The Kate – The Last Steamship on Moosehead Lake

by Tom Seymour

More than 60 steamboats plied the icy waters of 40-mile long Moosehead Lake during the Golden Age of steamboating, a 100-year stretch that ended around 1930. The first such boat, the Moosehead, was built in 1836. Records indicate that the Moosehead was 96 feet long and fitted with a 40-horsepower steam engine.

Then in 1846, a Nova Scotian named Major Benjamin Bigney, settled in Greenville and straight away began building steamboats. Bigney became a major player in steamboating on Moosehead Lake, building a number of vessels over the next 40 or so years. But while Bigney was one of the first shipbuilders on Moosehead Lake, he certainly wasn’t the last. Numbers of other individuals formed companies and all managed to profit from the Moosehead Lake steamboat trade.

In the early nineteenth century, the only way to reach many of the far-flung logging camps spread out around the big lake was by water. Moosehead Lake was, since recorded history, an avenue of travel. The early steamboats served several purposes. They hauled supplies and passengers to the camps, and also towed booms of logs. During those early days, the logs were in demand as food for sawmills, to be turned into building materials. Later, with the advent of paper mills, the demand for pulpwood became great.

Steamboats and the more utilitarian steam scows, hauled immense quantities, or “booms” of logs down Moosehead Lake to the East Outlet of the Kennebec River, there to make the trip through the sluice and from thence downstream to waiting mills.

Henry David Thoreau was one of the most famous passengers to ride a steamboat on Moosehead Lake. Thoreau made note of the boat and its passengers during his 1853 trip through the Maine woods.

Tourist Boom

Meanwhile, in the late 19th century, another kind of boom came to the Moosehead Region, the tourist boom. People from big eastern cities could take the railroad train all the way to Greenville Junction and from there, board a steamboat to any one of a growing number of sporting camps around the lake.

Once at camp, people could relax, fish, swim, and basically do as they pleased. Forsaking city life for the cool, clean environment of the Moosehead Lake region in summer became a trend, one that steamboats played a major part in.

Not all visitors came for the rustic atmosphere. Instead, fashionable resorts such as the Kineo Hotel drew upon a huge clientele. There, guests could simply relax in their well-appointed rooms, walk on hiking trails and even play golf. The Kineo Hotel could seat 400 persons at a time in their dining room.

Additionally, comfortable camps popped up around the lake and these all depended upon steamboats in order to keep supplied with provisions. A story written by Woodie Bartley, then a high-school student at Greenville High School, that appeared in the 1976 Moosehead Souvenir Booklet, includes an interview with Paul Sawyer, who worked as a deck hand on the Katahdin, the flagship of the Coburn Steamboat Company in the summer of 1937-1938.

Sawyer told how the “Kate” made her regular appointed rounds on Moosehead Lake. The Kate not only carried provisions, but also news and mail. Her regular stops included, in order of first to last, camps at West Outlet, Deer Island, Kineo Hotel, Rockwood, Farm Island (where, incidentally, much of the food served in Kineo Hotel was grown) and Seboomook.

Not every stop required the Kate’s services each trip, so those that did need the steamboat to tend to them would run up a special flag, meaning, “stop today.”

Paul Sawyer also explained how the steamboat captain would go to lengths to amuse and entertain the tourists. One much-anticipated action was a chance to listen to the ship’s horn echoing off the Kineo cliffs. The Kate would pull as close as possible to the edge of the cliff and then stop her engines. Then the steam horn would blow and its echo off the flinty cliffs was, as Sawyer described, one of the weirdest noises he had ever heard.

The Kate

The Great Depression brought tough times to everyone and the steamboat industry and its appending tourist trade suffered accordingly. People could no longer afford to leave the cities every summer for an idyllic stay at Moosehead Lake. Fares steadily decreased. Also, newly-built roads took business away. One by one the steamboats dropped out. The last major surviving company, Colburn Steamship Company, made its last run on September 11, 1938. The boat was the Katahdin.

The remaining steamboats saw ignominious ends. The first Katahdin, built in 1896, caught fire and was run aground and burned to water’s edge. Other boats such as the Moosehead and the Marguerite were dismantled. That left the Kate, built in 1913, as the last steamboat on the lake.

The Kate quickly saw a change of duty and continued on as a work boat, hauling booms of logs to the East Outlet. But in 1976, that line of work ended too, when environmental regulations banned the process of moving logs by water. Besides that, trucking had to a large degree supplanted logs floated to the mills via the lake and river. Once again, it looked like the end for the Kate.

But since this steamboat was the last tangible evidence of a rich history of steamboating on Moosehead Lake, the community was loath to see her end up in a scrap heap. In 1980, the Kate was rescued from certain destruction and made into a floating tourist attraction, the crowning highlight of the Moosehead Marine Museum.

Kate’s 100th

The Kate now makes regular runs on Moosehead Lake. In 2011, she boarded 7,300 passengers during her June- to-October season. Also in 2011, while 55 percent of passengers came from all around Maine, the balance was composed of people from 44 different states and 18 different countries. Clearly, Kate has a large following.

While still referred to as a steamboat, the Kate, or more formally put, the 115-foot long Katahdin II began her career as a steamboat but was refitted to diesel power in 1922 and upgraded again in 1954.

The Moosehead Marine Museum sits along the water in downtown Greenville, with the Kate moored next to it. She makes regular runs, plus special cruises, including moonlight cruises. Also, the Kate has become increasingly popular as a place to hold weddings.

Summer of 2014 will mark 100 years of faithful service by the Kate on her home water of Moosehead Lake. A special centennial celebration will take place between August 11 and August 17. This will include, among other things, special cruises. So for a taste of the old glory days of steamboating on Moosehead Lake, come to Greenville this August and take a cruise on the Kate.

For more information, contact: Moosehead Marine Museum, 12 Lily Bay Road, P.O. Box 1151, Greenville, ME 04441 (207) 695-2716; info@katahdincruises.com; www.katahdincruises.com.