Letters to the editor:
National Park questioned
I know that the National Park thing next door to the park is controversial, and I would like to share my concerns. If, for some reason, a National Park should spring up in the East Branch area, you could have people from all over the world standing next to Hathorn or Robar Ponds (something that will not be good for them) looking West and seeing something far more spectacular. Even if the park remained independent, it would forever change it in ways that we can only guess at. Most of them I suspect, not good. Keep things small, keep them close to Maine. Let the world marvel at Baxter, but please don’t give the world control of the area to the point that Baxter becomes a small garden at the end of a big dead-end highway. Why not just give the land to the State of Maine and let the Authority manage it? Keep the highway small, make Baxter larger. Governor Baxter’s vision for the future of the area is still the best one.… I will be joining Friends of Baxter sometime in the near future, and I hope to volunteer next summer for a couple of days. Right now, for me, joining the discussion on the proposed National Park appears to be no fun compared to spending time in Baxter Park itself. My trip to Middle Fowler was an opportunity for me to introduce a friend to the joys of single-leg backpacking in the backcountry. We were alone on the pond both nights and on one evening I retired early to the tent while he played his penny whistle in the dusk. We both travelled home physically tired and emotionally rested. The Park is truly a special place.
– Bill Reitsma, Orrington, ME
Feasibility Study for National Park
Just read my copy of the Fall 2011 Newsletter of the Friends of Baxter State Park. In that newsletter, Barbara Bentley’s President’s Column on the subject of a feasibility study is the best presentation that I have read.
– Charlie Cirame, Millinocket, ME
Huber Parcel donated to Park
Katahdin Lake’s outlet. Photo © Stan Tag
Great news on the Katahdin Lake donation. I was thrilled to hear it. I am teaching three courses this quarter and am very slowly working through the materials I gathered in the fall on the history of Katahdin. Thought you and Bill would like to see one of my photos from the beach near the outlet, and part of the land the Huber Corporation donated. I love that spot and look forward to returning.
– Stan Tag, Bellingham, WA
Favorite Quote
You can imagine how I loved this quotation! Reminds me of a John Singer Sargent painting, in words:
Then away to the heart of the deep unknown, Where the trout and the wild moose are-
Where the fire burns bright and tent gleams white,
Under the northern star.
– Albert Bigelow Paine
I have just returned from teaching a plein air workshop in a “wilderness” resort called "Milford House," located in Southwest Nova Scotia, adjacent to Kejimkujik National Park and the Tobeatic Wilderness area. The cabins sit on the shores of two pristine lakes plied only by canoes and kayaks. I put quotations around “wilderness” because the cabins have electricity, indoor plumbing, and all the comforts of home. This includes mice, bats, and very vocal bull frogs. One could canoe from the Milford Lakes via the Mersey River to the sea; with some portages, depending on the season. For the sake of brevity, I have not included the routes one could take to do this, but this information is available if anyone is interested.
The Tobeatic Wilderness Area is the largest remaining wild area in the Maritimes, spanning parts of five counties. The region is characterized by unique barren and semi-barren landscapes with outstanding undisturbed glacial landforms including esker fields, moraines, kettles, and outwash plains. It protects remote and undisturbed wildlife habitat, protects expansive wetlands, pockets of old-growth pine and hemlock forest, and the headwaters of 9 major river systems flowing to both the Atlantic and Fundy coasts. Taken together with the neighboring Kejimkujik National Park and Historic Site, the Tobeatic Wilderness Area forms the central core of an expansive protected landscape within interior southwestern Nova Scotia.
I was given a book, The Tent Dweller, written in 1908 by Albert Bigelow Paine, which is a classic account of a three-week fishing adventure in this area. Paine is known for his biography of Mark Twain. His poems that accompany each chapter are humorous, and touching. Here’s an example that most of us can relate to if we’ve ever camped on the ground:
To-night, to-night, the frost is white, Under the silver moon; And lo, I lie, as the hours go by. Freezing to death in June.
I’ve been invited to teach again at the Lodge, and also to teach a workshop and have an exhibition at Kejimkujik next summer. I’m very happy about this, as it enables me to learn more about the park and meet other Nova Scotian artists. We share the same excitement about using art to encourage people to preserve wilderness. The director told me that they had had very little success in getting people involved in conservation until a local artist did a series of paintings of several wilderness areas that were threatened by development. Those paintings changed everything; the public responded and great progress was made.
The entire landscape of Kejimkujik is designated as a national historic site. With rich Mi’kmaw heritage, over 500 individual petroglyphs, tradition encampment areas and canoe routes, it is a cultural landscape that attest to the presence of the Mi’kmaq since time immemorial. Keji is most loved for its wilderness camping, where one goes from island to island via the lake.
I had a grand time, and just went back again in order to meet with the Director of Education at Kejimkujik National Park. We toured part of the park in order for me to select painting sites, and talk about a workshop there. They are so enthusiastic; basically said I can do whatever I'd like to do, and they will facilitate it all. There are some sites that are totally accessible, which would be good as I find many people who want to paint in these places are really not physically capable of hiking any distance with a full pack.
As I understand it, the iconic images of the park are only seen as you canoe from island to island in Kejimkujik Lake. It's a good-sized lake, and in late morning the waves and wind were impressive. I'm told that people are advised to do their traveling in early morning and evening, and plan to be at their destination all day. I'd love to do an island to island painting trip, and that one will have to be with some able-bodied souls!
Please do let me know if you have any questions. I'm very excited about this new opportunity to paint in NS.
– Evelyn Dunphy, W. Bath, ME
Editor’s note: Evelyn Dunphy was BSP Visiting Artist in 2009. She is one of a number of artists who portray the wilds of Baxter State Park in their work and were instrumental in supporting the addition of the Katahdin Lake lands to the Park in 2006.