Sebago Lake, West Shore

Book excerpt: The four Cumberland County townsA[a¬aStandish, Baldwin, Sebago, and NaplesA[a¬aalong the west shore of MaineA[a¬a[s second largest freshwater body of water, Sebago Lake, form the core of the latest work by Diane and Jack Barnes: Sebago Lake: West Shore. Even at a time when the vast hinterland of Maine was plagued by raids from Native Americans allied to the French, intrepid woodsmen and settlers ventured into the rugged, primeval wilderness via the Presumpscot and Saco rivers as far as Standish. But by 1830, the Cumberland & Oxford Canal was completed, and the four towns in this volume and several others in the area were linked to Portland and beyond. For the next 40 years, the area was well served by this 17-mile canal. In 1870, the Portland & Ogdensburg Railroad reached the west shore of Sebago Lake. This gave birth to the colorful steamboat era, invited sportsmen, excursionists, and vacationers to flock to the area, and encouraged many enterprising farmers to open their doors to boarders. Hotels, however, soon replaced many of the boarding houses, and a strong tourism industry had begun in earnest. Through precious old photographs and extensive research, Sebago Lake: West Shore chronicles the time of the earliest settlement of Standish, Baldwin, Sebago, and Naples, to the grand hotel era and more recent times. These pages are replete with common and unfamiliar images that combine to regale the history of the west shore.