EDITOR’S NOTE: The story of a moose that liked to bathe in Lewiston swimming pools was originally published Sept. 29, 1992.

A wayward moose stands in a swimming pool on Brault Street in Lewiston in September 1992. Blanchette Moving & Storage of Lewiston helped remove the tranquilized moose, which was taken to a state game farm. Ken Love/Sun Journal/File

LEWISTON — An 800-pound bull moose with an apparent affection for in-ground swimming pools was captured in a Brault Street yard Monday after his second citified dip in as many days.

The moose was tranquilized by David Wilbur, superintendent of the state game farm in Gray, before being lifted into a pickup truck and taken away.

Mark Adams’ swimming pool wasn’t the first in which the animal decided to take a dip. It had been spotted a day earlier in another pool on Webber Avenue, according to police Lt. Andrew D’Eramo.

“The game warden was able to spook him out of the pool on Sunday, but I guess he didn’t go very far,” D’Eramo said. “We’d been watching him since 7 a.m. in the area around Central Avenue. At 9 a.m., he jumped a fence, went across a couple of yards and ended up here.”

After a neighbor of the Adams’ on Brault Street reported seeing the moose in the pool, a crowd – including police officers, public works personnel, a wildlife biologist, neighbors, family and friends – descended on the backyard scene.

Neither Adams nor his wife, Kate, was at home when the 12-point buli moose vaulted a four-foot fence and plunged into the deep end of their pool. He works as assistant to Lewiston’s city administrator, and she works at LePage Bakeries in Auburn.

“Maybe I should put bup a bigger fence,” cracked Adams, who waited with camera in hand for the state gamekeeper to remove the beast. “I guess it was a nice swim for him.”

The animal was still in the pool when Wilbur shot him in the left rear hip with a tranquilizer dart. The moose then climbed out of the water, jumped the pool fence and strode easily to the rear of the Adams’ yard before falling.

Wilbur injected a second dose of tranquilizer as the moose lay, help less but alert, on the ground.

“It’s not unusual to see moose out and about this time of year,” Wilbur said. “Once mating season starts, they’re moving around quite a bit.” With straps, provided by Blanchette’s Moving and Storage, wrapped around the bull’s antlers, a Public Works Department crane lifted the 800-pound animal into the game warden’s pickup truck.

Warden Gayland Brackett said the animal, which was expected to wake up within three hours of being tranquilized, will spend some time at the game farm in Gray before being released into the woods.

“He didn’t cause any problems, though I don’t think he was too happy. I’m just glad he’s going to be taken care of,” Adams said.

The story of a moose that took a dip in a Brault Street swimming pool made the Sun Journal front page Sept. 29, 1992.  Read the story in the Sun Journal archive