History of The Maine Highlands An enduring memory still exists of America as it first began. When every step inward from the coast of New England revealed an unfolding wonder. When every season had a different message and a new sense of possibility. When the phrase "new world" was more than metaphor. A time when the word "discovery" could still be applied to the place we call home. For most, such a place is only the stuff of legend. Not here. Welcome to The Maine Highlands, the natural wonder of Maine. A place where the pathways are yours to create. Where adventure is not choreographed and wilderness is not just a memory. Welcome to a stunning tapestry of mountains and lakes, rivers, hills and valleys. Welcome to life at a different pace, rich in life's finer and simpler pleasures. Welcome to a place that will make you feel just that, welcome; where the smiles are as genuine as the land itself. The Maine Highlands invites you to a vacation experience like no other in America. The Maine Highlands comprises the heart of northern and central Maine. Woven throughout an area almost the size of Massachusetts are several distinct regions that combined offer an exciting array of vacation possibilities. There are many gateways to The Maine Highlands. Ideally located to arrive by air, the City of Bangor offers something quite unique: small, culturally rich but in close proximity to truly unspoiled nature. Located just off of I-95, Bangor is a trouble-free drive from anywhere in the northeast. Bangor International Airport offers frequent and affordable flights to the region with major carrier service from many national hubs. On-site car rental and accommodation services get you out and on your way with ease. Just north of Bangor in the town of Orono,The University of Maine offers an abundance of educational, cultural, and athletic opportunities. West of Bangor, the Sebasticook Valley area welcomes you with gentle, rolling hills and quite a number of ways to get you out on the water in no time. Continuing north, the Southern Piscataquis region is home to many charming small towns that still retain the architecture and closeness of another era. To the east, the Lincoln Lakes Region and Penobscot River are a sportsman's and boater's paradise. Visitors to the area enjoy public access to Mattanawcook Lake right in downtown Lincoln. Head due north where the dramatic vistas of Mount Katahdin and Baxter State Park unfold. West of Katahdin, the Moosehead Lake region is host to virtually every kind of outdoor adventure. The Maine Highlands will surprise and delight you at every turn. Experience our dramatic and alluring landscape and all it has to offer in every season. The history of what we call The Maine Highlands is older than the state itself. For centuries, the Penobscot tribes hunted and fished this land in harmony with the seasons, and developed a unique style in crafts and building that endures to this day. The first colonial settlers arrived in the mid-1700s, establishing frontier outposts along major rivers and lakefronts. With the separation of Maine from Massachusetts in 1820, the opening of the land began in earnest. Lumber was the driving force behind development in the 19th-century. The seemingly endless forest was of enormous value to an expanding America. Mills, foundries and other subsidiary industries soon developed in the wake of the logging boom, and the towns and villages of The Maine Highlands began to flourish. A thriving shipbuilding industry on Maine's Atlantic coast flowed directly from the timber riches of The Maine Highlands. Henry David Thoreau's journeys through the region in 1846, 1853 and 1857 were the inspiration for his revered expeditionary journals, which offer a memorable portrait of a robust industrial and agrarian economy emerging at that time on the doorstep of the wilderness. By the turn of the 20th-century, The Maine Highlands was already becoming famous as a vacation and resort destination. Overnight rail journeys brought both the well-to-do and adventurous from major cities on the east coast. Grand hotels and rustic camps alike began to spring up along the many lakes and rivers in the region, starting a tradition of "summering in Maine" that has been going strong for generations since. And today, private land stewards honor long-standing traditions of recreation access.