Contributed to Maine Memory Network by Maine Historical Society(Coll. 2216, Box 1/4)Date: 1937Description: History of the Parmachenee Club.

For Educational Use Only www.mainememory.net Copyright 2007

Dear Harry As you have been may times at the Parmachenee Club in the North Western corner of Maine and know it only in whatone may say in its old time age it occurs to me that you may perhaps be interested in hearing something of its younger days.The first time I visited the club was in 1896. With your grand mother Colt we spent two or three weeks there in the month of September. Access was usually via Colebrook N.H. One could reach the Monadnock Hotel by train in the evening and an early start had to be made the next morning. By appointment Fred Flint of Wilsons Mills was always impatient to leave about six oclock.Prayer for fair weather was in order becausethe drive in a buckboard was not verycomfortable on a rainy day.At Dixville Notch there was a small inn or locatedrather a boarding house ^ where the large Bal-sams Hotel now stands. Flint despised breaks so on the descent in the Notch, which by the way was very steep, he tried a front wheel and we practically coasted down the road which was more exciting than nerve soothing.Luncheons were an unknown meal inthose days and I believe still are in Maine

SEVERO MALLET-PREVOSTHARRIS D. COLTHENRY MOSLEHUGO KOHLMANNHENRY A.STICKNEYOTTO SCHOENRICH JESSE KNIGHT DAVID A. EMBURY HAMILTON HICKSJOHN H. WILLENBROK FRASER M. HORNJOHN E. LOCKWOODGEORGE A. REISS DUDLEY B. BONSAL EUGENE W. GOODWILLIE MILO A. BORGESWENDELL W. FORBESVERNON R. Y. LYNNCLARENCE U. CARRUTH, JR.ROBERT C. FULTON, JR.

CURTIS, MALLET-PROVOST, COLT & MOSLE ATTORNEYS AND COUNSELORS AT LAW 63 WALL ST., NEW YORK 5, N.Y. TELEPHONE WHITEHALL 4-2062 CABLE ADDRESS “MIGNIARD”

except in the summer hotels but hearty dinners were served at Errol Dam by Mrs Fred Allen who was a famous cook. cYou recall the road along the Androsc^ogin nowRiver North from the dam which is ^ a de- whenlightful drive but ^ we first travelled it inthe Spring it was flooded by the river andluggage had to be above the floor of thebuckboard. On leaving the river theroad ascended and descended a steep hillwhereas now it winds around it. InvariablyI thought of the old song “The Noble Duke heof York ^ had 10,000 Men, he marched themup the hill one day and marched them downagain”On reaching Wilsons Mills it was home at Walter Bucknams, now Don Cassiers^. necessary to transfer the luggage ^ to asled and sportsmen walked on what wascalled a trail but actually was morelike a dry brook which led to the Magall-oway River. Not far from where the Azisco-hos Dam now stands was a small driversdam where we boarded a small steamboat named the Black Cat. Navigationwas difficult because of sunken logs– called dead heads? – and more than onceship wrecks occurred!Some 12 or 15 miles up the winding Magal- oway we had the Meadows Camp, nowmany feet under the surface of Aziscohos LakeIf sportsmen came from Berlin Falls, as it was

then called, the first night was spent atDummer. The house was kept by a redheaded man whose name I have forgottenwho was a famous story teller. Laterthe house was destroyed by fire and acabins now have been erected on the site.From the Meadows Camp the trip to Caribou,as the camp in Parmachenee was called, wasmade by canoe and on foot. On foot isliteral because if the river was low agood part of the distance was by wadingand from the landing, so called, a five milewalk to the Lake. If the river water wassufficiently high the hike was only 3 miles.Caribou was very primitive compared toits present condition. There were only twocabins, Moose next to Caribou and a smallone next to the dining room. The other bedswere in a building called Caribou, since re-placed, with a number of rooms small andnot heated. The main building was threestories high, the rooms on top being knownas “sky top”. The assembly room, where allpeople gathered at night to swap their fishstoreys, was what later became the library.The Superintendant occupied the room immediatelybelow*. For years he was a Frenchman fromNotre Dieu du Bois now known as Chesham anda very competent woods man. All the “help” were

[written on left side]* the dining room was the present room but divided sothat the Westerly side accomodated the guides

French. In those days we maintaineda hatchery at the farm. At the end of thefishing season seines were used tocollect the spawning fish and between and two thousandone ^ hundred ^ trout were hatched every year.Maintenance of the hatchery was so expensiveit was later given up and trout and salmonfry were purchased.In this connection I must mention oneparticular trout weighing some six pounds &over called the hump backed trout. It wasseined several years and recognized because ofthe deformity. I saw this fish released – after ithad been stripped, returned to the lake andthat same evening it was again takenon a spawning bed near the Little Boys Falls.That year the water was so low that to getto the spawning bed its dorsal fins must havebeen out of water at Well’s Rifs.The Outlet was one of the best fishinggrounds and where some of our largest fish weretaken but One year Buckman had a lumberoperation and falling water made drivingimpossible so he boomed the loop from thedam to the outlet. Apparently the deposit of barkfrom the logs has destroyed or changed the bedof the stream so that fish no longer are foundthere in any quantity.

Caribou could not accomodate thenumber of members and guests wishing accom-odations and reliance on the back campswas esential. We had 7 camps, RumpMoose, Barkers, Upper Lower Arnoldsand the Forks. These were furnished withthe exception of food and a stay, usuallyof one night, was made at each camp.Record of occupancies was kept at Caribouso accidents and inconveniences were avoided.With the exception of Rump all these campshave disappeared, most of them having beendestroyed by lumber operationsCaribou was an official post office andI recall that Clinton Bennett then a smallyoung boy carried the mail from the Meadowsto Caribou. His father Daniel Bennett wasmy guide on my first visit. the last erected WorldI built my cabin ^during the first ^ waryear altho some of the guides predictedthat the spring floods would float it off.Although the hurricane of lifted theroof and deposited it in Indian Cove itstill stands