Katahdin Steamer
Maine Office of Tourism
During the mid- to late-19th century, sporting camps and resorts along Maine’s lakes offered visitors from more urban areas of the country a chance to refresh in a natural environment. A crucial piece of that tourist experience was a lake cruise on a steamboat. Not only did these boats provide scenic relaxation, they were often the only way for people to reach their destination in the remote Maine woods.
Few of those steamboats exist today, but one of them – Katahdin – on the National Register of Historic Places – is still in operation. Built in 1914 at Bath Iron Works, Katahdin delivered tourists and supplies to the Mount Kineo Resort and provided cruises on Moosehead Lake.
As the sporting camp and resort heyday declined and other forms of transportation became popular, the steamboats began vanishing from Maine’s waterways. Katahdin was almost one of them. After making its last passenger run on September 11, 1938, it languished until 1940, when it was purchased by a paper company and converted into a towboat for hauling timber across the lake.
If not for a group of locals, the steamboat affectionately called “Kate” would have been scuttled in 1976 when the paper company stopped using it. Wanting to keep Kate on the lake, they founded the nonprofit Moosehead Marine Museum, planning to use the boat as a floating marine museum. However, when they learned the steamboat could carry passengers with some repairs, their fundraising efforts refurbished the steamer and Kate was once again back in service on Moosehead Lake.
Though no longer powered by steam, a cruise on Katahdin is one of the signature tourist experiences in the Moosehead Lake region today, allowing passengers to experience the lake much as visitors did a century ago. Cruises are offered seasonally.
