Our History

The Baxter Park Wilderness Fund Trust was the brainchild of
Frank and Margery Trautmann of Islesboro and Rockport, Maine.

Frank was a longtime, active Baxter Park volunteer.  For more than two decades, he maintained a section of the Appalachian Trail from Katahdin Stream Campground to the Baxter State Park border.  In addition, he cut down trees on his Islesboro property and milled them into components which he then delivered to the Park for building lean-tos.  

His love for the Park and for the people who worked there led him to take two special steps in the 2000s.  In 2006, he and his wife Margery played a key role in the State’s acquisition of Katahdin Lake and surrounding lands, which were subsequently incorporated into the Park.  Then, in 2007, he convinced Governor John Baldacci to establish a quasi-state entity known as the Baxter Park Wilderness Fund to provide financial support to supplement the amounts already provided by the Park’s existing trust and endowment funds.  Frank made significant gifts to this new Fund in its early years, and then left a portion of his estate to the Fund upon his death in 2014.

In late 2020, by mutual agreement, the Fund separated from the State and became an independent organization now known as the Baxter Park Wilderness Fund Trust.  Today the Trust qualifies as a federally tax-exempt entity under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.

Mr. Trautmann established the Fund (now the Trust) specifically to enable those who loved the Park to contribute to its financial well-being.  The Trust gladly accepts unrestricted contributions.  All contributions will be added to Trust principal and will thereby increase the amounts that the trustees can distribute each year to support Baxter State Park.  For more on this, see the DONATE page.