Weyerhaeuser grant kick starts ‘Sunken Steamboats of Moosehead Lake’ documentary

GREENVILLE — The Moosehead Marine Museum is celebrating the first major grant awarded to kick off production of its historical documentary film “The Sunken Steamboats of Moosehead Lake”. The Weyerhaeuser Giving Fund awarded $5,000 to the project, which is being produced by the Moosehead Marine Museum in partnership with Ryan Robbins, founder of Moosehead Lake Divers and the film’s director. The documentary will feature underwater video of steamboat wrecks in the lake, historical still images and excerpts of oral history interviews.
“The grant gets the project off the ground so we can finally begin capturing the oral history interviews needed for the film,” Robbins said. “There are a lot of people whose lives were intertwined with Moosehead steamboats. We want to feature their experiences and let their voices tell the history first-hand.”
While parts of the oral history interviews will serve as the primary film narration, each of the full interviews will be transcribed, catalogued, added to the museum collection and made available to the public. As indicated by Robbins, “‘The Sunken Steamboats of Moosehead Lake’ isn’t just a film about steamboats. It’s an oral history project involving real people sharing their own Maine history.”
“There’s a sense of urgency once you start meeting and talking to people who were personally involved with the steamboats,” said Liz McKeil, executive director of the Moosehead Marine Museum. “There just aren’t many people left who remember that time. We want to capture this while we still can … and we’re really excited Weyerhaeuser is kicking things off with the first major contribution.”
The project launched a GoFundMe campaign in 2016. Both Robbins and McKeil are actively pursuing other grant sponsors to keep the project moving forward. They plan to conduct a dozen or so oral history interviews and have an updated trailer featuring the oral history part of the project ready in time for the 40th anniversary of the Moosehead Marine Museum this summer. Please visit mooseheadsteamboats.com for more information.