A new text has entered my favorite book list: It is "Maine Sporting Camps" by Alice Arlen (Countryman Press, Vermont, 1984).

It now stands behind "Arundel" and "Quiet Presence: Stories of Franco-Americans in New England" as my most revered treatments of sectors of Maine life and/or history.

I like the book because I am intrigued by sporting camps: Is there a future? A present?

I am not being sarcastic. I don't know.

There are 44 million "visits" to Maine each year, according to the state tourist bureau.

High-end motels on the coast do pretty well; do-it-yourself campgrounds are thriving, from what I can tell.

But do many vacationers chose "camps."

My family visited two camps mentioned in the book, both in the Belgrade Lakes area: Alden Camps and Castle Island Camps.

Castle Island had cabins so close to the road that some would-be sleepers got nervous.

I liked Alden Camps alot but when my (infirm) father visited, he had a difficult time walking up the hills to dinner.

The other theme Your Scribe is contemplating here is that more jobs have to be created upcountry, and it would be nice if tourism were part of it and camps remained part of that.

Two state industries are doing poorly: commercial fishing is just about gone, and the woodsmen I see around my cabin say the logging business is weakening rapidly.

Think of Waterville-Winslow, where I did time. The Scott Paper plant employed thousands two decades ago, and now it has but a few dozen workers to make sure the place doesn't burn down.

In terms of vacation activity, my fantasy is to take a plane ride over the wilderness areas of the state. Maine is more than 80 percent forest, and it must be thrilling to soar over the lakes and mountains with all the wildlife and beauty below.

But neither tourists nor natives generally want to spend that kind of money to see the remote sectors of the state.

Hopefully they will choose easy-to-reach Maine sporting camps, and keep the lengthy tradition active.

(Note: A reader of the last blog on the harvest of wildlife asked about the value of coyote pelts. I am putting my research department to work to get him an answer. But if anyone knows, please respond).

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