It all started with horses. . .
Mark grew up in the Mahoosucs. His family all grew up in the Mahoosucs - 5 generations! Both of his great grandfathers worked for the Brown Company - one as a cook at logging camps feeding 100+ men on wood cookstoves, the other as a sawyer at the sawmill in Berlin. Mark followed the family tradition by working in the woods, and was fortunate to live and work at some of Brown Company's last logging camps in Davistown, Maine. Later, he bought land and timber and ran logging crews for large companies and eventually for himself.
Growing up, his parents instilled a love of the outdoors in Mark. With his family, the AMC or with the Boy Scouts, Mark hiked throughout the Mahoosucs and the White Mountains, skied at the local areas, canoed on the Androscoggin, and whitewater kayaked. His parents claimed that you could always tell how much fun you had on vacation by how much you hurt when you returned home.
Kimberly followed a different path to the Mahoosucs. A Maine girl at heart, she grew up with a strong sense of family. Summering with her grandmother, she developed a love of gardening. Memories include helping during haying by riding on top of the loose hay, berrying with great aunts, and cooking for family dinners. The Mahoosucs were to the west.
Kimberly's introduction to hospitality was working as an "inn sitter" in Kingfield, Maine. Her duties included daily cleaning of fireplaces, chambermaid services, checking in guests, and starting the coffee. She touched on adventure by working at her father's whitewater rafting business in The Forks, Maine. Years later she and her family purchased the last remaining logging camp east of the Mississippi - a former Brown Company camp known as Lakeside - which they ran as the Bull Moose Lodge and Campground.
And then there were horses . . .
Kimberly's life went in a new direction. Needing a place to stable her horses, she contacted Mark. . . eventually, they were married.
Teenagers moved on to college and they were left with a huge empty house. Kimberly had excelled as a wedding coordinator at Sunday River, and the concept of starting an inn fell into place. Separate owner's quarters were built in the barn, and the Inn was born.
At the Mahoosuc Inn, their family history is always with them. Together, Mark & Kimberly love to put on large dinner parties. Often you will be served the logging camp rolls, vegetables and fruits from their gardens, Mark's mother's award winning apple pie, and always great conversation and large helpings of laughter.
And the horses? With the passage of time, they are enjoying Captain, their adopted gentle giant, who is spending his retirement burning hay and modeling with brides.
