Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1921-02-10

surface been unruff1ed. Forces never
matched by man unite and with
powerful push Pamela rears his head
albiet shaggy with that mile or more
of over burden-soft shale, slate and
mud. Ages pass: the Ice Age comes
and slow, slow, does it carry off the
dross. The tooth of time dulls
against the granite crests, the ice
lowers and valley glaciers cover those
ridges and ravines. How wonderful
they are, how majestic, how beauti-
full. They linger on. the east; the
North Basin must be carved and
then the South Basin. Have you ever
seen them, do you know of them?
Great natural amphitheatres, miles
across, with walls nearly perpendic-
ular reaching two thousand feet into
the sky. Rivers and lakes form in
the plain below and then comes the
forests and all the wild animal life
we love SO well. The red man comes.
He sees the mighty mountain and
calls it Ktaadn or Katahdin,-'prin-
cipal," ''preeminent," greatest" but
he ventures not into the heights.
The Great Spirit warns him off
while Pamela, that monster with an
eagles body and mans head guards
the Knife Edge until spring when he
flies off with loud mutterings laval
anches).
The white man CAME and over a
hundred years ago-sixteen years be-
fore Maine became a State. Charles
Turner made the ascent with party
of eleven. Thoreau came in the
"forties' and Theodore Winthrop in
1860. "Parson" Keep cut the first
trail in from the east in 1916 and
yearly since then have come the few,
the very few-pilgrims who faced the
known hardships of travel in the
spirit of true adventure to be reward
ed with fascinating glories that they
never dreamed of.
1t is still just as wild and beautiful
as when the white man first saw it.
The wild flowers, the wild creatures
Of the forest are still there and so are
the brooks, the lakes and the trees,
to say nothing of the majestic noun
tain with its unmatched cliffs and
deep ravines. And if you will dis
regard all the expert" advice as
did last June, take good guide and
tote your house, bed, food and cam
eras, you will find plenty OF the win
ter's snow and ice to sustain Tarr's
prediction that slight rise in eleva-
ton. or slight fall in mean tenn
perature would restore glacial condi-
lions in the basins even now.
But what of Ktaadn? Where is 1t
and what is it like? 1t is a<mountain
entirely of granite, in the heart of
Names wilderness, one hundred and
sixty-two (162) miles northeast from
Mt. Washington, lying in the angle
between the east branch Of the PEN
obscot, the west branch of the Penob-
scot and the Sourdnahunck Stream.
It's exact dimensions and boundaries
have never been delineated, but ap-
proximately it is fourteen (14) miles
from north to south and half as much
from east to west
In plan view it resembles an enor-
nous star fish, the back or center
corresponding to the plateau which
extends over five hundred (500) acres
at an elevation approximating four
thousand. three hundred (4390) feet.
Arms stretch out in all directions,
one to the west supporting Hunts
Trail, one to the southwest-T'he Abol
Slide. while to the east they bound
the North Basin and The South Basin.
- 9hs North Basin II. an eporrpous