Farrars Illustrated Guide Book to Moose Lake
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
f i^f 'H .^ \C '\:2. CH \ "/i^ O O W H O Y » S CELESEi^TES HEHCGNAL SPLIT MM Ml SUPERIOB TO ALL OTHERS. Awarded Three Medals at the International Fisheries Exhibition, London, 1883. Oi MOOSEIIKAD. [From Harper's Magazinu TO MOOSEHEAD LAKE THE WILDS OF NORTHERH MAIHE, AND THE HEAD-WATERS OF THE KENNEBEC, PENOBSCOT, AND ST. JOHN RIVERS, WITH A New and Coned Mop of the Lake Region, Drawn and Printed Expressly for this Book. ALSO CONTAINS THE GAME AND FISH LAVS^S OF MAINE (as revised by the last Legislature), RAILROAD, STEAMBOAT, AND STACE ROUTES, Time Tables, Tatole of Fares, Iiist of Hotels, Prices of Soard, and other -valuable Inforiuation for the Sports- man, Tourist, or Pleasui*e-Seeker. By CHAKLES A. J. FARRAR, \ . Autlior of" Richardson and Rangelcy Lakes," Illustrated," Camp Life in the Wilderness," etc. BOSTON: LEE J^NJD SHEFARD. New Yokk: The American Neavs Coaipant. 18 8 4. Copyright, 1884. CHARLES A. J. FARRAR. ^«»«^ The illustrations in this book have been engraved from original drawings, and stereoscopic views made at the places represented, by the best artists in their respective lines of business that could be procured. THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY Astor, Leno)i mi Tllden^ ^""^ Fouidatitns, I T ('..J2 PREFACE. In presenting the seventh edition of Moosehead Lake and THE North Maine Wilderness to the public, the author would gratefully acknowledge the kind reception of the other six editions. The encomiums from private individuals and the press have encouraged him to give the work more careful attention this year than ever, and the present edition is an improvement over former ones in many ways. As this is the only guide to Moosehead Lake published it will be kept up to its present high standard of excellence. The author has endeavored to make this volume pleasant and interesting, as well as reliable and instructive, and to impart in- formation without the dry paragraphing common to most guide- books. By means of our little book thousands have become acquainted with the Moosehead Lake Region in the last eight years that had never heard of or visited it before ; and we hope that through its influence thousands more may visit this beautiful summer re- sort where everything combines towards one's pleasure and health. The completion of the Bangor and Piscataquis Railroad to the shores of the lake has made the disagreeable stage ride a thing of the past, and passengers can now make the trip the entire distance by rail. (5) __^ 6 PREFACE. The Mount Kineo House, Phoenix-like, has arisen from its ashes, and in place of the old structure stands to-day a new and larger building, capable of accommodating four hundred people, and fitted with every modern improvement that the ingenuity of man or the expenditure of money could provide. It is the desire of the author in this volume not only to give a correct description of the country to which he invites the attention of the traveling public, but also to thoroughly post them up in all the details of route, expense, hotels, and other little matters that one so anxiously inquires about, when contemplating a first visit to a strange place. While he is not egotistical enough to declare that he has wholly succeeded in his wishes, he is certain that for any person making a first trip to Moosehead Lake the book will prove invaluable, and that it will even be read with interest by the older hahitues of this noted locality. This seventh edition has been rewritten and carefully revised. Thirty pages of new reading-matter have been added, also sev- eral illustrations. It is the author's intention to have the book keep pace with and faithfully chronicle all changes and improve- ments in the entire Moosehead Lake Region. With the promise that any mistakes, omissions, or errors, that occur in the present volume will be carefully corrected in the edition of 1885, he calls the attention of his readers to the more interesting parts of the book. CHARLES A. J. FARRAR. RocKviEw, Jamaica Plain, May 1, 1884. CONTENTS. PAGE CHAPTER Maine 9 1. — The Lakes of Nortliern Routes from Boston and Portland to II. — Rail and Steamboat 16 the Lake Region and Katahdin Iron Works HI. — From Milo to Brownvillc 35 The Gulf and its surroundings .... 47 IV. _ Monson and vicinity 53 Y. _ Greenville and its attractions 63 to Mount Kineo . VI. — Up the Lake. From Greenville Sights, Fishing, etc. 71 VII. -Kineo. Its Legends, Hotel, Moosehead Lake, via the VIIL — Two Routes from Boston to Rivers Forks of the Kennebec and Moose . -97 the Head of the Lake . • ' IX. — From Kineo to ^Y. 124 X. — Camping-Out Where to XL —The Head of the Lake and its surroundings. Hunting, etc. 132 Go.— What to See. — Fishing, the West Branch 140 XIL — Tours beyond Moosehead. Down . Four Diiferent XHL-The Ascent of Mount Katahdin. 156 Accounts 189 XIV. — Down the West Branch (concluded) .... East Branch of ^Xv'- Tours beyond Moosehead. DoNyn the 192 the Penoliscot. Up the Penobscot .... 200 Down the St. John . XVI. — Tours beyond Moosehead. 204 XVIL — Game Laws of Maine 207 XVIII. — Game-Fish Laws of Maine 217 etc ' * * XIX. — List of Hotels, ! * 221 XX. — Table of Fares (7) LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE Moosehead. Frontispiece 2 At Anchor at Moose Brook, Moosehead Lake 10 Cedar Beach, north of Mt. Kineo 20 Fort Point House 29 Moosehead Lake, from Indian Hill 30 Billings' Falls, West Branch Pleasant River, Me 36 Lake House, Greenville, Me 40 Face in the Rock and Jaws of the Gulf, West Branch Pleasant River, Me 43 Lake Hebron Hotel, Monson, Maine 50 The new Mount Kineo House, Moosehead Lake .... 68 View from Kineo House Piazza, looking west 74 Socatean Falls 82 View from Mount Kineo 86 Moimt Kineo from North Bay 96 Hotel Heselton, Skowhcgan, Me 102 The Forks of the Kennebec 108 Long Pond Outlet, Moose River 114 Rapids at Outlet of Brasseau Lake 118 Ox-Railroad Ti-ain leaving the Station 120 Camp at Head of Lake 130 Landing the Canoes 138 Inspection of a Day's Fishing 158 ' The Camper-Out . .188 Lake Hebron, looking west 216 Map of Moosehead Lake 220 Moosehead . 223 (8) CHAPTER I. The Lakes of Northern Maine. Probably there is not another State in this country that can boast of more Lakes, Ponds, Rivers, and Streams than Maine, whose large territory contains many beautiful sheets of water, surrounded by grand mountain peaks and wild forests, making the whole northern half of the State a vast park, ornamented only by the hands of nature, and free from the trammels of art. Here it is still possible to see the largest wild animal to be found east of the Rocky Mountains, the noble moose, in his native free- dom, as he wanders about in quest of food, unconscious of excit- ing admiration. In these vast woods, reaching to Canada and beyond, may also be found the beautiful deer and the fleet caribou, bears, wolves, foxes, and numerous smaller animals. While the forest is well supplied with game, the waters of this New England Paradise teem with fish of various species, the trout being the best for eating, and furnishing the visitor to these wilds, xjiscatorially inclined, the finest sport. It is not to be wondered at, then, with the attractions North- ern Maine presents, both in beautiful and romantic scenery, pure air and water, game and fish, that, as the rivers and lakes arc freed from their icy bonds, thousands of people should annually turn their eyes in this direction ; and the fact that travel to the lakes of Maine has largely increased in the last five years is indisputable evidence that people who have visited these romantic sheets of water have returned home satisfied with their sojourn in the wilderness. How a person can fritter away two or three months of pleasant weather at fashionable summer resorts, surrounded by false glitter and senseless show, when the lakes and forests and mountains of the Pine-Tree State are smilingly beckoning them to explore their hidden mysteries, is something hard to understand. But many do not know that this vast wilderness, with its forests primeval, with its lofty mountains, many of whose summits have been untrodden by the foot of man, its mirrored ponds and lakes, its picturesque (9) !/2 o B o H MOOSEHEAD LAKE AND VICINITY. 11 streams, broken by rapids and falls, its healthy and bracing atmos- phere, redolent with the resinous perfumes of the pine and fir, is within two days' travel of the great metropolis of New England. And yet such is the fact. Of all these crystal bodies of water, Moosehead Lake is the largest and best known. It is on the outskirts of a far- reaching wilderness, almost beyond the pale of civilization, the little town of Greenville at its lower end being the one connecting link between isolation and the outer world. It lies in Somerset and Piscataquis counties. It is thirty-six miles long, irom a mile to fourteen miles in width, and has tliree hundred miles of shore ; it is the unfailing reservoir that supplies the beautiful and picturesque Kennebec, and renders accessible its powerful rival, the wild and turbulent Penobscot. Islands, varying in size from the solitary and barren rock to those containing thousands of acres, well wooded and watered, deck its bosom, and add to the attractiveness of its features. It is surrounded by mountains, some of which descend to its shore and are laved by its waters, while others are some distance away, mantled in a rich blue haze that gives them a peculiar charm in the eye of the beholder.