Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1906-03-13

Gracious!
what dunder headed, unappreciative
mortal, We are, after all!
Here for years We have realized-at
least some Of US have-that
"There Il q pleasure In the pathless woods,
There 10 . rapture on the lonely shore"
and while We knew that the lonely shore
was some miles away, and not within the
reach Of q half days walk, We also
erroneously supposed that In order to
appreciate TO the full the depths Of the
painless woods We had got to get many
miles from the capital Of Oxford Coun.
| ty, into the depths of the northern Maine
wilderness, or some similar region.
And here we have been living all these
years-how many years We don't all of
us like to tell-within an hours ride of
wilderness forty miles long and eight
miles wide, wherein one may become
lost to civilization for months at time,
and where, with the exception of few
prospectors and other ventures0me
spirits, to quote the words of the Celtic
orator, ''the hand of man has never set
its foot"
But it is an old saw that you have to
go away from home to learn the news,
and it has remained for Portland story
in the newspapers to reveal to us the
vastness and desert wasteness Of
region which lies almost at our doors.
It comes about In this way. w. 8.
Robinson, Q we'll known citizen Of Hart
ford, has acquired certain mining rights
on Streaked Mountain, and being salts
fled after extensive prospecting that
there are gems there worth going after,
has been in Portland interesting money
ed men in the proposition. To news
paper interviewer who talked with him
we are indebted for the mildly surpris-
ing revelations referred to above. We
quote few expressive extracts:
streaked Mountain. forty mile: long; touching
miles wide in the northeastern slope between
South Paris and Buckfield is one OF the untouch.
ed waists of Maine except for the Mount Mica
prospectors, whose products have enriched the
gem world and the persistent explorations Of
Mr. Robinson.
For five years Mr.. Robinson, who had acquir.
ed property rights on the mountain. has been
prospecting and now. 1t appears, that capital
will develop where he has delved.
Unheralded as q miner. Mr.. Robinson has at
Streaked Mountain for months. Believing from
gems found In youth that there was gem lode
In his part o. Oxford County, Mr.. Robinson has
c,ntentsdly plod led along. deving into the
wastes Of mountain in summer and coming out
into Utilization only when the clements 1orce
him 10 seek shelter from the mountain dreari-
ness.
At the Congress Square hotel Mr.. Robinson
speaking of HIS sale OF the mi leral right, In his
Sfraa kad Mountain
Il have been five or six years on Streaked
Mountain In search for gems which. believe,
exist there In TIE shape OF tourmalines bervls
ami emeralds. have been lost In the hills for
six months at periods or until the SHOWS drove
me to civilization for shelter
In The louciy searches over this desert tract OF
Maine, volt Of human company, for five years !
have prospected summers, picking into supposed
pockets OF gems, camping Of night beneath shell
tering rocks by limpid pool, and plodding on
by daylight over the mountain, and emerging
into civilized habitations when wintry Winds
blew"
There! Doesn't that make the scales
fall from your eyes?
To be sure, the man who hid himself
within the bowling vastnesses of Streak
ed Mountain proper would have an area
only approximately three miles long and
two miles wide over which he might
roam without danger of coming out on
the highway and getting sight of an au-
tomobile or some other sign of twentieth
century civilization. And one might
compass the mountain by drive of less
than dozen miles, over road admitted
ly billy, but quite a portion OF which Is
travelled daily by rural mail carriers.
Or he might, If he wished to get out into
a little thicker civilization, swing around
the mountain through the villages of
South Paris, Buckfield and Hebron, and
have a good though somewhat billy road
all the way, with total length of only
about twenty-five miles.
And the venturesome prospector must
be careful lest the smoke of his camp fire
should be seen by some of the many peo-
pie who visit the mountain every sum-
mer, either after blueberries or simply
to breathe the pure mountain air and
view from the summit the magnificent
scene which is spread out before them.
But 1t is an undeniable fact that there
extends north for many miles from
Streaked Mountain proper an irregular
range of hills forming divide which
makes an obstruction to commerce and
and which has on it and
within it much barren, waste land, more
or less mineral wealth, some of the
purest spring water to be found on the
face of the earth, and from almost any
point on its summit or its slopes view
hardly to be excelled in New England
from any place so easily accessible.
And 1t is also true that We do not
more than half appreciate Streaked
Mountain. We even allow q picture of
it to be circulated in a pamphlet, labeled
"Greenwood Mountain" without protest.
True, its vastnesses are not 80 vast but
that the recluse, fleeing from the sight
of man, may at any time that he sees fit
to 20 back to the world, HE himself to
the borders of civilization in an hours
Journey; but on that rugged rock the
lover Of solitude and of wild nature un-
adorned may feast his hungry soul.
And while there are many higher peaks
In Maine, there are few which command
a more magnificent view, and perhaps
none from which one may see more of
the cities, the clustering villages, and the
pleasant farm homes of the state.
Maine News Notes.