Tannery Shores - The Next Chapter
If you read our last newsletter, Tannery Shores will be familiar to you. We introduced our plans for this historic property on Spednic Lake and shared some of what we believed it could become. Since then, a lot has happened, and the vision is beginning to feel much more real.
What began with a simple goal of protecting public access to the lake has grown into something we believe can have a lasting impact on the Woodie Wheaton Land Trust and the region we serve. Over the past year, we have completed the first phase of work, reached some important fundraising milestones, and spent a lot of time thinking about how Tannery Shores can help us connect more people to this place. The more time we spend there, the more strongly we believe in its potential.
Tannery Shores sits on 17 acres along Spednic Lake in Forest City. The property includes a historic landing, several old camp buildings, and a stretch of shoreline looking out across one of the most intact conservation landscapes in the region. Long before it became Tannery Shores, though, this was a working place.
During the 1800s, Forest City was part of a busy cross-border economy centered around hemlock tanning. Bark harvested from the surrounding forests was transported by lake and river to tanneries producing leather for markets far beyond this remote corner of Maine. The landing at Tannery Shores connected settlements, workers, goods, and supplies at a time when the water was one of the primary ways people traveled through the region.
As that industry disappeared, Spednic became increasingly known for its fishing, sporting traditions, and undeveloped shoreline. Maine Guides, sporting camps, and generations of visitors built a new economy and way of life around the same forests and waters that had once supported industry.
That history feels especially relevant to WWLT. Our organization was founded in 1994 by local Maine Guides and residents who understood how special this landscape was and how easily it could change. What started around kitchen tables and sporting camps grew into more than three decades of conservation work. Through persistence, generosity, and partnerships, thousands of acres have been conserved, including roughly 50 miles of undeveloped waterfront along Spednic Lake and the St. Croix River.
Tannery Shores gives us an opportunity to connect those pieces of our story. It allows us to protect the landscape while also creating a place where people can experience it.
This year, we completed Phase 1 of the project with the restoration of the boathouse and surrounding grounds. WWLT's handmade classic canoe collection now has a home on Spednic Lake, and the property gives us a permanent starting point for paddling programs, lake tours, conservation education, youth activities, volunteer events, and community gatherings. What we talked about as a vision in our last newsletter is now becoming something you can actually see and use.
With Phase 1 complete, our attention has turned to Phase 2 and the restoration of the property's two lodging cottages. Our plans are intentionally simple. We want these buildings to continue to feel like Maine camps while making them comfortable and useful again. The smaller Cottage will provide a quiet place to stay, while the larger Bunkhouse will offer additional lodging and gathering space for families, conservation partners, visiting organizations, artists, and small groups.
Thanks to the support we have already received, construction on the Cottage will begin this spring. That is an exciting next step, but there is still significant work ahead. We need to raise an additional $300,000 to keep our contractor on site and move directly into the renovation of the Bunkhouse. Completing both buildings will bring us much closer to being able to welcome people to Tannery Shores and put the property to work for WWLT and the region.
That is really at the heart of this project. For years, much of our work has understandably focused on protecting land. But conservation also depends on people having a connection to the places we are asking them to care about. Tannery Shores can become a place where that connection happens.
We can bring people onto Spednic Lake who have never paddled it. We can host conservation partners who want to better understand the landscape. We can offer educational programs and small gatherings. We can welcome people who may arrive knowing very little about WWLT and leave understanding why this region is worth protecting.
We also see an opportunity for Tannery Shores to support WWLT financially. Thoughtful use of the cottages for lodging, retreats, and partner programs can generate revenue that supports our broader operations and conservation work. Those visitors can also support guides, sporting camps, and other businesses throughout the East Grand region. For a small land trust working in a rural area, finding ways for conservation, community, and financial sustainability to support one another matters.
One new idea we are particularly excited to explore is an artist residency. We are working toward a two-week pilot in August 2027 that would bring a small group of artists to Forest City to create a site-specific film inspired by the surrounding landscape. The residency would include filming throughout the Forest City area and an opportunity to share the work and creative process with the community.
It is something different for WWLT, and that is part of why we think it is worth exploring. Artists have a way of helping people see familiar places differently and introducing those places to people who may never encounter them. Our hope is that artists who spend meaningful time here will leave with their own connection to Spednic and share some part of that connection with others.
The residency is only one piece of the larger vision, and it is dependent on fundraising. Our immediate priority is completing the lodging cottages and creating the infrastructure needed to welcome people to the property. We have an exciting opportunity in front of us, but we intend to move forward responsibly and at the pace our fundraising allows.
None of the progress so far would have been possible without people who believed in Tannery Shores early on. The Sam Shine Foundation provided important support for the initial acquisition of the property. The Maine Community Foundation, Davis Conservation Foundation and Spednic/St. Croix Stewardship Endowment Committee helped make Phase 1 possible. Many of our members have also shared our excitement, made gifts, and encouraged us to keep moving forward. We are deeply grateful for that support.
There is one gift, and one story behind it, that we especially want to share.
Sarina Gwirtzman first came to Spednic Lake with her then boyfriend, and later husband, Burt Gwirtzman, 42 years ago. Over the decades that followed, Sarina and Burt passed Tannery Shores countless times while fishing on Spednic. Together, they developed a deep love for this area and a strong belief in WWLT's work to protect it.
Sarina has now made a major gift to Tannery Shores, helping move this project from an idea toward the place we know it can become. We are incredibly grateful for her generosity and for the meaningful way her gift carries forward the connection to Spednic that she and Burt shared for more than four decades. There is something especially fitting about knowing that a place they passed so many times from the water will now help others develop their own connection to the lake and this remarkable landscape.
We are also very proud to share that the newly restored boathouse at Tannery Shores will officially be known as Burt's Boathouse. We cannot think of a more fitting way to honor his love for the water. As canoes leave its doors and new generations head out onto Spednic, Burt's connection to this lake will remain part of the story.
In many ways, that is what Tannery Shores is about.
The people who founded WWLT did not protect Spednic Lake simply so acreage could be added to a map. They protected it because this landscape meant something to them. It was where they worked, guided, fished, paddled, and spent their lives. They wanted future generations to have the opportunity to know it too.
We want Tannery Shores to do the same. We want to honor its history while giving the property a useful future. We want people to stay here, paddle from here, learn here, and leave with a stronger connection to this landscape. We want it to create opportunities for WWLT, our partners, and the surrounding communities while helping sustain conservation here for years to come.
Phase 1 showed us what is possible when people believe in this project. Now we are ready for the next step. If you believe in what Tannery Shores can become, we hope you will consider making a gift toward the $300,000 needed to complete Phase 2 and help us open these cottages to the people who will become part of this property's next chapter.