Land deal closing attracts small crowd
By Terry Karkos
Staff Writer

RILEY TOWNSHIP – Nearly 40 people stood in the rain Sunday afternoon at Frenchman’s Hole waiting for a historic event.

They came to celebrate the Maine Department of Conservation’s closing Friday on a 385-acre real estate deal for $375,000 with landowners Roy and Mary Newton of Gorham, N.H.

The western Maine property, which includes Frenchman’s Hole, a popular natural swimming pool with its accompanying waterfall on Bull Branch Brook, lies between the brook and Sunday River. Frenchman’s Hole is located seven miles northwest of Sunday River Ski Resort on the Sunday River Road.

The 385-acre lot will be melded into the Mahoosuc Unit – Maine public reserve land through which passes the Appalachian Trail as it crosses the rugged Mahoosuc Range.

“This property itself will be the cornerstone, the gateway to this Mahoosuc Unit and the Wright Trail. It’s an extremely popular destination for many people,” said Ralph Knoll, deputy director of the conservation department’s Bureau of Parks and Lands.

The 4-mile Wright Trail climbs the prominent east side of Goose Eye Mountain, at 3,980 feet elevation, following Goose Eye Brook and ascending through old growth forest to the Appalachian Trail. The Wright Trail heads up the mountain from a branch of the Sunday River Road above Frenchman’s Hole.

Though the land will be managed for multiple uses, including commercial forestry, its primary use is recreation.

“Recreation clearly is what the people are interested in here. It’s a recreation Mecca when you throw in the ski area and the Appalachian Trail,” Knoll said.

That’s why the state will enhance the small parking area at Frenchman’s Hole, but the site will remain a day-use area. There is no intention of constructing campsites here.

Prior to the perfunctory ribbon cutting by Knoll and Roy Newton, members of the Mahoosuc Land Trust, which hosted the outing, briefed the crowd on the deal’s significance and history.

For nearly five decades, Frenchman’s Hole and its surrounding acres have been in the Newton family.

Roy’s parents, Burton and Ida Newton of West Bethel, purchased it on Dec. 26, 1961, for its sustainable source of wood for their company, Newton and Tebbits Inc., which manufactured dowels and other wood products.

“He bought this and other parcels from Gardner and Marie Brown, but this was the crown jewel of the parcels,” Roy Newton said.

Mahoosuc Land Trust President Landon Fake highlighted the financial aspects of the deal. Fake also launched the land trust’s campaign to raise $35,000 as its match in the deal and another $7,000 for operating expenses.

Roy and Mary Newton jump-started the campaign, giving Fake a check for an undisclosed sum.

Fake thanked the Newtons and the Lands for Maine’s Future Program, which funded two-thirds of the acquisition, and state officials for working diligently since last fall to purchase the property.

Others who shared thanks or brief anecdotes included Land Trust Director Stephen Wight of Newry, former Maine Sen. Norman K. Ferguson Jr. of Hanover, Reps. Arlan R. Jodrey, R-Bethel, and Robert W. Duplessie, D-Westbrook, and Mickey Noble of Otisfield, who had a camp in the area for several years.

Roy Newton also said that until his father bought the property, it had always been gated and inaccessible to the public. But after 1961, the Newtons never gated the road into the area, except during mud season to preserve it and when they had logging equipment on the property.

But large numbers of people didn’t start accessing Frenchman’s Hole until International Paper improved the road about 10 years ago to better facilitate a major logging operation, Roy said.

“Mary and I are very glad this turned out the way it has because it’s an appropriate disposition for land of this character. Now it will remain forever available for the public,” he added.

tkarkos@sunjournal.com

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