HOULTON, Maine — More than 130 years ago, long before the canoes, kayaks, and jetskis appeared on Nickerson Lake, there was Nelson Herrin and his steamboat.
Herrin, a local musician, veteran and community leader, was the driving force behind the creation of an idyllic landscape at the lake, some of which still exists and which others continue to build on.
The Skowhegan born businessman was in his early 20s when he volunteered for the Mexican-American War. In 1860, he also organized the Silver Cornet Band which, two years later, volunteered its services in the Civil War.
It was in 1883, according to Cora Putnam, author of “The Story of Houlton,” that Herrin returned to Houlton and convinced others to build summer cottages on Nickerson Lake. He built up his own property on the north side of the waterway, the author noted, and constructed an establishment called Lakewood. The public hall contained a dance floor, a cook house, and tables for outside picnics, attracting residents from the surrounding communities to the waterway.
Herrin also transported a boat, the steamer Mabel, to Nickerson Lake, which he used to give guests tours of the lake. According to Putnam, the vessel had once been used as a ferry between Eastport and St. Andrews, New Brunswick, Canada.
Pictures from the Aroostook County Historical and Art Museum show men in suits and overcoats and women in tulip bell skirts and blouses with matching hats, waiting on the dock for the steamer full of people to return.
The Mabel sank at Nickerson Lake, but it isn’t clear what caused the sinking or when that occurred.
Leigh Cummings, curator of the Houlton museum, said during a recent interview that he was not sure when the sinking had occurred.
He said it is believed that the crippled boat was pulled up into the shallows of the lake and then abandoned.
A couple of people said they’d heard about the steamboat and had even spent some of their summers at the lake looking for remnants.
Marilyn Howland, who now lives in Amherst, Massachusetts, said she “loved the summers I spent on Nickerson as a child.”
“My parents had friends who had a camp there,” said the former Houlton resident. “I am not old enough to remember Lakewood or anything, but we used to hear stories about a boat sinking and that the smokestack was still in the water. We tried to find it, but never did.”
Jason St. Peter, a Presque Isle resident, said that he too spent time at Nickerson Lake searching for the elusive smokestack.
“My grandfather, who owned the camp, told us that you could see it in the silty bottom if ‘you looked real hard,’” he recalled, laughing. “We never found anything but rocks, trees, and a few old sneakers.”
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- A vintage view of Nickerson Lake after Nelson Herrin, a local businessman, encouraged residents in the late 1800’s to settle on the lake and constructed an establishment called Lakewood. The public hall contained a dance floor, a cook house, and tables for outside picnics, attracting residents from the surrounding communities to the waterway. (AROOSTOOK HISTORICAL and ART MUSEUM)
