The William Tell Club takes to the woods for another season

On a morning in October of 1917 the members of the William Tell Club embarked on their journey to the Moosehead Lake region for two weeks of deer hunting and “roughing it” in the wilds. The club was a group of about 25 men, all of whom lived in Auburn and Lewiston or had ties to the area, and 1917 marked their 11th trip together. They engaged a “smoker” car to make their journey upcountry by rail; a steamer took them across Moosehead Lake, and then the men hiked along a tote road to camp.

“We were hunters brave and bold, to all intents and purposes, alone in the forests primeval,” recalled A. G. Staples in an article he wrote for the Lewiston Evening Journal.

The forest primeval, that is, except for the roomy camp complete with good mattresses, plentiful blankets and a living room with a fireplace.

Alone, that is, except for a retinue of guides and a cook who made sure that the baked beans were already smoking in the bean hole when the hunters arrived. In fact, chef Ralph Cuddy and his meals seemed to be one of the highlights of the hunting trip.

“He is adivinely-born cook,” wrote Staples. “Everything he touches becomes nectar or its material equivalent.”

Along with eating, the hunters spent a lot of time relaxing.

“I lapse into the seductive charm of lazy camp life,” observed Staples, “with all of the vigor that I’ve always shown in being indolent.”

Staples writes little of deer hunting, except to say that “In all, our entire party shot only 15 deer, not many for 25 men,” and that “Mose Duty shot a spotted buck which was a curiosity. It looked like a Holstein bull.”

There seemed to be as much duck hunting taking place as deer hunting. Staples good-naturedly joined in this pursuit: “My duty this year,” he wrote, “having been found wanting as a quick shot, is to paddle around the lake and scare up the ducks for Mr. Parks.”

At the end of two weeks, the men broke camp, but before they left the Moosehead region, they hosted a “grand ball” for the people of Rockwood. The “brave hunters” danced Virginia reels and waltzes with the locals and treated them to ice cream and cake.

It seemed a fitting way to celebrate the successful completion of another year at camp.

“We all came out better and stronger than when we went in,” observed Staples. “We came also all of us to know and appreciate better the religion of the deep woods.”

Luann Yetter teaches writing at the University of Maine at Farmington. Additional research for this column was done by UMF student David Farady.