4 Best Sights in Greenville, The North Woods

A mile from downtown Greenville, the 1890s Victorian Eveleth-Crafts-Sheridan Historical House has changed little since the last resident of a prominent Greenville family lived here, though renovations to some rooms over the decades prior reveal evolving 20th-century lifestyle trends, adding interest to the delightfully guided tours. Each year there’s a new changing exhibit within the period rooms. The original kitchen, state of the art back in the day, is a highlight; cooks will also savor the collection of old utensils and kitchen items in a basement gallery. Rare South American oak furniture and wainscoting match in the dining room. You can even check out the attic. In the carriage house, Moosehead Lumbermen's Museum showcases the region's storied logging history. A highlight is the 30-foot bateau used on log drives until the 1960s. Tools of the trade are displayed, from axes and saws to Peavys, a pole with a hook used to move logs downriver. In the barn are exhibits on outdoor subjects like Maine Warden Service flight rescues and wildlife—check out the bobcat, moose, and caribou mounts. On the large grounds, a sunken garden invites.

At East Cove in downtown Greenville, the 1904 "Community House," as this former church is known, is one of two Moosehead Historical Society museum locales. Some displays on local history and culture are in the auditorium, with original wood trim, wainscoting, and floor and stained glass atop the arched windows. The Native American exhibit showcases artifacts and items dating from 9,000 BC and shares the stories of residents such as Henry Perley (1885–1972), a guide and author who gained fame as a performer in Wild West shows and movies. Another exhibit reveals the impact of aviation—from early bush pilots to Greenville's annual International Seaplane Fly-In the weekend after Labor Day—in this remote region. Many visitors come for the display on the Air Force B-52 plane crash that killed seven of nine crew members in 1963. You can get information about the short hike to the debris-littered crash site, now a memorial, north of town. Outside the museum, sculptures honor Henry David Thoreau and his Penobscot guides, Chief Joseph Attean and Joseph Polis, who departed with him from Greenville for Maine's wilds. There are also changing exhibits.

Nine miles northeast of Greenville on Moosehead Lake, this 925-acre park has good lakefront swimming, a 2-mile walking trail with water views, two boat-launching ramps, a playground, and two campgrounds with a total of 90 sites. In winter, the entrance road is plowed to access the groomed cross-country ski trails and the lake for ice fishing and snowmobiling.

Accessible primarily by steamship, Kineo House was a thriving upscale summer resort below its hulking namesake: 700-foot cliffs on an islandlike 1,150-acre peninsula jutting into Moosehead Lake. The last of three successive hotels with this name was built here in 1884 and became America's largest inland waterfront hotel. It was torn down in 1938, but Kineo remains an outstanding day trip. Now part of Mount Kineo State Park, summit trails lead to a fire tower that rewards with a 360-degree sweep of Maine's largest lake and rugged mountains near and far. Hikers scramble on the challenging Indian Trail (about a mile), but it has amazing views, and you can descend on the easy 1.1-mile Bridle Trail through the woods. All hikes begin on the 2.2-mile Carriage Trail, a flat, shore-hugging remnant of the halcyon hotel days and part of the 6.1-mile trail network. There's no road access, but from Rockwood Town Landing you can hop 9-hole Mount Kineo Golf Course's boat shuttle (fee), which has the same operating season as the course (closed mid-Oct.–late May). One of New England's oldest courses (not part of the park), it’s surrounded by historic summer "cottages." The small clubhouse has a snack bar and welcomes hikers.