Buildings crumble, monuments decay, and wealth vanishes, but Katahdin in all its glory forever shall remain the mountain of the people of Maine.

"[citation needed] Baxter was also a fierce opponent of the Ku Klux Klan of Maine, which supported the career of his political nemesis and successor Ralph Owen Brewster.

In a 1921 speech, Baxter said:Maine is famous for its twenty-five hundred miles of seacoast, with its countless islands; for its myriad lakes and ponds; and for its forests and rivers.

But Mount Katahdin Park will be the state's crowning glory, a worthy memorial to commemorate the end of the first and the beginning of the second century of Maine's statehood.

This park will prove a blessing to those who follow us, and they will see that we built for them more wisely than our forefathers did for us.Most of the land around Katahdin was then owned by the Great Northern Paper Company.

Baxter's term as Governor coincided with the rise of the Ku Klux Klan as a force in Maine and national politics.

Although Baxter was an ardent foe of the Klan, it found a foothold in the Maine Republican Party through the influence of state senators Ralph O. Brewster, Mark Alton Barwise, Hodgdon Buzzell, and others, who sponsored bills in the early 1920s which would have cut aid to parochial schools, thus creating a 'wedge issue' between Maine's Protestant and Catholic communities.

[1] In 1896, Baxter joined a number of his Bowdoin classmates and travelled to Bath, Maine, where the Democratic candidate for president, William Jennings Bryan, was scheduled to speak.

When his dog, Garry, died while Baxter was governor, he ordered the flag at the State House lowered to half staff, which angered some veterans' groups.