The Poland Springs Resort, A Bygone Treasure

I recently brought my family to the Poland Springs Park in Poland Springs, ME. The hill and area contained on top the said hill once had the wondorous Poland Springs Resort upon them. People from all walks of life from presidents to common men came to this spot to relax and drink in the “miraculous” waters contained there in. The resort is no longer there but the Maine House, a tourist mecca, is in the general spot where it once was. Here is the photo set from there and I encourage everyone as always to check out these great places.

The Maine House

The Entrance To The Park

The Gazeebo

Mt Washington seen from Poland Springs

The hotel now occupying the land

The Trains Of Eagle Lake And The Allagash Wilderness

 

You are walking in the woods and suddenly, there in a clearing are two locomotives, rusted and aging but trains all the same.

This is the case in northern Maine in the Allagash wilderness, once one of the top foresting areas in the country. Trains were once used to haul all of the timber out of the forest farther southward to be shipped to far places. It was a very lucrative business. Thanks to The Department Of Conservations Of Maine website they put together a amazing historical narrative of the trains.

“There are not a lot of places in the world where you can be hiking through a remote wilderness and suddenly stumble upon rusting locomotives. One of the things that makes the Allagash so fascinating is the possibility of a sudden discovery of remnants from a bygone lumbering industry. For example, you could be walking through the wild forests of northern Maine and then suddenly you’re staring down the nose of two steam locomotives.

For those lumbering operations still driving logs south from Eagle and Churchill Lakes to Penobscot waters, the Eagle Lake and West Branch Railroad replaced the Tramway. In 1926 this railroad ran from the Eagle Lake end of the tramway thirteen miles to Umbazooksus Lake, which connects to the West Branch of the Penobscot River via Chesuncook Lake. Edouard “King” Lacroix’s Madawaska Company purchased a ninety-ton steam locomotive in New York and converted it from coal to oil burning for this operation. To haul the large supply of oil needed for the train, the company leased a Plymouth gasoline engine from Great Northern Paper. The oil was brought in barrels by truck from Greenville to Chesuncook Dam. From there, a scow would carry the barrels to the terminal end of the railroad on Umbazooksus Lake.

During the winter of 1926-27, Lombard tractors hauled all of the materials for the railroad from Lac Frontiere to Churchill Depot, then across Churchill Lake to the shore of Eagle Lake. This included the fifteen hundred foot trestle for Allagash Stream, steel rails, loaders, two gas-powered switchers, sixty train cars, and the two one hundred ton locomotives. King Lacroix, however, never got the railroad into operation because the Great Northern Paper Company bought his operation early in 1927. On June 1, 1927, the railroad made its first successful trip as the Eagle Lake and West Branch Railroad.

To load the train cars on the Eagle Lake end of the line, logs were drawn along two conveyors that raised them up twenty-five feet over a two hundred twenty-five foot length. With a forty-horse power diesel engine powering each conveyor, a cord of wood could move from lake to car in just ninety seconds. Each twelve-cord car could be filled in eighteen minutes. Operators soon discovered that the time it took to neatly pile the logs into the cars horizontally made the practice inefficient, so they resorted to just dumping them in as they fell from the conveyors. The cars were built with a twelve-inch tilt in them so that when they drove out onto the unloading trestle at the Umbazooksus end (where the tracks were tilted six more inches) an operator could knock loose the pins holding back the car wall hinged at the top and most of the load would tumble out into the water. A little picking and prodding of the remaining logs and the train was on its way back for another load.

Since the round trip over the curvy road made a single-train operation too slow and inefficient, the company used two trains of ten cars each, with a passing track in the middle so the empty car on its return route could pass the full car headed in the other direction. The trains of twelve cars each ran on the road both day and night stopping only ten minutes to service the steam engine. While this happened, the Plymouth engine pushed a set of loaded cars away from the conveyors where the locomotive could hook up to it. The Plymouth then took the empty cars, just back from their run, and pushed them under the conveyors for loading. This system, along with the addition of an electric lighting system for loading the cars and storage towers to allow faster refilling of the trains’ water and oil, increased the log-hauling capacity four hundred percent. In an average week, more than six thousand five hundred cords of wood moved across the tracks.

The Plymouth engines at each end of the train route shifted empty cars around the yard while the locomotives refueled. Logs could not float away when too much bark gathered near the unloading trestle, so engineers designed a special scraper that was attached to the Plymouth by means of a pulley and anchor and this system scraped the bark out of the way. The railroad crossed over the northwest arm of Chamberlain Lake where it reaches toward Allagash Lake.

The most significant structure of this operation was the fifteen hundred foot long railroad trestle sturdy enough to carry both the train and its regular supply of heavy log cargo across this piece of water. Only a few remains of the trestle are still visible.

Aerial photographs from 1966 show that only one structure, the shed built over the locomotives, remained at the railroad site on the Eagle Lake end of the tramway when the Allagash Wilderness Waterway was created. While still owned by the Seven Islands Land Company on April 9, 1969, the Maine Forest Service mistakenly burned the shed, causing damage to some of the wooden elements of the locomotives (i.e. the wooden cab).  Both locomotives have also suffered from vandalism and souvenir hunters. Photos show the burned area on June 11, 1969

.

On August 16, 1969, the Maine Parks and Recreation Commission painted the trains to prevent further rusting.  In 1995, the boiler jackets on both locomotives were removed in order for asbestos surrounding the boilers to be removed and abated.

Members of the Allagash Alliance worked to right and stabilize Eagle Lake and West Branch Railroad Locomotive Number 1 and its Tender. Built in June 1897 at Schenectady Locomotive Works (4-6-0 stamped #4552), it was originally a steam locomotive but later converted to burn crude oil to eliminate the forest fire threat caused by cinders. Number 1 was purchased by Great Northern in 1926 and used to haul pulpwood in the Allagash area from 1927-1933.

ELWB Locomotive Number 2, and its tender, were built in December 1901 at Brooks Locomotive Works (2-8-0 stamped 4062). Number 2 was also used as a steam locomotive and later converted to burn crude oil. It was purchased by Great Northern in 1928 and used as the main engine for hauling pulp cars from 1928-1933. When the railroad stopped operating, both locomotives were relatively obsolete and not worth the cost of transporting them back out of the Allagash area. Instead, they were stored inside a shed at the Eagle Lake facility where they remain today.”

The fact they are so well intact is a benefit of their location. Far from the “accessible” world of human society they sit in the quiet of the vast northern portion of Maine. If these trains were say, in Augusta, they would have been picked apart by prying hands of vandals and souvenir seekers. The earth always reclaims things that are left behind as well as preserving them.

Any trip to see the trains must be well planned out and all must be accounted for including food, gas and survival gear. From Portland the trip can take two days or mor, depending on time of stay and conditions. Keep a head on your shoulders and you should be fine.

Credit on the photos to Rich Pace, RoadRunner and JonWillard all from Panaramio.com, the site which posts its images on Google Earth and Google Maps. Thank you.

The Reasons For A Move To Maine

\

This past spring I met and fell in love with a girl my age. We were married within the first two months. A hasty decision but for two people that had already experienced much in a short time in our lives we knew we were a match. Till this day neither of us has  ill feelings of the decision. Because of these changes in our lives we wanted to make a home for ourselves that was truly our own and that could be safe for our children (we have 2, my wife is due for another in Dec.).

Many reasons affected our choice in choosing Maine as our home. My home state Massachusetts is ranked among the highest states in cost to live in the entire United States. Dubbed “Taxachusetts” due to the policies of former Governor and Presidential hopeful Michael Dukakis to raise every fundamental tax in the name of the Democratic party. Maine’s income tax is on par with Massachusetts but their general fees and license costs are much lower. My wife’s home state of New Hampshire, the most fiercely independent in the country has no taxes at all in sales or income. The downfall of New Hampshire is the burden of the money not generated by the taxes as Massachusetts and Maine. The economy is in a total downfall in New Hampshire. The area “Past The Notches”, a term referring to a region North of the White Mountains, is at a economic standstill. The town of Berlin has had a depression ever since its paper mill closed a few years ago.

To us Maine had the features of both of our home states, mountains, seacoast, woods. Of all the New England states none is as protected and serene as Maine. The storied history of Maine has many volumes. Once Maine was ranked as one of the largest ship building capitals in the world with Bath being one of the largest ports on the Eastern seaboard. The states timber production at one time was one of the leaders in the U.S. and still plays a vital role today. The Northern Aroostock County has a vast agricultural region which produces a variety of crops including potatoes and blueberries. The states motto “I Lead” shows the spirit of the Easternmost state, truly a leader in many ways. Maine was an obvious choice to me.

My wife being from New Hampshire is somewhat already adapted to the “North Country” of New England so it was easy to convince her. It meant being somewhat closer to her family and an environment that was very familiar to her. I had grown up and lived in Massachusetts almost my whole life but had traveled frequently through northern New Hampshire and parts of Maine. I had always been drawn in by their rich pine forests and mountainous regions. Thoreau’s Maine was always my idea of paradise and the gateway to my favorite area, the Canadian Maritimes. Maine’s size could fit most of southern New England in to it so I am never bored with running out of places to visit and explore. It has thousands of miles of untouched wilderness like a book waiting to be read.

I grew up in the woods on a lake. It can only be described as the best way to grow up. Countless afternoons I spent by the lakeside playing and exploring. It shaped the person I am today. The lake teaching me all about fish and water envirionments and the state forest that was in my town afforded me knowledge of hiking, camping and survival. I feel these traits are lost by a large majority of kids growing up in urban areas all over the country. My only hope is to give my children at least that in their lives and learn to love the environment around them. Maine is a land of contrasts and thus is a great learning tool, from the seashores of Down East Maine to Baxter State Park, home of Mt. Katahdin. Nothing quite compares to the unotouched by time old New England towns that it hold within it’s borders.  I hope to instill in my family all of those things that are so elemental in life yet so many kids grow up without. That is why I choose Maine for our life. I chose it because Maine is a blank page to be written for me and my family that offers so much promise. Our family accepts the challenge and are looking forward to it, here we come.