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Paddles and saws: Rangeley’s logging heritage & canoe trail

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Jim Burak, left, and Josh Haley practice their crosscut saw technique before a Rangeley Lakes Region Logging Museum Woodmen’s Competition begins. This year’s Logging Festival is July 23rd and 24th. (Peggy Yocom Photo).

RANGELEY – Celebrate the cultural heritage of logging in the western mountains of Maine on Friday and Saturday, July 23rd and 24th at the 30th annual Logging Festival held by the Rangeley Lakes Region Logging Museum.

The two-festival includes Banjo Dan and the Mid-Nite Plowboys, a parade on Main Street, a woodsmen’s competition, new exhibits, children’s games, and the best bean-hole bean dinner ever. This year, the Museum is partnering with the Northern Forest Canoe Trail as they celebrate their 10th Anniversary in Rangeley the 24th and 25th.


The Northern Forest Canoe Trail information kiosk beside Rangeley Lake. (NFCT photo)

Hundreds of paddling and outdoor enthusiasts are expected to attend the event celebrating the 10-year anniversary of the Northern Forest Canoe Trail, Inc. The organization created and manages the 740-mile recreational water trail by the same name that stretches from Old Forge, N.Y. to Fort Kent, Maine.

Free activities, exhibits, equipment demonstrations and educational presentations will take place Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on the grounds of the Ecopelagicon nature store and Haley Pond Park off Route 4.

Presentations will happen under a large tent and cover topics from birch bark canoe construction to canoe camping with kids, kayak fishing and great places to paddle along the NFCT. The Chewonki Traveling Natural History Program will have three live raptors for children to see up close and learn about. Other exhibitors will represent boat and paddle products, outfitters, state conservation agencies, and destinations along the trail. 
 
Headquarters for the international “740 Miles in One Day Challenge” will be at the Haley Pond boat ramp behind City Cove Realty on Route 4. The trail-wide paddling event has a goal of logging enough paddler miles from dawn to 5:00 p.m. on Saturday to equal the 740-mile length of the trail. Canoeists and kayakers can participate in the challenge on Haley Pond from noon to 4 p.m. To read more about this event, click here.  

The Logging Museum’s main building will open Friday at 11 a.m. New this year is the collection of vintage metal toy logging trucks donated to the Museum by John and Troy Tyler of Farmington, in memory of their wife and mother, Jackie Tyler.

Also on display are the Museum’s many permanent exhibits. The Working the Woods exhibit features laborers in the Maine forest, including Rangeley’s M&H Logging, Rodney Richard, Jeep Wilcox, and the former Walter ASkeet Davenport. Displaying the textile arts of women and men are the exhibits “Hand-in-Hand: Knitting and Logging,” and Knit by Heart: The Art of Lucille Richard (1927-2006).”
The Museum offers the best display of the folk art of the western Maine mountains: Alden Grant’s paintings of 1910s logging in the Kennebago area; Carl Traftons’ model drag drays and wagon sleds; Rodney Richard Sr. and Rodney Richard Jr.’s chain-saw wood carvings; and William Richard’s hand-carved white cedar fan towers, along with several photograph collections donated by local woodsmen and their families: Allan Fraser, Wayne and Elijah White, Arthur Otis, Ben Morton, Leon Haley, Ruth Case, and Jim Carter.

About 4:30 p.m. Friday, Museum visitors can taste the biscuits that Stephen Richard mixes and then bakes on the camp-style reflector ovens placed around open fires, as in early logging camp days.

The Friday evening program begins at 7 p.m. in the Undercroft of the Church of the Good Shepherd on Main Street with the 26th annual Little Miss and Mister Wood Chip talent contest. Chosen from 6- to 8-year-old contestants who sing or recite, winners will ride down Main Street in Saturday’s parade. To enter the contest, call Becky Hill (864-3982), Liz Pimentel (864-2426), or Peggy Yocom (864-3421).

Also on Friday evening, the Museum will induct Mr. Bobbie Wilbur of Rangeley into the Loggers Hall of Fame. The evening’s music will feature the high-energy artistry of Banjo Dan and the Mid-Nite Plowboys from Vermont. Entrance fees for the evening are $3 adults, $1 for youth 6 to 18, and free for children 5 and under. Door prizes will be given.

On Saturday, the Logging Festival parade starts at 10 a.m. from the Rangeley Inn, with Farmington’s Old Crow Band; plenty of floats from the Giving Tree, the Northern Forest Canoe Trail, and others; the barrel train from West Paris; fire and rescue crews; and displays of new equipment and hard-working logging trucks. Judges will award seven Logging Museum prizes in six categories: Most Appropriate to the logging industry ($100), Best Logging Truck ($100), Most Entertaining ($75), Most Original ($50), and Most Humorous ($25), and two Best Youth floats ($25 each).

Events then move to the Museum site on Route 16 where there will be more music, children’s games, and displays of logging equipment and trucks. At 11:30 am, the beanhole bean dinner begins ($8.00 for adults, $3.50 for children 11 and under). Hot dogs and more are available in the Cant Dog House, staffed by Wayne and Velma Lessard. From 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., Banjo Dan and the Mid-Nite Plowboys return. Rodney Richard, Sr., will carve a chain-saw bear and auction it off to the highest bidder. Around 1 pm, the woodsmen’s competition begins under the watchful eye of Rodney Richard, Jr., and Lenita Richard. White Mountain Lumber helped with the cost of the timbers for the contest. Master of Ceremonies and Museum President Ron Haines keeps the competition moving along with his special brand of humor.

Throughout the day at the Museum field, artists will sell crafts such as wooden trucks, wooden household items, pottery, doll clothes, home cooking, Christmas crafts, knitting, Ecopelagicon nature books, and more. An entrance fee of $3 for adults, $1 for youth 6 to 18 (free for children 5 and under) offers admission to all field activities and Museum exhibits. For more information, call President Ron Haines at 864-5551 or click here. for our website.

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