Page Farm & Home Museum Lecture to Discuss Maine Trotting Horse History
Contact: Patty Henner, 581-4100; George Manlove, 581-3756
ORONO — The history of the Maine trotting horse from 1819 to 1890, their breeders, history of the tracks — and the role of the University of Maine in that industry — is the subject of the first brown bag lunch lecture series being held Sept. 11 at the UMaine Page Farm and Home Museum.
The noon presentation is free and open to the public. Speaker Clark Price Thompson has titled his talk “Maine trotting horse history and its UMaine connections.”
Clark Thompson received his B.A. in history from the University of Maine in 1969 and an M.A. in teaching in 1970. After graduation, he served from 1970 to 1974 the U.S. Navy and went to St. Louis University Law School from 1974 to 1977. Thompson practiced law in Maine for 10 years.
Thompson began studying the history of the trotting horse in Maine when he moved back to Maine in 1977. He has served on the board of directors for the Bangor State Fair and focused his research on Bass Park, the site of the Bangor State Fair, and its racetrack.
Thompson has broadened his research to a state-wide focus, and for the last three years, has been working on a Maine trotting horse trail. With other volunteers he has placed six granite markers from southern Maine to Bangor that memorialize trotting horses or race tracks.