August 20, 2007
Trailblazer | The rail-to-trail project and Arthur Tenan's plans for a Cherryfield lodge could be the start of something big Down East
By Jeffrey Bouley
In the strip of land running behind the nine acres owned by Arthur Tenan's mother in Cherryfield, Tenan sees opportunity. He sees the return of tourism and economic vitality to his home town. In the property itself, he sees his own piece of that economic pie in the form of a future lodge that will be part of his fledgling venture, Downeast Wilderness Experience.
Both visions rest heavily on the long-awaited Downeast Sunrise Trail ˆ a trail that doesn't yet exist. The trail, which runs behind Tenan's mother's land, is a former rail line that used to run 127 miles from Brewer to Calais.
And there isn't likely to be a completed trail until 2008. But after some 20 years of effort on the part of citizens and groups in Hancock and Washington counties and the intervention of the Maine Department of Conservation (MDOC), the arrival of the Sunrise Trail is finally on the horizon. Tenan sees the opening of the Sunrise Trail as good news for him, for Cherryfield and for the Down East region in general.
"For me, it's a waiting game right now as I see how my plans develop and how things like soil tests come out," Tenan says. "But that lodge and the people coming through it are becoming a lot clearer right about now."
But Tenan and others readily admit that the arrival of the trail won't guarantee the arrival of tourist dollars. Even though projections estimate the trail could add more than $11 million in tourism funds to Maine's $14 billion annual tourism industry, few believe the trail itself will rescue the economically struggling Washington County or Hancock County. Long-term success will require more people like Tenan to take a bit of risk and be willing to invest their time and money to support tourism along the trail, notes Jim Parker, chairman of the Washington County Development Authority. "You need to have development along the trail," he says. "A trail alone doesn't do much economically. You need access, you need vehicle and equipment rentals, you need lodging, you need activities and you need businesses that tourists will want to patronize."
What Arthur Tenan is doing now with Downeast Wilderness Experience he could do without the trail, both Parker and Tenan admit. Tenan already manages some camping sites about 30 miles from Cherryfield and owns 100 acres of land on the Narraguagus River several miles from his mother's Main Street property.
"But what the trail does is give him some focus and provide some hand-in-hand boosting for his own project and the trail itself," Parker says. "We need more people like him who will stick their necks out a bit."
Out of the starting gate
Tenan may be sticking his neck out, but he says he didn't want to commit too much of his time and money to building a Sunrise Trail-related project until he could be fairly certain the trail would actually be built. That was far from a foregone conclusion.
For example, Sen. Dennis Damon (D-Trenton) spearheaded a Trails for a Healthy Maine bond early this year in the amount of $10 million, and funds from that bond would have partially covered the cost to convert the Calais Branch line railbed into a four-season recreational trail. But the Hancock County senator saw his idea killed by the Legislature's Appropriations Committee in April.
That didn't stop the Downeast Sunrise Trail Coalition from continuing to move forward, as it had raised some money privately and some government funds had been set aside to assist the group in its goals. Tenan was impressed by the coalition's tenacity and was convinced enough that the trail would become a reality. In his mother's property, Tenan saw an opportunity: "The property had been up for sale for about a year, but when I heard that the trail really seemed to be a go, I asked my mother if she'd be willing to wait a bit and sell the land to me instead," Tenan says. (The land hasn't changed hands yet, and mother and son haven't talked specific numbers yet. But Tenan ˆ who works by day for Stillwater-based construction firm Sargent Corp. ˆ expects that to happen "soon.")
As of June, the Downeast Sunrise Trail isn't simply coasting on a few meager funds and the tenacity of concerned Washington and Hancock county residents but also on some serious funding from the state. MDOC, with some help from the Maine Department of Transportation, announced in late June that it had secured most of the of the money necessary to fund the estimated $2.55 million construction project to turn roughly 85 miles of railbed into a functional, multiuse trail. (For more on this, see "Rail away," page 27). And a few weeks prior to that, having been suitably impressed by Tenan's business plan, the Washington County Development Authority gave Tenan's Downeast Wilderness Experience a $9,750 grant for designing and planning the lodge and marketing related to Tenan's website, DWEcamping.com, which he launched last month.
"When we saw Arthur's business plan, it just seemed to us that it fit perfectly with the whole trail plan," Parker says. "The trail project looks to bring in jobs and target a wide range of tourists, and those are the same things Arthur was focusing on."
Tenan hopes to break ground on the lodge in the fall, but is still wading through the planning and permitting process and trying to raise as much money as he can for the project. Because the project hasn't broken ground yet and will likely be built in stages, Tenan isn't sure of the final cost, but figures it will be somewhere in the $600,000-plus range.
The property Tenan plans to buy from his mother is located in the center of Cherryfield and enjoys 800 feet of frontage along the railbed that will become the Downeast Sunrise Trail. The lodge would sit on a hill, commanding a view of the nearby Narraguagus River. Under his current plans, which Tenan admits are still subject to change, the lodge would have a restaurant capable of seating 100 people, three suites and a few standard-sized motel-type rooms, and six to eight rustic cabins close to the trail.
Tenan figures the annual tax valuation for his finished project would be between $700,000 and $750,000 and he estimates he'll create 12 to 15 jobs between lodge staff and his own tour guides, not to mention the business he figures he'll generate for tour operations throughout the area and other tourist-friendly businesses.
In addition to organizing tours and providing lodging, Tenan plans to rent ATVs, bicycles and other recreational vehicles and equipment. And his 100 acres of land a few miles from Main Street can provide a place for camping, fishing or hiking as well as be a jumping-off point to visit places like the Donnell Pond Reserve.
He also negotiated a deal to manage three rustic campgrounds in Hancock County that used to be Park Service campgrounds the state gave up running years ago. "It's just another piece of the pie," he says. "People could use the lodge as a base and go spend a night or two camping in tents or cabins in Hancock or they could skip the lodge entirely and go camping at my other sites."
Tenan hopes to be up and running with the lodge by late spring or early summer of next year, to coincide with the expected completion of the Downeast Sunrise Trail.
"Being located on the river, Cherryfield used to be famous as a destination for Atlantic salmon fishing back in the 50s and 60s," Tenan says. "It was painless back then but we've long since lost that kind of tourism and a lot of people are working to get that back. And I think we can."
A Down East buzz
Although his interests are focused primarily on Cherryfield, Tenan is well aware that the trail has larger implications, and he is one of many who hope it can help put the Down East region on the tourism map. Bar Harbor and Acadia both have name-brand appeal for travelers, he says, but they're also on the coast where tourism travel tends to be concentrated. The trick, Tenan says, is to get people excited about going inland.
As the trail comes together and tourism businesses begin to cluster around it, the Sunrise Trail could become the draw that the Down East region needs, he says, bringing in visitors including hikers, off-road vehicle enthusiasts and cross-country skiers.
"Sen. Damon, who's been a big part of bringing the trail to the public and government consciousness, commented to me recently that something like 3.3 million people a year travel right by the end of the Sunrise Trail," Tenan notes. "We only need to capture a very small amount of that traffic into Cherryfield to be successful."
What Down East has lacked traditionally is a strong "brand image," notes Bowdoin College economics professor David Vail. This is a fate shared by both the interior and Down East regions of Maine, and one of the reasons they remain economically distressed is that they lack powerful destination drivers that generate widespread brand recognition and confer a marketing edge over better-branded competitors in the eastern United States region like the White Mountains, Champlain Valley and Adirondacks, or even more well-known Maine destinations like Bar Harbor, Acadia National Park or Boothbay Harbor.
Parker and Tenan, and others like the president of the Downeast Sunrise Trail Coalition, Sally Jacobsˆwho has worked for 15 years on getting the trail up and runningˆbelieve the trail is at least one key to giving them that brand identity to draw tourists in.
But as Parker notes, there are potential hurdles remaining. He fears that once the trail opens, the various contingents using it may begin to squabble over access to the trail. Hikers and cross-country skiers may not want to contend with ATVs and snowmobiles, for example, and there could be lobbying efforts on the part of various groups to limit access to the trail or ban certain kinds of travel there.
"Four-wheelers, for example, often aren't that popular, and they get banned from a lot of trails," Parker notes. "But I for one don't want to see access limited to just certain groups, and people like Arthur need that open access so that they can rent vehicles to people. If he or others are going to offer a wide range of rentals and options, open access is a must."
"Hopefully, I'm wrong that there will eventually be conflicts," Parker continues, "because being as multiuse as possible is what is going to keep the trail alive and ensure that businesses other than Arthur's open up all up and down the trail."
Amy Powers, director of CruiseMaine USA, agrees, noting that in her own town of Windham and elsewhere, multiuse trails have often done a good job of perking up the local economy. She and Tenan haven't had any dealings as yet, but with cruises coming into Bar Harbor and providing potential traffic for Cherryfield and other Down East locales, both suspect that they will be in contact with each other at some point. And Powers agrees with Parker that the potential for conflict between various groups is a risk. She suspects that equestrians vs. ATV riders will be the biggest potential for arguments but also noted that horse riders tend to be well in the minority of trail users.
Tenan, for his part, is confident that the trail will be good not only for him but for the region. "People like me need an anchor, and here, that is going to be the trail, I think," he says. "This really has the potential to be the Mount Katahdin or Moosehead Lake of Washington County."
Both visions rest heavily on the long-awaited Downeast Sunrise Trail ˆ a trail that doesn't yet exist. The trail, which runs behind Tenan's mother's land, is a former rail line that used to run 127 miles from Brewer to Calais.
And there isn't likely to be a completed trail until 2008. But after some 20 years of effort on the part of citizens and groups in Hancock and Washington counties and the intervention of the Maine Department of Conservation (MDOC), the arrival of the Sunrise Trail is finally on the horizon. Tenan sees the opening of the Sunrise Trail as good news for him, for Cherryfield and for the Down East region in general.
"For me, it's a waiting game right now as I see how my plans develop and how things like soil tests come out," Tenan says. "But that lodge and the people coming through it are becoming a lot clearer right about now."
But Tenan and others readily admit that the arrival of the trail won't guarantee the arrival of tourist dollars. Even though projections estimate the trail could add more than $11 million in tourism funds to Maine's $14 billion annual tourism industry, few believe the trail itself will rescue the economically struggling Washington County or Hancock County. Long-term success will require more people like Tenan to take a bit of risk and be willing to invest their time and money to support tourism along the trail, notes Jim Parker, chairman of the Washington County Development Authority. "You need to have development along the trail," he says. "A trail alone doesn't do much economically. You need access, you need vehicle and equipment rentals, you need lodging, you need activities and you need businesses that tourists will want to patronize."
What Arthur Tenan is doing now with Downeast Wilderness Experience he could do without the trail, both Parker and Tenan admit. Tenan already manages some camping sites about 30 miles from Cherryfield and owns 100 acres of land on the Narraguagus River several miles from his mother's Main Street property.
"But what the trail does is give him some focus and provide some hand-in-hand boosting for his own project and the trail itself," Parker says. "We need more people like him who will stick their necks out a bit."
Out of the starting gate
Tenan may be sticking his neck out, but he says he didn't want to commit too much of his time and money to building a Sunrise Trail-related project until he could be fairly certain the trail would actually be built. That was far from a foregone conclusion.
For example, Sen. Dennis Damon (D-Trenton) spearheaded a Trails for a Healthy Maine bond early this year in the amount of $10 million, and funds from that bond would have partially covered the cost to convert the Calais Branch line railbed into a four-season recreational trail. But the Hancock County senator saw his idea killed by the Legislature's Appropriations Committee in April.
That didn't stop the Downeast Sunrise Trail Coalition from continuing to move forward, as it had raised some money privately and some government funds had been set aside to assist the group in its goals. Tenan was impressed by the coalition's tenacity and was convinced enough that the trail would become a reality. In his mother's property, Tenan saw an opportunity: "The property had been up for sale for about a year, but when I heard that the trail really seemed to be a go, I asked my mother if she'd be willing to wait a bit and sell the land to me instead," Tenan says. (The land hasn't changed hands yet, and mother and son haven't talked specific numbers yet. But Tenan ˆ who works by day for Stillwater-based construction firm Sargent Corp. ˆ expects that to happen "soon.")
As of June, the Downeast Sunrise Trail isn't simply coasting on a few meager funds and the tenacity of concerned Washington and Hancock county residents but also on some serious funding from the state. MDOC, with some help from the Maine Department of Transportation, announced in late June that it had secured most of the of the money necessary to fund the estimated $2.55 million construction project to turn roughly 85 miles of railbed into a functional, multiuse trail. (For more on this, see "Rail away," page 27). And a few weeks prior to that, having been suitably impressed by Tenan's business plan, the Washington County Development Authority gave Tenan's Downeast Wilderness Experience a $9,750 grant for designing and planning the lodge and marketing related to Tenan's website, DWEcamping.com, which he launched last month.
"When we saw Arthur's business plan, it just seemed to us that it fit perfectly with the whole trail plan," Parker says. "The trail project looks to bring in jobs and target a wide range of tourists, and those are the same things Arthur was focusing on."
Tenan hopes to break ground on the lodge in the fall, but is still wading through the planning and permitting process and trying to raise as much money as he can for the project. Because the project hasn't broken ground yet and will likely be built in stages, Tenan isn't sure of the final cost, but figures it will be somewhere in the $600,000-plus range.
The property Tenan plans to buy from his mother is located in the center of Cherryfield and enjoys 800 feet of frontage along the railbed that will become the Downeast Sunrise Trail. The lodge would sit on a hill, commanding a view of the nearby Narraguagus River. Under his current plans, which Tenan admits are still subject to change, the lodge would have a restaurant capable of seating 100 people, three suites and a few standard-sized motel-type rooms, and six to eight rustic cabins close to the trail.
Tenan figures the annual tax valuation for his finished project would be between $700,000 and $750,000 and he estimates he'll create 12 to 15 jobs between lodge staff and his own tour guides, not to mention the business he figures he'll generate for tour operations throughout the area and other tourist-friendly businesses.
In addition to organizing tours and providing lodging, Tenan plans to rent ATVs, bicycles and other recreational vehicles and equipment. And his 100 acres of land a few miles from Main Street can provide a place for camping, fishing or hiking as well as be a jumping-off point to visit places like the Donnell Pond Reserve.
He also negotiated a deal to manage three rustic campgrounds in Hancock County that used to be Park Service campgrounds the state gave up running years ago. "It's just another piece of the pie," he says. "People could use the lodge as a base and go spend a night or two camping in tents or cabins in Hancock or they could skip the lodge entirely and go camping at my other sites."
Tenan hopes to be up and running with the lodge by late spring or early summer of next year, to coincide with the expected completion of the Downeast Sunrise Trail.
"Being located on the river, Cherryfield used to be famous as a destination for Atlantic salmon fishing back in the 50s and 60s," Tenan says. "It was painless back then but we've long since lost that kind of tourism and a lot of people are working to get that back. And I think we can."
A Down East buzz
Although his interests are focused primarily on Cherryfield, Tenan is well aware that the trail has larger implications, and he is one of many who hope it can help put the Down East region on the tourism map. Bar Harbor and Acadia both have name-brand appeal for travelers, he says, but they're also on the coast where tourism travel tends to be concentrated. The trick, Tenan says, is to get people excited about going inland.
As the trail comes together and tourism businesses begin to cluster around it, the Sunrise Trail could become the draw that the Down East region needs, he says, bringing in visitors including hikers, off-road vehicle enthusiasts and cross-country skiers.
"Sen. Damon, who's been a big part of bringing the trail to the public and government consciousness, commented to me recently that something like 3.3 million people a year travel right by the end of the Sunrise Trail," Tenan notes. "We only need to capture a very small amount of that traffic into Cherryfield to be successful."
What Down East has lacked traditionally is a strong "brand image," notes Bowdoin College economics professor David Vail. This is a fate shared by both the interior and Down East regions of Maine, and one of the reasons they remain economically distressed is that they lack powerful destination drivers that generate widespread brand recognition and confer a marketing edge over better-branded competitors in the eastern United States region like the White Mountains, Champlain Valley and Adirondacks, or even more well-known Maine destinations like Bar Harbor, Acadia National Park or Boothbay Harbor.
Parker and Tenan, and others like the president of the Downeast Sunrise Trail Coalition, Sally Jacobsˆwho has worked for 15 years on getting the trail up and runningˆbelieve the trail is at least one key to giving them that brand identity to draw tourists in.
But as Parker notes, there are potential hurdles remaining. He fears that once the trail opens, the various contingents using it may begin to squabble over access to the trail. Hikers and cross-country skiers may not want to contend with ATVs and snowmobiles, for example, and there could be lobbying efforts on the part of various groups to limit access to the trail or ban certain kinds of travel there.
"Four-wheelers, for example, often aren't that popular, and they get banned from a lot of trails," Parker notes. "But I for one don't want to see access limited to just certain groups, and people like Arthur need that open access so that they can rent vehicles to people. If he or others are going to offer a wide range of rentals and options, open access is a must."
"Hopefully, I'm wrong that there will eventually be conflicts," Parker continues, "because being as multiuse as possible is what is going to keep the trail alive and ensure that businesses other than Arthur's open up all up and down the trail."
Amy Powers, director of CruiseMaine USA, agrees, noting that in her own town of Windham and elsewhere, multiuse trails have often done a good job of perking up the local economy. She and Tenan haven't had any dealings as yet, but with cruises coming into Bar Harbor and providing potential traffic for Cherryfield and other Down East locales, both suspect that they will be in contact with each other at some point. And Powers agrees with Parker that the potential for conflict between various groups is a risk. She suspects that equestrians vs. ATV riders will be the biggest potential for arguments but also noted that horse riders tend to be well in the minority of trail users.
Tenan, for his part, is confident that the trail will be good not only for him but for the region. "People like me need an anchor, and here, that is going to be the trail, I think," he says. "This really has the potential to be the Mount Katahdin or Moosehead Lake of Washington County."
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