Belgrade’s Great Pond Campground
Not only is Memorial Day weekend the start of summer, it is also the start of summer camping season. It is common to see motor homes and vehicles towing all sorts of camping trailers traveling Maine highways as folks head to campgrounds throughout Maine.
Many people may remember that Belgrade for decades had a campground just off Route 27 on the shore of Great Pond. In the mid-1960s, Ken Bartlett purchased the land that had once been the Dalton Sawmill and Ice Company and established the Bartlett Campground. The grounds were transformed to provide 50 camp sites with amenities such as bathrooms, showers, and a camp store. The campground evolved over time with new owners, an in-ground swimming pool and a name change to the Great Pond Campground. In 1998, a proposal to purchase the property and build a year-round community center on the site was presented to the town. Eventually the campground was demolished to make way for the Center For All Seasons.
I remember the Great Pond Campground very well as my husband and our three-year-old daughter had an ill-fated camping trip there in 1987. We had acquired a small pop-up camping trailer, and eagerly looked forward to our first camping adventure. Having spent several vacations in Belgrade, we decided to reserve a camping site for the weekend at the Great Pond Campground. We packed up our pickup truck and hitched up the camper and set out on what we thought would be a fun weekend.
However, sometimes no matter how well you prepare, the best laid plans can go awry. Although we had left in plenty of time to make the trip from Massachusetts to Belgrade, we got stuck in a horrible traffic following an accident on the Maine Turnpike. Consequently, we got to the campground much later than we expected. Unfortunately, our site was narrow, and my husband had difficulty backing the trailer into the space. He had trouble with his spatial awareness and managed to hit a boulder and dent the front right bumper. We managed to get the camper set up without too much difficulty and settled in for the evening. Unfortunately, our daughter who had napped during the long traffic jam was not interested in going to sleep at her regular bedtime, so it took much longer than usual to get her to sleep, and my husband started complaining of not feeling well. None of us got much rest that night.
We were all awakened extremely early the next morning by someone using a wheelbarrow with a loud squeaky wheel in desperate need of oil working on the construction of a garage next door. At 5:30 a.m., that piercing squealing sound felt like it was driving into my brain. To this day I can hear that sound in my head. The noise seemed to go on forever. I can’t imagine how anyone could use that wheelbarrow. By mid-morning, we were two bleary eyed parents (one still not feeling well) and one cranky three-year old, and the weather forecast was calling for thunderstorms. We made the decision to pack up and head home. While we did eventually have some successful camping trips, we never returned to the Great Pond Campground.
Dianne Dowd is a member of the Belgrade Historical Society.
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