Pineland

🏆🏆🏆🏆 Public Farm Campus — 868-acre former state farm campus in New Gloucester — now a vibrant public recreation and events complex

Pineland Public Reserved Land covers 868 acres of the former Pineland Center (a state institution from 1908–1996) in New Gloucester. The campus has been transformed into a vibrant outdoor recreation hub with 30+ miles of trails for hiking, biking, cross-country skiing, and horseback riding. The property includes working farmland, a market, and event spaces. Pineland’s trail system — with views of the White Mountains on clear days — is considered one of the finest multi-use trail networks in southern Maine.

Visitor Information

About Pineland

Pineland public reserved land in New Gloucester preserves over 3,000 acres of rolling farmland, forest, and trails on the former Pineland Center campus — a facility that operated from 1908-1996. The property has been transformed into a vibrant community hub with working farms, event venues, and an extensive trail network connecting to surrounding conservation lands.

Things to Do

Hiking, mountain biking, and cross-country skiing on 30+ miles of trails, visiting the Pineland Farms marketplace, playing disc golf, ice skating in winter, and attending farm events. The trail network is one of the best-maintained in southern Maine.

Insider Tips

Institutional history: Pineland was once the Maine School for the Feeble-Minded (1908) — a state institution that confined people with developmental disabilities. Pro tip: The campus has been transformed into a public campus with trails, farms, and recreation — a model of institutional reuse. Dark history: Like similar institutions nationwide, Pineland’s history includes forced sterilization and neglect — the park acknowledges this history honestly.

Best Time to Visit

Year-round: Trail network in all seasons. Fall: Farm and forest foliage. Summer: Full programming and farmers’ market. Winter: Cross-country skiing.

Frequently Asked Questions

What happened at institutions like Pineland?

From the early 1900s through the 1970s, US states operated institutions that confined people with developmental disabilities — often in overcrowded, neglectful conditions. Forced sterilization was legal in many states. The deinstitutionalization movement (1960s-1980s) closed most facilities. Pineland closed in 1996. The site’s transformation into a public campus acknowledges this dark chapter while creating community benefit.