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*Update*: Quimby Buys 11,000 Acres More of Land

To some, Roxanne Quimby is the quintessential success story. A kind of rags to riches story of a woman creating a product popular with consumers and growing from a kitchen business to a multimillion dollar enterprise. She sells her business and begins making other investments. Is this not capitalism at its finest? But is success all about how much money you can earn?

Roxanne Quimby has been a bundle of controversy and hypocrisy at least since becoming wealthy. While taking full advantage of our American capitalist society to make her fortune, Quimby has gone about her business seemingly to deny others of the same thing she took advantage of. At least to some degree.

Her investments included a systematic approach toward purchasing large tracts of land, mostly in the Baxter State Park area of Maine. This action in and of itself exemplifies life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; perhaps the ultimate in the expression of individual rights and the freedom to pursue those rights while seeking the independence most needed to actualize true freedom. For this, nobody can fault Roxanne Quimby. She is a self-made person. How American is that?

What was not perceived as American were her actions after purchasing her large tracts of land. Maine is a unique place. Much of the northern two-thirds of the state is mostly owned by large timber companies and/or private investors in large tracts of land. This was accomplished years ago in an effort to preserve those lands for timber harvest. For many, many years the tradition has been for these large landowners to permit access to their land for recreation and in some cases, leases were sold in order that Maine citizens could construct camps in some locations on timber company lands. All of this attributed to a lifestyle that few others in this country could relate to.

One could easily conclude that the timber companies understood the value of maintaining a friendship with the Maine people.

Quimby started her business in Maine and as it grew, she left the state with her business and moved it to North Carolina. This move upset some people and was the beginning of a rocky relationship between Ms. Quimby and the state of Maine.

When Roxanne Quimby began buying up land, she also began a systematic shutting down of access to it. She gated and barricaded roads frequently used by hunters, fishermen, trappers, hikers, snowmobilers, ATV rider, etc. She even evicted any camp owners who held leases on the land where their camps sat. There have been, in some cases, reports that some of these cabins where burned to the ground.

While well within her rights to do so, Quimby instantly was disliked for her actions. After all, this isn’t the ideal way to win friends and influence people. In a short period of time she destroyed part of what Maine people had perceived as part of their heritage. One cannot expect to have many friends when they choose to act in this manner.

In an interview with Downeast Magazine a few years ago, oddly, Quimby stated that nobody should be able to own land. She considers land to be something that should be “owned” by everyone; a pseudo “Animal Farm” approach. How bizarre in actuality. A person takes advantage of a free enterprise system, exploits our capitalistic approaches to wealth and uses it to buy up land in order to prohibit people from enjoying that land. If someone was a true believer in common law land ownership, she certainly has an odd way of expressing it.

The saga continues. Having angered large masses of Maine people, for whatever her motives Quimby appeared to be reaching out to mend some fences and create opportunities for limited access to some of her land. Several individuals and groups fell for her deceptions. They began speaking of Roxanne Quimby in terms of how she has been misunderstood and that she doesn’t really want to alienate herself from the rest of Maine, etc. How wrong!

Not knowing all the back door deals with President Barack Obama, he nominated Roxanne Quimby to sit on the board of directors of the National Park Service. Most Mainers are aware of the efforts of groups seeking to turn much of northern Maine into a wilderness park and most have made the assumption Quimby would be a part of that. That effort also sees little support in Maine……so far.

It was shortly after Quimby won her appointment to the National Park Service, that she announced she would like to donate 70,000 acres of her land in remote northern Maine for a National Park. To accomplish that, Quimby needs the support of the Maine people. She’s not getting it and why would anybody be surprised that she isn’t?

I don’t think Maine people are much different than people in general. Good, honest people want to work with other good, honest people. As I stated before, Quimby bought her land fair and square. It became hers to do with as she saw fit within the laws of the land. She made her decisions, some of which was to embitter the Maine people by shutting off their access and burning down their camps. And now she needs their help? Perhaps, Ms. Quimby should have thought of that before she became an island unto herself.

When Quimby appeared to be mending some fences, she and members of several snowmobile clubs reached a limited agreement on access over her land for snowmobile trails. These are trails that are part of the ITS that existed before Quimby bought the land.

Now realizing that she sees little support for her national park, she’s scrambling to find help. She has continued to woo over a handful of idealistic hopefuls who are convinced all of Quimby’s actions are honorable but her latest actions have pushed many back to the reality of who Roxanne Quimby really is.

In an attempt to garner support anyway she can, she has resorted to bullying and a divide and conquer approach. She has notified the snowmobile clubs that if they will support her efforts for a national park, in exchange, she will give them a 5-year agreement to use her land for snowmobile trail access.

If Roxanne Quimby had any understanding of why she can’t get support for her national park, the last thing she would be doing is attempting to bully Maine people. And why a measly five year deal?

Quimby needs friends and has few. Confucius said, “have no friends not equal to yourself”. Perhaps Barack Obama is her friend as they may be equals but Ms. Quimby has isolated herself in Maine and now that she needs their help, she has to resort to undesirable tactics to get her way. How unfortunate.

As with Aesop’s “Why the Bat has no Friends”, Ms. Quimby has wings but no beak. Without a beak, she doesn’t look like a bird and with wings, doesn’t look like a mammal.

An island.