Conservancy to donate land to lumber museum

PATTEN – The Nature Con-servancy is donating 714 acres that comprise the Seboeis River Gorge Preserve to the Patten Lumbermen’s Museum, offi-cials announced Monday.

The Patten Lumbermen’s Museum will assume owner-ship of the land later this month, and deed restrictions will ensure the property con-tinues to be maintained as a natural area.

The Seboeis River Gorge is an 8-mile-long, 400-foot-wide strip of land along both sides of the Seboeis River.

The Seboeis River was used extensively to float logs from the upper valley of the East Branch of the Penobscot River to mills downstream. It was donated to the Conservancy by J.M. Huber Corp. in 1976.

The museum and the Nature Conservancy have been work-ing for the past two years on the land deal. The museum will consider reopening a primitive campground on the property, officials said.