RANGELEY – A celebration of the cultural heritage of logging in the western mountains of Maine will be held Friday and Saturday, July 25 and 26.

The 23rd Logging Festival sponsored by the Rangeley Lakes Region Logging Museum will include music and puppets at the Rangeley Inn, a parade on Main Street, a woodsmen’s competition, museum exhibits and a bean-hole bean dinner at the museum on Route 16, a mile east of Rangeley.

On Friday afternoon, visitors can watch George Slinn and Homer Everhard begin the 22-hour process of preparing the ground and then baking bean-hole beans, a logging camp staple.

The museum’s main building will also open at 11 a.m. Friday so visitors may enjoy the Working the Woods exhibit that features laborers in the Maine forest, including Rangeley’s M&H Logging, Rodney Richard, Jeep Wilcox and Walter “Skeet” Davenport. Additional exhibits include Ben Morton’s photographs of logging operations in Rangeley, the Leon-Haley-Ruth Case and the Jim Carter photograph collections of early 20th century logging in the region and more. The museum also displays the 19 paintings of Alden Grant, grandson of Kennebago’s Ed Grant, that depict logging in the Rangeley area in the late 1920s.

A new exhibit this year includes a donation from Becky Ellis Martineau, daughter of Percy K. Ellis, of the many letters her great-grandfather Lincoln Toothaker, son of John R. Toothaker, wrote to his new wife, Idella, from 1890 to 1892 when he was working near Magalloway in the Toothaker & Herrick Black Cat logging camps as a camp clerk and a driver of one of the five teams of working Percheron horses. Among many details, Lincoln writes of his devastating accident which resulted in the loss of one of his legs.

In the museum, model drag drays and wagon sleds by logger Carl Trafton join the chain-saw carvings of Rodney and Rodney Richard Jr., as well as the hand-carved white cedar fan towers of Richard’s father, William, that document traditional art related to work in the timberwoods.

About 5 p.m. Friday, museum visitors can taste the biscuits that Stephen Richard mixes and then bakes on the camp-style reflector ovens placed around open fires, as in early logging camp days.

A Maine folk group, Woodsong, will entertain starting at 6:40 p.m. prior to the 7 p.m. evening program. The Little Miss and Little Mr. Wood Chip talent contest follows. Chosen from 6- to 8-year-old contestants who sing or recite, the winners will ride down Main Street in Saturday’s parade.

A ceremony will mark the induction of two nominees into the Loggers Hall of Fame. This year, the museum will honor Clarence Jones of Bingham and Luke Brochu of Stratton. The evening’s music will feature Fred Legere of Jay with his harmonica and dancing wooden puppets; the high energy of the Fiddleheads, young musicians from Rangeley; as well as the Rangeley Ramblers with their country-western music. Entrance fees are $3 for adults, $1 for older children and free for children 5 and under.

The parade starts at 10 a.m. Saturday on Main Street with Farmington’s Old Crow Band, floats by The Giving Tree, the United Kingfield Bank, and other organizations, and displays of new equipment and hard-working logging trucks. Judges will award prizes in six categories: most appropriate to the logging industry, best logging truck, most entertaining, most original, most humorous and best youth float.

Events then move to the museum site on Route 16 where there will be more Rangeley Rambler’s music, children’s games and displays of logging equipment and trucks. A $2 entrance fee offers admission to all these activities and the museum. A raffle will be held and includes items such as Rodney Richard’s handcarved wooden Labrador retriever, Lucille Richard’s blue sweater, Iva Graveson’s cheesebox, Winona Davenport’s crocheted tablecloth, and a hand-crocheted bedspread will also be sold. The winning tickets will be drawn in the late afternoon.

A bean-hole bean dinner begins at 11:30 a.m. for $6.50 adults and $3.25 for children 11 and under. The woodsmen’s competition will follow. While people are eating, Woodsong will sing. Throughout the day, artists will sell crafts such as wooden trucks and small household items, pottery, doll clothes, painting on elk horn, home cooking, knitting and much more.

The festivities continue Saturday at 7:30 p.m. in the Episcopal Church when Woodsong, a folk group who specialize in traditional songs about the Maine woods and its people, will perform. Tickets are available at the door for $8 adults, $4 for students.

For more information, call 864-5595.