The history of the Katahdin Region is older than the state of Maine itself. For centuries, the Penobscot tribes hunted and fished this land in harmony with the seasons and developed a unique style in crafts and building that endures to this day. The first colonial settlers arrived in the mid-1700's, establishing frontier outposts along major rivers and along the coast of Maine. With the separation of Maine from Massachusetts in 1820, the opening of the land began in earnest.

Lumber was the driving force behind development in the 19th century. The seemingly endless forest was of enormous value to an expanding America. Mills, foundries and other subsidiary industries soon developed in the wake of the logging boom and towns in the area began to flourish. A thriving shipbuilding industry on Maine's Atlantic coast flowed directly from the timber riches of the area. Henry David Thoreau's journeys through the Katahdin Region in 1846, 1853 and 1857 were the inspiration for his revered expeditionary journals, which offer a memorable portrait of a robust industrial and agrarian economy emerging at that time on the doorstep of the wilderness.

East Millinocket, means East of Many Islands in the language of the Abenaki Indians. During the nineteenth century, East Millinocket was merely a river area called Burnt Land Rips with virgin stands of pine, spruce and the other soft woods that lined the banks of the Penobscot River. During the 1830's George McCauslin, a riverman of Scotch ancestry, became the first white man to settle in what is now East Millinocket. He made an extensive clearing on the north side of Schoodic Stream for a multi-room cabin complete with stone fireplace and raised several barns for storage and settled there to raise supplies for his family and for sale to lumber operators and river drivers.

A similar clearing was made on the south side of Schoodic stream by Thomas Fowler, Jr. to form a town originally known as Nicatou, which means The Forks, sometime after 1845. Fowler who accompanied his father to Millinocket at the age of twelve, later became a resident and town official of Medway and served as a representative in the legislature for this area. Medway was incorporated in 1875.

The Town of Millinocket started with the selection of the site of the Great Northern Paper Company in 1899. Charles W. Mullen of Bangor, Maine an engineering graduate from the University of Maine planned to build a hydroelectric dam system on the Penobscot River. He contacted Garret Schenck, an expert in pulp and paper technology, to interest him in building a paper mill near the site of the planned hydroelectric dam. Mr. Schenck quickly approved Mr. Mullen's idea and began to gather the necessary financial backing, land rights and engineers to design the mill. The site was to be at the junction of the West Branch of the Penobscot River and Millinocket Stream where it stands today. By the spring of 1899, Garret Schenck and his partners had established a new company known as Great Northen Paper Company. Once news of the massive construction project reached the outside world, it became necessary to create a town to hold all the construction workers and thus the town of Millinocket was born. People from all over came to work on the mill. Italians, French Canadians, Lithuanians, Poles, Estonians, Russians, Germans and people from many other ethnic backgrounds all settled in Millinocket. Millinocket soon became known as The Magic City of Maine's Wilderness!

During the period from 1901 to 1971, the easiest and most economical way to get spruce and fir trees to Great Northern Paper Company mills was to cut the trees into four foot sticks of pulpwood during the winter months, haul the wood onto the ice with teams of horses and tractors and then wait for the ice to melt in the springtime. At that time the spring pulpwood drives began and the wood then was sluiced down the many streams and lakes feeding into the West Branch of the Penobscot River. The wood first entered the West Branch Watershed north of Chesuncook Lake. Once it reached Chesuncook it was boomed and towed down the lake to Ripogenus Dam. From there it was sluiced down the West Branch of the Penobscot River. At a point where the river entered Ambajejus Lake, the paper company set up another set of log booms to capture the logs all in one spot. Once the boom was full, the boom was closed and attached to a towboat. The towboat West Branch and later the O.A.Harkness would then tow the booms of pulpwood to Elbow Lake in back of North Twin Dam. From here the wood was sent through Quakish Lake until it reached the mill behind Ward's Dam. From there it was brought into the mills for manufacture into paper. This practice was ended during the early 1970's and all the wood was then transported to the mills in tree-length logs primarily by truck on a privately constructed road called the Golden Road and later in the form of wood chips by truck and rail.

By the turn of the 20th century, The Katahdin Region was already becoming famous as a vacation and resort destination. Overnight rail journeys brought both the well-to-do and adventurous from major cities on the east coast. Rustic camps alike began to spring up starting a tradition of "summering in Maine" that has been going strong for generations since. Today, tourism is alive and well as more than 80,000 visitors each year come to escape the heat, noise and crowds of city life. The Katahdin Region has lured those seeking the beauty and serenity of this pristine wilderness with its abundance of lakes, rivers, and streams and mountains providing an ideal stage for outdoor activities unequaled anywhere.

Many area businesses operate to serve the visitors to our area. Whether you're into white water rafting, hiking, camping, fishing, foliage viewing, hunting or just on a day trip to the area , The Katahdin Area offers a wide range of activities and accommodations. Baxter State Park and Mt. Katahdin are located just 20 miles north of Millinocket. For snowmobilers, the Katahdin Region offers some of the greatest scenery and trail conditions of any place in the State of Maine with hundreds of miles of groomed trails interconnecting with the ITS trail system.