Wilderness, Trust, and Finality: The Baxter State Park Snowmobile Dispute

The recent controversies surrounding the use of snowmobiles in Baxter State Park exemplify the human essence of the trust relationship and the law's awkwardness in addressing the inherently nonlegalistic principles of trust. Baxter State Park is an area of 201,018 acres in northern Maine, purchased by former Governor Percival Proctor Baxter and then donated to the State of Maine in trust. The park includes Mount Katahdin, the highest mountain in Maine and the head of the Appalachian Trail. As Chief Justice McKusick wrote in a recent decision construing the trust, "in its combination of size, uniqueness, permanence, and vision, his gift of Baxter State Park to the people of Maine has no equal.” This Article explores those attributes of the Baxter trust—uniqueness, permanence, and vision—that embody its highest aspirations and place it at the center of legal controversy. The particular controversy addressed by this Article concerns the compatibility of a modern form of recreation—the snowmobile—with the "paramount purpose" of Baxter's gift: "to create and preserve an area in which persons could have a wilderness experience.”