Baxter's dream loses a guardian

By JOHN RICHARDSON, Portland Press Herald Writer

Copyright © 2005 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc.

E-mail this story to a friend

	Staff photo by John Patriquin Irvin "Buzz" Caverly will retire as director of Baxter State Park this week. He poses Friday at Daicey Pond, with Mount Katahdin behind him.
	Staff photo by John Patriquin Ranger Dean Levasseur gives Baxter State Park Director Buzz Caverly a hug on Friday after Caverly announced his retirement.
	Staff photo by John Patriquin "Buzz" Caverly says goodbye to park rangers Miranda Brodeur and Wayne Brooker at the Togue Pond gate on Thursday. Caverly began work at the park as a ranger in 1959.
	HISTORY OF BAXTER STATE PARK 1903: Percival Proctor Baxter visits the northern Maine wilderness around Mount Katahdin for the first time. 1921: Baxter is president of the state Senate when Frederick Parkhurst dies a few weeks after becoming governor. Baxter automatically advances to the governorship for the remainder of Parkhurst's term. 1922: Gov. Baxter is elected in his own right. 1925: Baxter leaves office. 1930: Baxter makes his first land purchase of 5,960 acres, which includes Mount Katahdin, the highest mountain in Maine. 1931: He formally donates the parcel to the state with the condition that it be kept forever wild. Over the years, Baxter purchases additional lands and pieces his park together, transaction by transaction. 1933: By resolve of the Maine Legislature, the area is officially designated as Baxter State Park and the summit is named Baxter Peak in his honor. 1962: Baxter makes his final gift of 7,764 acres. Baxter State Park is a wilderness area of more than 200,000 acres, most of which Baxter acquired by negotiating 28 deeds over 32 years. 1969: Percival Baxter dies at the age of 92. His ashes are scattered from a plane flying over Katahdin. He leaves a trust of nearly $7 million to ensure that park managers will have sufficient funds to maintain the park without having to compete for Maine taxpayers' dollars. 1976: The Baxter State Park Authority bans snowmobile use in the state park. 1977: Fire rages through Baxter State Park, leaving 1,700 acres of burned soil and blackened trees. 1981: Snowmobiles legally return to the park when the Park Authority votes to allow the machines on parts of the perimeter road, where automobiles are allowed during the summer. 2002: Irvin "Buzz" Caverly, the director of Baxter State Park, warns that the park is beginning to suffer from too many people. About 100,000 people in 25,000 vehicles visit the park each summer. Mount Katahdin bears the brunt of this pressure, with as many as 50,000 hikers each summer. - Compiled byStaff Researcher Beth Murphy BAXTER STATE PARK FACTS The park covers 204,733 acres. There are 46 mountain peaks and ridges, 18 exceeding 3,000 feet, the highest being Mount Katahdin at 5,267 feet. The park is linked by a 47-mile perimeter road and contains 180 miles of trails. Each summer, roughly 100,000 people visit the park, and Katahdin is climbed 50,000 times. A year-round staff of 22 swells to about 61 in the summer. - Compiled byStaff Researcher Beth Murphy To top of story

MILLINOCKET — Managing Baxter State Park can be a tricky job, especially when pressure for more recreational access clashes with the park's "forever wild" mandate. Irvin "Buzz" Caverly has done it for 24 years, mixing the straightforward charm of a farm boy with the confidence of an administrator who's not afraid to take an unpopular position.

And when his energy and personality were not enough, Caverly had the authority of being the only guy around who personally knew the park's creator, Gov. Percival Baxter.

Caverly's retirement as director at the end of this week will mark an important milestone for the state, both because of his steadfast defense of the park's wilderness mission and because he is the park's last direct personal connection to the man who pieced it together and gave it to the people of Maine. He has spent decades making sure people around the state, visitors to the park and his staff don't soon forget the generosity and the vision of Baxter.

"That's the one thing I've inspired people to do," Caverly said last week. "Don't lose sight of the mission."

It's hard for everyone here, including Caverly, to imagine Baxter State Park without him there in a ranger's uniform.

He started as a ranger in 1959 after graduating from high school. He and his wife, Janice, honeymooned in the park and made their home at Katahdin Stream and Russell Pond campgrounds. Their two daughters "spent their baby years in the park," said Caverly, who is now 66.

The cabins and trails are filled with memories and stories of family and friends, including fellow ranger Ralph Heath, who died in 1963 trying to rescue a hiker in a snowstorm.

Caverly lost count of the times he climbed Mount Katahdin after the summer of 1960, when he hiked to the summit 23 times. Most of those trips were in the dark looking for hikers whose cars were still in parking lots.

He was appointed the park's director in 1981, winning the job over applicants with far more education and management experience. At the time, the state's inland fisheries and wildlife commissioner said, "No man living in the state of Maine today has anywhere near the knowledge of the park that that man has."

Twenty-four years later, Caverly still seemed energized as he drove through the Togue Pond gate into the park, saying goodbye to staff members, watching a cow moose grazing in a pond and admiring the canopy of trees shading the gravel tote road.

Caverly climbed out of the truck at Abol campground last week to shake hands with Dean Lavasseur, a former paper mill worker who grew up visiting the park and is now a ranger.

"I want to thank you for what you do for the park," Caverly said, reaching out his hand.

Levasseur wrapped his arms around Caverly instead.

"No, Buzz, I want to thank you," Levasseur said. "It's been 40 years of exactly what Gov. Baxter wanted."

A CRITICAL COLLABORATION

Baxter assembled the park's lands over a period of three decades before his death in 1969. While some of the park is open to mixed uses, such as snowmobiling and experimental forestry, 81 percent of the park is wilderness preserve that's intended to remain unchanged and unspoiled so that future generations can experience what Baxter did. He gave the land to the people of Maine, but laid out his vision in writing and set up trust funds and a special park authority to run it so it would be sheltered from politics or legislative interference.

While Baxter's vision put preservation first, he also said the park was intended to be used by Maine people "to the fullest extent possible."

When Baxter visited the park each summer, Caverly recalls, the gracious old man would always ask, " 'Are the people happy with their park?' I always said, 'Yes, Governor, they are.' "

Caverly talked with Baxter during those visits, but probably made his biggest impression when he was 22 and stopped by Baxter's office on Congress Street in Portland.

"I can't believe it even today, that this boy off the farm in Cornville, Maine, was sitting and talking to probably the most important man ever in Maine history, and he treated me as if I were someone special," Caverly said.

Two letters from Baxter hang beneath his portrait on the wall behind Caverly's desk. In one letter to the 27-year-old ranger, Baxter wrote, "I expect to be at home all winter and shall keep in touch with you, for you have a most important position. We are partners in this project."

"That put a tremendous responsibility on my shoulders to never lose sight of the mission," Caverly said.

WILDERNESS BEFORE ACCESS

A well-worn book on his shelf contains the Deeds of Trust, Baxter's framework to guide park managers entrusted with the gift. "I look at that book half-a-dozen times a month," he said.

The fact that he talked with Baxter several times and corresponded with him has given Caverly some extra credibility during the frequent clashes over park policy. "It certainly afforded me authority that I otherwise wouldn't have had," he said.

Caverly's interpretation of Baxter's vision has been consistent: wilderness first; access second.

He has often said no to requested uses of the park, from snowmobiling to a plan to extend the Appalachian Trail through the more remote northern section.

He even said no once to a man whose dying wish was to be flown to Baxter Peak on the top of Katahdin, the spot where the man had finished a through-hike of the Appalachian Trail years earlier. Caverly personally called the man back to explain that a precedent like that could change the experience for future generations, and the man said he understood, Caverly said.

Several years ago, Caverly told an angry visitor he couldn't ride his motorcycle into the park after he made the trip from his home in Bath. Caverly let him vent his frustration, then offered to personally drive him around the park for a couple hours.

"We spent pretty much the afternoon and came back down as good friends," he said. Ten days later, they climbed the Abol trail up Katahdin together and they have stayed in touch ever since, Caverly said.

"I talked to him as recently as yesterday," he said. "Now he's a strong advocate of the park."

OUTLASTING THE CRITICS

His unwavering commitment to wilderness perservation has drawn criticism from many sides.

Last year, for example, long-time visitors to the park who otherwise admire Caverly's conviction criticized him for deciding to remove two historic cabins next to Daicey Pond.

The advocates for the cabins said Baxter would have wanted them preserved because he was a user and supporter of the old sporting camps. But Caverly's word was again final: Baxter wanted to preserve the wilderness, not buildings that were falling apart and threatening the pond.

Most of the criticism of Caverly over the years has come from local sportsmen who organized way back in 1951 to preserve shrinking access to the North Woods.

Jimmy Busque of Millinocket, vice president of the Fin & Feather Club, said Caverly has pursued his own vision, not Baxter's.

"His vision is more wilderness and less roads, and the problem we have is that's not what Baxter said," Busque said.

While Caverly has argued to remove roads and bridges, Busque said, Baxter "said more roads would have to be built as the parks get used more."

When Baxter was alive, he removed chains blocking access and he changed his position and allowed hunting in a northern section of the park. Over the years, Baxter's directions written in the Deeds of Trust also reflected more openness to increased recreational access, Busque said. He said he hopes Caverly's replacement will accept that and make changes such as improved snowmobile access and allowing more people into the park.

"Baxter was a very reasonable man," he said. "I hope they put somebody in that simply upholds the Deeds of Trust. That's all we want is somebody we can work with."

Caverly said he understands the frustration, which was especially intense in the earlier years.

"That was their back yard and they could do what they wanted (before the park). With the previous generation, there was a lot of resentment," he said. "It's tremendously settled down from where it was. That's not to say those are dead issues at all. They probably won't be for a couple more generations."

Caverly is well-known around Millinocket, the site of the park's headquarters and the gateway to the park. And, despite his share of critics, he's also well-respected.

"I never talked to anybody that didn't like him," said Duane Sennett, a longtime resident.

Sennett remembers going to the park office years ago to make his annual reservation for the campsite at Wassataquoik Lake, a remote site north of Katahdin. Sennett was told that a biologist needed the site to conduct a study of birds there. When Sennett asked why they had changed the reservation policy, Caverly stepped in, he said.

"He said, 'You wait a minute.' He got on the phone and he told the guy who's studying birds to postpone it, because we have a family from Millinocket who wants to use it," Sennett said.

KEEPING AN EYE ON THINGS

Residents say Caverly and the park have been good for the town.

When a paper mill closed here a few years ago, for example, Caverly made sure the park hired several of the laid-off mill workers to be rangers.

During the summer, cars and trucks from all over the country stop at the coffee shops, the hardware store or the service station on their way to Maine's famous wilderness park.

"He (Caverly) knows what the mandate of the park is," said Sennett.

"And he goes by it," said Victor Hannington, another longtime resident. "If he says something, he means it."

The men said they hope the park doesn't change when Caverly isn't around to defend it.

"Things might change a little, but I can't image they'd change very much," Sennett said.

"They pretty much got to go by the rules," Hannington said.

The Park Authority is conducting a national search for a new director. James Bissell, the park's resource manager, will take over as interim director July 1.

Caverly said he's not worried about big changes in the park after he retires. Gov. Baxter had faith in Maine people, he said, and so does he.

He also said he's leaving the park in good shape physically and financially and that the staff he hired is capable of carrying on Baxter's mission.

After some time away, Caverly said, he and his wife, Jan, are sure to return to the park's campgrounds to reflect, walk and rest. And, he said, he'll eventually speak his mind on issues facing the park as they come up.

"I'll participate," he said. "Some will like it and some won't."

Staff Writer John Richardson can be contacted at 791-6324 or at:

jrichardson@pressherald.com