B A C K   T H E N

Grant’s Camps

Founded in 1904 by brothers Will and Hall Grant, Grant’s Camps, on the northwestern end of Kennebago Lake, provided guests with excellent fishing on what was virtually a private lake. It was located just far enough from Rangeley, via a ten-mile buckboard ride and a steamboat ride up the lake from the Kennebago Lake Hotel, to impart a sense of adventure and remoteness without inflicting any real hardship on guests.

Owners of the hotel, which dated from 1884, had been granted exclusive rights to most of the lakeshore by two lumber companies. In 1912 a railroad spur, built to serve lumbering interests, reached within two miles of Grant’s. The rails were removed in 1933 and replaced by a gated road, which remains today. Grant’s Camps, after a number of ownership changes, remains very much in business.

Text by William H. Bunting from Maine On Glass. Published by Tilbury House Publishers, 12 Starr St., Thomaston, Maine. 800-582-1899.

Maine On Glass and prints of the photographs are available through the Penobscot Marine Museum: PenobscotMarineMuseum.org.