The Golden Road is a

private road A private road is a road owned or controlled by a private person, persons or corporation rather than a road open to the public and owned by a government. Private roads can be on private land or can be constructed on government land for use by go ...

built by the

Great Northern Paper Company Great Northern Paper Company was a Maine-based pulp and paper manufacturer that at its peak in the 1970s and 1980s operated mills in Arkansas, Georgia, Maine, and Wisconsin and produced 16.4% of the newsprint made in the United States. It was also ...

that stretches from the St. Zacharie Border Crossing to its former mill at

Millinocket, Maine Millinocket is a town in Penobscot County, Maine, United States. The population was 4,114 at the 2020 census. Millinocket's economy has historically been centered on forest products and recreation, but the paper company closed in 2008. History ...

. The road, which parallels the West Branch of the

Penobscot River The Penobscot River (Abenaki: ''Pαnawάhpskewtəkʷ'') is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed June 22, 2011 river in the U.S. state of Maine. Including the river's We ...

, was built between 1969 and 1972 to bring raw wood to the mill from the company's of woodland in the

Maine North Woods The North Maine Woods is the northern geographic area of the state of Maine in the United States. The thinly populated region is overseen by a combination of private individual and private industrial owners and state government agencies, and is di ...

. Before the road was built logs were floated down the river to the mill. The of the road from the Millinocket mill to

Ripogenus Dam ''Eutelia'' is a genus of moths of the family Euteliidae erected by Jacob Hübner Jacob Hübner (20 June 1761 – 13 September 1826, in Augsburg) was a German entomologist. He was the author of ''Sammlung Europäischer Schmetterlinge'' (1796 ...

is partly paved and the remaining is stone. Great Northern had always allowed private drivers access to the road (except for the portion next to the mill) and it is a major thoroughfare into the North Woods for sportsmen and white water paddlers on the Penobscot. The road's name is often believed to have been because of its cost (Great Northern said in the 1980s the cost of maintaining its road network was $6.8 million/year) but company officials said the road was actually considered a big cost savings—noting the shipping timber down the river took about 18 months and there would be loss of logs in the process and the road shortened the process to a few days. Others believe that the road was named after its appearance; the color of the dirt was so yellow that the road appeared to be the color gold. Great Northern's economic hold on the road has been greatly diminished, and it has announced plans to tear down almost all of the buildings at the Millinocket mill. The road is now owned by four companies. A proposal in 2007 for the state of Maine to investigate acquiring the road was defeated.

References

{{reflist Roads in Maine Transportation in Penobscot County, Maine 1972 establishments in Maine