Wearing traditional garb, women, children, and men greet visitors from the Belgrades at the folklife center in Pecherino, near Kotlas, Greater Waterville's sister city in Russia. More…
These archival articles are presented “as is.” Except for minor corrections or clarifications, most have not been updated since they appeared in print. Thus, some details may be out of date, and some hyperlinks may no longer work.
Scenes of Summer
by Esther J. Perne
Vacation, stay-cation, getaway-cation, one-day-cation. The great days of summer are here … and they are the best!!
There’s sun time to spare to boat and fish and swim. And water ski!
There’s a snappiness in the air for the big hike, the long bike, the all-day waterway adventure or the yard work that could lead to an award, or a good night’s sleep.
There’s warm rain for anglers and golfers and people who like to walk through the umbrella-ed woods and dreamers.
There’s blustery winds and downpours for catching up on movies, browsing, back-to-school shopping and all those postponed visits to libraries and seasonal museums and historical societies.
There’s evenings still long enough for lingering and mornings still bright enough for breakfast outings.
And with a little bit of magic and a lot of Maine’s fast weather changes, there comes a day or two or more when all of the above are possible. The great days of summer are here.
Water Skiin' Under Castle Island Bridge (and Other No-No Places)
by Rod Johnson
Okay, this is one of those stories that requires a side note saying, "Don’t Try This!" Just take these tales with a grain of salt, and realize that we were kids who took chances in an era when it was expected as part of growing up. We were warned before the fact and scolded after, but regardless, risky behavior continued. The old saying that God watches out for kids and drunks may be true, you decide.
Growing up beside the Mill Stream that leads from Great Pond into Belgrade Lakes village offered a plethora of great opportunities to learn about nature, boating, fishing, as well as some that were not so noble. As we grew up through the formative years, we learned to paddle small crafts around the stream, then to operate small outboard motors on older wooden boats.
My dad, Clifford Johnson had a boat rental shop where the Lakepoint Realty is now. At the age of 8 years or so, after my heavy hinting, Dad turned me loose with a tiny .9 horsepower Evinrude Scout on a 14-foot, canvas-covered cedar boat. Yes, that’s nine-tenths of one horsepower.
Uncle Karl Johnson owned a marina across from Bartlett’s store (now Day’s) where we local young boys watched as other older summer kids came in for gas. They had larger motors and were water skiing out on the lake. At that time, the largest outboard that Johnson made was a 25 horsepower. The older motors seemed to have more power then and a 25 would pull 2 people at once. Glenn Baxter had one that still runs well today and pulled a lot of skiers during the 1950s and 1960s. The Gawler family has one, too which was Ken Bartlett’s, the previous Day’s Store owner.
Before long, Uncle Karl said we could "surfboard" behind his 2.5 horsepower on a small dory. Of course we could never stand up because the boat barely moved with 3 or 4 kids hanging on while being dragged slowly through the water. That was the beginning, with bigger engines and water skis not far behind. Our parental boundaries were "not out of sight" and skiing in the Mill Stream was considered safe, and not against any law at that time.
After a summer or two of being confined in the stream, we were let go to spread our wings and go out to the lake. Soon after, when 10 to 12 years old, the skiing was all over the lake behind 10 to 15 horsepower motors and constantly skiing into the stream and down to the marina docks, now the MLRC Annex area.
The dangerous part was that we had challenged each other to skiing around the little island we know as Pentlarges Island and Cove. Huge boulders and overhanging tree limbs were ever present. Driving the boat and skiing through there requires "threading the needle" accuracy to not run into them, as many are above the water line. This area can be seen when you travel through the stream en route to the village. Don’t go in there unless you want a broken propeller or worse.
We moved to Long Pond on some days when a boat was available to tow us, and we often had a chance to ski there behind an old lapstrake wooden craft called Black Maria, powered by a 12 horsepower Elto. The boat came from the Herman family camp on lower Long Pond, one of the camps where my father was the caretaker.
We began to ski under the Castle Island Bridge up to Bartlett’s store (Day’s) for a soda break. This required ducking slightly so as not to hit your head on the huge log beams that held up the bridge, now changed out to steel I-beams.
If the boat was not available, we decided that jumping into the foam off the dam spillway was the next best challenge, as merely jumping off the bridge on the stream side had become old hat. A couple of us did get some bad bruises there from hitting hidden rocks and no doubt we were lucky kids to not have died on some of these stunts. Do not do this!
As the teenage years were in full bloom, bigger boats and horsepowers, along with new water toys of varied sorts, came into vogue. The 360° trick skis (also called banana skis) appeared, so skiing backwards was the next big goal. Then it was shoe skis, only 16 inches long with a starter ski they fit into to get up with. The disc, a 36-inch circle was fun, especially with a chair placed loosely on it only to get swept off when hitting a wave. I still have one of the old 1950s surf boards and some trick skis stuck down cellar. The kids of today seem to prefer wake boarding or something like that, and being pulled by a twenty thousand dollar special ski boat. How crazy is that!?
Here’s hoping that you found this interesting and that it may have stirred your memories of younger days when life was simpler, but probably just as risky. What do you think?
Frank Chin (left) sells a "Passive Craft Invasive Aquatic Species Sticker" to Gold Leaf kayaker Maxine Collins.
by Pete Kallin
Last week I wrote about a couple of great programs that focus on getting youth outdoors and teaching them the skills they need to enjoy and thrive outdoors. There are also some great programs that encourage life-time learning and enjoyment of the outdoors by people of all ages.
Early last week I was headed to BRCA’s Great Meadow Stream property in Smithfield to pick some wild raspberries and blueberries. As I crossed the Route 225 bridge at the Rome-Smithfield line, I noticed a bunch of SUVs and pickups pulling in with canoes and kayaks on the roof. I stopped to talk to the group to make sure they knew about the milfoil infestation in the stream.
The group was from Gold Leaf, the University of Maine Farmington (UMF) Senior College. Gold Leaf is a member-run organization devoted to lifelong learning in the Franklin County area, for anyone age 50 or older. They offer intellectually stimulating classes and activities reflecting the interests of its members, socializing with people with similar interests, and affiliation with the University of Maine at Farmington, allowing access to UMF’s faculty and facilities. There are seventeen Senior Colleges throughout Maine, including at University of Maine at Augusta, where I occasionally help teach classes on Maine’s Natural World. These are great programs!
One of the leaders of this particular field trip was Frank Chin, who also volunteers as a Courtesy Boat Inspector for the Thirty Mile River Watershed Association. He was selling "Passive Craft Invasive Aquatic Species Stickers" to all the kayakers as "the price of admission." These stickers are printed by the Maine Lakes Society and Lakes Environmental Association and distributed to lake associations and watershed associations to help them raise funds for their invasive aquatic species programs. If you want one for your canoe or kayak, stop by the Maine Lakes Resource Center and BRCA’s Toni Pied will give you one in exchange for a $5 (minimum) donation.
Gold Leaf kayakers head down Great Meadow Stream towards Great Pond.
I gave the group a short briefing on the milfoil mitigation efforts taking place in the stream, helped them launch their boats, and then headed down the access road to the BRCA property along the stream to pick berries. I first went down to the old "Oakland Marina" and waited for the kayakers to pass by so I could take some pictures.
About five minutes before they arrived, I could hear them coming downstream. For the next few minutes I was treated to a number of waterfowl flying right past me that the boats were flushing ahead of them. I saw wood ducks, black ducks, belted kingfishers, rails, and an American bittern, all of which flew right past me headed downstream.
Take advantage of the rest of the summer and get out on the lakes or hike or bike in the hills. Try a kayak trip down the Great Meadow Stream. And take a kid along, or a senior citizen that you will help make a kid again. You will be creating memories that will last a lifetime.
This culvert seems large enough to allow a stream channel to form in the bottom.
by Dale Finseth
As towns, road associations and land owners continue work on their roadways this summer and fall, the sites where they cross streams need special attention. Usually this involves installing or replacing a culvert and sometimes a bridge. There seem to be two primary issues:
The culvert is too small. With changes in how severe a rain storm may be, the culvert may no longer be large enough or it has become "pinched." Or, given changes in land use upstream, the stormwater runoff may have increased and overwhelms the current culvert.
The current culvert was installed without attention to habitat protection. Fish and other aquatic animals can’t use the stream to move up and downstream. The culvert creates high water velocity or may be "perched" so that animals, usually fish, are not able to travel upstream to other parts of their habitat.
Road crossings are, by their nature, restricted points in a stream’s path to downstream. Ideally the water would move slowly enough and through a wide enough channel to maintain an environment conducive to aquatic animal passage. But a road crossing’s "choke point" can alter the natural flow and action of the stream. Both the stream environment and its water quality can be effected.
Occasionally the road crossing is a bridge. Usually a bridge is better than a culvert because the water flow is more gradual and the stream bed beneath the bridge is closer to a "natural" channel. But in the case of a culvert, they may be too small and/or too steep. Wildlife is unable to cross the barrier. Or they may be so damaged that critters, and certainly fish, can’t travel through them. The classic is a culvert where the water runs out the lower end, drops a couple feet and scours out a large hole beneath the outlet. That is a "perched" culvert.
The fix for such barriers is usually replacement. The replacement is nearly always larger and installed deeper. Replacement is expensive: The initial installation cost can be higher, but the improved life span of the properly sized culvert makes the cost more realistic as a long term investment, and the vast improvement for aquatic plants and animals upstream can be priceless!
It is estimated that about 40% of a watershed’s area may be impaired because water flow is hampered by culvert barriers. A program called Stream Smart helps people identify stream barriers, judge their impact on the stream habitat and identify prospective fixes. They sponsor workshops around the State. The LakeSmart Program has begun to incorporate Stream Smart practices into their program, and the Maine DEP has offered grant funds targeted at culvert replacement. Contact Maine DEP or your local watershed association if interested.
Remember… the objective is improved water quality. Managing the waterways for native plants and animals is a big part.
A Kotlas Centennial: Feasts, Festivities, and Fireworks
The Annunciation Cathedral, as seen from the Vychegda River, in Solvychegodsk.
by Gregor Smith
In June, four residents of the Belgrades flew to Russia to mark the one hundredth anniversary of the founding of Kotlas, Greater Waterville’s sister city. The four travelers were Mark Fisher of Oakland, John and Lisa Fortier of Belgrade, and Gregor Smith, also of Belgrade.
The group flew out of Boston on June 4, and arrived in St. Petersburg the next day. After four days of sightseeing, they got on a train for a 23-hour ride to Kotlas. Two hours after arriving in Kotlas, they attended the grand opening of a new park along the river, a short walk from the railroad station. This new park, constructed next to an existing WWII memorial, features pre-cast concrete dinosaurs for children to play on, a replica of a Viking ship for them to play in, and paved walking paths for people of all ages.
The five cupolas, or "onion domes" of the Annunciation Cathedral.
After lunch, the group traveled by van and by ferry to Solvychegodsk, a picturesque village 15 miles northeast of Kotlas. The area’s saltwater springs were literally the source of wealth for the Stroganov family, which is best known in this country for its recipe for preparing beef. Starting in the 16th century, the family built some 13 Russian Orthodox churches in Solvychegodsk, three of which remain, and one of which the group visited.
Construction of this church, the Annunciation Cathedral, began in 1560. It was originally a private church for the family. Its most remarkable feature is the elaborate iconostasis with five rows of paintings of the saints. This wall of icons separates the sanctuary from the altar. No longer a working church, the building is now a museum.
The modest log cabin where Stalin lived during his second exile to Solvychegodsk, in 1911.
Besides being known for its churches and the famous family that founded them, Solvychegodsk was also a place of exile. One of its earliest "guests" was an uncle of poet Alexander Pushkin. In the early 20th century, many Marxists were sent there, including Vyacheslav Molotov, as in "Molotov cocktail," and most famously, Joseph Stalin. Stalin was first sent to Solvychegodsk after his arrest in 1908, but he escaped in 1909, was recaptured and sent back to Solvyechegodsk in 1910, and escaped for good in 1911. The group visited the modest log home where Joseph Stalin lived during his second stay; the house is now a museum.
The anniversary festivities in Kotlas took place the following day, on Sunday, June 11. The day opened with a 10 a.m. parade of representatives of various schools, organizations, companies, and institutions. Our group marched with the Waterville Committee, the sister city organization in Kotlas, directly in front of a large contingent of men and women smartly dressed in sport coats and military uniforms with ribbons and medals, holding red flags with hammer-and-sickle finials, and carrying a red banner with a likeness of and quote by Lenin. At first, I thought that they were Communists, but was assured later that they were railroad workers, of which there are many in Kotlas. (The Communists did march in the parade, but symbolic of their reduced status in Russia, they were less numerous, 16 or so, and they came dead last, after one other political party.)
A contingent of Kotlas railroad workers marched behind us in the parade.
The parade ended in the town square, a large paved area in front of city hall, which still sports a two-meter, bust of Lenin in profile built into the front of the building, watching over activities in the square below. As each parade group entered from the side the square, an announcer from the stage set up opposite city hall call out its name. The group then made a U-turn and dispersed when it reached the edge of the square. Various dignitaries then gave speeches and area child and young adult dancers recreated the history of Kotlas in a carefully choreographed pageant. I was amused when they got to the 1950s and started bopping around the square to a recording of "Rock Around the Clock," sung in English.
After the end of the festivities in the square, the Greater Waterville group walked to a restaurant called "Bowling," which included a bowling pin in its sign on top of the building. On the way, they passed through a street market that seemed to stretch on for kilometers and watched a chainsaw sculpting demonstration, i.e. where the artist uses a chainsaw to carve a sculpture out of a log.
A historical pageant in the town square.
After lunch, they saw part of pantomime performance of a fairy tale with the actors dressed in oversized — and probably very hot — Styrofoam costumes and then visited the municipal museum to view exhibits on the history of Kotlas, starting with its earliest inhabitants — dinosaurs! It’s hard to believe that millions of years this land that is as far north as Anchorage, Alaska once had a tropical climate that supported fourteen different species of "giant lizards."
That evening, the sojourners attended a gala dinner at a local karaoke club, "Joy." They were among a hundred or so invited guests, which also included past mayors of Kotlas, the governor of the Archangel Region, the bigger-than-Texas province of which Kotlas is a part, and the Polish consul general from St. Petersburg. The day ended with fireworks over the river at 11:00 p.m.
John Fortier’s arm is "mauled" by one of the dinosaurs in the new park along the Northern Dvina River in Kotlas.
After the centennial celebrations, the Greater Waterville delegation stayed in Kotlas for another four full days. During that time, they visited a chiropractic care center and got free massages at an affiliated spa; toured a K-12 boarding school, a post-secondary technical college, and an art and music school that offers afterschool programs for children and teens. They made excursions to Turovets, a settlement across the river from Kotlas where the Virgin Mary is said to have appeared in a clearing; to Krasnoborsk, hometown of the painter Alexander Borisov (1866 – 1934) who was internationally famous in his own day for his paintings of snow and ice; and Velikiy Ustyug, which like Solvychegodsk is famed for its churches, but is an older and larger town with nearly all of its historic houses of worship intact.
For more information about Kotlas and the sister city partnership, one may visit the website of the Kotlas – Waterville Area Sister City Connection at www.kotlas.org.
John Fortier (kneeling) and Gregor Smith pose with freshly carved wooden sculptures. John his wearing his trademark yellow safari hat, which made him easy to spot in crowds.Two pantomime horses pose after their performance in the park.
