When you start to dig through it,
Maine has some remarkable history,
especially in homes that were
built back when America was new.
But one of those buildings which
many people may not even know
about is starting to fall apart.
It caught news that remains
Don Kerrigan's attention,
and he reports that it looks
like this monument and the
story it tells will be saved.
In a cemetery in Pittston
next to the old Coalburn schoolhouse stands
the monument to Major Reuben Colburn,
a leader in Maine as the Revolutionary
War began. But just down,
the road is a more important monument.
The Coalburn House,
now a main historic site.
Because of what happened here,
and who else was part of it?
The home where the boats were built,
220 of them in 10 days, almost
without nails to send an army of 1100.
Colonials under Benedict
Arnold when he was still here.
So not a traitor north to take
the city of Quebec Benedict
Arnold's March on Quebec is
one of the heroic and tragic
stories of the Revolutionary War.
Arnold stayed here in 1775 and
prepared his force to head north
historian Tom Desjardin used to
work for the Bureau of Parks and
Lands and literally wrote the
book on the Arnold Expedition.
It's one of those stories that
not everybody very few people
really in May know about.
I knew it from childhood,
so it was always a favorite.
But when they find out about it,
they go really
the house and barns have been a state
historic site for half a century.
I had never seen the Coalburn house
myself until about a month and a
half ago and was surprised to see
that the old house is in tough shape,
even though the states owned
it for a number of years.
So we wanted to find out why
the problem, not surprisingly,
has been money.
Gary Best is regional parks manager
for the Department of Agriculture,
Conservation and Forestry.
Our budget with the Bureau of Parks
and Lands and Maine State Parks is,
you know, quite meager.
So we stretch that as far as we can
and for the past eight or nine years,
that budget apparently has not
included much for maintenance of the
Coalburn House. Well, I wouldn't
say it's been ignored.
Don? I mean it's, you know?
Again, we we we prioritize every day,
every year, this site,
you know we do need to get
caught up on the funding
and he says that funding will come.
They want to use some of the Federal
American Recovery plan money and are
seeking a grant from the National Park
Service because repairs will be costly.
It's hundreds of thousands
of dollars worth of repairs that
we are scheduling to address here.
Hundreds of thousands
and the Colburn house is not the
only historic site that needs work.
Gary Best says Fort Baldwin in Phippsburg,
Fort Popham and Fort Mcclary
in Kittery all need repairs.
And there's Eagle Island,
the home of Arctic explorer Robert Peary,
which also needs rebuilding and much more
across the board at Maine
State Parks and historic sites.
We have, you know, over $100 million
worth of deferred maintenance
that you know we are pecking away
at. But he says the Coalburn house
will get the repairs it needs.
Their goal is to rebuild the house
and keep it in good repair so that
main people can again see it.
And what's really unique about this place is,
as far as the birth of America.
You know, it has significance here
in the state of Maine, and also a
lot of national significance here
to let Mainers rediscover
their important history,
a place and a leader.
Many know little about.
He was an enormous hero.
Washington offered him second
in command of the American
armies of colonial armies,
and understand that both were critical
to the founding of a new nation.
In Pittston Don Kerrigan new center, Maine.
Don tells us more of that maintenance
backlog may also get taken care
of in the next few years. States
Bureau of Parks and Lands is getting
$50 million from Maine's share of
federal money from the American
Rescue plan at a department spokesman
says that money will be used to
upgrade and make needed repairs at
state parks and historic sites.