WILLOW CREEK — The Mattawamkeag River Trail is complete.

Seven years after the $180,000 Recreational Trails Program grant was awarded, the full 14-mile corridor from the Willow Creek Trailhead to the Mattawamkeag Lake Overlook opened to the public on Saturday. The final 4.6-mile segment required two new bridges and a half-mile of boardwalk across a wetland area.

“This trail represents a transformation of how Willow Creek sees itself,” said First Selectman Arthur Whitcomb at the dedication ceremony. “We were a mill town. We suffered when the mill closed. We struggled through the years when our young people left and our storefronts emptied. And then we built a trail. That trail says something about who we are and who we want to be.”

The Gazette marked the occasion with a special full-color map pullout showing the complete trail corridor with elevation profiles, access points, parking areas, and points of interest. It was the most elaborate publication the Gazette had produced since the 1972 mill closure retrospective.

Jed Thorne, who contributed the historical annotations for the map, noted that the trail passes within sight of six historically significant sites, including the remains of the 1908 railbed bridge abutments, two abandoned logging camp foundations, and the Thorne’s Bend shipyard site.

“Every mile of this trail is a mile of history,” Thorne said. “The people who walk it are walking the same path that Wabanaki traders walked, that loggers walked, that railroad workers walked. The surface has changed, but the route is ancient.”

Early usage figures suggest the trail is already fulfilling its promise. The Aroostook County Recreation Council reported an average of 40 people per day using the first segment during July — before the final segment even opened. “We are seeing license plates from Massachusetts, New York, even Ontario,” said council director Margaret Hollis. “They are coming here to walk on a trail in a town they had never heard of five years ago.”

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