A timeline of the history of the land and the campaign that led to the designation of the Katahdin Woods & Waters National Monument.
August 2021 |
We celebrated the fifth anniversary of the creation of the Katahdin Woods & Waters National Monument. |
May 2020 |
Friends of Katahdin Woods & Waters announces that the International Dark-Sky Association has designated Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument as the first International Dark Sky Sanctuary on the eastern seaboard. |
June 2019 |
National Park Service hosts three public planning sessions for Katahdin Woods & Waters in Soldiertown Township (Katahdin region), Brewer, and Portland to receive feedback on the draft management framework. |
November 14, 2018 |
National Park Service hosts a public planning session for Katahdin Woods & Waters’ winter uses in South Portland. |
October 30, 2018 |
National Park Service hosts a public planning session for Katahdin Woods & Waters’ winter uses in Brewer. |
October 17, 2018 |
National Park Service hosts a public planning session for Katahdin Woods & Waters’ winter uses in Presque Isle. |
April 11, 2018 |
National Park Service hosts a public planning session for Katahdin Woods & Waters’ winter uses in Staceyville. |
January 24, 2018 |
National Park Service hosts public planning session for Katahdin Woods & Waters’ winter uses. Stakeholders and local residents shared ideas with the Park Service as it begins writing a management plan to guide the future of the Monument. |
December 2017 |
Despite the absence of direction signs, visits to Katahdin monument quadruple in 2017– approximately 30,000 people visit Monument from 45 states and 9 countries. |
December 5, 2017 |
In an official memorandum to the President, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke recommends amending Katahdin Woods and Waters’ original proclamation “prioritizing promote [sic] a healthy forest through active timber management.” This memorandum fails to resolve uncertainty about the future of the Katahdin monument because “active timber management” remains undefined. |
September 18, 2017 |
In leaked memorandum to President Trump, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke recommends amending Katahdin Woods and Waters’ proclamation “to promote a healthy forest through active timber management” and to revise the Monument’s management plan—even though the management plan does not yet exist. This leaked recommendation leaves “active timber management” undefined, failing to clarify the Monument’s future. |
August 24, 2017 |
Interior Secretary Zinke releases two-page memo recommending against abolishing national monuments under review. The memo suggests that some original proclamations, which establish monuments’ uses and boundaries, may be altered. |
August 23, 2017 |
Natural Resources Council of Maine (NRCM) releases report, Katahdin Woods & Waters—Our Monument, Our Community, Voices from the Region, highlighting individual stories of Monument’s economic benefits in the Katahdin region since 2016 designation. |
July 10, 2017 |
Public comment period closes for Department of Interior “review.” KWW National Monument receives more than 260,000 comments – 99.96% support Monument. More than 2.5 million comments received regarding all 27 monuments under review. |
June 13-14, 2017 |
U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke visits Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument, and hears overwhelming support of Katahdin monument in meetings with Katahdin residents, civic, and business leaders. |
May 11, 2017 |
Public comment period opens for “review” of Monument. Katahdin Area Chamber of Commerce and businesses hold press conference opposing President Trump’s executive order and Governor LePage’s attack on the Katahdin region and Monument, and encouraging Mainers to offer comments supporting the Monument. Many former opponents now among most ardent Monument supporters. |
May 5, 2017 |
Gov. Paul LePage refuses to allow signs to be installed along any of the Katahdin region’s main roads to direct visitors to Katahdin Woods and Waters. |
May 2, 2017 |
Governor LePage testifies before Congress falsely claiming the majority of Mainers oppose Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument, and downplaying the immediate economic benefits the Monument has created. |
April 26, 2017 |
President Trump orders Secretary Zinke and the Department of Interior to conduct an unprecedented “review” of all national monuments larger than 100,000 acres designated during the past 20 years – plus Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument. |
August 24, 2016 |
President Obama designates Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument. |
August 23, 2016 |
Deeds transferring 87,000 acres of land east of Baxter State Park to the United States of America are recorded in the Registry of Deeds. |
August 12, 2016 |
Elliotsville Plantation, Inc. transfers 87,000 acres of land east of Baxter State Park to the United States of America. |
July 11, 2016 |
52 elected officials from the state and local levels in Maine send a letter to President Obama encouraging him to use his authority to designate a new national monument on EPI land that would be donated to the American people. |
June 1, 2016 |
Congressman Bruce Poliquin invites Congressman Rob Bishop, Chairman of the House Committee on Natural Resources and leader of the Congressional Anti-Parks Caucus, to East Millinocket for a Congressional Field Hearing. Katahdin region residents speak in favor of the National Monument proposal 4:1. |
May 16, 2016 |
Senator Angus King and National Park Service Director Jonathan Jarvis hold public meetings in East Millinocket and at the University of Maine in Orono. Of the estimated 1,400 in attendance at the Orono meeting, about 1,200 people from every part of Maine express support for the National Monument proposal. |
2012 – 2016 |
Natural Resources Council of Maine (NRCM) staff members and Lucas St. Clair, President of Elliotsville Plantation, Inc. (EPI) hold hundreds of one-on-one meetings with residents of the Katahdin region; National Park proposal evolves to include National Recreation Area where access for snowmobiling and hunting is guaranteed. |
April 6, 2016 |
The Small Business Majority releases a report that shows that national monuments designated by President Obama at the time of the report have a total economic impact of $156 million per year on the local economies surrounding the monuments. |
March 3, 2016 |
East Millinocket mill sold for scrap. |
November 16, 2015 |
The Bangor Daily News reports that EPI is exploring the possibility of a National Monument designation on the lands in the East Branch of the Penobscot River region. |
November 10, 2015 |
National Park and National Recreation Area advocates deliver more than 13,000 signatures in support of the proposal from residents of 371 Maine towns, 50 states, and 53 nations to Maine’s Congressional delegation. |
November 6, 2015 |
Bangor Daily News Editorial Board endorses National Park and National Recreation Area proposal. |
April 2015 |
Critical Insights poll shows that 67% of residents of Maine’s 2nd Congressional district (northern, western and eastern Maine) support the proposed National Park and National Recreation Area. |
March 26, 2015 |
200 businesses primarily from northern and Down East Maine endorse proposed National Park and National Recreation Area. |
March 23, 2015 |
Bangor City Council adopts resolution in support of proposed National Park and National Recreation Area. |
January 27, 2015 |
Greater Houlton Chamber of Commerce endorses proposed National Park and National Recreation Area. |
January 1, 2015 |
Chief Kirk Francis of the Penobscot Nation endorses the proposed National Park and National Recreation Area. |
2003 – 2014 |
Elliotsville Plantation, Inc., a private foundation established by Roxanne Quimby, purchases 14 parcels of land in the East Branch region for total ownership in the region of 89,261 acres. |
September 23, 2014 |
Paper mill in East Millinocket closes permanently and owner files for bankruptcy. |
June 28, 2014 |
Maine Innkeepers Association endorses proposed National Park and National Recreation Area. |
May 21, 2014 |
Katahdin Rotary Club endorses proposed National Park and National Recreation Area. |
March 4, 2014 |
Katahdin Area Chamber of Commerce endorses proposed National Park and National Recreation Area. |
February 14, 2013 |
Headwaters Economics releases economic studies showing that proposed National Park and National Recreation Area would create 450 – 1000 jobs. |
September 13, 2011 |
NRCM’s board votes to support proposed National Park. |
August 18, 2011 |
Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar and Director of the Park Service Jon Jarvis hold public meeting in Millinocket. |
March 28, 2011 |
Roxanne Quimby announces the she wants to donate 70,000 acres for a new National Park in the East Branch region. |
2008 |
Paper mill in Millinocket closes permanently. |
1841 – 1976 |
The East Branch of the Penobscot River is used as a main thoroughfare for floating logs to feed downstream mills. |
1970 |
The population of Millinocket peaks at 7,742 before starting to decline to 4,401 in 2014. The population of East Millinocket peaks at 2,567 before starting to decline to 1,688 in 2014. |
1970 |
Maine establishes the Land Use Regulation Commission (now known as the Land Use Planning Commission) to oversee land use and development activities on the 10.4 million acres of North Woods that are in unincorporated townships, including the land later included in the Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument. |
1931 – 1963 |
Former Maine Governor Percival P. Baxter purchases 28 parcels surrounding Katahdin, Maine’s highest mountain, and donates them to the State of Maine to create Baxter State Park, immediately to the west of the Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument. |
1940 |
The population of Patten peaks at 1,548 before starting to decline to 1,002 in 2014. |
February 21, 1907 |
The Town of East Millinocket is incorporated. |
Spring of 1906 |
Great Northern Paper begins construction on a second paper mill and town on the banks of the Penobscot River, in East Millinocket, eight miles east of Millinocket. |
March 16, 1901 |
The Town of Millinocket is incorporated. |
May 15, 1899 |
A paper mill and the brand new town of Millinocket are carved out of the forest along the banks of the Penobscot River, about 10 miles south of the land that would become the Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument. Charles W. Mullen, engineering graduate from the University of Maine and Garret Schenck, vice president of the International Paper Mill at Rumford Falls, create the mill. |
August 29, 1879 |
Teddy Roosevelt and his guide, Bill Sewall, summit Katahdin after hiking nearly 40 miles from Island Falls, Maine. Roosevelt and his party crossed the East Branch of the Penobscot River and Wassataquoik Stream in an experience that sparked a life-long commitment to land conservation by the man who would become the 26th president of the United States and sign into law the Antiquities Act of 1906. |
1820 – 1860 |
The State of Maine sells 10 million acres of North Woods, including the land contained in the Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument, to private timber barons. According to former Maine Governor Percival Baxter:
“In the early years these lands were sold for trifling sums per acre to pay current expenses of the State Government, to build roads, to pay ministers of the gospel and in 1828, 12 townships were sold in order to raise funds with which to build the State House. From 1836 to 1839 these lands were sold by the State so freely that no taxes were levied because a sufficient number of townships were disposed of to provide the revenue necessary for State purposes.” (Address to the Maine Sportsmen’s Fish and Game Association by then Senate President Percival Baxter, January 27, 1921.) |
July 20, 1857 |
Henry David Thoreau leaves his home in Massachusetts for his final trip to Maine’s North Woods, during which he paddles down the East Branch of the Penobscot River, camping at many spots along the shore on the lands that would one day become the Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument. |
August 31, 1846 |
Henry David Thoreau leaves Concord, Massachusetts for his first trip to the North Woods of Maine. |
April 16, 1841 |
The Town of Patten is incorporated. |
1841 |
Several Penobscot region timber barons begin work on a series of canals to float harvested timber from the heart of Maine’s North Woods to the East Branch of the Penobscot River. |
March 15, 1820 |
Maine becomes the 23rd state, separating from Massachusetts. The office of Land Agent is created to oversee the surveying and sale of Maine’s forestland. |
1783 – 1820 |
Massachusetts sells 5.5 million acres of forest land in the District of Maine through the sale of large lots. |
For thousands of years |
Penobscot Nation ancestors inhabit the lands in the East Branch region, and hunt, fish, and collect other wild foods for sustenance. |
