Baker Branch Saint John River

Baker Branch Saint John River
File:IPbridgeBakerBranchSaintJohnRiver.png
Mouth
Progression	SW Branch – Saint John River
Basin countries	United States
Mouth elevation	1,100 feet (340 m)

The Baker Branch Saint John River is a 48.0-mile-long (77.2 km) river in Maine. The Baker Stream originates in Upper First Saint John Pond () northeast of Truesdale Mountain in the northwest corner of Maine Township 4, Range 17, WELS. The stream flows sequentially through Lower First Saint John Pond, Second Saint John Pond, and Third Saint John Pond before entering T.5 R.17, WELS, to flow into Fourth Saint John Pond. The outflow of 4th St. John Pond (), now the Baker Branch, flows into Fifth Saint John Pond on the boundary with T.6 R.17, WELS. In 1939, Fifth Saint John Pond was impounded in T.6 R.17 to form a diversion into the North Branch Penobscot River, but most flow follows the original channel north to Baker Lake at the confluence with Sweeney Brook in T.7 R.17, WELS. Turner Brook and Brailey Brook are tributary to the branch in T.8 R.17, WELS, before the Baker Branch's confluence with the Southwest Branch Saint John River in T.9 R.17, WELS.

History

The Baker Branch drains a portion of the Maine North Woods utilized for 20th century pulpwood production. Spruce and Balsam Fir trees were bucked into 4-foot (1.2-meter) lengths beginning in 1917 and loaded onto sleds towed by draft animals or log haulers to the nearest river or lake. Log drives would float the pulpwood logs to a downstream paper mill when the snow and ice melted. A problem arose because pulpwood growing around the Saint John Ponds was destined for Great Northern Paper Company's Millinocket mill on the West Branch Penobscot River. The Seboomook Lake and Saint John Railroad was built in 1921 to carry pulpwood southerly from Fifth Saint John Pond to Seboomook Lake. The railroad followed the east bank of the Baker Branch between the 4th and 5th Saint John Ponds. The railroad was dismantled and converted to a truck road in the 1950s after the canal was constructed to convey floating pulpwood from Fifth Saint John Pond to the North Branch Penobscot River.

Baker Lake

Baker Lake
Location	Somerset County, Maine
Coordinates
Basin countries	United States
Max. length	3 mi (4.8 km)
Max. width	1,300 yd (1.2 km)
Surface area	1,255 acres (508 ha)
Max. depth	33 feet (10 m)
Water volume	13,929 acre⋅ft (17,181,000 m3)
Surface elevation	1,181 ft (360 m)

File:SquaretailTrout.png

Canoe paddle with 18-inch (46 cm) brook trout caught at Baker Lake in 1959 prior to introduction of salmon and muskellunge.

Baker Lake is the largest lake on the Baker Branch. The lake was originally populated with brook trout, yellow perch, fallfish, and white sucker. The Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife stocked the lake with land-locked Atlantic salmon in 1967, and then with rainbow smelt in 1970 as a food source for the salmon. Canadians introduced muskellunge into Lac Frontière in Quebec; and by 1986, muskellunge had entered Baker Lake by swimming down the Northwest Branch and up the Baker Branch.

See also

• List of rivers of Maine

References

• Maine Streamflow Data from the USGS
• Maine Watershed Data From Environmental Protection Agency