ALLAGASH, Maine — Close to a half-century after its creation, the entire 92 miles of the Allagash Wilderness Waterway is now in the hands of the state.
On Monday, the Allagash Wilderness Waterway Foundation, based in Bath, announced the 40-acre Lock Dam section connecting Chamberlain and Eagle lakes had been purchased through a private sale and subsequent donation to the state.
“The Lock Dam lot is historically significant to the Allagash River and Maine’s cultural history, especially that of northern Maine,” Bob McIntosh, president of the foundation, stated in a news release. “The dam and lock system comprised one of several infrastructure elements that reversed the flow of Churchill Lake southward.”
The Allagash Wilderness Waterway Foundation purchased Lock Dam directly from Katahdin Timberlands LLC in September.
The foundation worked with the Lock Dam Preservation Association to secure funding from the Butler Conservation Fund in completing the purchase.
“This time we just had the right mix of people willing to work constructively and productively together on this,” Marcia McKeague, president of Katahdin Timberlands LLC, said Tuesday. “I think what really helped is this was handled privately with private money [and] the logical place for the land to be is with the state to complete the Allagash Wilderness Waterway.”
McKeague would not comment on the selling price, other than saying it was “very reasonable.”
The state served as an intermediary between the buyers and sellers, according to Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry Commissioner Walt Whitcomb.
“It’s taken awhile,” Whitcomb said Tuesday. “The Waterway is entering its 50th year and the [Lock Dam] project has been active for a number of years.”
Acquiring the 40 acres made sense in the long run, according to Whitcomb.
“The Allagash Wilderness Waterway is a public resource and [Lock Dam] is the final component,” he said. “It made sense for the state to have it [because] it is critical for fulfilling the dream of many to complete public ownership of the waterway.”
“Over the last 50 years many people and organizations have collaborated in a shared vision for the Waterway,” said McIntosh. “Everyone’s hard work and goodwill have assured that the Waterway, listed among the National Geographic’s America’s 100 Best Adventures, will forever retain its wilderness character and mystique.”
The Allagash Wilderness Waterway stretches from Telos Dam in Penobscot County to the village of Allagash in northern Aroostook County.
In 1970, it became the first state-administered river approved for inclusion in the National Wild and Scenic River system as a Wild River Area.
The state of Maine purchased the land along the waterway after voters overwhelmingly approved a $1.5 million bond issue. The bond money, together with matching federal dollars from the Land and Water Conservation Fund, provided the funds necessary for acquiring the restricted zone — land within 400 to 800 feet of both sides of the waterway.
John Martin, the Eagle Lake Democrat representing northern Maine and a key player in the formation of the wilderness waterway nearly 50 years ago, on Tuesday said he was happy the Lock Dam purchase was a done deal.
“I think it’s just great,” Martin said. “The state has been looking to put this together for a number of years [and] having any of the waterway end up in private ownership was never the intention.”
According to the Maine Bureau of Parks and Lands, Lock Dam was built in the 1850s and designed to control the natural flow of the river so logs could flow from Eagle and Churchill lakes into the Penobscot River and on to mills in Bangor.
A good idea in theory, using the timber crib dam helped expand the acreage around the lakes for logging, but in the end it was one that proved too slow, as the number of logs that could move through the locks over a given period of time was limited.
By 1906, Lock Dam had been abandoned in favor of a mechanical overland tramway connecting Chamberlain and Eagle lakes.
“Thousands of visitors from around the world visit the Waterway each year,” McIntosh said. “We are pleased, on the eve of the 50th anniversary of the Waterway in 2016, to protect this last out-holding.”
