County looking to fix Big Moose Mountain access road
DOVER-FOXCROFT — Piscataquis County will repair Ski Resort Road leading up Big Moose Mountain. Exactly what improvements will be made — the timeline is to be determined — on the 1.6-mile travelway in Big Moose Township.
The county commissioners voted Tuesday morning to seek an estimate on repairs around the road culverts, following a request from the Friends of the Mountain. The pavement is deteriorating and a possible solution could be to convert to gravel.
County Manager Mike Williams visited Ski Resort Road the day before the meeting. He noticed some of the culverts were not packed in well.
A likely inexpensive fix would be to have repairs made around the culverts to remove some of the material, such as hot top instead of cold patch, fill it back in and smooth the surface.
“That’s going to take care of probably 75-80% of it,” Williams said.
Three years ago the county converted about 2,100 feet of Maple Road in Atkinson Township to gravel, breaking up pavement and adding ditching on both sides.
“When you go to all dirt, you are doing a lot of washout repair every single year,” Williams said.
Russell Mountain in Blanchard experiences these issues, he said
“Before we spend that kind of money we really should have an engineer say ‘Yes, this will work,’” Commissioner Adam Coover said. “Shortterm it fixes it, but longterm will it?”
The mountain has about 10,000 annual ski visits, including from area schools, Friends of the Mountain board member and Moosehead Lake Regional Economic Development Corporation President Margarita Contreni said.
“The condition of the road is poor,” she said.
Some vehicles have gone off the road and travelers should go below the 25 mph limit, Contreni said.
Volunteers travel up in warmer months to work on maintenance projects.
“So there’s people there constantly,” she said. “It would be a huge improvement for everybody to get that road fixed.”
“10,000 people going across it, that’s a lot of traffic,” Commissioners Chair Paul Davis said favoring repairs of some kind.
The nonprofit Friends of the Mountain is working to purchase the 1,700-acre Big Moose Mountain property through the “Ski the View, Save the Mountain” campaign. The property consists of 1,200 mountain acres and another 500 acres for projects to help sustain the area.
The organization is in negotiation with owner James Confalone on a purchase and sales agreement.
About two thirds of the campaign goal has been reached, Contreni said.
Friends of the Mountain and Moosehead Lake Region Economic Development Corporation launched “Ski the View, Save the Mountain” in 2025 to provide a permanent nonprofit ski area for the Moosehead Lake region and a year-round outdoor recreational asset to revitalize the area’s economy.
Located 5 miles north of Greenville in Big Moose Township, the 1,700-acre property is listed with Folsom Realty Group for $5.95 million.
The total $19.65 million project includes the purchase under Phase I, and Phase II would seek more than $13 million in additional funds through 2030 for more improvements to the site.
The $13.75 million would open the upper mountain; provide for new ski lifts, snowmaking equipment and infrastructure upgrades; renovate the upper mountain lodge; develop housing options; and secure private development for hotel renovation.
In other business, the old flagpoles on the upper level of the courthouse were removed the week prior.
Last month the commissioners approved spending $8,850 to remove the flagpoles. Money for the work is in the maintenance budget.
New flagpoles built into the ground were dedicated in 2024.