Festivities to celebrate the first anniversary of the Thoreau-Wabanaki Trail will be held in Greenville Thursday, July 24th through Saturday, July 26th, as Mainers and visitors from across the region gather to honor Henry David Thoreau and the Penobscot guides who made two of his three explorations in Maine possible.
The official opening of the Trail last July beside Moosehead Lake marked the 150th anniversary of Thoreau’s third and final trip into Maine’s North Woods in 1857. This July’s events will build on last year’s programs by exploring further how Thoreau’s ideas about nature and conservation were shaped through observation and through the Penobscots’ philosophy imparted by his guides Joe Polis and Joe Attean.
Kicking off the festivities will be a talk on Thursday by historian Walter MacDougall. The talk is entitled Thoreau, the Man and will be held at The Community House beginning at 7 PM. All-day events on Saturday include: Penobscot blessings and drumming; fishing lessons; paddling on Moosehead Lake; logging exhibit; silent auction and canoe raffle; storytelling; wildlife program; talk by John Banks on tribal land use in the north Maine Woods; and an outdoor fair with exhibits. To bring the event to a close, the Doughty Hill Band will perform an evening concert. Available will be a new revised edition of the landmark book, THE WILDEST COUNTRY: Exploring Thoreau’s Maine by J. Parker Huber, and a commemorative poster created for the occasion.
This celebration is free to all and is a collaborative effort of Maine Woods Forever, which initiated the Trail, the Natural Resource Education Center, and the Moosehead Historical Society, both located in Greenville. Several other organizations are also instrumental in creating the Trail. Contact Jerry Stelmok at 564-7612 for more information. |
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