Trail Center Update - Crew Cabins!


We are nearing the trail’s end for the campaign and offer our warm thanks to all 471 donors. We must reach the campaign goal to advance construction of the Trail Center main building and maintenance building. 

In June 2023, the campaign received a grant for $75,000 from The Windover Foundation to support the construction of the Trail Center in Skowhegan, Maine. We are profoundly grateful for their generous support. 

Thanks to a partnership with the Maine Army National Guard through its Innovative Readiness Program, roadwork and preliminary construction began in 2022 and continued into 2023. This Program offers free labor, tools, and equipment to municipal and nonprofit entities for projects deemed useful to the Guard as a training exercise.  

In 2022, the 136th Engineering Battalion of the Maine National Guard installed erosion control features, removed stumps, and brought 800 feet of the road to sub-grade. This past June, soldiers built two Crew Cabins (sleeping quarters) at the Maine Trail Center site.  

These two buildings are the first on the site. MATC Corresponding Secretary Doug Dolan coordinated preparations with MATC volunteers clearing the site, meeting with the National Guard team, and ordering materials.  Doug and volunteers also added cedar shingles on both buildings. The cabins will house the Maine Trail Crew on their off days when they are not working on the Appalachian Trail. 

The dollar value of the work the Guard has done so far is $173,466. MATC is deeply grateful to the Guard for their extraordinary partnership with us. 

We will be adding photos of the National Guard’s work on the MATC website. Visit https://trailchampions.matc.org/ 

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