RANGELEY – A year-long 150th birthday bash, celebrating the town’s incorporation in 1855, will reach its peak during a weekend of special events Friday through Sunday, July 29 to 31.

A list of “something for everyone” activities will range from airplane fly-ins to antique car displays, horse-drawn wagon rides to history tours, fly-fishing demonstrations to a fireworks show.

The program will take off with all-day fly-ins and aircraft displays, including a U.S. Border Patrol helicopter on Friday and Saturday. Other Friday highlights will include the traditional Rangeley Logging Museum Festival Days events, ranging from the customary “Burying of the Beans” and a biscuit bake to Little Miss and Master Woodchip contests and a music and variety show.

Saturday events will begin with a combined logging museum and sesquicentennial parade, including a military fly-over. The parade will offer $1,000 in prizes to winning floats.

It will be followed by demonstrations and competitions, carving and crafts and a chuck wagon and bean dinner at the logging museum grounds on Route 16.

Other highlights will include an antique collectible car, truck, snowmobile and tractor display; horse-drawn wagon rides through the village; a bagpipe and drum band concert; and tours to buildings on the National Registry of Historic Places.

At Rangeley’s Lakeside Park, fly-casting demonstrations, music by a banjo band, activities for children, a dunk tank, fishing pond an cookie decorating will be offered. A lobster-corn-mussel cookout will be served beginning at 2:30 p.m. at the park.

Invited dignitaries will visit Saturday, including U.S. Sen. Olympia Snow, U.S. Congressmen Tom Allen and Michael Michaud, Gov. John Baldacci and Mayor Colette Roy Laroche of Lac Megantic, Quebec. Special guests will include descendants of Henry, James II and John Rangeley, three sons of Squire James Rangeley, who is recognized as the founder of the town that still bears his name.

Saturday’s events will draw to a close with a concert by Glenshane’s Irish and folk music and a sesquicentennial fireworks display in the evening.

The weekend of festivities will draw to a close on Sunday with the fly-in departure, an outdoor barbecue, a reception for Rangeley family members and a garden party.

The list of activities marking the sesquicentennial will continue through the year with a celebration of Maine’s hunting and fishing lore, fly-casting competition and game meals on Aug. 9; the Shriner’s Parade and a concert on Aug. 13; and dinner and dancing to big band music of the 1940s and 1950s in the nearby town of Oquossoc on Aug. 27.

For more information about the celebration, contact the Rangeley Chamber of Commerce at 864-5364, 1-800-685-2537 or the full schedule may be viewed at: [email protected].