Bob Doyle, 71, of Winthrop, fans the flames of his fire to get water boiling in the Tea Boil, one of dozens of events held during Woodsmen’s Day on Monday.

 

FRYEBURG — Bob Doyle, 71, of Winthrop, knelt down beside a blackened tin can hanging from a metal holder. A volunteer approached him with a jug full of soapy water and pored some into the can. The two men knew one another and exchanged some friendly words.

Doyle held his ax ready to start chipping away at a debarked log. His son, Sheridan, picked up some sawdust, tossing it gently into the air.

“The wind’s blowin’ that way,” he told his father.

“Are you his coach?” the younger Doyle was asked.

“More like the other way around,” he answered with a smile.

An announcer grabbed the attention of thousands of people packing the grandstand and the track area for Woodsmen’s Day — always the second day of the Fryeburg Fair. As many as 50,000 people stroll around the massive grounds on this day, second in attendance only to Saturday, the last day, when numbers can approach 80,000.

“Are the contestants ready? Are the timers ready? All right. Three, two, one, go!”

Thus began the Tea Boil, a contest to see who can chip enough wood to build a hot enough fire to boil enough sudsy water, sending it to the top of the can.

Doyle quickly began chipping off small, then increasingly larger pieces of wood. He grabbed a handful of chips, struck a match on a small stone and tried to light the little pile he made underneath the can. It didn’t catch right away, so he added a few more chips, built up his pile a little more and lit another match.

It caught, and he began adding bigger sticks.

“Blow on it,” Sheridan said. After a few puffs, his father whipped off his baseball cap, waving it back and forth to fan the flames.

The contestants have seven minutes to get their fires going. Doyle made it before time ran out, but he wasn’t first. He flashed a smile to a handful of admirers who applauded his performance.

He’s been coming to Woodsmen’s Day since the 1970s. Asked if he’s really 71 years old, he flashed another smile, “I guess it’s true,” he said. “I hate to tell people that.”

“I cut my first tree down when I was 14-years-old,” he said. “I’m still climbing trees every day. Yesterday I cut down a 150-foot pine tree.”

It’s not surprising then, that Doyle is unhappy that his favorite event, tree felling, will be discontinued after this year.

Toby Hammond, who’s been involved with Woodsmen’s Day since the 1970s, and is now in charge of it, said there’s two reasons: difficulty in getting the size of trees required, and the fact that the number of contestants is limited to 30.

“I know some people aren’t happy about it,” Hammond said. “But we’re going to replace it with a standing block chop.”

Hammond’s father was one of the originators of Woodsmen’s Day.

“It was just a filler in the beginning — just an idea to get more people to come on the second day. This year we have over 170 competitors, 8,000 to 10,000 people come to watch, and we have over 100 volunteers who help run the events.”

“We had to have 60 extra orange ball caps screened between Friday night and Sunday,” he said.

“We bill it as the largest in the country, and it may be the largest in the world,” he said. “We have two guys from Holland this year.”

With events like ax throwing and chain saw cutting, Hammond said his first priority is to get through without any accidents.

“In 41 years, I’ve only witnessed one, a man who cut off some of his toes with an ax. Hopefully we’ll get through another year with no accidents. That’s my plan.”

On any one day of the fair, there may 50,000 to 75,000 people milling around the food stands, carnival rides, and exhibit halls.

Couples like Gwen and Stub Stebbins of Lisbon Falls come in their motor home and usually stay the whole week. They’ve been fans of Woodsmen’s Day since it began.

With two or three events going on at a time, Gwen said, “It’s kind of like a three-ring circus, trying to watch everything at once.”

It’s not just Woodsmen’s Day that brings them back every year, either. There’s the food, too.

“You should have tasted the homemade biscuits that came out of the wood stove in the Cook’s Kitchen yesterday,” Gwen said.

Elaine and Conrad Letellier of Biddeford make sure they always take a week’s vacation so they can come to the fair. Despite the crowds, she said she almost always runs into someone she knows. She first began coming to Woodsmen’s Day with her mother 30 years ago.

And her favorite food?

“Sunflower pizza.”