NEW GLOUCESTER — Mark Leroy “Roy” Dudley guided at Chimney Pond on Maine’s Mount Katahdin from the 1890s until his death in 1942. During those years he became nationally famous among mountaineers and outdoorsmen for his tall tales about Pamola, the god of thunder and protector of the mountain, as well as other stories of his life in the north woods of Maine.
In the 1930s, Beth Harmon’s uncle Clayton Hall was so captivated by Dudley’s stories about Pamola and Katahdin, that he hiked to Chimney Pond carrying a wax cylinder dictating machine and a portable typewriter. He spent several summers recording Dudley’s words and planned to publish the manuscript. Hall became ill and he did not realize that dream in his lifetime.
Fast forward 50 years to the early 1980s. Harmon was helping to clean out the home of another uncle when she found Hall’s manuscript. After reading the manuscript and sharing the stories with her husband and their two children she decided that the stories should reach a wider audience.
Harmon joined forces with illustrator Jane Thomas who had actually heard Dudley tell many of the stories and had learned them by heart. Over nearly 10 years, Harmon and Thomas arranged and edited the stories together. In December 1991, they published the stories themselves using Thomas’s own wonderful cover illustration as well as her drawings for their book.
Since its publication in December 1991, they’ve sold more than 10,000 copies of “Chimney Pond Tales” and are proud to offer a new edition published by Maine Authors Publishing with additional photographs, more details about the book, as well as another of Dudley’s tales for readers to enjoy.
Harmon will tell about some of her adventures publishing
and will share some of the stories from 1-3 p.m. Saturday, June 15, at Pineland Farms Market and Visitor Center. Books will be available for purchase.
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- “Chimney Pond Tales”
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- Submitted photo Author Beth Harmon lives in Cumberland and is chancel choir director at the Congregational Church in Cumberland. She is also a member of the Choral Art Society Masterworks Chorus, the Greater Freeport Community Chorus, and is president of Portland Rossini Club.
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