8Each year thousands of men and women and families recreate on Maine's Public Reserved Lands. Most of these visitors know only that the large green areas on the map promise them access to some of the state's most magnificent places. Very few have any idea how Maine acquired them. Or that, as a conservation success, their acquisition (600,000 acres) rivals the celebrated purchase and gift to Maine people of Baxter State Park (210,000 acres) by Governor Percival Baxter. Maine's two hundredth anniversary is an appropriate moment to celebrate the largest land conservation triumph in its history. The story of the state's Public Reserved Lands and how we got them speak to the very essence of Maine's identity. With dramatic moments and colorful characters, the book weaves its way from 1820 to the present, providing an engaging and informative overview of conservation and preservation in Maine.