Baxter State Park is a magnificent landscape of mountains, forests, and lakes that comes closest to revealing the wild and storied Maine of two hundred years ago. The centerpiece of the park is Katahdin, Maine’s highest peak and a terminus of the Appalachian Trail. A gift of Maine’s greatest citizen, Percival Baxter, the park abounds in history and legend. Because the park is all about preserving the wild, a guidebook is essential, and visitors are not catered to in the same fashion as in some of the more domesticated parklands. A history of the park will also offer a good understanding of the importance of wilderness to both past and present Mainers.

05 Edition

The Baxter/Katahdin visitor's bible. Guides you through the Park's 185 miles of trails, leading to remote ponds, more than 40 granite peaks, along roaring mountain streams, and through a country our forebears once knew by heart.

Includes:

• New Trail Updates
• Campground Descriptions
• Remote Campsites
• History & Geology of the Park
• Flora and Fauna
• Four-color Topographical Map of the Park

Neff draws together rare sources for a journey through Mount Katahdin's history, legend, and legacy. The narrative retraces the steps of Native Americans, whose spiritual approach to the mountain still resonates today; recounts the first glimpses colonial Europeans recorded of the dramatic mountain; and accompanies Thoreau as he soaks up the landscape's majesty. Neff's analysis of the region's development through the advent of railroading and logging, sporting, and trailbuilding illustrates the history of its pathways, including the Appalachian Trail. The voices of today's Native American, conservation, and community members infuse this historical narrative with the life of the people who are intricately connected with the mountain. Neff also explores the mountain's more sinister legacy – that of misadventure and tragedy in the wilderness.

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Covers the entire State, but includes a significant section on Katahdin. Topo maps included with book.

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See a list of our other books about Baxter State Park.