Summer residents of East Grand Lake in Orient, may recognize the feelings and images in the essay that opens the new edition of Echoes magazine.
“I am amused by those who will ask me, ‘What do you do there all summer?’” writes Jane McGillicuddy Phipps of Bluffton, S.C., in her homage to “the simpler way of life.” Titled “Serenity,” her description of a typical summer day at the lake is one of three articles about East Grand Lake in Echoes No. 104 released this month.
Features by Phipps’ summer neighbors Richard Rhoda of Houlton and Frank Bolton of Brooklyn, N.Y., add historical and personal perspectives to the East Grand Lake experience. Rhoda, a local historian, teams up with Houlton artist Roger Morin to describe and illustrate the early mapping of the region. Rhoda takes readers back to 1820 when then Governor William King hired Major Joseph Treat to explore the interior of the new state of Maine. Rhoda summarizes Treat’s journey and quotes from his journal, which was published in 2007. Using Treat’s survey sketches, Morin created a painting that appears on the inside back cover of the magazine commemorating the early mapping expedition.
Bolton’s saga of “The White Pine” details the many people involved in the long process of removing a giant pine tree that had been dropping branches on the roof of his summer home. The phone lines between Brooklyn and Orient were humming when it finally fell and ended up at the Hopkins Mill in Hodgdon.
Other articles in the new Echoes highlight how the 2014 World Acadian Congress/ Congres mondial acadien and the Maine Winter Sports Center have put Aroostook County and adjacent Canada on the world stage.
“Daytime at the Maine Winter Sports Center,” an oil painting by Fort Kent artist Dolores Dumont, fills the front and back covers of Echoes No. 104 released this month. Her work forms a colorful backdrop for images of two of the four members of the U.S. Olympic biathlon team competing in Sochi, Russia, all of whom trained at the Maine Winter Sports Center.
Photos of flags and fans from a few of the 29 countries represented at the World Championships in Presque Isle illustrate a feature on biathlon and on Stockholm native Russell Currier, a product of the MWSC who was the only Maine native to compete in the 2014 Winter Olympics in Russia.
In a splash of Acadian colors, a map of the host region for the World Acadian Congres/ Congres mondial acadien forms the centerpiece of the magazine. Embracing portions of Quebec, New Brunswick and Maine, the map lists the locations of more than 100 family reunions for the two-week event in August.
An alphabetical list of families – from Albert to Zangio Dako – scheduled to reunite as of March 15 accompanies an article titled “Focus on Families” by former St. John Valley Times publisher and editor Don Levesque.
“The focus of CMA 2014 is on families,” writes Levesque, noting that more than 50 of the reunions are scheduled in Maine. “CMA 2014 has invited all families in the area to hold a reunion,” he said, distinguishing this Congress for including non-Acadian as well as French-speaking participants.
In addition to articles celebrating how the world sees northern Maine and neighboring Canada, this edition of Echoes contains a personal account of the significance of border crossings between Maine and Canada by David Parker of Rochester, N.Y. Both Parker and Presque Isle native Jack Pasqual of San Antonio, remember the Bangor and Aroostook Railroad. Pasqual recounts the thrill of a trip downstate on the train in the 1940s in “Railroaders and Revelers.”
Looking to the future as well as the past, Sandra Gauvin of Presque Isle envisions an Aroostook County where young people can get both education and employment, enabling them to live and raise their families where they grew up. In “Echoes of the Future,” she introduces readers to a new initiative to inspire high school students to attend local colleges and become involved with local businesses as they prepare for their careers. Called Aroostook Aspirations, the program includes scholarships and partnerships designed to keep Aroostook young people in The County.
Regular columnists Glenna Johnson Smith and John Dombek reflect on changing times in essays titled “A Trashy Tale” and “Diabolical Influences.” Genealogist Dottie Hutchins anticipates the heyday of Acadian family reunions in August and Karla Wolters traces the origins of Aroostook County winter carnivals and the skiing tradition that has been revived by the Maine Winter Sports Center.
Published quarterly from offices in Caribou and printed at PrintWorks in Presque Isle, Echoes celebrates qualities of life at risk in today’s world but thriving in places like northern Maine. For more information visit echoesofmaine.com.
