CHESTERVILLE – David Fuller is on a mission.

Over the past six years, the Farmington man has been attempting to preserve Maine’s spruce gum history through interviews with people associated with the industry.

Because many people have never heard of Maine spruce gum, Fuller has been collecting material for a book he’s writing. The effort is secondary to his day job as an agriculture/natural resources professional for the University of Maine Cooperative Extension Service in Farmington.

While he remembers his father giving him spruce gum as a young child, it wasn’t significant to him until six years ago when he took a course in culture and tradition. And while talking to his father about log drives that the elder Fuller worked on, the subject of spruce gum came up. So his quest began.

Maine spruce gum was the nation’s first commercialized gum. John B. Curtis of Bradford started sales in 1848 then moved to Portland in 1850 and started producing it, Fuller said.

The gum is harvested from spruce trees and is produced when the tree has a wound, he said. Skidders, trail-blazing, woodpeckers and even branches rubbing together can create wounds. The tree will then secrete or “pitch out” to cover wounds and keep insects out. It generally flows for three years but then in the fourth year, it’s hard enough to pick, he said.

Maine gummers, as they were known, would use tools or knives to pry the gum from the trees, he said. Farmers and woodsmen would often supplement their incomes by picking gum. More money could be earned from spruce gum than from cutting trees, Fuller added.

At the turn of the century, about 300,000 pounds was being produced. Pickers earned 50 cents a pound and could often pick 10 to 15 pounds a day, Fuller said.

The gum was not only chewed but also used for medicinal purposes. Much of it was sold to pharmacies that combined it with alcohol for a cough medicine. In 1900, an ounce of it sold to pharmacies for $1, he said. Fuller’s collection of memorabilia includes small empty bottles used for Grays Syrup of Red Spruce Gum produced from 1890 to 1940.

The substance is also anti-microbial, he said. Clinical trials are being done in Finland to test the gum’s affect on bedsores.

From 1850 to 1987, there were 30 spruce gum companies in Maine, he said. The peak for the business came in 1890.

“It’s that heritage that we’re forgetting. Most kids have never heard of it. With just one generation, it’s gone by the wayside,” he said, although he did admit, “like Moxie, it’s an acquired taste.”

Spruce gum gave way to chicle from the sapodilla tree because it can be flavored. Much of our gum now is petroleum based, he said.

One retailer still sells the product online and locally at a health food store. Richard Nadeau of Stratton offers spruce gum as well as directions for chewing it on his Web site, www.naturallist.com.

Fuller said Nadeau is the only one in the nation now selling it.

Fuller would like to talk with people from the Rangeley area who remember Rangeley Lakes Spruce Gum. It was marketed by Harvey Davis of Monson (the Spruce Gum King) from 1910 to 1948, Fuller said. Anyone willing to share memories is asked to call him at 779-0671.