To Katahdin: The 1876 Adventures of Four Young Men and a Boat

In 1876, the same year that saw the birth of Percival Proctor Baxter, who would make it his lifes work to save Katahdin for the people of Maine, three young brothers, George T., James W., and Joseph Sewall, all of Old Town, and their friend and distant cousin, Edwin Ned Hunt, set off on a North Woods adventure. With a light boat, a tent, two blankets apiece, a rifle, pistol, fishing apparatus, fifty pounds of flour, twenty pounds of salt pork, and a sufficent quantity of sugar, tea, cornmeal, molasses, salt, pepper, beans, and cheese, they traveled by train to the railhead at Abbot Village, by wagon to Moosehead Lake, and then began to row and paddle and sail and portage their way towards Katahdin, across lakes, down streams, through rapids, and over the carrys. George Sewalls lively account is illustrated with pencil sketches that capture both humorous moments and the beauty of the wilderness. While their route saw some signs of logging, the area they traveled was largely untouched. From the top of Katahdin, down for three thousand feet beside us fell away the land, and then forest-covered plains extended league on league...on the west, south, and north, half a dozen clearings were all that took away from the forest wildness of the landscape.