Katahdin area residents’ attitudes have softened in the two decades or so since Burt’s Bees founder Roxanne Quimby began buying large swaths of land next to Baxter State Park and eventually donated it to the National Park Service for what became the Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument.
When Quimby first announced her plans to donate the land in northern Penobscot County to the park service, local sportsmen, timber workers and even some state and federal lawmakers opposed the endeavor.
In the years leading up to the national monument’s creation in 2016, some in the area were not convinced of its benefit to the region. Despite positive economic forecasts from a 2013 impact study by a Montana firm, along with endorsements from more than 13,000 Mainers, the proposal remained contentious.
Attitudes began to change when global visitor tallies to the national monument quadrupled in 2017. Visits now top 40,000 annually, according to the parks service. Those numbers, along with the recent construction of a 7,900-square-foot visitor center atop Lookout Mountain, have led many in the region to say the more than 87,000-acre monument is bringing a much needed economic boost to the area.
This weekend, registered visitors will get a first peek at the contact station, as the visitor center is known, which is now in the final stages of construction. Members of the public can register to visit Saturday or Sunday through the Friends of Katahdin Woods and Waters’ website.
In a private morning session Saturday, national and tribal leaders, including Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland and Assistant Secretary for Fish and Wildlife and Parks Shannon Estenoz, will travel to the national monument for a celebration and ribbon cutting at the new facility.
Patten business owner Nate Richardson, owner of Richardson’s home improvement store, has been working with the general contractor of the contact station project to supply materials. He said the construction of the facility is a good thing for the region.
“I really think it’s going to be a huge asset for our community,” he said. “It’s an incredible building with an incredible infrastructure. It’s pretty amazing. Ten miles into the woods you wouldn’t expect to see something like that.”
Richardson said he thinks that early skepticism about the monument stemmed from a lot of people wondering why people would want to come up north to see woods.
“But I think there is now a greater appreciation of what we have up here and also they did not use federal funds to build it,” he said, referring to the contact station. “It was all raised money and that is another big factor that people know it was raised money.”
Matthew Polstein, founder and owner of Ktaadn Resorts formerly called the New England Outdoor Center on Millinocket Lake, said that the monument is still in its infancy and as time goes on the benefits to the region are going to become more substantial.
“I think it’s a real economic driver for this area. We’ve seen some benefits since it started,” he said.
Polstein said many of the concerns people had at the monument’s inception have faded. Some were grounded in historic concerns that are no longer relevant, he said, adding that some falsely feared the federal government would come and take more land through eminent domain, which hasn’t happened.
The leadership of the monument has made strong inroads by being a good neighbor, employing local people and providing benefits and opportunities locally, Polstein said, adding that he has been an enthusiastic supporter since the beginning.
Additionally, Polstein said that there is a significant effort underway to bring businesses back to Millinocket, a former paper mill town, and the national monument will help.
“When businesses come to look at the area they are concerned about livability and the quality of life the area has to offer,” he said. “I think the recreation and tourism supported by the monument and Baxter State Park make this place a more liveable place for people to come live and work not just to recreate.”
Several local residents also said they believe the new contact center will attract more visitors to the region because it is incredibly beautiful and tells the story of the Wabanaki people from their perspective.
“This is an important weekend for the Katahdin region, as we celebrate new ways of seeing, understanding, and working together to preserve and enjoy our woods and waters,” said Molly Ross, Board President for Friends of Katahdin Woods and Waters. “We have planned the weekend with the hope that our guests and visitors, new and returning, will have a fun, meaningful, and memorable experience.”
The contact station is named Tekαkαpimək, pronounced deh gah-gah bee mook, a Penobscot language word for as far as one can see.
The design, which began in 2019, is a collaborative work between Quimby’s foundation, Elliotsville Foundation; representatives of the Wabanaki Nations; architects; designers; Wabanaki artisans and the National Park Service.
Gail Fanjoy, president of the Katahdin Chamber of Commerce who also sits on the Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument Board, has been part of the effort for several years.
“I’ve been a fan since before it was created. I continue to be now and I look forward to the opening,” she said. “It’s a beautiful place and provides exactly what we thought it would with some economic development in the neighboring communities.”
Fanjoy, who said there is an effort to get a southern entrance to the monument built in Millinocket, believes many people have changed their views on the attraction.
“We have 51 businesses signed on as supporters and 54 individual citizens we’ve gained support from in the last few weeks,” she said, adding that the new entrance is important so that communities at its southern end can also benefit from direct access.
There are still people from the area who don’t like the national monument. Eugene Conlogue, former Millinocket town manager who held the position during the monument’s development, said creating a federal presence in the Maine woods is a way of locking up the land for future use.
“My view is as strong today as it was back then,” Conlogue said this week from his Presque Isle home.
Conlogue points to early economic projections from a 2013 economic impact study by Headwaters Economics, a Montana firm, of 450 to 1,000 jobs created and about 250,000 visitors as falling well short to date.
“They were basing those on Acadia [National Park],” he said.
A 2021 National Park Service report said the monument supported 38 jobs in local communities and had a cumulative economic benefit to the local economy of $3.3 million.
The majority of positions at Katahdin Woods and Waters are temporary summer positions, with work from May through November, according to the National Park Service.
