RANGELEY – The 24th annual Logging Festival sponsored by the Rangeley Lakes Region Logging Museum will celebrate the cultural heritage of logging in the western mountains of Maine on Friday and Saturday, July 23 and 24.

Festivities include music, puppets, a parade, a woodsmen’s competition, museum exhibits and a bean-hole bean dinner at the museum on Route 16.

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

The museum’s main building will open at 11 a.m. Friday so visitors can 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 carvings, historical logging equipment, letters, textiles, paintings, and photograph collections of logging operations.

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

Although the Friday program begins at 7 p.m. in the Rangeley Inn, early birds will be entertained by the Rangeley Ramblers with country-western music. The Little Miss and Little Mister Wood Chip talent contest, in which 6- to 8-year-old contestants will sing or recite, will follow.

There will be an induction ceremony for the Loggers Hall of Fame, which honors people who have been loggers most of their working lives and who have made a contribution to their profession. This year, the museum will honor Billy Coolong of Phillips, who has worked in the woods since he was 14.

The evening’s music will feature a former Miss Wood Chip, Miriam Frisch of Oquossoc and Buffalo, N.Y., who will present several dance numbers. The Fiddleheads, young musicians from Rangeley, will follow. Admission is $3 for adults, $1 for older children, and free for children 5 and under. Door prizes will be given throughout the evening.

On Saturday, the parade will step off at 10 a.m. on Main Street. After the parade, events move to the museum, where there will be more music by the Rangeley Ramblers, children’s games and displays of logging equipment and trucks. A $2 entrance fee to the field offers admission to all these activities and to the museum building.

Tickets will be sold for a raffle, and winners will be drawn in late afternoon. First prize in the raffle will be a wood carving by Rodney Richard Sr. of a black Labrador retriever; second prize is a doll dressed in a christening outfit handmade by Margie Haley Mathys; third prize is a handmade pink, cranberry and white afghan; fourth prize will be a handmade moose pillow donated by the Alpine Shop.

At 11:30 a.m., the bean-hole bean dinner begins. The costs is $6.50 for adults and $3.25 for children 11 and under. Shortly after the dinner, there will be a woodsmen’s competition organized by Rodney Richard Jr.

Rodney Richard Sr. will carve a chain-saw bear and auction it off. Throughout the day, artists will sell crafts items such as wooden trucks, small wooden household items, pottery, doll clothes, Christmas crafts and knitting. Home-cooked food will also be offered. In the main museum building, visitors can see all the exhibits and meet several people featured in those exhibits.

More information about the logging festival may be obtained by calling 864-5595.

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