DOVER-FOXCROFT – You can get there from here in Piscataquis County and there’s a new map to prove it.

After months of collaboration and hard work, the Piscataquis County Economic Development Council, with help from a few friends, on Thursday unveiled the Southern Piscataquis Regional Recreation Map and Guide.

The map and guide provides recreational points of interest, including canoe and hiking trails, and includes cultural heritage amenities, landowner information, a brief history of the county and locations for wildlife viewing.

“This map puts us on the map,” Marc Scarano, Piscataquis County Economic Development Council’s executive director said Thursday during a press conference.

Eight years ago when the council was formed, efforts were placed on business attraction and retention, he said. Now those efforts are branching out into tourism development and the assets that draw people to Piscataquis County.

The map was a cooperative effort of the council’s Cultural Heritage and Eco-tourism group, the Appalachian Mountain Club, and the University of Maine Cooperative Extension, according to Brian Wentzell, AMC’s project manager for Maine and member of the map team.

He noted others who worked on the team were Helen Kelly of the Penquis Higher Education Center; Larry Garland, AMC’s cartographer; Roger Merchant of the University of Maine Cooperative Extension; Sylvia Black and Patrick Meyers of CHEt; and Scarano, all of whom put in an “incredible amount of volunteer hours” for the project.

Wentzell also thanked landowners, Gerry Whiting of AMC, the Natural Resources Education Center and map reviewers who ensured that the details were accurate, as well as the Maine Community Foundation and the Piscataquis Health Council, which provided funding for the project.

The maps are targeted to visitors, to show what the county has to offer, and to residents, to show them what they have in their backyards, while promoting a healthy lifestyle, according to Merchant.

“This is the stuff that we’re about,” he said. It’s about creating opportunities and promoting a healthy lifestyle at the same time, he said.

“There hasn’t been a map produced quite like this one before,” Garland of AMC said. “It’s the local knowledge that really adds value to this map.”

The maps, which cost $4.50, are available at local chambers or can be obtained for free at local hospitals and health providers. The proceeds from the maps will offset distribution costs and also will provide seed money for future maps.