Now 70, Bill Sawtell has written and compiled over 40 local histories and biographies of the greater Brownville region. A 1971 graduate of the University of Maine at Orono, Mr. Sawtell has a love for the area and its people, a love which he translates into interesting works such as Katahdin Iron Works and Gulf Hagas, his all-time best seller now in its eighth printing, and in the present work Onawa Revisited, now in its third printing.

Sawtell has served as a sports writer for five weekly newspapers and has written numerous editorial, one of which appeared in Time Magazine.

He recently was named Brownville's Citizen of the Year for 2007.