Greenville to celebrate annual Maine Forest Heritage Days this weekend
GREENVILLE — The 28th annual Maine Forest Heritage Days is scheduled for Aug. 8-11. The weekend includes a bus tour through Maine’s working forest, a craft fair, carriage rides, chainsaw carving, a woodsman demonstration featuring chopping and ax throwing and the regional Game of Logging competition.
The Forest Heritage Days events start a day early this year on Thursday, Aug. 8. From 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. the Center for Moosehead History & Aviation opens with a “Logging & Lumbering” exhibit celebrating the logging industry in the Moosehead Lake region, with a newly curated exhibit of the B-52.
From 1-4 p.m. there will be guided tours through the Moosehead Historical Society & Museums. Take a trip back in time with the Moosehead Historical Society at 444 Pritham Avenue.
Observer file photo/Stuart Hedstrom
GENTLEMEN, START YOUR CHAINSAWS — Competition announcer Stuart Hall introduces the five entrants in the 2015 regional Game of Logging at the Greenville school grounds, held in conjunction with the annual Forest Heritage Days celebration. From left is Hall, Jeremy Grignon, Tom Fox — that year’s winner, John Grignon, Tyler McIntosh and Paul Cyr. The 2019 event gets underway at 9 a.m. on Saturday, Aug. 10 as part of Forest Heritage Days events running from Thursday evening through Sunday morning.
That evening at 7 p.m. will be the “History of Logging Aboard the Steamship Katahdin” as Rocky Rockwell tells tales of the last log drive on Moosehead Lake.
On Friday, Aug. 9 at 8 a.m. a six-hour working forest bus tour departs from the Greenville Consolidated School on Pritham Avenue. The excursion will travel through the Maine woods with educational stops, demonstrations and lunch. The bus tour will include a history and recreation tour at the Lily Bay Store House, an active logging operation and lunch at the Appalachian Mountain Club’s Medawisla Lodge with a presentation of “Kokadjo Logging Operations of Yore” by Suzanne AuClair from the Moosehead Historical Society. Tickets are required, with information available at www.forestheritagedays.org.
The Colby Woodsmen demonstration begins at 3 p.m. on the school campus, with old-time logging skills on display such as chopping and ax throwing.
From 5-7 p.m. there will be an open house at Moosehead Historical Society’s Lumberman’s Museum with special guest Rocky Rockwell available for questions and stories.
On Saturday, Aug. 10 a craft fair on the school grounds gets underway at 9 a.m. The fair includes area organization booths, with many featuring information on land use issues. The day will also feature forestry and recreation exhibits, a children’s area and a visit from Smokey the Bear.
The 29th annual Game of Logging competition gets underway at 9 a.m. as professional loggers from Maine and beyond compete to see who has the top skills for working in the woods.
Attendees can witness a chainsaw carving demonstration at 12:30 p.m. The Log-A-Load raffle drawing and prize presentations will both be at approximately 2:30 p.m.
On Sunday, Aug. 11 a woodsman’s breakfast will be served with a menu fit for a lumberjack from 7-10 a.m. at the American Legion on Pritham Avenue.
Throughout the weekend The Center for Moosehead History & Lumberman’s Museum will be open for self-guided tours and the restored steamboat The Katahdin will be going out on regular cruises.
The complete schedule as well as information about ticketed events can be found at www.forestheritagedays.org or the event Facebook page.
Forest Heritage Days is an annual community event that honors the state’s most historic industry. The forest products industry has been a staple in Maine for generations and provides an annual economic impact of $8 billion, employs one in 20 Mainers and contributes 28.9 percent of all state exports. Each year since 1991, families and community members gather to celebrate this vibrant industry with several days of forestry fun.