Great Pond: Lost Access?

BY V. Paul Reynolds

Great Pond in Aurora off the airline road is a scenic, medium- sized body of water that forms the headwaters of the Union River watershed. As the crow flies, it is not that far from the Stud Mill Road. The pond is habitat for pickerel, bass, perch and stocked Brown Trout.

Normally it would be just another sleepy airline pond off the beaten path, not the focus of much public attention. Going back to the 1800s, there was always a public boat launch and right- of- way to the pond. That is until the U.S. government, a number of years ago, was gifted part of the lake shore by the late Robert Haskell. The government then developed an elaborate recreational facility there for active and retired military. Somewhere along the way, the U.S. Navy took over the facility from the Air Force.

Today, the Navy operates the facility. Since government ownership of the lake shore, there has been a roller coaster wrangle between the government and non-military taxpaying citizens and Great Pond residents as to whether the public’s right-of-way to the boat launch still exists.

Musson’s Lodge

In 1946 Rick Musson’s father built and ran a sporting camp on the lake’s Loon Island until the year 2000. Called Great Pond Lodge, hunters and fishermen got to the island from a boat that put in at the now controversial boat put in and right-of-way beside the military facility. According to Musson, who is a Great Pond resident and who inherited the now-closed lodge from his late father, the government in November of 2018 confiscated his $25,000.00 aluminum dock by gunpoint. He has not been compensated.

Tom Stott, a Great Pond Selectman, says that the Navy is also claiming ownership of part of what is a longstanding public road of the town of Great Pond which leads to the facility. He says there is a cloud hanging over this entire issue, not only of the public road ownership, but the public right of way to the boat launch at the Navy recreational facility. The town of Great Pond has reached out to U.S. Senator Susan Collins for some kind of clarity or resolution, but has been ostensibly brushed off by the Senator. Rick Musson says that a Maine Game Warden, who is the landowner relations coordinator for MDIF&W, has dug deeply into this issue and concluded that, regardless of the government’s deed to the lake shore, the precedent of adverse possession prevails and the government cannot restrict or cut off an historic right-of-way to the lake.

Lisa Butler, an attorney who lives in Great Pond, insists that this is a political issue that can only be resolved or settled by political action of one kind of another. Her view is that the U.S government does not have the authority to “steal a public road” from a locality or deny historic right of way to the lake.

Political Solution

Earlier this summer, a friend and I launched a boat at the facility with no interference from the facility operators and enjoyed a tour of Rick Musson’s old sporting lodge at Loon Island. Stepping into Great Pond Lodge was like entering a time machine from the 1950s. Musson worked there as youngster for his Dad and his love for the place and its memories was evident. It only compounds his fear that one day, if accessed is denied by the government, he will not be able to get to his place at Loon Island. Word is that the Hancock County District Attorney refuses to prosecute Great Pond residents who try to use the boat launch right of way against Navy wishes.

When we recovered our boat at the landing, a bystander advised us that we were being “photographed” by Navy staff.

Greg Burr, a retired state fisheries biologist and columnist for the Northwoods Sporting Journal, writes, “…if public access to the pond is denied, then by policy the Department will not stock the pond. Currently IF&W stocks yearling brown trout annually.”

Numerous attempts to reach the U.S. Navy public affairs officer for comment were unsuccessful. ( Phone calls were not returned).

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