Mount Katahdin.html



Mount Katahdin
Katahdin from 10,000 feet (3,000 m)
Mount Katahdin
Elevation	5,267 feet (1,606 m)
Location	Maine, USA
Range	Appalachian Mountains
Prominence	4,292 feet (1,308 m)
Coordinates	45°54′15.68″N 68°55′16.59″W / 45.9043556, -68.921275Coordinates: 45°54′15.68″N 68°55′16.59″W / 45.9043556, -68.921275
Topo map	USGS Mount Katahdin
Type	Granite
Age of rock	Devonian
First ascent	1804 by Charles Turner, Jr.
Easiest route	Hike
Listing	New England 4000-footers; #2 New England Fifty Finest U.S. state high point

Mount Katahdin (USGS name) is the highest mountain in Maine. Named Katahdin by the Penobscot Indians, the term means "The Greatest Mountain". It is located in Baxter State Park which is in east central Piscataquis County about 25 miles (40 km) northwest of Millinocket. It divides the East and West Branches of the Penobscot River and is the northern terminus of the Appalachian Trail. The mountain is most abrupt in the Appalachian Mountains. The second highest point in Maine, Sugarloaf Mountain at 1,295 m (4,250 feet) is over one hundred miles to the southwest. There is low lake country to the south and west of Katahdin, and lowlands extending east to the Atlantic and north to the Saint Lawrence Seaway in Canada.

Natural history

Katahdin is part of a laccolith (an intrusion of magma underground) that formed in the Acadian orogeny, when an island arc collided with eastern North America approximately 400 million years ago. On the sides of Katahdin are four glacial cirques carved into the granite by alpine glaciers and in these cirques behind moraines and eskers are several picturesque ponds. Katahdin is one of the best places to view glacial features in the Eastern States.¹

In Baxter State Park many outcrops of sedimentary rocks have striations, whereas Katahdin granite and Traveler rhyolite lava have weathered surfaces on which striations are commonly not preserved. Bedrock surfaces of igneous rocks which have been buried by glacial sediments and only recently exposed have well preserved striations, as in the vicinity of Ripogenus Dam. Several outcrops of sedimentary rocks along the Patten Road show striations, especially on the north side of the road at Hurricane Deck. A few outcrops near the Pattern Road just north of Horse Mountain are striated as are several outcrops of sedimentary rocks along the road from Trout Brook Farm northward to Second Lake Matagamon.

Fauna include black bear, deer and moose as well as swarms of bloodthirsty black flies (a sort of midge) and mosquitos in the spring. Among the birds are Bicknell's Thrush and various songbirds and raptors. The mountain has its own indigenous butterfly related to an Arctic type. The flora include pine, spruce, fir, hemlock, beech, maple, birch, aspen, and diapensia.

Human history

Katahdin is referred to 60 years after Field’s climb of Agiokochuk (Mount Washington) in the writings of John Giles (Gyles) a teenage colonial who was captured near Portland, Maine in 1689 by the Abenaki. While indentured among the Abenaki they wandered up and down the rivers including the Penobscot, so he saw the “Teddon”. He remarked that it was higher than the White Hills above the Saco. Among the Abenaki, Katahdin was believed to be the home of the storm god Pamola, and thus an area to be avoided.²

The first recorded climb of "Catahrdin" was by Massachusetts surveyor Charles Turner, Jr. in August of 1804.³ In the 1840s Henry David Thoreau climbed Katahdin, which he spelled "Ktaadn"; his ascent is recorded in a well-known chapter of The Maine Woods. A few years later Theodore Winthrop wrote about his visit in Life in the Open Air. Painters Frederic Edwin Church and Marsden Hartley are well-known artists who created landscapes of Katahdin.

In the 1930s Governor Percival Baxter began to acquire land and finally deeded more than 200,000 acres (809 km²) to the State of Maine for a park, named Baxter State Park after him.

Name of the peak

Because "Katahdin" means "Greatest Mountain", "Mount Katahdin" means "Mount Greatest Mountain", which local people maintain is incorrect.⁴

Two US Navy ships have been named USS Katahdin after the mountain. Katahdin is also the name of a 1914 steamboat (later converted to diesel) owned by the Moosehead Marine Museum that plies the waters of Moosehead Lake in northern Maine.

The composer Alan Hovhaness composed a Sonata for piano, Op. 405 ("Mount Katahdin").

Katahdin from Sunday Pond

Recreation opportunities

The Appalachian Trail on Katahdin's Hunt Spur

As the northern terminus of the Appalachian Trail and southern terminus of the International Appalachian Trail, Katahdin is a popular hiking and backpacking destination and the centerpiece of Baxter State Park. The most famous hike to the summit is called the Knife Edge, which traverses the ridge between Pamola Peak and Baxter Peak. Despite its relatively small stature when compared with other mountains in the United States, Katahdin has claimed over 20 lives in the past 40 years mostly from exposure in bad weather and falls from the Knife Edge. The Knife Edge is closed during periods of high wind.

Baxter State Park is open year round, though strictly regulated in winter. The overnight camping season is from May 15th to October 15th each year. Capacity limits have been placed on day use parking at the trailheads to minimize overuse of the trails.⁵

See also

• List of mountains in Maine
• Mountain peaks of North America
• Mountain peaks of the United States

References

Baxter Peak and the Knife Edge Trail

External links

• More detailed Wiki on Katahdin Including Trails
• Katahdin Webcam
• Katahdin on Peakware (photos)
• Baxter State Park Authority Official Website
• Summit Log (October 2005 summit log)
• Katahdin at Summitpost many photos