[at-l] Re: Baxter State Park History Question

[ellen at clinic.net (Bob C.)]

>And that's the real thrust of my post.  Didn't Baxter intend this place to
be a park?

Rick, it would take a book to answer all your questions, something I should and
could do, but probably won't.

 Persival Baxter wanted a "forever wild" park, a wilderness park as he
 understood the words, which wasn't very precisely. Wilderness was the rage in
 the 30s in conservation circles. Benton McKaye and Bob Marshall founded the
 Wilderness Society. Gov. Baxter knew Marshall personally. He bought into the
 wilderness idea.

 But he really understood very little about what it meant to create and manage a
 wilderness park. He thought it an easy task. I've read most of the thousands of
 pages of letters and legislative directives he wrote over a long life. He began
 his quest for a wilderness park as a young man. He lived and remained alert
 well into his 90s.

 Basically, he forbid paved roads, motorcycles, motor boats, and airplanes
 landing on park ponds.

 He promoted a system of hiking trails, in his words, "where a father and his
 son can camp along a stream and cook flapjacks for breakfast."

 When the park began clamping down on thru hikers a few years ago, I read that
 quote to the park authority and suggested thru hikers more than any other park
 user best fit percival baxter's vision.

 Anyway, he allowed automobile campgrounds to be built during his lifetime. The
 cabins at Daicey Pond and Kidney Pond existed  before he bought out their
 leases and the land on which they sat. He allowed them to continue operating as
 private franchises within his park. After his death the Park Authority took
 over their operation.

 As for the radios and solar collectors, I haven't seen the details of what is
 being proposed, but I suspect the removal will have little to do with either
 safety -- or wilderness. It sounds to me like the park is switching from radios
 to cell phones for communication, making radios and the required solar
 collectors obsolete.

 Among other things it will save money and given the market recently the park
 may be getting strapped for cash.

 Weary