A region as well as a river, the Allagash's vast watershed forms the center of the wild land that blankets northwestern Maine. Because of its remoteness, these half-million acres, once the hunting ground of the Abnaki, remain a woodsman's world. The history of the Allagash is filled with loggers, poachers, and inventors -- all seeking to conquer the wilderness. But there were also the naturalists like Henry David Thoreau, the game wardens, the guides, the mapmakers, and finally, the conservationists, who in 1966 created the Allagash Wilderness Waterway and gave Maine the honor of being the first state to preserve an entire river.
