sounds slightly reminiscent of the word Pamola which is known to have been a legendary bird spirit that appeared in local Abenaki mythology. This spirit causes cold weather and was believed to be the local “God of Thunder.”  The word, Pamola, is still quite prevalent in the area of Millinocket and Katahdin.  The next peak along the knife’s edge from Mount Katahdin’s summit is “Pamola Peak.”  There is the Pamola Motor Lodge in town.  And let’s not forget Pamola Xtra Pale Ale from the Baxter Brewing Co. in Lewiston, Maine.  Obviously, quite a powerful word from the native tongue to have survived with such common usage to this day.

We, also, came across this great article online at the Bigfoot Encounters website.  We didn’t know there were so many documented cases!  The Native Americans called Bigfoot, Pomoola, long before the white man came to mid-Maine. Read from the website…

“The first sightings of the 1800’s that were reported and documented in the State of Maine occurred in and around the Mt. Katahdin area, what is now Piscataquis County, Maine and is located north-northwest nearby communities of Millinocket and Moosehead Lake region. The famous Appalachian Trail ends in beautiful Baxter Park at the highest elevation of just over 5200 ft., atop of Mount Katahdin.
The source of these reports came from a book titled “Camping Out” The book was published in 1873 and was authored by C.A. Stevens, published by The John C. Winston Company of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The original copy of this ancient book is owned by Chris and Amy Julian who have graciously shared the information in their book.

There are at least 6 stories of encounters with large man-like creatures, which the Indians called “Pomoola.”  It was also known as “Injun Devil.”

The book mentions the death of a trapper years before. He had been ripped apart and at the time it was thought to be a mountain lion. Who knows? The point that got the Julian’s attention was the fact that the body had been beaten against a tree trunk. Chris Julian went on to say, “I have heard mention that the book was fiction. I am not sure I agree considering the detail and the year it was written. I have checked many facts and to me these are factual accounts, -it’s a diary.””

Here is the complete Maine Sasquatch Sightings list!

Maine Bigfoot Society on Facebook

Walking to Katahdin – Appalachian Trail video

Video – Walking to Katahdin

Experience Mount Katahdin and the Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Maine. 2181 miles, 14 states. Great video!

More about Mount Katahdin and the Appalachian Trail

Mount Katahdin (pronounced: kah-Tah-din) is the tallest mountain in Maine at 5,269 feet (1,606 m or just shy of a mile). The mountain was named ‘Katahdin’ by the Penobscot Indians.  The term means “The Greatest Mountain” in their language. Katahdin is the centerpiece of Baxter State Park: a steep, tall mountain formed from a granite intrusion weathered to the surface above the treeline. The flora and fauna on the mountain are those typically found in other regions in northern New England. Katahdin has been known since time immemorial to the Native Americans in the region, and has been known to Europeans since, at least, 1689. Or, possibly, long before.  It has inspired hikers, climbers, journal narratives, paintings, local hit songs and a piano sonata. The area around the peak was protected by Governor Percival Baxter starting in the 1930s and is now known as Baxter State Park. Katahdin is the northern terminus of the Appalachian Trail, and is located near a stretch known as the Hundred-Mile Wilderness.

Mount Katahdin Spider Report published by Maine Forest Service

cross spider (maine) - Araneus diadematus
Cross Spider (Katahdin, Maine) – Araneus diadematus

A new report from the Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry reveals that there are 145 different species of spiders on and around Mount Katahdin, including five that have been previously unidentified.

The Maine Forest Service report is based on the scientific collection and identification work done by scientists Daniel T. Jennings, Charles D. Dondale and James H. Redner from Maine and Canada and provides scientific knowledge that could provide baseline information on habitat and recreational-use effects in the park, according to Charlene Donahue, MFS forest entomologist.

None of the 145 different species of spiders found were poisonous, as Maine has no native poisonous spiders, the MFS forest entomologist said. The five previous unidentified species are unique to the North American alpine environment found on Katahdin and some of them have also been found on Mt. Washington and in Quebec.

Some Katahdin specimens are available in the MFS insect collection, while others are being kept at the Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology, Cambridge, Mass.

As part of its mission, the state’s Forest Service frequently publishes technical reports on a variety of scientific subjects, from invasive insects to silviculture, as a way to support Maine landowners, forest managers and businesspeople.

A checklist of documented spiders is available at www.maine.gov/doc/mfs/idmhome.htm. For more information about the Maine Forest Service, go to www.maineforestservice.gov.

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Hi.  Welcome to our new site.  We have compiled a large amount of information for those wishing to visit our region.  We also feature stories, photos and videos from the Millinocket, Medway, Sherman and Patten, Maine area.  An area otherwise known as the “Katahdin Region.” Start at our Homepage and go from there!