Video of making Flagstaff Lake in Maine 1940... great music

This is unreal. Slaid Cleaves. The old photos and his story are so good. Enjoy...

 

I did not know this about Flagstaff lake. Bigelow preserve, and the Bigelow peaks are on my list. A traverse of the Bigelow range is quite a challenge I've heard.

 

I pretty near died on Flagstaff Lake one year. I was out snowmobiling and being in winter where it gets dark out quick, I found myself riding at night on the other side of the lake. I figured I would just ride across the lake and get into town. Not a great idea, I was clawing up over 20 foot rises and falls and could not figure out why. When I got to the gas station to fill up the guy told me NO ONE goes across the lake with sleds as they let the water out for the dam and it causes the ice to break up. That was what I was riding over, broken up ice too close to the dam!!

 

... holy chit... glad you made it LT.

 

Thought I had been there when we were moosey hunting but maybe not afta all, we were off the golden road so musta been somewhere else...

 

You are thing of Rippogenious Dam which forms Chessoncook Lake, about 18 miles out of Millinockett, Maine I think.

 

"thing" should have read "thinking"... as in, "you are thinking of..."

 

Nope we were above ustis and deep onto the golden road...

 

If you were any where near Eustis, then you were at Flagstaff Lake and the subsequent dam located there. You actually have to travel by Flaggstaff Lake in Stratton to get to Eustis which is beyond it actually. However, the Golden Road traverses from Millinockette, Maine to the border crossing close to Saint Zachacharie, Quebec. On that road, about 18 miles outside of Millinockette is Rippogeneos Dam, but the entire road does not come anywhere close to Eustis, and by close I mean a good 3 hour drive or more.

It is possible you are talking about Harris Station, which is located between the Golden Road and Flagstaff Lake on the Kennebec River renowned for white water rafting, which you might have driven by. Even then I am not sure how you would have gone close to Eustis as there is no real good road from Route 27 over to Route 201 in Bingham. At Bingham, you might have driven kind of by Harris Station (a huge dam), and then into Greenville. From there you would have gone up past Kokado (Population 7) and up onto the Golden Road.

The only other Dam might have been Seboomoc which is closet to the Golden Road, but again not really close to Eustis.

Not giving you any grief on this, just confused on Eustis and Golden Road being used in the same sentence, they are quite a distance apart.

 

Rt27 from Eustis to Lac Megantic is a wicked frickin awesome motorcycle road

 

They did the same thing here when they made raystown lake. It is sad to think about all the families and homes that were destroyed to make these things. Bet no politicians or big wig electrical company peoples hometowns or families were for to out to build one.

 

He, he, he...I will tell you a funny story about Eustis.

4 years and 9 months ago my wife and I went to Eustis on a camping trip. I had been up there before, but being a flatlander (New Hampshirite) she never had, so we planned to do some camping and go up Snow Mountain. Well we drove all over, but it being Labor Day weekend every campsite was taken. So finally we saw an obscure campsite well off in the woods on the map, and found out it was not taken. But as we backed in, we realized our tire had hit a rock and was going flat.

Drat...

Figuring we could change it the next morning, we made camp, camped out in the back of our Blazer and did what everyone does while camping.

The next morning the lug nuts were seized to that rim because mechanics do not seem to understand you might actually have a flat and can't wrench them off with an impact gun in the middle of God's green earth. So we start hiking 15 miles into town, and these guys stop by and give us a ride into town. We call a tow truck driver and he gets our tire plugged, filled with air, and we are off. We decide to head back home without going to Snow Mountain because of the tire...

So a month later we are near home and going down the interstate and Katie yells at me to stop. I do and she starts puking on the side of the road. Yep we did what all people do while camping, today we call the souvenir of that camping trip Kaelyn; our 4th daughter!

So yes, I have a fond memory of Eustis...I'd tell you more but the wife would be upset. ,

 

Mrs TD's grandfather was "bought" out when Raystown was made. A sad story indeed. The ground was practically taken from them. A lot of hard feelings...

 

... ahhh Mainers...

 

Bed...who needs a stinking bed when you have a Blazer!

 

That's a great story.

My youngest is a Labor Day camping trip baby too! She was a bit early, we are celebrating her 18th today...I'm feelin kinda old.

 

There are a lot of stories and pictures about the making of that lake. Very haunting. thanks for reminding me. Gives me something to look up the history of.

 

LoL, obviously I have no clue as to where were were but we were almost always on dirt logging roads and off one of them was a big aweome looking body of water that had nothing around it....

 

That's why my wife doesn't want to go camping?!