In 1939, the Great Northern Paper Company impounded Fifth St. John Pond in T.6 R.17 and dug a 2-mile-long (3.2 km) canal from the pond allowing the diversion of water from the Saint John River's Baker Branch into the Penobscot's North Branch, to sluice wood to the company mill at Millinocket. Yellow perch also used the canal to spread into the upper Penobscot River drainage.[2]