About Lake George Regional Park
Our Mission
At Lake George Regional Park we strive to develop, provide, and maintain affordable public access to the services and facilities offered at the park. The park is managed using principles of safety, stewardship, and service learning, and offers recreational, educational, and social opportunities for visitors. Our hope is that what people find and experience at Lake George will encourage their appreciation of each other and our natural world.
About Lake George
Lake George Regional Park (LGRP) is a day-use lakeside park established in 1992, owned by the State of Maine, leased through inter-local agreement by the towns of Skowhegan and Canaan, and managed for public use by Lake George Corporation (LGC). As the only waterfront park within a 30-mile radius, the park’s volunteer board of directors is continually improving the year-round educational programs, trails, amenities and events. Easily accessible off Route 2, each year a combination of roughly 20,000 community members and visitors use the lake and its surrounding 320 acres of land for swimming, fishing, picnicking, boating, hiking, skiing, playing fields, and group use facilities.
Our History
In periodic surveys of recreational resources throughout Maine, the Department of Conservation (DOC) repeatedly identified a deficiency in west-central Maine where residents clearly needed more resources for water-based recreation. Seeking to fill this need, the Department searched for 12 years before an ideal property came on the market–a former summer camp at the southern end of Lake George with 8,000 feet of shorefront and two sandy beaches perfectly suited to swimming and picnicking. This incredible opportunity might have slipped by if the Land for Maine’s Future (LMF) Program and the DOC had not supplied the necessary funding.
Area residents, delighted with the State’s lakefront acquisition, quickly became active in helping to build and maintain the new regional park. Nearly a decade after the park was created, park staff and community volunteers successfully sought a second LMF grant to expand the park, adding 37 acres and 2000 feet of shore frontage to the original parcel for a total of 320 acres. Hiking trails have since been created on this addition.
Throughout the year, community members enjoy the park, swimming, fishing, boating, hiking, cross-country skiing, and ice-fishing. They also join in the Fishing Derby held annually the last weekend of February as a part of the Somerset Snowfest , and Maine’s Garlic Festival held annually the first weekend October.
Lake George Needs Your Help
Our challenge to meet our mission continues: to provide and maintain affordable public access to the services and facilities of Lake George Regional Park. We need your help to ensure unlimited access to this wonderful natural resource.