Maine’s Moosehead Lake is the largest mountain lake in the eastern United States.

Stretching 40 miles from end to end and covering roughly 75,000 acres, Moosehead is surrounded by more than one million acres of undeveloped forestland – including more than 600,000 acres of conserved land and another 60,000 acres of smaller lakes, ponds, and rivers.

The Moosehead region was once an important destination for Native Americans who gathered rhyolite for tool-making from the 800-foot high cliffs of Mount Kineo, which juts out from shoreline near the center of the lake close to the small town of Rockwood.

In the 1800s, the region became a center point for the emerging lumber industry. Loggers collected timber in the lake and drove it down the mighty Kennebec River to lumber and paper mills downstream. During this same period, the Moosehead area emerged as a world-class travel destination with resorts and sporting camps attracting visitors seeking both adventure and respite from the growing East Coast cities.

Like other areas of Northern Forest, communities in the Moosehead region have struggled over the past few decades with declining employment in the forest industry and changing travel and tourism markets.

In response, local leaders in small communities like Greenville, Rockwood, Beaver Cove, and Monson are working hard to create new opportunities – looking to the lake and the wild-feeling forests around it as anchors for a destination-based economy that attracts visitors and new residents.