Maine Postcards from the Edge

Want to enjoy one of the country’s preeminent fairs? Visit the agricultural fair in Fryeburg, and experience this 150+ year-old extravaganza of rides, livestock, entertainment, shows, bands, prizes, racing, special events, food and so much more.

It was a chilly day in March of 1851 when a few local farmers and merchants got together and decided to show off their produce, cattle and wares to the community. Since those humble beginnings, the Fryeburg Fair has grown to become Maine’s largest agricultural fair complete with six days of harness racing, a farm museum second to none, the world’s largest steer and oxen show and a reputation known throughout North America.

The 8-day Blue Ribbon Classic has flourished since that first fair when William Walker of Lovell won $3 for the best acre of corn and William Spring of Brownfield earned $1 for the best seed wheat. Today, the early October fair boasts Maine’s largest agricultural event held on 185 acres in the Saco River Valley in the foothills of the White Mountains. The fair also normally takes place during the height of Maine’s Fall foliage season. The Fryeburg Fair attracts more than 300,000 people annually.

If you’ve never been to the Fryeburg Fair, you can get a feel for the agricultural fair experience by viewing the short video below.

Enjoy!

Fast Tube by Casper

After my recent trip up the Songo River, I was drawn back out to Sebago Lake on a pretty August day because I was offered a ride out to Frye’s Leap and “The Images”. It was exciting for me because it’s a place I hadn’t been to in over 25 years, it was another chance to get out on Sebago, and my memory of the sheer rock cliff and “The Images” was of it’s being a gorgeous spot of historical interest.

Frye’s Leap and Frye Island* are separated by a deep and treacherous passage called “The Gut”. Frye Island is named after Captain Frye, a sea captain turned Indian hunter** and a native of Scarborough. Pursued by a band of Abenaki Indians, the Captain fled to the edge of a high cliff at the end of Raymond Cape – a peninsula jutting out into the center of Sebago Lake. Having nowhere left to run, he leapt from the top of the jagged rock into the snow that covered a frozen Sebago Lake. Amazingly, Frye was uninjured by the plunge, and he crossed to the island, a little over 400 yards away, for refuge. The Native Americans were so astonished by his daring leap that they abandoned their pursuit.

The cliff from which Captain Frye leapt rises nearly 80 feet from the lake, and has been referred to  as “Frye’s Leap” or “The Images” since that event. During the steamboat era a young man or boy was hired for the summer to live in a tent on the top. He was to appear before the boat passengers in Abenaki attire and, with blood curdling whoops, fire a gun in the air.

The Images guard The Gut’s narrowest point, and they are pictographs painted by Native Americans on the face of the vertical rock cliff. Today, there are only faint traces of the paintings found on the rock surfaces. They probably are too faint for proper restoration. The Images once depicted Captain Frye making his leap, an Abenaki wigwam and the Chief, a wounded bear, an Indian war dance, and a deer. Also pictured is an Indian girl who, according to Abenaki legend, jumped to her death while being pursued by white men.

Our trip took a total of almost 2 hours, but you can do the virtual trip, and see the highlights, in just over 9 minutes by viewing the video below

* For more info on Frye Island see Temporary Town, an article from the July, 2009, issue of Down East Magazine.

** Apparently, during that period in American history there was a bounty placed on some members of the indigenous Native American population, and it was considered PC for the relatively new white arrivals on the North American Continent to actually hunt them.

Fast Tube by Casper

I’ve been up the Songo River before, but the last time was in 1983 (over 25 years ago) and I wanted to see if anything had changed. The river connects Sebago Lake to Brandy Pond*, the Bay of Naples at the southern end of Long Lake, and the whole of Long Lake, which is navigable all the way to Harrison, Maine. The Maine Central Railroad (in a summer brochure from 1929) describes the Songo River Excursion from Portland to Harrison as traveling “Through the Crookedest of All Rivers”. The price was $2.38 round trip. The trip was made possible by the construction of the Songo River Lock built in 1830 to allow for the easy transportation of agricultural and wood products from as far away as Bridgton and Harrison to Portland by barge, and later by rail and steamship.

For the trip, I hitched a ride on the Tykona, an antique Chris-Craft built in 1936. We left from Migis Lodge, which sits perched along 3500 feet of pristine shoreline at the northeast corner of Sebago Lake. Sebago Lake itself is like a secret handshake among boaters who have been there. When you meet another Sebago boater there’s sort of a subtle smile and a nod. They know, and you know, how special the lake really is.

The trip took a total of two and a half hours, and we learned something about a milfoil infestation in the Songo, but you can do a virtual trip in just over 7 minutes by viewing the video below.

Enjoy!

* A “Pond” in Maine would surely be designated as a lake in almost any other state in the U.S, as you will see.

Fast Tube by Casper