Monumental
Northern Maine is a vast wilderness of lakes and dense forests with very few paved roads but plenty of watch-out-for-moose signs. Those who live outside the state and have never set foot in Maine may be familiar with the name Katahdin, the northern terminus of the 2,000+ mile long Appalachian Trail. The mountain, whose Abenaki name means Highest Land, lies in Baxter State Park. In the summer of 2016, President Obama created a national monument just east of there. It is called Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument, and it could be America’s next national park. The Antiquities Act of 1906, signed into law by Teddy Roosevelt, gives the president the authority to create a national monument without the need to consult Congress. The law was created to preserve Ancestral Puebloan ruins in the Southwest and to impose harsh penalties for pothunters looting archeological sites. The wording is vague, yet leak-proof. It grants the p...