Mount Kineo, with 700-foot (210 m) cliffs rising straight up from Moosehead Lake, has attracted visitors for centuries, from early American Indians (Red Paint People), to later tribes seeking its rhyolite to make stone tools, Penobscots and Norridgewocks, the Abenaki bands who battled here with their enemy the Mohawks, to 19th-century "rusticators" traveling by railroad and steamboat and today's hotel guests.

The Moosehead region includes the headwaters of the Kennebec, the West Branch of the Penobscot, the Piscataquis, the Pleasant, and the Saint John rivers.

The annual temperature of about 40 °F (4 °C) are similar to Quebec City in the St. Lawrence River valley further north and much colder than Maine's and the nearby Canadian maritime provinces' coastal areas.

Winter temperatures are similar to subarctic inland northern Sweden and Finland and as a result, boreal forests dominate the shoreline in spite of being in the mid-latitudes.

Seattle-based Plum Creek Real Estate Investment Corporation, the largest private United States landowner, submitted a development proposal for the Moosehead region in April 2005.

[5] The initial version of the scheme called for 975 house lots, two resorts, a golf course, a marina, three RV parks, and more than 100 rental cabins.

[citation needed] In January 2021, a $75 million investment was made into developing the 1,700-acre Big Squaw Mountain Resort into a year-round tourist attraction that would include a new ski-lift system, a large hotel, lakefront condominiums, and a marina.