Nestled in the woods of Washington County, Grand Lake Stream is a village you don’t find by accident … unless, that is, the “accident” involves taking a wrong turn off unpaved Stud Mill Road while looking for some outdoor fun.

Because of its seclusion, Grand Lake Stream has long enjoyed a special status among those looking for a place to kick back, fish a bit, and relax.

Baseball great Ted Williams went there regularly. So did broadcaster Curt Gowdy. Legendary angler and writer A.J. McClane knew all about Grand Lake Stream. Burt Lahr, who played the Cowardly Lion in the Wizard of Oz, also visited.

Ask anyone who’s spent a bit of time in the town, and they’ll agree to a single point: It’s a special place.

Thanks to Dennis LaBare, you can learn a lot more about Grand Lake Stream, from the point of view of a fisherman and trained stream ecologist.

After several years of work, LaBare has released “Tagewahnahn, The Landlocked Salmon at Grand Lake Stream,” which was produced by Tilbury House Publishers in Gardiner.

And while the landlocked salmon certainly get their due, the book has something to offer everyone with an interest in fishing or the town known in many circles as “GLS.”

LaBare, who lives part of the year in Grand Lake Stream at Big Lake, and part of the year in West Virginia, said he’s not sure when he decided to write a book, but figures it was sometime after he had a conversation with Kurt Cressey, the proprietor of the Pine Tree Store.

“I’m sitting in there, talking to Kurt, and I’m just [taking pictures and studying] bugs,” said LaBare, who has done countless stream-monitoring studies over the years. “I was taking pictures with my old-time camera equipment. I’m talking to him, and he looks at me and says, ‘What are you doing? Writing a book?’ I guess that must have started some little wheels turning in the back of my head somewhere.”

Luckily for readers, those wheels kept turning.

Tagewahnahn – the aboriginal Passamaquoddy name for the landlocked salmon – is an ambitious project that is part textbook, part fishing guidebook, and part history lesson, in a 216-page hardcover edition.

Each of the pieces of the book flows well into the next – as any book centering on a stream likely should – and the photography is often spectacular.

The 54-year-old LaBare said being retired, and having some knowledge about both science and the area, allowed him to do something nobody really had done in recent years.

“I’m not a writer. I’m not a historical researcher. I’m just a guy who came to be attached to this place, and had an educational background that lent itself to many of the topics, technically,” LaBare said. “But as much as anything else, I had time.”

The book is divided into six parts, and each may appeal to a separate group of readers.

If you’re interested in the nuts-and-bolts science involving landlocked salmon and the hatchery operation in GLS, you’ll find those in chapters one and three.

If you want to know more about where to fish, head to chapter two.

The dam that separates Grand Lake Stream from West Grand Lake merits its own chapter, as do the insect life that’s found in the stream, and the rich history of the town and its sporting camps.

LaBare received plenty of photos from local residents to beef up the chapter on the town’s history, and relied heavily on experts in the more scientific portions of the book.

He credits the professionals he interviewed for their help in providing a clear picture of fisheries and hatchery management in the book.

And his methods illustrate just how determined LaBare was to get everything right.

“I went down to Jonesboro and was able to get all three [Department of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife biologists] in a room with a tape recorder for six hours,” LaBare said.

Those interviews were followed by countless e-mails, he said, and regional fisheries staff got to review his text before it was published.

LaBare first came to Grand Lake Stream when he was a young boy, worked at an uncle’s sporting camp beginning when he was 14, and kept coming back as often as he could.

In 2002, he retired and moved to Big Lake on a part-time basis.

“I just fell in love with the place,” LaBare said.

When reading Tagewahnahn, that passion is obvious. From the breathtaking cover painting by Arthur Taylor to the final page, the book offers something for everybody, and makes it easy to escape – in one’s minds-eye, at least – to this picturesque little Maine village.

LaBare said the decision to write the book, and to divide 25 percent of the proceeds, after taxes, between the Grand Lake Stream Historical Society and the Maine Chapter of Trout Unlimited was an easy one.

“Everything that we have gotten here, as an experience, as a place to be and enjoy, the relationship with the people, the resource, the land – we got it all for free,” LaBare said. “I really wanted to put something back. It seemed right.”

If you’re interested in getting your hands on LaBare’s book, you shouldn’t wait long: Only 1,000 copies were published. You can find out more at www.glssalmon.com.

John Holyoke can be reached at jholyoke@bangordailynews.net or by calling 990-8214 or 1-800-310-8600.