19th annual Thoreau-Wabanaki Trail Festival

GREENVILLE JUNCTION — Come check out the activities taking place for the 19th annual Thoreau-Wabanaki Trail Festival. Day and evening programs run three days at The Depot and Greenville Junction Wharf, Wednesday to Friday, July 23-25. 

For a complete schedule of events, see thoreauwabanaki.org or contact info@thoreauwabanaki.org. Suggested donation $10 at the door for adults. The birchbark canoe exhibition at the wharf is free.

Wednesday, July 23, opens with an expected 30 birch bark canoes gathering at the Greenville Junction Wharf. Come see these up close and personal under the big tent, talk to owners as they prepare them for Thursday afternoon’s Flotilla. At 7 p.m. join Penobscot guides in a talk about the “Art of River Traveling” at the Greenville Junction Depot.

Thursday, July 24, celebration opens at 1 p.m. with a Penobscot Nation drumming and singing group launching the canoes off into a flotilla in West Cove. Grand Flotilla runs 1-4 p.m., a chance to see these rare watercraft up close, talk to the builders and get pictures. Some rare designs will be on display. At 7 p.m., Dark Sky/Borealis photographer Isaac Crabtree gives a how-to talk at The Depot for getting the best shots of night-time magic in the North Woods.

Friday, July 25, hear how Greenville’s own native son Henry Perley, known as Chief Henry Red Eagle, became a legendary spokesman for the Moosehead Region. Later that day, find out all there is to know about the health and well-being of Moosehead’s moose population with Maine moose expert Lee Kantar.

Other features include guided Thoreau Society nature walks “Thoreau: The Tonic of Wildness” at the Shaw Public Library and “Wabanaki, Thoreau & The Power of Place” at The Depot with Drs. Darren J. Ranco and John Kucich, president of the Thoreau Society.

Moosehead Lake and Wabanaki traditions became universally celebrated through the writings of naturalist Thoreau. Two of Thoreau’s three trips into the North Woods launched with Penobscot guides on Moosehead Lake from Greenville in 1853 and 1857. His philosophy is now quoted world-wide, renowned in his book “The Maine Woods”.