Teddy Roosevelt in Maine

Teddy Roosevelt spent time in Island Falls as a young man with his life long friend, Bill Sewell.  Beginning in 1878, Sewell, a Maine Guide and woodsman, mentored Roosevelt. The two men hiked Katahdin, hunted and camped in lean-tos in the balsam woods. Sewell’s influence was instrumental in the asthmatic Harvard junior’s development into manhood. He remained Roosevelt’s friend through his entire life and the two wrote many letters  back and forth. In the late 19^th century, trips into Maine’s vast wilderness were increasingly fashionable. Trips to Maine’s backcountry promoted  an experienced where people might meet “adversity …with strength and wisdom.” Towns such as Patten and Island Falls were built upon the lumber industry , farming and also hosting those who sought  to encounter the untamed landscape of Northern Maine in the hope to gain the physical and emotional benefits of Nature.