Where in Maine?
My entire family reads your amazing magazine together with our three young children. Throughout the year it reminds us of our happy summer times up at “the cabin,” as we lovingly call it, in Rangeley Plantation on Mooselookmeguntic Lake. The mystery photo in your July issue is one of our favorite landmark rest stops along the way. This beautiful exhibit of Native American culture is located along Route 2 in Rumford. This spot is a great historical reminder of what once was for the St. Francis Indians, also known as Western Abenaki, and how things have changed. We stopped here this past Memorial Day weekend, and the volume of water in the Androscoggin River cascading from Rumford Falls was spectacular to behold, after some large storms we were caught driving in caused many washouts along our trip. We decided it would be safer to keep the children in the car on that particular visit. Usually, we feel free to walk amongst these figures from the past. We also enjoy the large statue of Paul Bunyan located close by. We have several pictures of our little ones dwarfed at his gigantic feet. Our children have actually come to enjoy the paper mill “aroma,” as they now recognize it to mean that we are close to the Native American exhibit and Paul Bunyan.
—Jon and Ginger Hughes
Dunstable, Massachusetts

I would often judge the height of the river after a storm or snow melt by seeing how many “Indians” were missing as I came down Falls Hill in Rumford. If any were under water, I could count on a free windshield wash as I crossed the green bridge.
—Terry Ryer
Gilead, Maine

Up to Camp
While reading George Smith’s “My Maine” essay in your July issue, I could smell, taste, feel, and long for my experience with a Maine camp. Our friends, who live in Sydney, have an old camp on Great Pond and have invited my husband and me to join them every summer when we are fortunate enough to come to Maine. The loons always wait for us. Thank you for giving me a little bit of Maine “camp” memories. Here in Oregon, we call them “cabins”!
—Danna Harnish
Bend, Oregon

Praise for Peavey
I LOVE Elizabeth Peavey’s writing (“An Accidental Tourist,” July 2011)! If she wrote the telephone book I'd read every line!

Pejepscot Memories
Jaed Coffin’s, “Kingdom of the Useless” essay in your June issue sure brought back a lot of memories. The picture in the middle of the page I knew all too well as the former Pejepscot Paper Company’s Bowdoin Mill in Topsham. Upon graduation from Lisbon High School in 1981, I took my first real job with the Pejepscot Paper Company and became a third-generation paperworker. My father had worked at the mill for over thirty years and my grandfather for over forty. Our time at Pejepscot was spent about four miles upriver from the Bowdoin Mill, at the company’s paper mill in the Pejepscot Village section of Topsham. Here the paper was made and then shipped by company truck in what were called “cutter rolls” to the Bowdoin Mill to be cut into sheets of paper. The Bowdoin Mill closed for good in the mid 1980s and the paper mill up in Pejepscot Village in 1989. The job I thought I had for a lifetime had come to an end, but I will never forget the great times I had and the friendships I had formed in the eight years working for the Pejepscot Paper Company.
—Steve Yenco
Lisbon Falls, Maine

Chorale Correction
I know that I am among many in Lewiston-Auburn who were thrilled with the excellent section in your July issue highlighting the varied attractions of our Twin Cities. We have long known that we are an “axis for the arts,” as you stated, and are so pleased to have this aspect demonstrated to the broader Maine community. As a founding member of the Maine Music Society and a singer since the inception of the Androscoggin Chorale in 1972, I do, however, have a small correction. The article states that, “The chorus started in the early seventies as a traveling ensemble, but it didn’t quite catch on.” In fact, we have always been based in Lewiston-Auburn, even though we have also performed in many surrounding communities. The organization has grown steadily from its early beginnings, has always attracted appreciative audiences, and has staged many ambitious large-scale performances. Recently we found a permanent home at the Franco-American Heritage Center. This is where we find our strongest audience base, and the facility is wonderful for performers and audience members alike.
—Susan Trask
President, Androscoggin Chorale
Secretary, Maine Music Society
Auburn, Maine