MF 181 Hunting, Trapping, Poaching, and Recreational Fishing Collection

Northeast Archives of Folklore and Oral History: MF 181 Hunting, Trapping, Poaching, and Recreational Fishing Collection

Number of accessions: 124
Description: This is an arbitrary collection of accessions created in June 2014 to bring together interviews that focus on hunting, trapping, poaching, and recreational fishing. Below are the accessions that aren’t duplicated in other collections.

NA0532 Wilbur Day, donated by Alice Bacon, 1962, Wesley, Maine. Photocopy of a handwritten memoir (approx. 538 pages) of Wilbur Day (1864 – 1924), a hunter, guide, and poacher from Wesley, Maine. Also, a typescript (139 pp.) prepared from the photocopied memoir. The memoir (a series of newsprint writing tablets) was first obtained from its owners, Alice and John Bacon, by Jane Kazutow Pampalone and again later by Edward D. “Sandy” Ives. A set of photocopies is also available in the Fogler Library Special Collections at UMaine. The original (presumed to have been written down by Wilbur Day’s sister, Susie Day, from dictation by Wilbur Day) was returned to the owners. The Day memoirs were eventually edited for publication by Edward D. Ives and appeared with an introduction as “Wilbur Day: Hunter, Guide, and Poacher” comprising Northeast Folklore Volume 26 (1985). Day mostly wrote about poaching; game laws; murder of game wardens; an arson case; hunting dogs; and many other aspects of woods life. Accession includes song “The Shacker Boys of Wesley” and three photographs relating to Day. Text: 715 pp. manuscript. Photos: P 6204 – P 6206.

NA0735 By William Graves, fall 1972, Mars Hill, Maine. Paper deals with beliefs and superstitions about hunting. Text: 49 pp. paper.

NA0895 “Red,” interviewed by Galen Beaulieu for AY 125 (Oral History and Folklore: Fieldwork), October 18, 1974, November 8 & 22, 1974, at 23b Talmar Wood, Orono, Maine. Interview with Red conducted by Ilka List, November 20, 1974, at Beaulieu’s house (Beaulieu and Edward D. “Sandy” Ives also present). Red (fake name) talks about hunting, poaching, and fishing: his first night hunt; night hunting; carbide hat lights; moving from Aroostook to Penobscot County; his camp on Pushaw Stream in Alton, ME; changes in deer habits; “road” hunting; game wardens; buck and doe habits; prices; using the whole deer; hunting with his son; why he thinks poaching is wrong; hits and misses; poaching deer from the car; snorting or blowing; scouting; deer yards/pens; baiting deer; changing partners while poaching; hunting zones; and evading the law. Recording is in English. RESTRICTED. Text: 16 pp. index and partial transcript (full for Oct., partial for Nov. interviews). Recording: T 0861 – T 0864.

NA1084 Marenia Sibley interviewed by Bessie Dam, April 20, 1975, Lincoln, Maine. Sibley talks about cooking for a lumber camp; snowshoeing to school; spinning and knitting; a boarder she didn’t like; what she cooked for the men; meeting her husband; bedding down cows; trout fishing in Maine Stream; driving a buckboard for a school in 1927; using a pung in winter; working as a tax collector in Grand Falls, Maine; being a member of the school board; working in a fish factory for eight years; attending Blue Cross parties; and caring for the elderly. Text: 37 pp. transcript. Recording: T 1107 1 hour.

NA1086 By Shannon Cauley, spring 1976, Houlton, Maine and Chesapeake Bay, Maryland. 41 pp. ms. Paper on fish and fishing; jokes; sayings; cures; proverbs; name variations. Text: 41 pp. pager.

NA1275 By Linda Dunn for Folklore & Folklife, Brown University, 1978, Waltham and Ellsworth, Maine. 31 pp. ms. Paper on poaching as a way of life and illegal game hunting. Text: 31 pp. paper.

NA1474 By Eric Kangas for AY 122, spring 1981, Rockland, Maine. 12 pp. ms. Paper on big buck hunting stories. Text: 12 pp. paper.

NA1644 By Nathan Lowrey for AY 122, spring 1983, Aroostook County, Maine. 90 pp. ms. Paper, titled “Poachin’ (as a fine art),” deals with a collection of poaching stories. Text: 90 pp. paper.

NA1656 By Adam Jenkins for AY 122, spring 1983, Bangor, Maine. 20 pp. ms. Paper on Everett Cornelius and his many hunting experiences and stories. Text: 20 pp. paper.

NA1975 By Jennifer Holmes for AY 322, spring 1987, Penobscot, Maine. Paper, “Hunting Stories of the Holmes Family.” Text: 43 pp. paper.

NA1977 By Cynthia Emerson for AY 322, spring 1987, Garland, Maine. 44 pp. manuscript. Paper deals with a collection of women’s hunting and fishing stories; how men perceive women who hunt. RESTRICTED. Text: 44 pp. paper.

NA2370 Ella Thompson, interviewed by Chris Keenan for AY 425, fall 1994, Brewer, Maine. 20 pp. Tape: 1 w/ transcript. Two interviews with Thompson of Cherryfield, Maine about poaching. No tape for first interview. RESTRICTED: no depositors form. Text: 14 pp. transcript. Recording: C 1419 (second interview only).

NA2424 Norman Davis, interviewed by Scott Davis for AY 425, February 1996, Eustis, Maine. 76 pp. Tape: 2 w/ transcript. Davis talks about hunting; hunting camp; moose hunt; deer hunt at Third St. John Pond, Indian Pond; hunting techniques and signs; deer behavior. Text: transcript. Recording: C 1469 and C 1470.

NA2594 Weltha Page Smith, interviewed by Brian Robinson, July 31, 1999, Indian Island, Olamon, Old Town, and Milford, Maine. Smith tells of her life growing up on Olamon Island in the Penobscot River; foodways; hunting; trapping; and other aspects of local history and Penobscot Indian lifeways. RESTRICTED. Recording: mfc_na2594_c1803_01, mfc_na2594_c1803_02 95 minutes.

NA2805 By Shannon T. Staples for Native American Folklore (ANT 490) taught by Pauleena MacDougall, summer 2000. Paper titled “The Teachings of Gluskabe: Penobscot Culture Reflected in Folktales.” Research paper on the role of Gluskabe tales; role of animism in Penobscot life; hunting and fishing tales; importance Penobscot River; birch-bark canoes; use of tobacco; elders and children; and Gluskabe’s departure. Text: 23 pp. paper.

NA3024 David Spruce and Edmund Libby, interviewed by Bill and Fern Stearns, January 6, 2002, Milford, Maine. Spruce and Libby discuss topics related to the Sunkhaze Meadows National Wildlife Refuge, including economic and recreational use of the area by local residents; camps; local history; geography; trails and landmarks; flora and fauna; previous owners of the land (paper companies); blueberries and cranberries; hunting; guns; Thanksgiving; pipe tobacco; Great Depression; harvesting peat; stories about local characters; and coyotes. Also present, Tom Comish and Pam Wells. Text: 42 pp. transcript. Recording: mfc_na3024_c2083_01&02, mfc_na3024_c2084_01&02 118 minutes.

NA3025 Chris Wickett and Lawrence Hurd, interviewed by Fern Sterns and Bill Sterns, March 3, 2002, Milford, Maine. Wickett and Hurd discuss topics related to the Sunkhaze Meadows National Wildlife Refuge, including fishing; canoeing; cranberries; finding bee hives; hunting; and economic and recreational use of the area by local residents. Other topics include the Old Town Canoe Factory; Indian Island; 1938 hurricane; relations between Native Americans and whites in Old Town; Boy Scouts; and the environmental effects of paper mill. Also present, Tom Comish. Text: 18 pp. transcript. Recording: mfc_na3025_c2085_01, mfc_na3025_c2085_02 58 minutes.

NA3026 Jim Martin, interviewed by Fern and Bill Sterns, March 14, 2002. Martin discusses topics related to the Sunkhaze Meadows National Wildlife Refuge in Milford, Maine, including identification of specific landmarks on a map which is not included in the accession; economic and recreational use of the area by local residents; houseboats on Sunkaze meadow; beaver trapping and environmental consequences of disallowing trapping. Also present, Pam Wells. Text: 22 pp. transcript. Recording: mfc_na3026_c2086_01, mfc_na3026_c2086_02 69 minutes.