The A, B, Zs of Summertime

by Esther J. Perne

Summertime in the Belgrades…among the lakes… along the Kennebec…in the central Maine region. The season is anticipated, it's awesome, it's rich in traditions and discovery and it's for everyone: resident, vacationer, visitor, passerby.

Summer offers a full menu of local outings and activities, a generous range of recreation and relaxation, a mix of yesterday and today — of historic and modern — and an alphabet to whet the imagination.

Finally, of course, Z is for the great zzzz's of summer slumber. Awesome!

Sailing Through the Ages

by Rod Johnson

Chester Thwing's iceboat is being rigged by Clayton Grant, Fred Saxton, Darryl Day, and Rod Johnson in the early 1970s.

Probably the archeologists have a good many clues as to when early mankind powered their watercraft with a sail. Who thought of the concept is anybody's guess. Perhaps someone hung an animal skin up to dry on their rowing craft and voila, the boat moved without the oars! Maybe a brilliant young Egyptian student came up with a theory about capturing wind power. Regardless, we do know that one of the earliest depictions of a ship under sail is on an Egyptian vase dated 3500 B.C. We also know that square rigged boats with papyrus sails carried on commerce during the same period as they plied the waters of the Nile River. Our own history says the Vikings sailed to America about 1000 years ago.

The sailing vessels mentioned above were limited to sailing in a direction that the wind was going, with some minor variations. Essentially they were being pushed and any destination into the wind was not attainable. It was not until the shape of sails was changed to somewhat triangular that sailing craft were able to make significant headway into the wind with a tactic called tacking.

These sails are called "lateen" from the French latine ("Latin"), a triangular sail set on a long yard at an angle, running fore and aft. Lateen sails can be likened to an airplane wing on end and both are considered airfoils. The phenomenon of lift is created when air goes over the curved side of the airfoil causing a lower pressure than the shorter back side of the foil. Air quickly moves towards the low pressure area to equalize atmospheric pressure and thereby takes your boat or airplane with it. The lateen sails are believed to have been used by the Arabs in the eastern Mediterranean as early as the Second Century A.D., having been imported from the Egyptian (Persian) gulf. Ships fit with lateen sails became much more maneuverable and reliable (without oarsmen) both in trade and war.

Craft owned by members of the Chickawaukie Ice Boat Club line up on Great Pond in December 2018.

Let us remember that sailing is not limited to watercraft. Our own Belgrade resident and Woodland Camps builder/owner Chester Thwing (now deceased), built and sailed an iceboat during the early to mid-20^th century — right here on Great and Long Ponds. In the 1970's, Chester's gaff-rigged boat was resurrected by Clayton Grant and sailed on Long Pond. (See the photo above.) Note the location, as the Long Pond shoreline directly behind the old Manor and barn, now the Lakeside Inn.

More recently in the winter of 2018-2019, locals were treated to an iceboat show of a grand magnitude. Great Pond became the playground and racing course for the Chickawaukie Ice Boat Club, a Maine based group of avid iceboat sailors. Outstanding ice-boat sailing conditions prevailed for several days with plenty of black ice dusted with light snow. As the ice boats flew across the frozen plain of ice, so did photos and videos fly across the Internet. The club enjoyed themselves immensely and the activity became a spectator scene for the locals.

We see more sails on the lake now than ever, at least in my lifetime. Yes, there are many more boats in general, but it seems that sailing has more than held its own. Undoubtedly, a core group of avid sailors and some beginners that call themselves the Great Pond Yacht Club have a lot to do with this. The members have several races each summer and lots of casual sailing as well. They also sponsor a children's sailing program, available for several weeks each season. The program operates out of the Center for all Season's waterfront and information is available through the GPYC.

What a wonderful and healthy horizon when the sails are up and the wind is brisk. If you haven't been bitten by the sailing bug yet, perhaps it's time. What better way to get out on the water and enjoy a fun and challenging pastime. Carry on sailors!

Support Local Agriculture

by Dale Finseth

It is that season when we begin to see more products from local farms. Local products are there year round but we don't seem to notice them until we see the roadside vendors.

Like the rest of the state, Kennebec County has been adding farms and farmers rather than losing them. In fact, the recent "Census of Agriculture" reports an increase of 6% of the reported farms in the past five years, 2012 to 2017. While many of the new farms are smaller, the average size of the 1,136 farms reporting in Kennebec County was 128 acres.

While the total market value of products sold has not changed much the farm related income has improved by about 25%. So…, expenses have decreased far more than the slight decline in income. As one of our supervisors used to say, "While I always like to get paid more for my milk, I can do just as well by spending less."

While most of the farms are still relatively small, with about 50% being less than 50 acres in size, we do have eight farms reporting over 1,000 acres. Fewer of the farms are dairy farms, but Kennebec County is still the county producing the most milk in the State of Maine. We remain the "Dairy Capitol of Maine".

The mix of farming in Maine has become more and more diverse over the past, That is certainly the case in Kennebec County.

Based on this report fully 33% of the reporting farms are new and have beginning farmers, which means that they have been farming for less than ten years. Support your local farms and farmers. Check out USDA's website for county by county profiles of agriculture in Maine.

Welcome, Mount Vernon!

by Dick Greenan

Well, enough with the rain already! As I write this we are getting another 1.25 – 1.5″ of rain here in the Belgrades. I can't believe I am saying this but, enough is enough. With another long winter just behind us, it's time for some sun!

Due to a very wet June, all of our ponds are now full or above full pond. We are starting our summer, and we assume we are, in great shape.

Great Pond's Belgrade Village dam has one gate opened just 3″ while Long Pond's Wings Mill dam has one gate opened 4″ to make additional room for this rain. Remember that, for every inch of rain, Long Pond's water level comes up 3″ due to the relatively steep watershed. Salmon/McGrath continues to have its one gate opened three turns to allow the required 1 cfs flow.

Last week we welcomed the Town of Sidney into the Dams Inter-Local Agreement and this week we want to welcome our neighbors in Mt. Vernon on lower Long Pond into the Dams Committee. As with the Town of Sidney, we welcome Mt. Vernon's unanimous support for this regional cause. This will help to ensure more long-lasting repairs to our Wings Mill dam which is desperately in need of some TLC.

Enjoy your summertime in the Belgrades!

The Hidden History of Midcoast Maine

by Martha F. Barkley

I could not resist buying Hidden History of Midcoast Maine by Patricia M. Higgins at Barnes & Noble for $19.99. Now it is now at the Belgrade Library for you to check out.

More information about Popham Colony and how a nearby trading area by Fort Western later helped the fur traders to bring much needed profits to Plymouth. I had not realized how floundering the Massachusetts colony was and how the Kennebec River successful traders brought much needed profits for those striving to survive so far south.

Speaking of south of Maine, did you know that notorious Jefferson Davis from Mississippi and his wife Varina spent an entire summer in Maine? He had been extremely unwell with malaria and other ailments. Senators were visiting his deathbed in Washington, DC. The outspoken abolitionist Charles Sumner of Massachusetts was a regular visitor at his bedside to read aloud and write for Davis.

When he gradually improved, his doctors recommended a northern summer to help his recuperation, so they enjoyed the healthy sea air on board ship from Baltimore to Boston and then a packet to Portland. Immediately Jefferson Davis seemed to gain strength and their two children, a daughter and baby son, had more access to their frail, healing father.

Benjamin Franklin's great-grandson, Alexander Dallas Bache, invited the Davis family to be guests, participating in the Coast Survey and other scientific experiments measuring the Epping Plains Base Line in 1857. Who has heard of these science observations, triangulation for measuring?

Humpback Mountain, where the Davises visited Bache, is now known as Lead Mountain. The road the Davis family climbed in an oxdrawn sled is known locally as the Jeff Davis Road…It must be the only road named for the Confederate president outside the South.

It was quite the turn of events to read that upon their visit to Bowdoin College, Jefferson Davis was awarded an honorary degree within yards of the famed Harriet Beecher Stowe home where Uncle Tom's Cabin was written. History is stranger than fiction, as the cliche goes…

Davis had been toured, serenaded and wined and dined for the better part of the summer by all manner of Mainers around the state who wanted to strut their stuff before the famous man. He was obviously impressed with what he had seen during his travels…and he spoke knowledgeably about Maine's timber, industries, agriculture…Davis spoke warmly of a pleasant, hospitable and recuperative vacation…Maine was quite charmed by the well-spoken and cultivated southerner.

His capstone speech, among many around the state, was delivered right here in Augusta. "I have everywhere met courtesy and considerate attention from the hour I landed on your coast to the present time." Another chapter has quite a bit about famed Civil War regiments from our area and their importance in various battles at Gettysburg, crater explosion before Petersburg, etc.

If the practice of dueling puzzles you, find out about the Maine representative Jonathan Cilley who lost his life at the Bladensburg, Md. grounds where Congress held these odd events. Soon after this particular duel, legislation tried to end the barbaric practice.

Many decades before the Civil War, in 1837, a stowaway slave named Atticus was on board a Maine ship leaving Savannah for Rockland. "Mate Kellerman took Atticus home with him to Cushing." It became a hot and heavy issue between Georgia and Maine with neighbors in Cushing trying to outsmart officials in their house searches for Atticus the slave. Read about the peculiar fugitive slave laws of the time and imagine what you would have done if you lived in the small town of Cushing.

The bibliography is extensive, so if one topic is of great interest to the reader, there are many other sources to find and learn even more. U-boat mischief on Black Sunday, June 2, 1918 is documented in the final chapter… numerous other coastal sinkings…

Maine's Midcoast holds stories of daring escape, spectacular bungles, great victories and overlooked architects of American history.

P.S. I must add that now I will try Volume 1 of Varina Davis' memoir to read more about their summer in Maine. Epping Plain up beyond Castine intrigues me. I had already read her Volume 2 about life after Jefferson Davis' death. Varina made her life in New York City. The Southern belle was criticized greatly for that, just as Patricia Higgins writes in Hidden History that the Davis family was criticized greatly upon returning south after a healing summer in Maine.

What I found beyond belief in her memoir was that Varina exhumed her husband's body from its Mississippi burial site and designed a long train ride (somewhat like Lincoln's) for a final burial in Richmond. This was years after his death. Another true story that sounds like fiction. People gathered along the route to honor President Jefferson Davis of the Confederacy. The lost cause honored in such a strange way…

James Swanson has written a wonderful history comparing Davis and Lincoln: both born in Kentucky, both eloquent speakers and successful lawyers, both served in Congress, both married very sophisticated and educated southern belles, both became presidents, both lost children to untimely deaths, both loners…happenstance at the extreme…

Training Future Lake Stewards

by Pete Kallin

Jon Doty, Rod, and Peter Roderick (with helmet, chaps, and saw) clear blowdowns across the trail.

Although the calendar says summer has barely begun, it already seems to be flying by with lots going on with the various groups I work with. On National Trail Day, June 1, I worked with fellow 7-Lakes Alliance (former BRCA) Stewardship Committee volunteers to clear brush and blaze our new Fogg Island multiuse (bike/hike/ski/snowshoe) trail to get it ready for use. I took a small team (Peter Roderick, and Rod) in by boat to the north end of the trail and Amy Soper and Brian Alexander took a larger group in over land from the south and we worked in from both ends.

The Fogg Island preserve is in Mount Vernon along the southwest shore of Long Pond and is accessible by small boat from Long Pond just south of Ingham Stream or by vehicle from Spring Hill Road. Trail maps will soon be posted on the 7-Lakes website, but in the meantime, call Stewardship Coordinator Amy Soper at 495-6039 to obtain a map.

Academy Hill fourth graders on the Melinda Ann compare notes.

The 7-LA Stewardship volunteers spend a lot of time and effort keeping the local trails in good shape. If you would like to help, please sign up with Mary Kerwood at the MLRC to get on our volunteer list. The work is actually a lot of fun and you will meet some interesting, dedicated people.

Among the many hats I wear, I serve on the board of the Maine Lakes Society (MLS), a statewide nonprofit dedicated to protecting the health of Maine's lakes for future generations through science-based education, action, and policy. In addition to overseeing the LakeSmart Program for lake associations across Maine, we have a program called Lakes Alive, designed to help train tomorrow's lake stewards. We have a 30-ft floating classroom, the Melinda Ann, that we use to take school students and other youth groups out on Maine lakes to give them some hands-on, experiential lake science, such as doing plankton tows and Secchi depth readings and learning to drive our video-equipped, remotely operated vehicle, which allows them to inspect the depths of the lake. They also use a benthic dredge to capture critters and sediments from the bottom.

"Stormin'" Norman Clark (with pike) and son Trent (with bass) on Messalonskee Lake.

Last week, sponsored by the Town of Wilton and Friends of Wilson Lake, we towed the Melinda Ann to Wilson Lake where we took 45 fourth-grade students from Academy Hill School (RSU-9) out on three trips, teaching them a bit about watersheds and lake science. Simultaneously, MLS President Jen Jespersen and some of the Academy Hill teachers directed some ecology-oriented shore activities for the students waiting to get out on the boat. The kids had a ball and learned a lot. Read this article for details.

This area offers some great outdoor recreation, whether you like to hike, bike, birdwatch, fish, sail, or paddle a canoe or kayak. Pick up a map of the local trails at Day's Store or from the 7-LA at the Maine Lakes Resource Center. Keep an eye on the sign in front of the MLRC and check the 7-LA website and Facebook page for further updates. And make sure you take a kid along on your next outdoor adventure!

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