, with 700-foot cliffs rising straight up from Moosehead Lake, has attracted visitors for centuries, from early American Indians, to later tribes seeking its rhyolite to make stone tools, Penobscots and Norridgewocks, the Abenaki bands who battled here with their enemy the Mohawks, to 19th-century "rusticators" traveling by railroad and steamboat and today's hotel guests. Various species dwell among its cliffs and talus slopes, including peregrine falcons and rare plants. The Moosehead region includes the headwaters of the Kennebec, the West Branch of the Penobscot, the Piscataquis, the Pleasant, and the Saint John rivers. Henry David Thoreau and other 19th-century visitors remarked on the beauty of the area. The region has a large moose population; moose outnumber people 3:1. However, the name of the region derives from the remarkable similarity between maps of the lake and an antlered moose. Henry David Thoreau described the lake as “...a gleaming silver platter at the end of the table.”
Geography
Set at an elevation of 1,023 feet, Moosehead Lake is approx. 40 by 10 miles, with an area of nearly 118 mile², and over 400 miles of shoreline. Its major inlet is the Moose River, which, east of Jackman, flows through Long Pond to Brassua Lake. To the east of Moosehead Lake, the Roach River is its second largest tributary. Flowing out of Moosehead Lake to the southwest are its east and west outlets—the Kennebec River. The Moosehead Lake Region encompasses 4,400 square miles of West Central Maine, and includes 127 townships in addition to Moosehead Lake. The region is drained by 330 miles of main stem rivers, into which flow 3,850 miles of smaller tributaries. During the last glacial era, more than 1,200 natural lakes and ponds were carved into its landscape, varying in size from one acre ponds to Moosehead, at 75,451 acres one of the largest natural freshwater lakes in the United States. The total area of all standing surface waters in the region is more than 238,000 acres —24% of the total area of lakes and ponds in Maine.
Development plans
-based Plum CreekReal Estate Investment Corporation, the largest private United States landowner, submitted a development proposal for the Moosehead region in April 2005. It was the largest development ever proposed for the state of Maine. The initial version of the scheme called for 975 house lots, two resorts, a golf course, a marina, three RV parks, and more than 100 rental cabins. However, Plum Creek was defunct as of 2016 and all development plans have been cancelled.
