THE ensure that this area will forever remain a place of you, your family, and friends will enjoy the memories of solace and refuge. your visit for a lifetime. A agash The Allagash and the St. John Rivers are deeply Sincerely, WILDERNESS W A TE RW A Y ingrained in the heritage of the communities of THE northern Maine. Mountains, rivers, and the ocean coastline are a crucial part of the history and economy of communities throughout the state. A visit to these John E. Baldacci Welcome communities will help you gain a better appreciation for Governor Maine’s unique history. You may learn, as well, of the Welcome to the Allagash Wilderness Waterway. For importance of our natural resources today, in our past, many visitors the Allagash Wilderness Waterway and in our future. MAINE DEPARTMENT OF CONSERVATION shines the brightest among the jewels of Maine’s BUREAU OF PARKS AND LANDS forty-seven state parks and historic sites. The No matter if a visit to the Allagash Wilderness Northern Region Office A agash Waterway has been praised and enjoyed as a Waterway is your first experience of a publicly-owned 106 Hogan Road sportsman's paradise for decades. The people of Maine outdoor place or the culmination of a lifetime of Bangor, Maine 04401 Maine made the dream of a protected Allagash River enjoyment of our state parks, it is a special experience. 207-941-4014 WILDERNESS WATERWAY poss ble. The State of Maine, through the Department In my visits to our state-owned lands, I have found www.maine.gov/doc/parks of Conservation’s Bureau of Parks and Lands seeks to something special about each of them. I hope that working. Between 4,000 and 3,500 years ago these the Allagash region early in the 1800s. The Waterway’s Earliest History types of tools became less common, suggesting a shift Native American heritage is found in the names of its from dugout canoes to a birch bark type. This shift is The last Ice Age left a tundra-l ke environment in places, such as Umsaskis Lake and Musquacook also supported by the many sites archaeologists have northern Maine that yielded to dense forest about stream. When Henry David Thoreau visited the found in drainage areas where heavier dugouts would 10,000 years ago. Though a few Allagash region in 1857 he was guided by have been difficult to use. families of Paleoindians may have two natives of the traveled through the Allagash Penobscot tr be, Joseph The Ceramic Period of 3,000 to 500 years ago is region at that time, the Aitteon and Joe Polis. named for the emergence of the use of pottery. Though archaeological record shows a Among other sites, this not very durable at this point, pottery enabled cooking larger population during the group made camp on directly on the fire, rather than the labor-intensive Archaic period, approximately Pillsbury Island in Eagle 1 method of heating stones and placing them into a bark r 10,000 to 4,000 years ago. The Lake near what is now or wooden container. Although ceramic artifacts do not people of this era were generally the Thoreau campsite Dean B. Bennett survive well in the conditions of the Allagash region, nomadic, using nets for fishing and (#53). archaeologists have found pottery in the region at least stone or wood for tools. Most J 2,000 years old. plentiful among the artifacts Dean B. Bennett discovered from this period are The archaeological record seems to indicate that stone axes and gouges for wood- traditional Native Americans began to move away from 2 Thoreau 3 4 on the ice in build a railroad wherever they worked. Remnants of 6 5 The Logging Era the wintertime. these Lombards are still rusting away in a number of 8 When the spring places in the Allagash. A completely restored Lombard Shortly after Maine became a state in 1820, David 9 7 thaw came, can be seen in the Maine State Museum. At the height Pingree, a businessman from Salem, Massachusetts the logging com- of this era, many steamboats moved wood in booms 10 foresaw the demise of his hometown as a major panies opened across the Waterway’s lakes and the remains of a few 11 12 shipping port. Worrying about the future value of his the gates of the of these can be found today. vast shipping enterprises, he looked elsewhere for dams to send 14 investment opportunities. His keen eye for commerce Churchill Depot, 13 a rush of water 15 eventually settled upon the seemingly unending tracts as well as the r downstream of timber-covered land in the northern half of Maine. Michaud and that scooped up Chamberlain The Lombard Log Hauler these logs and Maine Land agents issued the first permit for logging Farms on the l drove them to market. These log drives continued in in the Allagash in 1835 as the need for tall, straight Waterway, all 16 Maine until the 1970s. 17 white pine trees increased dramatically. Basing his began as supply new enterprise in Bangor, home to more than three points for logging 18 Today, there are rebuilt dams at the site of the original hundred sawmills by the mid-1830s, Pingree, under companies. logging structures at Churchill Dam, Lock Dam on 19 the guidance of his partner Ebenezer Coe, began to Chamberlain Lake, and Telos Dam. These rebuilt profit handsomely from his operations - harvesting Pingree and dams regulate water levels for recreation and to main- Remains of the Tramway trees, running them down river o Bangor where they others like him tain fish habitat. Remnants of the old Long Lake Dam 20 were milled into lumber, and loading the lumber aboard that drove the first large-scale arrival of non-native can be seen at the northern outlet of Long Lake. ships that carried the goods to market. The Allagash people into the Allagash region. During and after the an advantageous Industrial Revolution, the nation’s rapid expansion and In addition to dams, there are many other artifacts of region because of an accompanying appetite for lumber helped spur the the early lumbering era in the region. The most strik- 21 its vast forests and first stages of exploration and development that altered ing collection of these relics of this era can be seen the streams and the landscape while opening the area to recreation and 22 23 on the stretch of land that separates Chamberlain rivers that provided commerce. 25 24 and Eagle Lakes. This area was actually a small transportation for town where workers built and maintained a miniature 26 the logs. In 1841, railroad, or tramway, around 1903 that carried logs Pingree built a 27 Musquacook Stream from Eagle Lake over to Chamberlain where they dam to prevent could be driven by water down to the Penobscot River. 28 water from flowing In the 1920s, a full-sized railroad took over the job of Eagle Lake Locomotives between Eagle transporting logs. The two locomotives used in this 29 and Chamberlain Lakes. The dam raised the level of work still sit where they were abandoned more than l 30 Chamberlain and reversed its natural flow. The new seven decades ago. Dean B. Bennett flow carried logs southward toward Bangor rather than 31 northward into Canada. Another innovation that aided logging in the Allagash was the Lombard Log Hauler, precursor of every For the century that followed, it was common to see track-powered vehicle in the world. Invented and built huge piles of logs stacked along the riverbanks and in Maine, these huge machines allowed loggers to The Old Lock Dam 32 Stream 33 P component of the National Wild and Scenic River Phyllis Jalbert Establishing the Waterway System by the United States Department of the Interior. North of Chamberlain Lake, only watercraft meeting The political Ross the Waterway definition of a canoe are allowed, and 34 history of the Alla- The Act of 1966 establishing the Waterway designated outboard motors may not exceed 10 horsepower. 35 gash Wilderness three areas to carefully protect certain kinds of recre- Waterway is ational experiences. In the Waterway, visitors may experience life under 36 as rich as the largely natural condi- 37 Waterway’s U L At Allagash Lake and Stream, the most remote and wild tions, in striking natural resources section of the Waterway, motorized access within one contrast to the modern are abundant. mile is proh bited, and only non-motorized canoes are world’s human environ- 38 allowed. ment. The Waterway’s The Waterway limited facilities are was established appreciated by visitors 39 Round Pond In the Chamberlain Lake Region, many traditional by the Maine Leg- who seek solitude and Dean B. Bennett access and recreational activities are allowed in a islature in 1966 to preserve, protect, and enhance the remote setting. Boats with motors are allowed, with Dean B. Bennett self-reliance. There natural beauty, character, and habitat of the 92-mile- limited access points that accommodate traditional boat is no public transporta- long r bbon of lakes, ponds, rivers, and streams launching. Activities such as water skiing, personal access is limited to gravel roads; and camping facilities that wind through the heart of northern Maine's vast watercrafts, and sailing, however, are restricted to are primitive. commercial forests. Protection of the Waterway was protect the special Waterway experience. further ensured in 1970 when it was named the first 40 Dean B. Bennett Among the most prominent of these was a former game Sporting Camps warden named Henry Taylor who, along with his wife, In 1815, Maine’s 41 built such a place on the eastern bank of Allagash River 42 Moses Greenleaf not far above the falls.