Roxanne’s national park

By Mike Lange
Staff Writer

 The last time I was in Millinocket, you could fire a Howitzer down Central Street on a weekday and not hit anyone.

 The ghosts of storefronts were unsettling. I used to spend money at a lot of them, including Miller’s Department Store.

 The old J.J. Newberry’s building was going to be converted into an art center at one time. The developers apparently threw in the towel, the town bought the property and tore the building down about seven or eight years ago.

 Now, except for a few restaurants, beauty parlors and insurance agencies, downtown Millinocket doesn’t have much of anything. Well, there’s Pelletier’s — which makes great sandwiches.

 But promoters of a national park in the Katahdin region aren’t making much headway in their quest to convert residents of Millinocket, East Millinocket and Medway, either.

 A nonbinding referendum on whether a national park should be created in the region recently went down in flames in East Millinocket and Medway.

 Even casually discussing the concept of a national park in the average Millinocket watering hole makes you about as welcome as a skunk at a garden party.

 So what’s the problem? I suspect that it’s a mistrust of Roxanne Quimby, the federal government or a combination of both.

 Quimby’s relationship with snowmobilers and ATV’ers operating on her land has been rocky at times. Once word gets out that “you can’t get there from here,” the sleds bypass Millinocket and head for The County.

 Then there’s the question of just how much land Quimby actually owns. The national park promoters like to talk about the 150,000 acres that will be donated to create the preserve. But the last time I checked, she only owns about 87,000.

 I also can’t figure out how we’d get to her land since much of it is in remote areas, only accessible by private logging roads.

 Opponents also point out that the tri-towns most affected by the proposed national park are already the gateway to Baxter State Park, and few people are getting filthy rich because of it.

 I really don’t have a dog in this fight since I’m not an outdoorsman. I’m a day-tripper, angler and occasional hunter. I head for the woods and return home for supper.

 I don’t sleep in tents. I can’t justify the expense of buying one so I can live like a homeless person for a weekend. My grown kids think I’m getting old and cranky. They’re at least half right.

 Whatever happens to the national park proposal at this point is anyone’s guess. And yes, it does have an effect on us because we’re “on the way to the gateway,” so to speak. If you doubt it, check out the camper traffic on Route 11 between Dover-Foxcroft and Millinocket sometime this summer.

 It’s pretty clear that the Katahdin region needs an economic boost. Maybe a park will cause more problems than solutions.

 But startup companies just aren’t flocking to remote towns in Maine, no matter how much we promote our “Yankee work ethic.”

 The population of wage-earners is exiting the region in droves, leaving primarily the very poor or very old behind, neither of which can afford to move.

 So something has to be done. It’s just a question of what and how soon.

 We also know that the paper industry probably isn’t coming back to life up there and Miller’s Department Store isn’t going to reopen.

 And even if it did, I’m still not buying any camping gear.

 Editor’s note: This is Mike Lange’s final column for the Piscataquis Observer. He wishes to thank everyone for their compliments and comments — both good and bad — over the past two years.