Autumn in Maine is a magical time. There’s frost in the morning air, the leaves are growing more fiery by the day, and we’re hauling firewood into the house with increasing regularity – all reminders of the changeability of the season and the fast approach of winter. It’ll be here before you know it. Every October, we head up to Leonard’s Mills in Bradley for their Living History Days – me and my family as visitors, Joshua and his family as historic interpreters. It’s a great time to wander around the working sash mill, weave at one of the old looms, eat some beanhole beans and reflector-oven biscuits, and take a wagon ride. We usually run into old friends there, and...
This past weekend my family participated in the Maine Forest and Logging Museum’s Living History Days event. The museum, located in Bradley, Maine, was founded in the 1960s as a living history site in which the lifeways and crafts of the late 18th-century Maine frontier is demonstrated. The site is known as “Leonard’s Mills” because of an archaeological discovery of five sawmills on Blackman Stream. My wife and I have been volunteering at Leonard’s Mills for years. All the interpreters dress in period clothing, cook period food, and demonstrate many other aspects of 18th-century frontier life (including the use of a recreated water-powered sash mill). My family looks forward to this weekend every year. We’re usually stationed at the...
