SEBEC LAKE ASSOCIATION, INC.

PO Box 303

Dover-Foxcroft, ME 04426-0303

 

July 2002

 RANDOM THOUGHTS FROM LAKESIDE, yes and no!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Ice out at Sebec Lake was declared officially by Dick and Elaine Hartley at 5:03 P.M. on Thursday, April 18th, 2002. Any flooding was at a minimum and we beat the odds again. Thanks to all for your thoughts and prayers and especially our Lake Level Committee and our friends that control the damn. 

We promptly on Friday morning at about 8:00 A.M. launched the good ship, GEORGE E. MOORE, The steamer G.E.M. for the beginning of our eighth season on beautiful Sebec Lake. It proves the old adage, time flies when you’re having fun. 2002 marks the 115th season that the steam engine in the G.E.M. has spent in, on, or under Sebec Lake. The steamer Marion that we retrieved the engine from was launched at Greeley’s Landing on August 8th, 1887 

Just to prove to us that Mother Nature wasn’t through with us we had 6” of that lovely white stuff on April 29th. Great photo opportunity. 

Norm and Elsie Watters have come through with their plans to construct a camp rental and marine service facility on Bear Brook Point in Bowerbank. They can be reached at 207-564-2135. I understand they are already nearly booked for this year. Their camps are all new and very nice. Fully furnished. Elsie of course is most knowledgeable about the Sebec area and loves to talk about the history of the village and lake. 

THINK, CATCH AND RELEASE, IT WORKS FOR ALL OF US!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Polly Hitchings, of the Hitchings/Davee/Weston family, long time Sebec Lakers, Called me one day to offer us a very unique experience that her mothers youngest brother, Harold Weston had back in the 1923 flood of Sebec Lake. The water was so very high that he was able to go into camp through the front door in his canoe. An old organ the family kept at camp was found floating around in camp. They later moved the camp to higher ground to prevent a reoccurrence. This camp, located just on the edge of Norton cove on the south shore is one of the oldest camps on the lake. 

Today is Fathers Day, June 16, 2002 and I received an E-Mail from Barney Warren at the lake that it was 46.2 degrees this morning at good old Sebec Lake. Probably not a soul was in swimming this morning. I sure hope the season finally changes in the near future. We enjoy our daily dunk in Sebec Lake to the fullest. 

Joanne and I are going to be away for a week or so around July 4th and we are looking for someone to fly the SEBEC LAKE ASSOCIATION banner at the parade in Sebec Village’s parade. Any volunteers will be greatly appreciated. I’ll furnish my old wooden boat on the trailer and all the signage and decorations. Thanks in advance.  

I spoke with Laura Packard the other day and she says its business as usual again this year for Packard’s Camps, she will be around looking after things and offering the same fine, congenial services. They are virtually booked up for the summer and they too are looking forward to some warmer weather. 

-- Dave Raymond --

 

A Timely Warning

There's a big notice posted in Clarke's waiting stand

Prohibiting large or small boats to land

Or use his wharf as a landing place,

Including not one, but the whole human race.


If you want to land a small boat or bark,

Be sure to get an order from W.R. Clark;

As he owns the wharf and most of the lake,

Without his permission no liberty take.


All that own steam or small motor boats,

Take my advice, build good wooden floats;

Or you'll have to land near the shore on a rock,

As Captain Clarke owns all the big docks.


The Notice he posted on the landing or wharf

Should have been, "Danger! All Hands Keep Off."

It's not a safe place for us human souls,

The Planking is rotten and full of big holes.


For carrying the mail he thinks he's complete,

With the Elsie and Edna attached to his fleet.

But they are rotten as punk -- like the old Goldenrod,

And their boilers leak steam and burn wood by the cord.


We think, like the Germans, he'll make a mistake,

When he blockades, and tries to keep Coy off the lake,

We are sure what he makes with his old wooden churns

Won't even pay for the wood that he burns.


Now all that own camps on Sebec Lake Shore,

Won't have to ride in his old junk any more.

The Waban repaired, how safe we can feel

When Captain Fred Crockett presides at her wheel.


Clarke, in bleak October, with no wind in his sail,

Will have nothing to do but carry the mail.

We'll all see his finish, and say with a grin,

"When all's going well, Captain Clarke, don't butt in."

 

                                                - Unknown

To:       Sebec Dam Liaison Committee 
            Ed Treworgy 
            Maurice Marden

From:   Dave Lockwood  
RE:       Lake Trivia  
Date:    April 17, 2002

As we swing from Winter through Spring, I thought I’d let you know about the Lake activity from my perspective in Seymour Cove.  

Winter was relatively uneventful. The lake stayed stable from December through February at around 18” to 24” below summer normal which allowed for expansion should a flooding rain occur (which did not happen). The Dam had one gate open December through February which balanced water flow. 

Attached are my crazy estimates of activity for March and April. You’ll note there was about a week in March when they were repairing and/or installing equipment at the Dam and the gates were closed which caused no problem.  

This week we are at a high stage as the ice is leaving, but I haven’t heard of any problems. I thought I’d let you know about all this, so if one of your neighbors complains about a log on their lawn, you’d be somewhat prepared to give ‘em an answer.  

As noted, the splashboards got a log through them at one place by the left gate, and a corner was pushed out by the water. Probably when this Spring high water recedes, the lake will drop a little low until they cam make repairs to the splash boards. A natural event.  

If you see Gary Robinson or the Dam folks, thank them for a good season of lake management.

Lake Watch

April 2002  

I have, on my fixed wharf, marked the normal water mark for summer which is unscientifically calibrated to the top of the splashboards of the Sebec dam. I then measure up, or down (+ or -) from that “normal water mark”. This is, I believe, a fair indicator of lake activity, while it may not conform to more scientific gathering data.

THE LAKE HOTEL, WILLIMANTIC, MAINE.  

 

Lake hotel, open all the year is situated at the head of Sebec Lake. One of the prettiest sheets of water in Maine. It’s altitude is nearly one thousand feet above the sea. This picturesque region is reached twice daily from Boston. The Most desirable trip is to leave Boston in the evening, via. Boston and Maine R.R., to Foxcroft, then a beautiful drive of four miles to Lake, and a charming sail of six miles in fine steamers, arriving at hotel at eleven o’clock A.M. The view from veranda, of lake, river and mountains is grand. Salmon are abundant in the lake, and the rivers, streams, lakes and ponds abound in trout. Deer, moose and caribou are numerous. The house is furnished from a spring, with pure ice cold water. This location is not surpassed, if equaled, in Maine. The charm of this place is its picturesque locality, as every one knows that fish and game are found in their choicest forms in the most quiet and secluded places. And for a game preserve it stands par excellence in attractions for lovers of the piscatorial art and the disciples of Nimrod the hunter, who will find here all they wish, in rivers, lakes and streams full of trout treasures, and woods where game, both large and small, is abundant. Nothing but its inaccessibility from the haunts of men has prevented this region from becoming one of the most popular summer resorts in the East. That it will be one now is assured. Nature has performed her part to the utmost.  It is an ideal outing region. The proprietor has mails from all points. The table is supplied at all times with the best beef and lamb, fish and game in their season, with an abundance of fresh, rich cream and milk, eggs, poultry, and berries. At the wharf you will always find a supply of row boats and canoes, while a steam launch can be procured for fishing or pleasure parties.  

As a place for summer recreation, for walking, boating, bathing, fishing, and hunting sports, it has charms which those who know it best most love. Beside the excellent lake angling within a radius for a few miles of the Lake Hotel are numerous mountain lakelets, easy of access, in which the speckled beauties, land-locked salmon and black bass can always be caught, and the management of this popular hostelry furnishes guides to all of them.  

Do you seek a delightful place to rest and regain your health and strength? Try a summer vacation at Sebec Lake. Further particulars on application.

 

B. M. PACKARD, Willimantic, Maine.    

LL tourists and sportsmen admit that this beautiful mountain-environed region, the charming suburb of Dover and Foxcroft, is  the coming inland summer retreat in Maine, for here 
                 
                  “In the deepest core
                                   Of the free wilderness, a crystal sheet
                                    Expands its mirror to the trees that crowd
                                    Its mountain borders.”

The poet could not have written a better description of Sebec Lake “The Loch Katrine of Maine”, than this, for, although it is within a half hours ride of the pretty twin towns, over a foliage-fringed highway, through scenery suggestive of exquisite beauty and romance, there is yet around the lake a free wilderness, as wild as when the Indian warriors and hunters scouted through the mountain passes, and the medicine men cured the sick at the cold cprings around the beautiful sheet of water then known as Sebecco. Indian tradition gives many scenes and tales of warfare that would be of interest to the reader in regard to this picturesque locality, but space forbids us relating them. The altitude of the lake is nearly 1000 feet above the sea. It is thirteen miles long, and from one to six miles wide. Fifty-two streams lakes and ponds are tributaries to this magnificent sheet of water, all of them teeming with trout and land locked salmon. This lovely lake region has beautiful bays, charming nooks, and points jutting out. Here hidden among the trees are the cozy summer homes of citizens of Dover and Foxcroft, from which are seen views charming enough for a fairy-land, whit paths through the cool, green isles of the forest, carpeted with mosses, the growth of centuries, that steal the echoes from the intrusive feet, and where rocks, woods, and water, mingled in scenes of varied beauty, a charming summer retreat, and the lovers of nature’s wilds, the grand and the beautiful, the skilled angler and hunter, can all buy sites for summer homes here, amid the inspired conditions of musical waterfalls, shadowy forests, and soft airs, laden with the perfume of wild flowers. The writer knows that any devotee of nature’s beauties will find just what they want here, for , from no other point in the State can the vision have a more glorious sweep of scenery, of valley, hill and dell, upland and meadow, woodland and clearing. In the distance looms up Borestone mountain grand and beautiful. (This picturesque mountain derives its name from an eminenee in Scotland near Bannockburn, where Robert Bruce defeated King Edward, 2d, June 24th, 1314. The point on Borestone mountain where Bruce fixed his standard on that memorable occasion is plainly to be seen at this time. Se volume 2, page 191, Library of Universal Knowledge, London edition.) While the  glorious blue and the great white clouds chasing their shadows across the landscape from an ever changing background of never ceasing variety and the sunsets of the most brilliant and gaudy hues, make cloud effects that the artist fail to master, and auroral displays of wonderful magnitude and charming lunar effects, which combine to lend enchantment to this favored location.