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daeedorian t1_itmhxln wrote

It’s a shame that they closed it off to the public— but in a way, it’s also wild that it wasn’t even posted until recently, and nobody seemed to mind visitors.

It seems like a lot of these strange but beautiful remote places in Maine get discovered and posted online, and then visitor numbers spike to an unprecedented level.

The eventual result is either that the attraction is made more formally public with signs and parking etc, which is great, but comes at the cost of mystique— or, sadly, they are made permanently inaccessible to the public, as was the case at Onawa.

I’ve come across a few remarkable and unknown places like that—Maine has many.

My approach is to be forthcoming about these places in person, ie, literal word-of-mouth—but I don’t post them to reddit or elsewhere online, because doing so can have really unfortunate and unintended effects.

Edit: Not at all a criticism of this lovely photo—the damage is already done at Onawa. Mostly just ruminating on the way things are changed by the internet.

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MeEvilBob t1_itmz2zc wrote

That's why you have to be really careful about what you post about places online.

Once enough people hear about a place someone proposes having a party there and boom, no trespassing signs and police patrols.

The Eagle Lake locomotives had no graffiti and even had some intact glass on the gauges until a few years ago when they became really popular online. Luckily they at least require enough deep woods hiking to keep them from becoming a popular family playground.

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daeedorian t1_itn42cq wrote

Yeah, the locomotives are definitely one of the similar examples of backwoods Maine obscura that came to mind.

I do appreciate that the NMW and other concerned organizations responded to the huge uptick in interest in the locomotives by establishing a drivable dirt road with a nice trailhead and hiking path--but that increased accessibility does come with the liability you describe.

I get why people post stuff.

I think it's nice that folks find something really cool and want to share it. I know I have gotten that same impulse.

However, yes--in those moments, it's really important to remember that the internet doesn't need to know about everything, and you might inadvertently have a really negative impact on a place by publishing it online.

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MeEvilBob t1_itn4cgk wrote

Many a pristine old water hole has turned into a trash-covered party spot.

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