Within Katahdin’s Realm: Log Drives and Sporting Camps - Chapter 05: The Debsconeag Lakes Watershed

This book’s historical journey on Maine’s West Branch of the Penobscot River and its tributaries is in two parts, logging (chapters 1-7) and sporting camps (chapters 8-11), all of which Fogler Library hosts at its Digital Commons). The journey starts in 1825 when the first loggers began cutting along the river and driving their logs more than 70 river miles to the Bangor sawmills. It ends 151 years later in 1976, the year of the last drive. Maine’s sporting camp history in this region started with enterprising loggers and teamsters who were also trappers and guides who beginning about 1870 took adventurous persons to fishing and hunting locations where they used tents or small trapper’s camps or logging camps. By the early 1890s their camps became known as sporting camps. With few exceptions, I have included structures built through 1920. The text moves the reader upstream beginning where the Penobscot River forks at Nicatou Island with the East Branch leading north and the West Branch heading west-northwest. The reader travels up the West Branch into the Lower Chain Lakes and back into the river flowing under the shadow of Mount Katahdin to the Ripogenus Lake outlet where the journey ends. Along the way, each tributary is explored. The tributaries include Nollesemic Stream; Millinocket Stream and Lake, Sandy Stream; Nahmakanta, Rainbow and Pollywog streams; the Debsconeag Lakes chain; Abol, Katahdin, and Foss and Knowlton streams; and Jo-Mary Lakes, and Cooper and Pratt Brooks. The Introduction, Acknowledgements, and Table of Contents for all 11 chapters accompany chapter 1. The Epilogue, Sources of Information, Names and Related Information, and Glossary are with chapter 11. Chapter 5 includes these subsections: First and Second Debsconeag Lakes Third through Eighth Debsconeag Lakes Discovering More History on My Exploration

Maine Sporting Camp History on the Piscataquis River Tributaries, Part 3

Maine Sporting Camp History on the Piscataquis River Tributaries, Part 3: West from Milo on the Greenville Stage Road -- Epilogue -- Place Names -- Sources of Information Author\u27s abstract These sporting camps began to slowly develop in the mid-1870s and reached their heydays before the 1930s. To reach these camps, sports traveled on one of four land routes within the Piscataquis watershed. Each of these routes and the associated camps are the basis for chapters two through five. The first chapter traces the development of the settling along these routes and provides a context for the history of the camps. Chapter two includes the camps north and east of Brownville with their initial access from the Nahmakanta Tote Road. The Chamberlain Lake Tote Road provided the access to the camps in chapter three. The Pleasant Valley Tote Road led to the camps in chapter four. The Greenville Stage Road was the means of access to the camps in chapter five. This written history is complemented with a pictorial history that includes over 200 pictures. The sources of information section focuses on the repositories for the materials cited in the footnotes. The totality of the book (with no cover) is three downloads. The first includes the introductory material and chapters one and two. The second has chapters three and four. The third contains chapter 5, the epilogue, place names, and sources of information. A previous edition of this text first appeared on the Fogler Library Digital Commons in 2017; “Piscataquis Project: Sporting Camps in the Piscataquis Watershed, (Parts A, B, C, and D). This edition, which is still available, did not include pictures, the epilogue, place names, and sources of information

Log Driving on the West Branch of the Penobscot River: An Addendum to Alfred Hempstead\u27s Book The Penobscot Boom and The Development of the West Branch of The Penobscot River for Log Driving

Alfred Hempstead’s late 1920’s research on logging on the West Branch of the Penobscot and its tributaries resulted in his publication of The Penobscot Boom and The Development of the West Branch of The Penobscot River for Log Driving in 1930. No other publication containing such a collection of information preceded his work and none have been printed since. Hempstead’s research, which is frequently cited, focused on determining when logging began on the river and each of its main tributaries, how loggers worked in cooperation with each other, and what they needed for infrastructure for the drives. In some situations Hempstead made calculated guesses about when something took place, in others he shared what he could find, and in several he simply acknowledged he could not find the information for which he was looking. Hempstead did not have resources such as the index to Maine Legislative Acts and Resolves, computer word searches for newspaper archives and other printed matter, online census type data, the indexed collections at the Maine State Archives, and logging families’ personal papers that have been collected by historical societies and libraries around the State of Maine. These sources lead to answers of some of Hempstead’s questions, more information about some of the tributaries he mentions, and clarification of particular events. This article traces the sequence of events from 1828 to 1976, noting that log drives and use of some of the dams Hempstead wrote about continued for another 41 years after he completed his book in 1930

Within Katahdin’s Realm: Log Drives and Sporting Camps - Chapter 06: Nahmakanta Stream and Lake Watershed

This book’s historical journey on Maine’s West Branch of the Penobscot River and its tributaries is in two parts, logging (chapters 1-7) and sporting camps (chapters 8-11), all of which Fogler Library hosts at its Digital Commons. The journey starts in 1825 when the first loggers began cutting along the river and driving their logs more than 70 river miles to the Bangor sawmills. It ends 151 years later in 1976, the year of the last drive. Maine’s sporting camp history in this region started with enterprising loggers and teamsters who were also trappers and guides who beginning about 1870 took adventurous persons to fishing and hunting locations where they used tents or small trapper’s camps or logging camps. By the early 1890s their camps became known as sporting camps. With few exceptions, I have included structures built through 1920. The text moves the reader upstream beginning where the Penobscot River forks at Nicatou Island with the East Branch leading north and the West Branch heading west-northwest. The reader travels up the West Branch into the Lower Chain Lakes and back into the river flowing under the shadow of Mount Katahdin to the Ripogenus Lake outlet where the journey ends. Along the way, each tributary is explored. The tributaries include Nollesemic Stream; Millinocket Stream and Lake, Sandy Stream; Nahmakanta, Rainbow and Pollywog streams; the Debsconeag Lakes chain; Abol, Katahdin, and Foss and Knowlton streams; and Jo-Mary Lakes, and Cooper and Pratt Brooks. The Introduction, Acknowledgements, and Table of Contents for all 11 chapters accompany chapter 1. The Epilogue, Sources of Information, Names and Related Information, and Glossary are with chapter 11. Chapter 6 includes these subsections: Nahmakanta Drainage: Nahmakanta Stream to Nahmakanta Lake Pollywog Pond Drainage: Pollywog Stream to Penobscot Pond Rainbow Drainage: Rainbow Stream to Rainbow Lak

832,000 Acres: Maine\u27s 1825 Fire and Its Piscataquis Logging Aftermath, Chapter 2

Author\u27s abstract: The 1825 fire consumed 832,000 acres, a great deal of it in the Piscataquis River valley, and was nearly four times the size of Maine’s 1947 fires that consumed 220,000 acres. This is the only book that has more than a couple paragraphs about the fire; it includes all the limited amount of recorded information about the fire that started in the township of Guilford and burned in every direction on a compass. Furthermore, it is the only publication of any form that uses existing information to create a possible map of its boundary lines. The central focus of the book is logging in the aftermath of the fire, the log-driving era of the Piscataquis watershed, c.1800-1953. To know about the great fire (chapter one) leads to a greater understanding of the logging history that followed. Each subsequent chapter is devoted to a major artery of the river and includes two major focal points, “inside the burn” and “outside the burn.” Surprisingly this book is also the only one focused on the history of logging in the log-driving era within the Piscataquis watershed. This watershed has sections that are every bit as fascinating as those with considerable collected log driving lore. It took lumbermen nearly 37 years to figure out how to successfully drive long logs through Gulf Hagas on the West Branch of the Pleasant River. In a 25 mile segment of the East Branch of the Pleasant River, lumbermen built over 20 dams and side dams, and 1,000s of feet of abutments. The totality of the book (with no cover) is five downloads. The first section, includes chapter one, the fire, and the introduction and acknowledgements sections. This, the second section, is the Piscataquis River and its East, West, and South Branches. The third is Sebec River, Sebec Lake and Tributaries. The fourth is the Pleassant River, East and West Branches of the Pleasant River and their Tributaries. The fifth includes chapter five, Schoodic Stream drainage, chapter six, Seboeis Stream drainage, Afterword, Source of Information, and Glossary

Piscataquis Project: Sporting Camps in the Piscataquis River Watershed, Section D, from Bangor to Greenville

Part 4 of a 4 part series on the history of sporting camps along Maine\u27s Piscataquis River watershed beginning with the late 19th century. Author\u27s abstract: The Piscataquis River flows from its headwaters between Shirley and Greenville, Maine south to the Abbot and Guilford area where the river bends to continue east to Howland at its mouth on the Penobscot River. All the waterways draining west and south to the river are included in a series of four sections, A-D. Sporting camp development in this watershed began in the 1870s. Who were their proprietors? What was their life like at these sporting camps? Where were they? How did people get there? In what ways did the sporting camps change over time? What became of these sporting camps? Section D contents General access to and development on the watershed Travel from Bangor to the departure points of Milo, Sebec, Dover-Foxcroft, Monson, Shirley, and Greenville; and the accommodations in these communities Sporting and private camps at: Sebec Lake, Lake Onawa, Long Pond, Long Pond Stream, Blanchard, Abbot, Shirley, and Wilson Pond

Within Katahdin’s Realm: Log Drives and Sporting Camps - Chapter 11: On Chief Jo-Mary’s Lands, and Epilogue, Sources of Information, Names and Related Information, and Glossary

This book’s historical journey on Maine’s West Branch of the Penobscot River and its tributaries is in two parts, logging (chapters 1-7) and sporting camps (chapters 8-11), all of which Fogler Library hosts at its Digital Commons. The journey starts in 1825 when the first loggers began cutting along the river and driving their logs more than 70 river miles to the Bangor sawmills. It ends 151 years later in 1976, the year of the last drive. Maine’s sporting camp history in this region started with enterprising loggers and teamsters who were also trappers and guides who beginning about 1870 took adventurous persons to fishing and hunting locations where they used tents or small trapper’s camps or logging camps. By the early 1890s their camps became known as sporting camps. With few exceptions, I have included structures built through 1920. The text moves the reader upstream beginning where the Penobscot River forks at Nicatou Island with the East Branch leading north and the West Branch heading west-northwest. The reader travels up the West Branch into the Lower Chain Lakes and back into the river flowing under the shadow of Mount Katahdin to the Ripogenus Lake outlet where the journey ends. Along the way, each tributary is explored. The tributaries include Nollesemic Stream; Millinocket Stream and Lake, Sandy Stream; Nahmakanta, Rainbow and Pollywog streams; the Debsconeag Lakes chain; Abol, Katahdin, and Foss and Knowlton streams; and Jo-Mary Lakes, and Cooper and Pratt Brooks. The Introduction, Acknowledgements, and Table of Contents for all 11 chapters accompany chapter 1. Chapter 11 includes these subsections: At Upper Jo-Mary Lake At Middle Jo-Mary Lake At Lower Jo-Mary Lake At Yoke Ponds Also included in this file: Epilogue Sources of Information Names and Related Information Glossar

Within Katahdin’s Realm: Log Drives and Sporting Camps - Chapter 09: Millinocket Station North to Basin Ponds

This book’s historical journey on Maine’s West Branch of the Penobscot River and its tributaries is in two parts, logging (chapters 1-7) and sporting camps (chapters 8-11), all of which Fogler Library hosts at its Digital Commons. The journey starts in 1825 when the first loggers began cutting along the river and driving their logs more than 70 river miles to the Bangor sawmills. It ends 151 years later in 1976, the year of the last drive. Maine’s sporting camp history in this region started with enterprising loggers and teamsters who were also trappers and guides who beginning about 1870 took adventurous persons to fishing and hunting locations where they used tents or small trapper’s camps or logging camps. By the early 1890s their camps became known as sporting camps. With few exceptions, I have included structures built through 1920. The text moves the reader upstream beginning where the Penobscot River forks at Nicatou Island with the East Branch leading north and the West Branch heading west-northwest. The reader travels up the West Branch into the Lower Chain Lakes and back into the river flowing under the shadow of Mount Katahdin to the Ripogenus Lake outlet where the journey ends. Along the way, each tributary is explored. The tributaries include Nollesemic Stream; Millinocket Stream and Lake, Sandy Stream; Nahmakanta, Rainbow and Pollywog streams; the Debsconeag Lakes chain; Abol, Katahdin, and Foss and Knowlton streams; and Jo-Mary Lakes, and Cooper and Pratt Brooks. The Introduction, Acknowledgements, and Table of Contents for all 11 chapters accompany chapter 1. The Epilogue, Sources of Information, Names and Related Information, and Glossary are with chapter 11. Chapter 9 includes these subsections: Camps on Millinocket Lake Camps at Millinocket Station, Togue Ponds, Togue Stream, and Sandy Stream Drainag

Within Katahdin’s Realm: Log Drives and Sporting Camps - Chapter 04: Millinocket Stream and Millinocket Lake Watershed

This book’s historical journey on Maine’s West Branch of the Penobscot River and its tributaries is in two parts, logging (chapters 1-7) and sporting camps (chapters 8-11), all of which Fogler Library hosts at its Digital Commons. The journey starts in 1825 when the first loggers began cutting along the river and driving their logs more than 70 river miles to the Bangor sawmills. It ends 151 years later in 1976, the year of the last drive. Maine’s sporting camp history in this region started with enterprising loggers and teamsters who were also trappers and guides who beginning about 1870 took adventurous persons to fishing and hunting locations where they used tents or small trapper’s camps or logging camps. By the early 1890s their camps became known as sporting camps. With few exceptions, I have included structures built through 1920. The text moves the reader upstream beginning where the Penobscot River forks at Nicatou Island with the East Branch leading north and the West Branch heading west-northwest. The reader travels up the West Branch into the Lower Chain Lakes and back into the river flowing under the shadow of Mount Katahdin to the Ripogenus Lake outlet where the journey ends. Along the way, each tributary is explored. The tributaries include Nollesemic Stream; Millinocket Stream and Lake, Sandy Stream; Nahmakanta, Rainbow and Pollywog streams; the Debsconeag Lakes chain; Abol, Katahdin, and Foss and Knowlton streams; and Jo-Mary Lakes, and Cooper and Pratt Brooks. The Introduction, Acknowledgements, and Table of Contents for all 11 chapters accompany chapter 1. The Epilogue, Sources of Information, Names and Related Information, and Glossary are with chapter 11. Chapter 4 includes these subsections: Millinocket Stream Millinocket Lake Drainage Sandy Stream Drainage Togue Stream Drainage Mud Brook Drainage Sawmills on Millinocket Stream and Lak

Within Katahdin’s Realm: Log Drives and Sporting Camps - Chapter 10: North from the Stinchfield and Heath Camp at Pemadumcook Lake on Nahmakanta Stream

This book’s historical journey on Maine’s West Branch of the Penobscot River and its tributaries is in two parts, logging (chapters 1-7) and sporting camps (chapters 8-11), all of which Fogler Library hosts at its Digital Commons. The journey starts in 1825 when the first loggers began cutting along the river and driving their logs more than 70 river miles to the Bangor sawmills. It ends 151 years later in 1976, the year of the last drive. Maine’s sporting camp history in this region started with enterprising loggers and teamsters who were also trappers and guides who beginning about 1870 took adventurous persons to fishing and hunting locations where they used tents or small trapper’s camps or logging camps. By the early 1890s their camps became known as sporting camps. With few exceptions, I have included structures built through 1920. The text moves the reader upstream beginning where the Penobscot River forks at Nicatou Island with the East Branch leading north and the West Branch heading west-northwest. The reader travels up the West Branch into the Lower Chain Lakes and back into the river flowing under the shadow of Mount Katahdin to the Ripogenus Lake outlet where the journey ends. Along the way, each tributary is explored. The tributaries include Nollesemic Stream; Millinocket Stream and Lake, Sandy Stream; Nahmakanta, Rainbow and Pollywog streams; the Debsconeag Lakes chain; Abol, Katahdin, and Foss and Knowlton streams; and Jo-Mary Lakes, and Cooper and Pratt Brooks. The Introduction, Acknowledgements, and Table of Contents for all 11 chapters accompany chapter 1. The Epilogue, Sources of Information, Names and Related Information, and Glossary are with chapter 11. Chapter 10 includes these subsections: At the Mouth of Nahmakanta Stream At Third and Fourth Debsconeag Lakes At Nahmakanta Lake On the Pollywog Pond Drainage At Rainbow Lak