Baxter State Park has received about 70 applications from across the country to replace retired Director Irwin “Buzz” Caverly, and its overseers hope to pick a successor by Jan. 1, officials said Friday.

With a closing date for applications of Oct. 21, the Baxter State Park Authority, the park’s official governing body, will start wading through the applications, said Jensen Bissell, the park’s interim director and one of the candidates for the job.

“The applications we received are from individuals throughout the U.S., and we received a couple from outside the country,” Maine Attorney General Steven Rowe said Friday. “We’re just starting to look at them now on an individual basis, and the authority expects to meet several times over the next two or three weeks to discuss them.”

Rowe is one of three members of the Baxter State Park Authority. Maine Forest Service Chief Alec Giffen and Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife Commissioner Roland “Dan” Martin also serve the authority.

Citing health concerns, Caverly retired July 1 after 46 years. He was appointed director in 1981 and has been called a legend of conservation for his commitment to the park.

“This is a big transition for the authority,” Bissell said. “I am very confident that they will place a very competent person in this position.”

Bissell was appointed interim director the day Caverly retired. He is the park’s Scientific Forest Management Area director.

Rowe is impressed that the search received international notice.

“It speaks volumes of how well-regarded Baxter State Park is and what a terrific job that Buzz Caverly did as director,” he said. “It’s a measure of the uniqueness of Baxter State Park. It is one of the most unique parks in the world because of its unique governance and the specific vision set forth in the deeds of trust by Governor Baxter.”

Created on March 3, 1931, by Gov. Percival P. Baxter in an area commonly known as the South Basin and Mount Katahdin, Baxter gave the state almost 6,000 acres of land, including Katahdin, Maine’s highest peak, that he had bought the year before with a proviso that it be kept in a “natural wild state.”

The park grew through more than two dozen separate land purchases over the next 34 years to almost its present size, 204,733 acres.

The core of the park, 150,564 acres, is a wildlife sanctuary. Another 29,537 acres is dedicated to scientific forestry management, according to the park’s Web site, www.baxterstateparkauthority.com.

The director is paid $53,040 to $74,297 annually and manages about 21 full-time and 38 seasonal workers. The park attracts 100,000 visitors every summer.

Under Caverly, park growth included the acquisitions of Togue and Kidney ponds, and the West Branch lands purchase of 1997. The dam at Katahdin Stream Pond was removed, helicopter traffic to the top of Mount Katahdin was barred, buildings were razed and roads were shut down.

The next director’s challenge will be to continue to maintain Baxter’s vision and ensure continued human use compatible with that natural wild state, Rowe said.