Before the Civil War, a few travelers — notably Henry David Thoreau and James Russell Lowell — sought the “wilderness experience” of northern Maine. The trickle became a flood after 1870 as entrepreneurs began to promote the Moosehead Lake region for hunting and fishing. Their market constituted middle and upper classes from Portland, Boston, and New York, who sought both recreation and relief from urban pollution.
John Way’s book [26], with its map [19], was the first guide for sportsmen to Moosehead Lake and the surrounding region. Directed at the Boston tourist, Way wrote his work to coincide with the 1874 opening of the second Kineo House, illustrated in the map’s vignette. The new house represented a significant increase in the scale of tourism at Mt. Kineo, supported by the extension of the North American and European Railway (later Bangor & Aroostook) to Guilford. Way seems to have based his map largely on Charles Haven’s ca.1870 map of Moosehead Lake [25]. Way’s work was copied by Lucius Hubbard, whose first book appeared in 1879 [28], complete with a fold-out map [20]. Although the clean printing makes Hubbard’s map look different, it is heavily based on Way’s map. Indeed, the copy of Way’s map shown here was in fact owned by Hubbard: each of his pencil annotations on Way’s map can be matched with details on his own work. Hubbard also added many Native place names to his map — derived from St. Francis, Penobscot, and Malecite Indians — and provided a list of them, with their meanings, at the back of his book.
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Map of MOOSEHEAD LAKE and the Headwaters of the PENOBSCOT & ST. JOHN RIVERS
Boston: [Bradford and Anthony], 1874
Lithograph with pencil annotations by Lucius L. Hubbard, 50.2 x 42.9 cm
Maine Historical Society
map/1183
Lucius L. Hubbard
MAP OF MOOSEHEAD LAKE AND NORTHERN MAINE
Cambridge, Mass., 1879
Lithograph, 61.0 x 50.0 cm
Osher Collection
Even as he continued to publish his guide books, Lucius Hubbard extended the coverage of his maps to encompass the St. John and Aroostook valleys. He first produced a larger map of northern Maine in 1899 [21], published separately for $1, or $1.50 canvas-backed. Hubbard's larger map was used by Warren K Moorehead -- director of the R. S. Peabody Museum of Archaeology, Andover, Mass. -- during his archaeological survey of Maine (1912-18). Moorehead's primary companion when traveling around Moosehead Lake was Henry E. Capen, son of Aaron Capen, Jr. [see 4]. The map displayed was annotated by Moorehead to show his routes along the Allagash (1912, yellow), St. John (1914, red), and Mattawaumkeag and Piscataquis (1915, blue): "Early in June 1914, eleven of us in six, twenty foot White canoes left Moosehead Lake and started for Pittston Farms. Here we entered the real wilderness and for over four hundred miles, to Meductic a little above Fredericton, we moved steadily down the magnificent river." [Moorehead, In the Maine Woods (1916)] Moorehead's reports were full of references to the landscape of the region before the rivers were dammed and timber was big: "Mr. Marks was fortunate in being able to examine the [Chesuncook] territory before the great dams were built, and he has given me some particulars concerning the extent of this site." "Formerly a large body of water poured through this little gorge [West Branch falls]. Millions of feet of timber from the upper lakes were run through the falls each spring. Often jams occurred at this place, and the West Branch falls were considered the most dangerous place between Bangor and Chesuncook. The jams backed up the water for some distance, and when the jam finally broke, the force of the combination -- tens of thousands of logs and perhaps a crest of four to six meters of water -- swept everything before it. Sand, gravel, stones -- the whole mass -- went into the deeper waters beyond. All Indian implements left along the shores of the West Branch falls except those dropped on higher land have long since been washed away. In fact, the mill and forest owners in Maine have 'changed the face of the earth.' What Kipling said of the elephant Hathi is true of the Maine 'timber king': 'And where Hathi gleans there is no need to follow'." [Moorehead, Archaeology of Maine (1922)]
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Lucius L. Hubbard
Map of NORTHERN MAINE
Cambridge, Mass., 1899
Lithograph with pencil annotations by Warren K. Moorehead, 81.8 x 78.7 cm
Robert S. Peabody Museum of Archaeology
Following the success of Way's and Hubbard's works, other regular travelers to Moosehead Lake and northern Maine also published guidebooks. They did not, however, follow the same format. Thomas Sedgwick Steele made two canoe trips with the intention of documenting the region photographically [37]. He displayed his photo-graphs in large exhibitions in New York, and reproduced them in his books [34, 35]. His first trip, in 1879, follows a route similar to Henry David Thoreau's in 1857. Indeed, the map accompanying Steele's first book, has been annotated with elements from Thoreau's writing; for example, it shows Thoreau's "Moose Grounds" at Northeast Carry, located at the top of Moosehead Lake [37]. The map itself was prepared by the New York publisher Charles A. J. Farrar, but does not seem to have been copied from either Hubbard's or Way's maps. Farrar published numerous guidebooks to northern Maine and the White Mountains, including his own [36], all of which were well illustrated. Farrar's Guide was available in larger, hard-cover and smaller, paperback formats with foldout maps in each. The guide presents very detailed descriptions of each locality. The map [23] is an update, especially with respect to the railroads, of Steele's map. The promotion of the upper Kennebec Valley, with its connections to Moosehead Lake, is tied to the construction and opening in 1907 of the Somerset Railway Company, a division of Maine Central Railroad. This new line ran from Oakland, just north of Waterville, to Somerset Junction and the Canadian Pacific Railway, and then to the Kineo Station Wharf at Birch Point (now Rockwood); from the wharf, passengers could transfer to the Coburn Steamboat lines. This was a more direct route to Mount Kineo Hotel from Portland, Boston, and points south, and it soon reduced the importance of Greenville and the Junction. Maine Central Railroad completed its venture up the Kennebec Valley with the purchase and upgrading of the Mount Kineo Hotel in 1911. The new route was advertised intensively, with a map on the stock offering [see 11] and a separately published map for the information of sportsmen [24].
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W. R. Curtis
MAP OF MOOSEHEAD LAKE
From Thomas Sedgwick Steele, Canoe and Camera (New York, 1880)
Lithograph, 59.9 x 47.0 cm
Hamilton Collection
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Capt. Charles A. J. Farrar
Marshall M. Tidd
Farrar's Map of Northern Maine
From Farrar's Illustrated Guide Book to Moosehead Lake (Boston, 1889)
Lithograph, 61.5 x 48.5 cm
Hamilton Collection
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F. Snow
Clifton S. Humphreys
Sportsmen's Map of UPPER KENNEBEC MOOSEHEAD LAKE REGION
Oakland: Somerset Railway Company, 1907
Lithograph, 96.8 x 41.0 cm
Maine State Archives
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MAP OF MOOSEHEAD LAKE, MAINE
Boston: Cha[rle]s H. Havens,
ca. 1870
Facsimile, 22.2 x 14.0 cm
Maine Historical Society
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John M. Way, Jr.
A Guide to Moosehead Lake Region and Northern Maine (Boston: John M. Way, Jr., 1874)
14.0 cm
Maine Historical Society
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From left to right:
Lucius L. Hubbard
Hubbard's Guide to MOOSEHEAD LAKE and NORTHERN MAINE (Cambridge: Lucius L. Hubbard, 1889)
15.2 cm
Hamilton Collection
James Russell Lowell
A Moosehead Journal (Boston: James R. Osgood and Co., 1877)
12.3 cm
Hamilton Collection
Lucius L. Hubbard
Summer Guide to MOOSEHEAD LAKE (Cambridge: John Wilson and Son, 1882, 3rd. ed.)
15.2 cm
Hamilton Collection
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From left to right:
Holman D. Waldron
The Summer State of Maine (Boston: Rand Avery Supply Co., 1894)
16.7 cm
Osher Collection
A SUMMER AT MOOSEHEAD LAKE AND VICINITY ([Boston:] Chase & Wallace, 1888)
13.1 cm
Hamilton Collection
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From top left to bottom right
Capt. Charles A. J. Farrar
Farrar's Illustrated Guide Book to Moosehead Lake and the North Maine Wilderness (Boston, 1889)
18.8 cm
Hamilton Collection
Thomas Segwick Steele
Paddle and Portage, Moosehead to the Aroostook River, Maine (Boston: Estes & Lauriat, 1882)
20.2 cm
Hamilton Collection
Thomas Segwick Steele
Canoe and Camera or Two Hundred Miles Through the Maine Forests (New York: Orange Judd Co., 1880)
20.7 cm
Hamilton Collection
Lucius L. Hubbard
Woods and Lakes of Maine (Boston: Ticknor and Company, 1883, 2nd ed.)
21.1 cm
Hamilton Collection
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[Moosehead Lake Booth at the New York Sportsmen's Show] Union View Co., 1895
Photograph, 15.5 x 20.5 cm
Hamilton Collection
Photographs
img/flat/mai38.jpg
Thomas Segwick Steele
[ Wilsons' East Outlet from dock]
Photograph, 1878
10.8 x 16.8 cm
Hamilton Collection
img/flat/mai39.jpg
[Fishing Log, 1894-1923, for Marr's Camp, Indian Pond]
20.9 cm
Hamilton Collection
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[Signatures of Significant Guests]
[Fishing Log, 1894-1923, for Marr's Camp, Indian Pond]
Facsimile
Hamilton Collection
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The Famous "Fly Rod" [C. J. Crosby] landing a big one at Mount Kineo, Moosehead Lake, Me.
Portland: The Hugh C. Leighton Co., 1907
Postcard, 8.8 x 13.9 cm
Hamilton Collection
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[Ledger, 4 June to 12 November 1857, D. T. Sanders' Store, Greenville]
39.5 cm
Hamilton Collection
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[D.T. Sanders' Store, Greenville]
ca. 1870
Photograph,
20 x 12.2 cm
Hamilton Collection
img/flat/mai44.jpg
From Left to right:
Handy Map of Moosehead Lake, Maine
Greenville: D. T. Sanders & Son, ca. 1890
Lithograph, 17.6 x 29.4 cm
Maine Historical Society
P. E. Campbell, Boston, Mass. to D. T. Sanders, Greenville, Me., 15 May 1877
Postcard, 7.7 x 13.0 cm
Hamilton Collection
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Camping List
Greenville: D. T. Sanders & Son, ca. 1890
Facsimile, 41.9 x 21.9 cm
Maine Historical Society
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L. L. Bean
Hunting-Fishing and Camping (Freeport, Maine: L. L. Bean Inc., 1946)
23.5 cm
Edward S. "Zip" Kellogg Collection
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L. L. Bean
Hunting-Fishing and Camping (Freeport, Maine: L.L. Bean Inc., 1946)
Facsimile of titlepage, 23.3 x 14.5 cm
Edward S. "Zip" Kellogg Collection
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Indian Pond Camps, Moosehead, Me.
[Camp Guest Register, 1933-53, with L. L. Bean's Signature, 1938]
Facsimile of detail from one page
Hamilton Collection
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Moosehead Lake
New York: Currier & Ives, 125 Nassua St., 1872-74
Hand colored engraving, 31.8 x 20.2 cm
Hamilton Collection
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From left to right:
Ricker Hotel Company
The New Mount Kineo House and Annex (New York: The Kalkhoff Company, 1913)
24.1 cm
Hamilton Collection
Picturesque Kineo (Portland: Lakeside Press, ca. 1890)
15.3 cm
Hamilton Collection
At Kineo; The World-Famed Recreation Region of the Maine Woods (n.p., ca. 1920)
11.4 cm
Hamilton Collection
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S. W. Steward
Mount Kineo and House from Steamboat
ca. 1897
Oil on academy board, 39.4 x 21.6 cm, lemon-gold frame
Hamilton Collection
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Advertisement for S. W. Steward, painter
In A Summer at Moosehead Lake and Vicinity (Chase & Wallace, 1888)
Facsimile of letterpress advertisement, 13.0 x 19.0 cm
Hamilton Collection
