Maine Folklife Center Brings Boatbuilding to Common Ground Fair
Contact: George Manlove at (207) 581-3756
ORONO — The Maine Folklife Center’s programs at this year’s Common Ground Fair highlight inland boat and canoe building, featuring some of Maine’s well-known guides and boat builders.
The fair is Sept. 24, 25 and 26 in Unity.
The Folklife Center has assembled a group of canoe experts to discuss different approaches to building wood and canvas canoes, says Jamie Moreira, director of the Maine Folklife Center at the University of Maine and an assistant professor in the Anthropology Department.
This will be the folklife center’s seventh year participating.
“We’re there to do demonstrations on various aspects of Maine tradition,” Moreira says. “This year it’s inland watercraft.”
Among the speakers will be Rollin Thurlow of Atkinson, who will speak Saturday at 11 a.m. about building canoes. Thurlow has done extensive research on the history of the wood and canvas canoe in the northeast, Moreira says. Throughout the weekend, Thurlow will demonstrate the craft of building wooden canoes, with special sessions devoted to steam-bending techniques.
On Sunday at 11 a.m., Steve Cayard of Wellington discusses the techniques of building birch bark canoes.
“He’s not only someone who’s learned the craft, but he’s put a tremendous amount of energy into investigating the making of birch bark canoes,” Moreira says. Cayard has visited museums from Pennsylvania to Canada to study historical examples of Native canoes.
Other speakers and participants in a boat builder’s roundtable discussion include:
Jerry Stelmok of Island Falls Canoe in Atkinson, who builds canoes along the original lines of E.M. White, who started building in a shop near Gilman Falls about 1885 and later set up a factory in Old Town that produced wooden canoes until the 1960s;
Bill Schamel of Grand Lake Stream, who builds wooden Grand Lake canoes through a technique that differs from building birch bark or canvas canoes, according to Moreira;
And Gil Gilpatrick, a well-known Maine Guide from Central Maine who builds cedar strip canoes and who has written several books on the guiding and canoeing.
“Basically, we have four different people with four different approaches to building inland watercraft,” Moreira says.
An estimated 50,000 people are expected to visit the 28th Common Ground Fair, the nation’s oldest organic agriculture and environmentally friendly fair. The Maine Organic Farmers’ Association started the fair in 1971.
Information is available at the Maine Folklife Center website — www.umaine.edu/folklife — or through MOFGA.
The UMaine Folklife Center is dedicated to preserving and promoting traditions that have helped shape the culture and traditions of Maine. The center also had a boatbuilding exhibit at the National Folk Festival in Bangor in August.