EAST MILLINOCKET — Those who support efforts to create a national park in the Katahdin region say about 70 pro-park campaign signs have been stolen from front yards and disappeared alongside area roads in the last three weeks.

At least half a dozen anti-park signs also have gone missing, according to opponents of the proposal.

There are days, East Millinocket Selectman and park supporter Clint Linscott says, when you can drive along the town green on Main Street and not see a single campaign sign promoting the proposed national park.

“Pro-park signs are continually being lost,” Linscott said Friday. “It’s obvious when you drive through town that pro-park signs are there one day and not the next.”

While representatives of both sides agree the sign thefts likely are perpetrated by a few extremists or pranking teenagers, they also agree the park issue has elevated tensions in the four-town Katahdin region.

“I think it is making friends, who have been friends for a long time, enemies. I have had relations with people for a long time, and now that they know my position they have shunned me,” East Millinocket Selectman Mark Marston, who opposes the park, said. “It’s affecting my personal life, now. They pretty well ridicule me.

“It is too bad that people who are trying to do good are getting treated like this,” Marston, his voice tightening with emotion, added.

The idea that once seemed a pipe dream conjured up a decade ago by philanthropist Roxanne Quimby and carried on by her son, Lucas St. Clair, has become a full-fledged campaign in recent months. The debate has been sharpened by the departure of the paper industry from the area. East Millinocket and Medway have scheduled non-binding votes to gauge public support for a park later this month. A formal debate on the issue was held in East Millinocket on Thursday night. At some point the signs began appearing, then disappearing.

“It shouldn’t be happening, but it always seems to happen in any campaign,” said Ted O’Meara, spokesman for the Maine Woods Coalition, which opposes the park. “It is not to be condoned. It is not part of the plan, and whoever is doing it (stealing signs) is doing it on their own.”

Sign destruction is expensive, according to Kim Marston, Mark Marston’s wife and someone who has placed anti-park signs around town. The 100 signs her group recently bought cost $400, she said, and there is a significant demand for more.

It also is against the law.

Board of Selectmen Chairman Mark Scally, who supports the park, dismisses the thefts with a mixture of humor and disgust.

“I am working on No. 3 now,” Scally, whose first two front-yard signs have disappeared, said. “I have it booby-trapped. I have a cowbell attached to it, so it starts ringing if anybody tries to steal it.

“All the no-park signs are fine and the national park signs have been vandalized? I mean, come on. This is childish,” Scally added, sounding annoyed. “This is mob mentality.”

Medway resident John Hafford said he knows several people who have lost signs in his town and in Millinocket. The 47-year-old graphic design firm owner, whose third sign is in front of his house, said the thieves “are trying to control the dialogue and the perception” about the park and how most people feel about it.

It’s an issue, both sides said, that generates a lot of dialogue in the town’s shops, cafes and homes — and, of course, on various social media sites, where the chatter often gets ugly. Some of the quotes from the anti-park side are typical of the online debate.

“Get the point! People of Maine don’t want it! You bunch of [expletives] think money can buy it all. I hope karma pays you a visit very soon and ruins your lives. This is our backyards. Take all that money and buy yourself an island and stay there,” another wrote.

Some pro-park social media posters are just as rude.

“I think it (the national park) will be great for the state, but I’m afraid the tourists will run into ignorant, bitter locals like (expletive). They’re not a good representation of the state,” one stated.

One park proponent questioned whether “a handful of unemployed, Mainecare/Welfare/Food-stamp/SSI recipients from the North Woods are going to be allowed to decide whether or not we build a national park? We are paying for all of your benefits (food, medical, housing, kids, clothes, etc). This is just silly.”

A veteran of many political campaigns, former U.S. Rep. Mike Michaud, who lives in East Millinocket, said both sides can get along better if they “sit down and have their concerns brought out there and dealt with.”

“There is some compromise that can be done (by) individuals who are really serious about this,” Michaud, who supports the park proposal and attended Thursday’s debate, said. “There are some people, no matter what, they are just going to bring excuses up. There’s not much you can do about that.”