Summer is now officially here and visitors and residents alike are enjoying the beautiful outdoor sites and parks we have to offer here in Presque Isle.
The city and state boast several parks around the community with Aroostook State Park, Maine’s first state park; and the city’s Peace Park, Veterans’ Park, Riverside Park and Mantle Lake Park.
One of the prettiest city parks is Mantle Lake Park, located at 110 Pine Street. This 46-acre park was enhanced over the years, beginning in the 1950s with work by the Lions Club. It features tennis courts, playground equipment, a 2-acre grassed play area, eight family picnic shelters, a large kitchen and picnic pavilion that can be rented for functions, restrooms, and walking trails around the lake.
The 2.2 miles of walking trails are for non-motorized recreation and feature forest floor (dirt) and some gravel surfaces. One of the trails features a “story walk” during the summer, sponsored by the city’s Mark & Emily Turner Memorial Library.
Fishing is also allowed in the lake, which is stocked with brook trout, for children under 16 and those with special permits from the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife.
However, this beautiful park was not always part of the Recreation & Parks Department and did not even start as a park.
Due to the large number of fires suffered in early Presque Isle, the Fire Association and town officials realized that a hand pump and hose from the stream were not sufficient to fight fires. The decision was made to build a water reservoir to help combat the fires.
More than a hundred years ago, a contractor from New York by the name of Mantle was hired to construct the reservoir. It was to be located at a log dam one mile southeast from the center of town (at the east end of Pine Street) with an elevation of 80 feet to provide pressure. A man-made lake was dug and filled with water from the Kennedy Brook. A system of pipes led from the lake, which was named Mantle after the contractor, to Main Street, with branches off the main pipes to provide running water to a few homes and a primitive sewer system. Construction began in the summer of 1887.
Amasa Howe, a well-known area grocer, was the first to receive water from Mantle Lake in his home, which was then located on Second Street. The water from the lake was so pure at that time that no chemical treatment was required. By 1911, however, chemical treatment of the water system was required due to pollution.
Mantle Lake officially became a city park in 1952. In 1953, the Lions Club built the first picnic pavilion at the lake. In 1957, eight more pavilions were added. Construction on the tennis courts began in 1960. The tennis courts were completed and available for use in 1962. Horseshoe pits were added in 1967. A kitchen was added to the large picnic shelter in 1968 and the playground equipment was installed in 1971, making the park what we recognize today.
The lake was “restored” in 2006 when it was drained and 21,000 cubic yards of sediment was removed.
Kimberly R. Smith is the secretary/treasurer of the Presque Isle Historical Society.
