OQUOSSOC — Ten years of planning, fundraising, hard work and volunteerism will pay off Saturday, Aug. 14, for this small western Maine community when the new Rangeley Outdoor Heritage Museum celebrates its grand opening.

Sixty minutes after attending a 10:30 a.m. groundbreaking for the new $2.9 million Height of Land Overlook on Route 17 in Oquossoc, Gov. John Baldacci will also join those involved in bringing to fruition the dream of showcasing the chronological history of the region’s hunting and fishing heritage.

“It’s been a long time coming,” Don Palmer, president of the Rangeley Guides’ and Sportsmen’s Association, said early Friday afternoon at the 3,500-square-foot museum.

More than $600,000 has been raised in donations and pledges for the project.

Built on the site of the old narrow gauge railroad station at the corner of Routes 4 and 17, the rustic log building houses the finest and largest collection of Carrie Stevens fishing flies in the world, the museum’s website states.

Visitors can also view an authentic 1920s double-ended Rangeley Boat made for the Upper Dam pool, and photographs and information on the steamships that plied the region’s lakes, transporting guests from the narrow-gauge railroad to camp or hotel.

Additionally, an authentic 1890s log sporting camp interior was reassembled inside the museum to serve as the Welcome Center.

“We have a wonderful display of points and chips and knives and scrapers that came from the Vail site on Aziscohos,” Palmer said of an archaeological site on the Aziscohos Lake shoreline.

“It goes back 13,000 years when the paleo-Americans first came to this region to hunt caribou.”

Palmer, who is also a member of the Rangeley Lakes Region Historical Society, said that in 2000, the society decided to establish a dedicated area to preserve and showcase the region’s rich outdoor sporting heritage.

“We basically ran out of space at our Main Street operation,” he said of the initial museum in Rangeley. “And since the outdoor sporting things were the largest — took the most space and had the most potential to expand — we thought it was essential to find a location that would allow us to expand.”

Enter Oquossoc’s former railroad station site.

“It’s a great location,” Palmer said. “That’s where the fishermen and the hunters 100 years ago, that’s where they arrived in the area and they were met there by the buckboards and the steamers and taken to different parts of the area for their fishing experience.

“In a sense, we’re really in the heart of fishing and hunting in western Maine.”

The museum building is modeled after a taxidermy shop that was located nearby at Haines Landing.

Like the museum is destined to become, another of Oquossoc’s famed visitor attractions is the Height of Land Overlook.

Located south of the museum on Route 17, its panoramic views of Mooselookmeguntic Lake and distant lakes and mountains is a great place to watch and photograph sunsets.

Significant funds from Land for Maine’s Future program, the federal government and the Rangeley Lakes Heritage Trust contributed to the project to preserve Height of Land.

Just over a mile of road will be reconstructed after ledge to the east of the old road is blasted out. Most of the old road will then become the scenic turnout.

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