LOOKOUT MOUNTAIN, Maine – They said it was a bit like building a ship on the side of a mountain.
“It was a true labor of love,” U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland said Saturday morning about the construction of Tekαkαpimək, the Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument visitor center, which is being called a contact station. “It is clear that every piece of this new building was carefully crafted and chosen with thought.”
On Saturday, about 150 people gathered for the unveiling of Tekαkαpimək and to hear the stories of the land and the Wabanaki people.
The visitor center is located at the southeast corner of the 87,563-acre Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument on the homeland of the Penobscot Nation.
Hiking trails lead to the center through the forest with stone paths. Inside, Wabanaki artisans created hand-crafted floor tiles, wall carvings and woven blankets. There are interpretive stations and educational videos. The entire space is open and offers views of Mount Katahdin.
“This is the result of a conscious and collaborative effort by tribal nations to fully honor the traditions, languages, images, kinship and ancestral representations of the original custodians of these lands,” Haaland said.
In 2016, President Barack Obama designated Katahdin Woods and Waters a national monument. The area consists of 13 parcels of land donated by Elliotsville Plantation Inc. and Roxanne Quimby, founder of Burt’s Bees.
Since then, the Elliotsville Foundation, the National Park Service and representatives of the independent indigenous nations that make up the Wabanaki Confederacy – Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians, Mi’kmaq Nation, Passamaquoddy Tribe in Motahkomikuk and Sipayik and Penobscot Nation – have worked to build the visitor center, said Brian Hinrichs, executive director of Friends of Katahdin Woods & Waters.
On Saturday, Quimby and her son Lucas St. Clair, who led the effort, attended the ceremony.
St. Clair told a story about the family and the land where the visitor center now stands.
Around the same time in 2011, Hurricane Irene swept through this part of Maine where the Quimby and St. Clair families lived, he said.
After six inches of rain fell overnight, St. Clair went with a forest ranger to assess the damage to the roads. He said he was still living in Washington state at the time but was considering helping to create the park. The two men stopped at Ten Mile Hill, just a mile from Lookout Mountain, where the visitor center now stands. The view was spectacular, he said.
“That moment is etched in my brain and for the past 13 years I have devoted most of my time to working on this project,” St. Clair said.
Tekαkαpimək means “as far as the eye can see” in the Penobscot language and is pronounced “de gah-gah bee mook.”
The $31 million center was privately funded through a capital campaign by Friends of Katahdin Woods & Waters. It will be donated to the American people and operated by the National Park Service once final construction is completed, Hinrichs said.
