Old Sebec Lake, Maine

Old Sebec Lake is an intriguing look at one of

Maine’s most beautiful and historically interesting

areas, containing a series of photographs as well as

accompanying text that document the most colorful era

in the lake’s history.

T he photographs, which date from 1860 to 1950 and

come mainly from private collections, illustrate a time

of steamboats and tenting parties, log drives and spool

mills, market hunters and 30-mile traplines. This was

also a time of uncertain employment, boom-and-bust

economies, and remarkable changes in transportation,

all of which profoundly affected the lake and the

communities surrounding it.

Although the images tell the story, woven through

the text are interesting stories about B.M. Packard, Fred

Gates, Walter Arnold, and others whose lives contributed

to the lake’s interesting past. Accounts of the 1936 flood,

the scuttling of the Marion, and the construction of The

Castle are also included in the text.