BETHEL — On November 25 the Ski Museum of Maine will present a free Fireside Chat that tells the story our state’s long history of manufacturing ski equipment, the demise of the industry in the late 20th century and its current renaissance in the 21st.
“Made in Maine: 100-Plus Years of Craftsmanship in Skiing” will presented at The Bethel Historical Society’s Exhibit Hall on Friday, Nov, 25th at 7 pm. The presentation is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served. From 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Friday, the New England Ski Museum’s “Skiing in the Pine Tree State” Exhibit will be open. This exhibit has a display rack of old and new Maine manufactured skis.
The Fireside Chat is a PowerPoint digital slideshow that includes more than 80 photos ? some more than a century old ? that have been assembled by the Ski Museum of Maine. Most come from the Kingfield-based Museum’s collections. Other sources include several of the state’s leading historical societies, skiing organizations and private collectors.
Photos to be presented cover the entire span of skiing in Maine, from the founding of Aroostook County’s Swedish Colony to present-day happenings all over the state. Locations that were historically important to ski equipment manufacturing include Aroostook County, Auburn, Milford, Minot, Norway, Paris, Portland, Skowhegan, West Paris and Wilton.
Currently there are five firms in Maine that can be classified as “craft” or “boutique” ski and snowboard builders. These include YOPP Clandestine, a top-tier wooden ski that is lovingly crafted in Bethel. Photos of these contemporary ski-building operations will also be included.
Two contrasting 12-minute videos will be shown. The first features rare archival footage of ski fabrication at the Paris Manufacturing Company in the early 1930s. The second depicts the current ski-making operations of YOPP Clandestine, whose partners, Toby Winkler and Jake Bracy, will introduce their video and display examples of their unique product.
Narrator and host will be Scott Andrews, a Portland ski journalist and Ski Museum curator who assembled the photos for the Fireside Chat and performed most of the research.
“Skiing has been part of the Maine way of life since the late 1800s, offering recreation and competition to both residents and visitors,” Andrews said. “Our museum’s objective is to feed the passion of Maine skiers and to illustrate the significance of our sport to our state’s lifestyle and economy.”
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