Correcting the record

On Dec. 4 the Bangor Daily News published a story reporting what the Maine Bureau of Public Lands said about title to land in Great Pond in Hancock County which has been claimed by people who did not inherit or purchase it. The gist of the bureau letter to the Great Pond selectmen was that the 185-acre parcel had been conveyed to William Bingham in 1793, that the state has not determined whether or how Bingham disposed of this land, and that the state’s interest in ownership apparently had ended. The text of the story conveyed this information.

Unfortunately for the people’s understanding of a fairly clear case of appropriation of land not obtained by the usual means, the headline on this piece was, in letters a half inch tall: “State officials allow claim to disputed land.”

Not so!

According to Stephen Oliveri of the bureau, nothing in his correspondence with Great Pond officials, nor in the article text supports that headline. He write that the bureau neither permits the claim to go forth nor concedes the legality of the claim.

… Rather than prejudging in a headline, the NEWS could help in sorting out the conflicting claims. As Oliveri wrote, his bureau would welcome any evidence that their conclusion that the state does not have an ownership interest in the property is incorrect. William Butler Great Pond