EARLY HISTORY OF WHITE HOUSE LANDING
Nestled in the foothills of Mount Katahdin, Maine’s largest of mountains, amongst tens of thousands of protected acres of wilderness, on Pemadumcook Lake, Maine’s 5th largest lake, sits White House Landing Camps.
This site, located in T1-R10, is rich in history dating back to the late 1800s when it was a saw mill. At the turn of the century, an area of seven acres was cleared to make way for Great Northern Paper Company's base of operations for logging in the Debsconeag and Nahmakanta Lakes region.
We were lucky to find this photo of the original White House Landing site. Taken around 1910, it shows from left
to right the wharf barn, horse barn, wagon shed, tack shop, the white house and the black smith shop. The
clearing on the hill behind the tack shop is where our main lodge now sits - a log cabin built in 1930. The tack shop is
now a cabin with four bedrooms called " shore cottage". Note the stumps on the shore from the trees that were cut
to allow the water level to rise from the dam which was built at the outlet to facilitate floating logs to the mill.
A total of 17 buildings were erected. One of those was a huge 2-story building that accommodated 60 men. It was painted white - thus the name White House Landing. Other buildings included a blacksmith shop, a large wharf with an attached barn for the supplies that were brought up the lake by steamboat. A barn was erected for the 24 horses used for logging as well as several other buildings used for various purposes. Many artifacts from those older days adorn the walls of the main lodge today. The camps closed down the logging operation around 1940. At that time, it was used as a commercial sporting camp catering to fisherman and hunters.
By 1950, the camps once again went through a change to a new owner who used it as a private getaway from city life. During the transition, all of the original buildings, except for two, were torn down board by board for the lumber.
It wasn’t until 1985 that the camps once again became a commercial sporting camp and were shortly thereafter put on the market by the owners. After being on the market for nearly seven years, we purchased White House Landing in 1992. With no road access, no clientele, no electricity - it was really a hard sell. Fortunately, I just happened to own a huge pair of rose-colored glasses.