A p r i l 2 0 1 8 4 9 road warrior courtesy photos By Colin W. Sargent For only $165 a night, book a room at the Loon Lodge Inn and channel the Gannett Publishing empire. hat a blast–to rusticate or host a wedding at the myth- ic Loon Lodge Inn, created in Rangeley in 1909. Your guests will love tucking into craft cocktails at the Inn’s inti- mate Pickford Pub: “appetizers include cal- amari, mussels, crisp pork belly, flatbreads, and more.” Or maybe they’ll dream of tear- ing into ribeye, pan-roasted rack of lamb, or Atlantic salmon in the post-and-beam dining room, with everything made from scratch. This resort is classic Maine in the 21st century. Every blast has a past. Gannett Publish- ing Co., the legendary former owners of the Portland newspapers, used to own this glamour retreat, along with the 4,116-foot Saddleback Mountain ski resort, so near the lodge the mountain is reflect- ed in the same lake Loon Lodge faces. Today, as vacationers, we can all channel the Guy Gannett empire by booking a room at the Loon Lodge, updated to rustic splendor and more exciting than the newspaper gals and guys ever imagined it. Guy Gannett owned secret luxu- ry hunting and flying camps in “Mooseh- ead Lake and Ross Lake,” says his grand- son, Guy Gannett Williams, the son of Jean Gannett Hawley–Guy Gannett’s daugh- ter, who herself was the longtime publisher of the Press Herald, Sunday Telegram, and Evening Express. “Guy Gannett built For- est Park on Moosehead Lake. He also had a smaller fishing camp on Ross Lake.” Let your imagination run wild. Up north, Gannett’s camps likely included fa- mous Red Sox players like Babe Ruth and Ted Williams. “Guy loved flying. He founded the Maine Civil Air Patrol and had two planes of his own,” Williams, an artist, says. When Guy Gannett died in 1954, his daughter Jean took control of the work and fun of running Guy Gannett Publish- ing. Outside of the boardroom, “My moth- er wasn’t a hunter,” Williams says. “You’d find her in the kitchen.” But her tastes did include ski resorts and Rangeley. “My step- father, Richard “Dick” Arnzen, bought Saddleback Mountain.” Guy Gannett Pub- lishing then became owners of the moun- tain and the lodge, an exciting prospect for young Guy Gannett Williams, who was just a teenager then, because it put a thrill- ing life of skiing at his doorstep. “I taught skiing at Saddleback when I was a junior in high school, in 1967,” he says. This led to a skiing career that has landed Williams in the Maine Skiing Hall of Fame. “I’ve instructed at Telluride and Silver Mountain.” When the Gannetts moved in, “Loon Lodge was called Davis Lodge. It was like a wind tunnel, with the wind outside shrieking inside” the rustic structure. So you’ll have it bet- ter than the Gannetts did if you stay at Loon Lodge. “It was cold. But that huge fireplace made up for it.” It’s the