State park’s rustic retreat ‘endangered’ Planned demolition of Baxter’s cabins pits preservationist, authorities

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BAXTER STATE PARK – When the sun sets over Daicey Pond, the lucky campers in the historic Lookout Cabin can see Mount Katahdin aglow while lying in their bunks. Perched precariously on granite boulders, the cabin with a wall of windows and a chorus of bullfrogs feels like it’s part of the pond.

For decades, campers have lined up in the January cold to reserve just one night at this, the park’s most popular spot.

But later this summer, the park plans to raze Lookout and the nearby Outlet Cabin out of environmental concerns and fears that the decades-old logs are deteriorating beyond where they can be repaired.

The plan, conceived by park director Irvin “Buzz” Caverly Jr., has already been approved by the Baxter State Park Authority, made up of the attorney general and the commissioners of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife and Conservation.

Final reservations at the rustic cabins have been scheduled for Labor Day weekend, and a patch of forest a few yards back from the shore has been cleared for the large, modern log cabin set to replace the two old buildings.

The still waters of Daicey Pond will continue to draw campers to its eight remaining historic cabins and the new bat-free, airtight cabin next summer. But fans of Outlet, like the couples who dubbed this romantic spot “the honeymoon suite,” aren’t taking the news lying down.

“People love the place,” said George Kerivan, a retired teacher and summer resident of Maine who nominated the cabins for inclusion on a list of “endangered buildings.” At a press conference last week, the cabins were cited by the group Maine Preservation as an example of historic buildings in dire need of protection.

“Sporting camps are becoming an increasingly rare part of our heritage,” Maine Preservation’s director, Roxanne Eflin, said this week. “If we have an opportunity to save these, we need to do what we can.”

But Caverly, who has worked at the park for more than 40 years, argues that pricey historic preservation is not the park’s role. Park father Percival Baxter’s instructions give clear priorities for how the park should be managed, and the human history of the area is not among them.

“I understand the sentimental value, and not that it’s not important in just about every other area of the state, but [historic preservation] is inappropriate at Baxter State Park,” Caverly said this week.

“Our goal is not to memorialize buildings or people. It’s to protect the natural resources. We can’t say that enough,” he said.

“This is about the wildness of the park,” agreed Attorney General G. Steven Rowe, who serves as chairman of the authority.

Daicey Pond was a sporting camp long before Percival Baxter even visited Mount Katahdin and the land that would come to be a park bearing his name. The first buildings at the site were raised more than a century ago, with Outlet and Lookout among a group of cabins constructed during the 1930s.

Baxter purchased the land just a few years later, but allowed the camp’s owners to continue to operate it until the late 1960s, when the park purchased the camps. From 30 initial buildings – some in tremendous disrepair – the park “thinned down,” keeping only today’s 10 cabins and two outbuildings, Caverly said.

But as the years passed, the cabins started to crumble. Two years ago, the oldest building at Daicey, a circa-1902 cabin known as the Ranger’s Camp, was torn down and burned when its floor began to rot, making it unsafe, Caverly said.

Some critics, familiar with the park director’s strict philosophical adherence to Baxter’s desire for the park to remain “forever wild,” say that Caverly is letting unwanted buildings deteriorate to justify their removal.

“As far as I know, they have never replaced a log [at Daicey Pond],” Kerivan said. “It’s benign neglect.”

However, Caverly said that the park is doing all it can to maintain the buildings given their age. The park director describes efforts to keep the old buildings painted and shingled, even installing extra support beams every winter so the roofs could hold the weight of the snow.

“We’ve taken great pains to make sure that they were protected,” Caverly said.

“For thirty years now, we’ve patched, fixed, painted and made improvements that were substantial. But buildings, like people, don’t last forever, and it’s time that these go,” he said.

“The cabins are in a state of disrepair,” agreed Rowe, who has stayed in both Outlet and Lookout.

During a visit to Daicey Pond this week, the Outlet cabin looked snug and solid until crumbling logs around its floor are revealed upon close inspection. At Lookout, the edges of 80-year-old logs are rotting, and cracks around the wall of windows are chinked with bits of yellowed newspaper.

“It’s a shame to see these torn down,” said Richmond Brann of Somerville, who was staying in Lookout Cabin with his fiancee Wednesday night. “To me, they don’t look [to be] in that bad of shape, really.”

But Caverly is concerned with more than just the buildings’ condition. Neither cabin could be built today, given modern environmental rules to protect lakes and ponds. Lookout in particular worries park staff, who have told Caverly that it’s impossible to paint the cabin without polluting the pond, the director said.

Given the landscape of granite boulders and twisted tree roots, getting heavy equipment into Daicey to move the camps back from the water is impossible, Caverly said,

“The building was not designed to be moved like that,” he said. “It’d be a massive undertaking.”

A facilities committee, made up of members of the park authority’s advisory group, has reviewed the Daicey Pond cabins and agreed with Caverly’s findings. They have also identified just two other buildings – though not cabins – that may be in need of removal in the near future.

“Surprisingly, due to aggressive maintenance, most of our buildings are in pretty good shape,” Caverly said.

The park director and the authority are not on a mission to destroy cabins, but as the buildings lose their ability to serve the park’s needs, they will be razed, he said.

In fact, the park’s management plan states that buildings are to be maintained in safe condition to serve park staff and visitors, but that unnecessary buildings will be eradicated, and over time the number of buildings in the park will be reduced.

That’s precisely what worries Kerivan and Eflin. The eight remaining Daicey Pond cabins and the 12 cabins at nearby Kidney Pond are all more than 50 years old and time is taking a toll.

“They have set a precedent. All of the same arguments would apply to any and all of the cabins there,” Kerivan said.

Eflin is lobbying the park in hopes of seeking a compromise that can save Outlet and Lookout and encourages others to do the same. There’s no need to act rashly when decades of history are at stake, she said.

“They’ve been there for 60 years. They aren’t going to be any more dangerous in six months,” Kerivan agreed.

The park’s cabins at Daicey and Kidney ponds are already booked for much of the summer season, but to inquire about reservations, visit the park’s office in Millinocket, open 8 a.m.-4 p.m. daily, or call (207) 723-5140. Cabin rentals are $25 per person per night.

For more information about the state’s most endangered buildings list, visit www.mainepreservation.org.