To the editor:
I truly enjoy the Star-Herald. No, I’m not from The County, but my heart is here. I spent many summers in the North Maine Woods as a forester for a major paper company from 1965-73. In 1973, my wife and I purchased a house in Ashland. I took on a full-time position as a forester/scaler/woods inspector for the same paper company. We had two sons at the time and two more sons were born at a Presque Isle hospital during the next four years.
Since I left over 30 years ago I have returned several times for various reasons; several trips on the Allagash River, a moose hung and to visit old friends. One of the friends has moved south closer to my residence now and he receives the weekly edition of Star-Herald. The newspaper arrives at my house a few days later. I read it from front to back.
I, being President of Albion Historical Society, enjoy any historical information you print. In the July 16, 2008 issue, I find two bits and pieces that I would like to elaborate on. Number one is the caption under the picture on page 3A. The large print “The Puddledock” struck my eye. Could someone give me the origin of this term? Please! Albion has a neighborhood called Puddledock. It was named back in the 1800s. The town of Manchester has a Puddle Dock Road, Charleson has a Puddledock Road and Alna has a Puddledock Road.
My number-two story comes from the same issue, page 4A, third column under “Celebrate” the first new paragraph. It tells about the “definite markers placed as boundary markers separating the United States and Canada under the Webster-Ashburton Treaty.
As I mentioned before, I was a forester for a major paper company in The County so spent a lot of time in the woods. On one occasion in the northwestern section of Wallgrass I cam upon a much decomposed log built maple sugar camp. I spent a few minutes pawing through the rubble only to find a lot of rusted tin and a rock/brick arch. One of the iron cross pieces that held up the sap pan was one of the old cast iron boundary markers. It had been “cooked” many time and bowed under the heat and weight of the sap and sap pan. I very gently pulled out and put it on a sled and pulled it by snowmobile to my pickup truck. I gently put this tall, heavy, iron monument in the back and called it a day. I displayed the artifact at the company office. Only one old-time woodsman from St. Francis said he had seen one in his travels before.
I took this rare piece home and as I unloaded it from my pickup truck, I broke it in half. I later donated it to the Ashland Logging Museum, but have kept a small piece of iron from it, about the size of a quarter. So if you are looking for the missing piece, I have it somewhere. And if it’s a Federal offense to have it then cuff and stuff me. (There should be a thirty-year rule out there somewhere.) Keep up the good work!
Albion
