Photographer Bridget Besaw provides us with a stunning first book, Wildness within Wildness without. Its focus is the necessity of protecting and promoting the Maine North Woods, and the Thoreau-Wabanaki Trail, an interconnected series of paddling and hiking routes in northern Maine that were traveled in the 1850s by Henry David Thoreau and his Penobscot guides. The routes he and his guides followed are part of a much larger system of primeval waterways used by Native American peoples for thousands of years before Thoreau's journeys in the 1840s and 1850s and since.
Thoreau, America's first great naturalist, wrote beautifully about his travels in the region in his book, The Maine Woods. The route that he and Joe Polis, his Penobscot guide, traveled in 1857, and Thoreau's route to the heights of Mount Katahdin in 1846 were seen as the heart of Maine's wild lands, and so were selected as the route of the Thoreau-Wabanaki Trail. The term, "Wabanaki" (People of the Dawn) refers to a wide range of Native American peoples who lived in the Northern Forest and used its system of interconnected canoe routes.
In recent years, a group of conservationists and interested persons, after extensive discussions, decided to celebrate the natural beauty and cultural heritage of northern Maine's wild lands by drawing attention to Thoreau's experience there. The Thoreau-Wabanaki trail was dedicated in the summer of 2007 in a ceremony at Greenvile, Maine, on the shores of Moosehead Lake, which Thoreau and his guides traversed in 1853 and 1857. The selected route is also a part of the larger Northern Forest canoe Trail, which uses many of the same paddleways, and extends from upstate New York through Vermont, New Hampshire, and northern Maine.
This book, with Bridget Besaw's compelling photography and several moving essays by conservationists, historians and concerned citizens, is a celebration of Thoreau's experience, the wild lands of Maine, and the Wabanaki people. Wildness within, Wildness without is published in hope that it will increase the understanding and appreciation of this great region and help in protecting it forever.
Thoreau, America's first great naturalist, wrote beautifully about his travels in the region in his book, The Maine Woods. The route that he and Joe Polis, his Penobscot guide, traveled in 1857, and Thoreau's route to the heights of Mount Katahdin in 1846 were seen as the heart of Maine's wild lands, and so were selected as the route of the Thoreau-Wabanaki Trail. The term, "Wabanaki" (People of the Dawn) refers to a wide range of Native American peoples who lived in the Northern Forest and used its system of interconnected canoe routes.
In recent years, a group of conservationists and interested persons, after extensive discussions, decided to celebrate the natural beauty and cultural heritage of northern Maine's wild lands by drawing attention to Thoreau's experience there. The Thoreau-Wabanaki trail was dedicated in the summer of 2007 in a ceremony at Greenvile, Maine, on the shores of Moosehead Lake, which Thoreau and his guides traversed in 1853 and 1857. The selected route is also a part of the larger Northern Forest canoe Trail, which uses many of the same paddleways, and extends from upstate New York through Vermont, New Hampshire, and northern Maine.
This book, with Bridget Besaw's compelling photography and several moving essays by conservationists, historians and concerned citizens, is a celebration of Thoreau's experience, the wild lands of Maine, and the Wabanaki people. Wildness within, Wildness without is published in hope that it will increase the understanding and appreciation of this great region and help in protecting it forever.
