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#1 Tobey Falls
#2 Mount Kineo
#3 Bass Harbor Head
#4 Gulf Hagas
#5 Borestone Mountain
#6 Big Squaw Mountain
#7Barren Mountain
#8 Stutzman Farms
#9 Wilson Falls
#10 Moxie Falls & Stream
#11 Barrows Falls
#12 Earley Landing Falls
#13 Mount Katahdin
#14 Shaw's Boarding House

Off The Beaten Path
by: Photojournalist Barry-Scott Hall

Pat & Keith Shaw, Proprietors
P.O. Box 157
Corner of Pleasant & Center Street
Monson, ME. 04464-0157
Telephone: 207-997-3597
Bed & Breakfast for hikers and lodgers

There isn't a lot to Monson, which coalesced a century ago around a slate factory. Its landmarks now include a convenience store, a restaurant, a furniture factory, and Shaw's Boarding House-a trail institution created by sheer chance.

Keith and Pat Shaw used to run a boarding home for mentally ill people. On June day in 1977, a hiker asked the Shaw's if he could stay the night. They said yes. The next day, that hiker told a man headed south about Shaw's. From there the word spread.

That summer the Shaw's traded their board-and-care license for a lodging and-meals license. Now in their 19th season, the Shaw's have fed and given lodging to between 18,000 and 20,000 hikers.

The Daily Me * 122 Number 10 Road * Dexter, Maine 04930 * 207.924.3067