End of an Era

                                                                         The End of an Era

 

Maurice Belanger of Chesterville and Manchester, Maine, has had a connection to West Carry Pond for sixty-three years. First, as the son-in-law of Elwyn and Adelaide Storey, proprietors of the West Carry Pond Camps (1936-1969), and later as a camp owner. Recently, Maurice decided to sell his property, ending the last landowner having a direct link to the Storey era. Maurice married Louise Storey, daughter of Elwyn and Adelaide Storey in 1962. The following are some memories of his time at West Carry and living in western Maine.

Maurice's first visit to West Carry Pond was in 1961 after he met Louise. In those days, only a rutted tote road provided access to the pond. Elwyn used a farm tractor hauling a wagon to transport fishermen's gear to the pond from the Long Falls Dam Road while the guests followed. From the landing (in front of what is now Peter Bryant's lot), the guests traveled by boat up the west shore to the sporting camps. (The lodge was at the water's edge on what is now the Savage/Lumb lot).

Occasionally, Maurice guided deer hunters staying at the sporting camp. He remembers successful hunters unloading two or three deer from their canoes in front of the lodge that were shot on the east side of West Carry Pond. Maurice said in those days, hunters hunting the east side of the pond needed to keep their wits about them or risk becoming lost in the dense spruce bogs.

 

                  

                           Maurice Belanger in Front of the Main Cabin at West Carry Pond Camps

  1966

When Louise and Maurice visited the sporting camps, they would help wherever they could. Louise assisted Adelaide with the cooking, and Maurice helped Elwyn with whatever was needed, including cutting firewood, maintaining the cabins, and shingling several roofs.

The work was endless. Each year, Elwyn used a hand scythe to keep the four acres around the cabins from reverting to woods.

During busy times at the sporting camps, meals were cooked using a wood stove and a gas stove. When propane was needed, Elwyn drove to town to pick up the hundred-pound cylinders, then muscle the tanks from his pickup into the wagon and repeated the process to get them into a boat. He'd unload them onto the floating platform at the sporting camps, then haul them up the bank to the main cabin.

 A large vegetable garden needed constant attention. The Storey's kept a cow, chickens, and an occasional hog during the early years at West Carry Pond.

 A root cellar dug into a bank behind the lodge served as a natural cooler for perishables. Maurice said one fall before Elwyn and Adelaide left the pond for the winter, they stored canned vegetables and preserves Adelaide had made in the root cellar. When they returned in the spring, everything was ruined. A raccoon had made a forced entry and turned the place upside down. Undoubtedly, the coon left significantly fatter than when he arrived.

Louise spent most of her youth living at West Carry Pond. Her father built her a playhouse next to the pond. The little building is still there and can be seen from the water. She attended Gould Academy in Bethel and finished high school in North Anson.

One story that Maurice still laughs about is a spike horn buck trying to get into the vegetable garden. Elwyn had an electric fence around the plot, but it was not on at the time of the incident. One day Elwyn looked out to see the front half of the deer inside the fence, chewing on the seedlings with its belly resting on the wire. He turned the power on and watched. The spike horn went airborne. He would jump into the air each time his belly touched the hot wire. After being elevated half a dozen times, the deer bolted up the hill as if shot from a cannon. It was the last time the deer tried getting into the garden.

 

Maurice and Louise Storey Belanger

1988

 

Maurice was born in Caribou, the second oldest of thirteen children. The family lived in Connecticut during World War 2, where his father worked for the Colt Arms Company. After the war, they moved to a farm in Mercer, Maine. Eventually, the family moved to Moscow and then Bingham, where he attended ninth through twelfth grade. During the summers, Maurice worked for the Kennebec Logging Company, retrieving stranded pulpwood on the shore of Wyman Lake and below the dam, relaunching pulpwood marooned on the islands from the spring drive. After graduation, Maurice joined the air force and worked as a bomber mechanic.

After four years in the military, Maurice returned to Maine and married Louise. For the next several years, he worked as a forest warden on Mooselookmeguntic and Richardson Lakes. For twenty-seven years, Maurice oversaw the operation of a set of private fishing camps on Richardson Lake. After that, he was Superintendent for the Oquossoc Angling Association. While at the Angling Association, Maurice began repairing and building Rangeley Boats. When he retired from the Oquossoc Angling Association, Maurice and Louise built their cabin at West Carry Pond.

While managing the private camps on Richardson Lake, Maurice trapped, collected, and sold driftwood during his spare time. One late November day, he and Louise left the cabins for the winter. The boat was loaded with pelts, driftwood, a deer, and can goods. It was windy, and the lake was rough, forcing Maurice to follow the shoreline to his truck, parked at Mill Brook. A freezing spray came into the boat, and water started to accumulate. They tossed the vegetables overboard to gain a little more freeboard and fought their way to the takeout. When they arrived, ice clogged the cove, blown there by the driving wind. Maurice made circles with the boat, trying to break up the ice, and when he couldn't make any further progress toward the shore, he and Louise got out of the boat. Louise held the bow tight against the ice while Maurice went to shore to get the truck and rope to haul the boat onto the ice and off the pond. All were safe, but they decided that was enough fun for one day.

After Louise passed, Maurice married Mary. Mary and Maurice shared a love of fishing for West Carry Pond trout. Unfortunately, Mary only had a few years at the pond before she died.

                                     

           Maurice and Maxine on the steps of their camp at West Carry Pond

 2022

 

Maurice has strong ties to West Carry Pond, and selling his camp was difficult. However, he has numerous interests that keep him busy. Maurice still cuts his own firewood and has a large garden. He and his wife, Maxine, attend music jams where Maurice sings and plays the harmonica, and Maxine plays the dobro and guitar. Maurice maintains two homes and repairs and builds Rangeley Boats when he has the time.