A Giant in the North Maine Woods

A Giant in the North Maine Woods

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My life working in the North Maine Woods for nearly 50 years!

18/04/2024

To make International Paper Company lands safer we would burn old camps that were starting to rot and fall down. We did not want people to step on a nail, fall though a rotted floor, or have a roof fall on them, so we removed the possibility of this happening.

We woud do this when there was snow on the ground, as to remove the risk of starting a forest fire. In the photo is Gary Hartt and Ron Soucier! They used the bulldozer to bury the ash and clean up the site so trees would start growing again. These camps were used to cut pulp and logs in earlier times and were no longer being maintained or used. Back in the day there were thousands of loggers and lots of horse and ox hovels spreading throughout the North Maine Woods!

Photos from A Giant in the North Maine Woods 's post 17/03/2024

The photos are of us making smoked sausage at Clayton Lake. The ladies in the top photo were Laure-Annette Giguere and Paule Bienjonetti, who were in chage of making the sausage. In the photo on the left were Laure Annette, Jane'e Mom, Jane Romain Lebrun and Paule. The photo on the right was Laure Annette, where you can see the batch of sausage that were being smoked. Jean Guy Giguere and I were in chage of making and tending the fire which cooked the sausage as well as using a mix of green wood to make the smoke. The fire was made in the bottom barrel and the susage was in the top barrel! The sausage was usually eaten on crackers and served with a mixed drink! My preference was Crown Royal on the rocks or a Wiskey Sour!

11/03/2024

This was our 1976 Landcruiser on Clayton Lake in the Winter of 1978! My wife learned how to drive this, with a clutch and a stick shift! I remember seeing her drive it across the yard at Clayton Lake, jerking and jumping a little, until she learned to shift and let out the clutch smoothly! It was a tough vehicle for sure! It also road like a tank due to its extremely stiff suspension! This winter as others the snow was melted off by rain, but following the rain, it was extremely cold making good thick ice on the lake. There were a few years when you could skate over the whole lake on the ice. If you havn't read my book I think you may enjoy some of the many stories I wrote about the North Maine Woods!

Lombard Log Hauler 21/11/2023

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Lombard Log Hauler This Lombard was at Clayton Lake, Maine when I started workig there in 1973! Shortly after Aurel Morin (International Paper Company mechanic) from Sainte Aurelie came to Clayton Lake and got it running and they loaded it onto a lowbed and moved it to Churchill Dam (where it is seen in the above phot...

A really big lunch fire! 12/11/2023

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A really big lunch fire! When I worked in the North Maine Woods, I used the men on the road crew to refurbish property lines for International Paper Company. I was the supervisor of construction and engineering at the time, 1981 to 1991 out of Clayton Lake. This kept the men working all year, where as before some of them wo...

An Old Trapper never dies, they just smell that way! 19/07/2023

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An Old Trapper never dies, they just smell that way! The above title doesn't necessarily fit with the legendary Camille Beaulieu pictured above! When ever I was near Camille he may have had a woods smell of spruce and fir, but I never smelled any foul odors! There were and are many trappers who do however have a distinct odor of old decayed meat, skun...

03/07/2023

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Fire up that Lombard! 02/07/2023

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Fire up that Lombard! In My book I write about how the Lombard changed the way of logging in the North Maine Woods! You could haul bigger loads longer distances, than with teams of horses! Lombards were the start of mechanized forestry in the woods! This video is amazing so I hope you enjoy it!

15th Clayton Lake Reunion 30/06/2023

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15th Clayton Lake Reunion From left to right sitting: Jeannine Paquet Weymouth, Earl Weymouth, Allen Lebrun, and David Lemay. Second row standing: Jolyne Duval Guay, Roger Guay, Marsha Beaulieu, Lagasse, Nancy Buker, Jane Romain Lebrun, Paule Bienjonetti Wieder, Marilyn Maher (Bills friend and companion), and William (Bill)....

Now what do we have here? 26/06/2023

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Now what do we have here? I was fishing on Cunliff Lake (shown in the beautiful sunset above) one evening in 1974! When I was going through my old 35 mm slides I put the above photo in my collection of photos to possibly go into my book! It is funny that when I was there fishing I did not notice bright blue reflection in the...

14/06/2023

This is the start of what I hope will be both educational and entertaining! I wil continue to publish bogs on my web page and share them with you all on facebook!

A wonderful call from an old friend! I first met Barry Beaulieu, when he was on a US mail run with his father, Camille Beaulieu! Camille lived in Lac Frontier on the Maine side of the border! He had a small log camp located near the northwest branch of the Saint John River, where he raised his daughter, Marsha, his oldest son Barry son...

14/06/2023

A wonderful call from an old friend! I first met Barry Beaulieu, when he was on a US mail run with his father, Camille Beaulieu! Camille lived in Lac Frontier on the Maine side of the border! He had a small log camp located near the northwest branch of the Saint John River, where he raised his daughter, Marsha, his oldest son Barry son...

14/06/2023

Welcome to my Webpage! I hope you enjoy some of the history and stories I will share with you concerning my Book!

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