RANGELEY – Home-baked goods helped bring in more than $3,500 Saturday at a local museum’s annual fund-raising auction.

About 80 people attended the Rangeley Lakes Region Logging Museum event, some standing, but most sitting in rows of metal chairs under a large white canopy.

Auctioneer Steve Richard began promptly at 10 a.m. with a baggie of homemade molasses doughnuts that he described as “awesome.”

“Baked goods are the big sellers, because nobody around here makes homemade doughnuts anymore,” he said before the nearly three-hour auction.

Frequent bidding volleys erupted whenever Richard held up a pie.

As he described how sumptuous each pie was – because he had eaten others like it – several bidders groaned hungrily or laughed heartily at his efforts to entice bids.

A strawberry rhubarb pie that started at $5 went for $18. Likewise, a lemon meringue pie began at $6 and was sold for $19. Bidding went fast and furious for a raspberry pie, in one-dollar increments from $5 to $21.

Some of the many items sold included furniture, a Rodney Richard chain-saw-carved bear, gift certificates, ski passes, a compound bow and arrow set, and even a hand-crank telephone.

Steve Richard’s booming voice echoed through the surrounding woods as each item was offered to the crowd.

Several colorful Navajo hand-woven rugs and wall hangings brought in more than $100 each. A bidding frenzy between two bidders for one blanket ended in a $220 sale.

Museum folklorist Peggy Yocom said merchants and people from Rangeley, Oquossoc, Phillips, Kingfield, Avon, and as far away as New Hampshire donated the items.

“One thing that we’re really proud of is that our local businesses participated. This is our largest fund-raiser in the area,” Yocom said.

Although the crowd had dwindled to only 20 die-hard bidders by 12:30 p.m., Lucille Richard, co-organizer of the auction, said she thought the event had attracted a “nice bidding crowd.”

“We have yard sales from one end of town to the other today, so we did good,” she added.

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