One of my enjoyable check ins over the years, here in the harbor, was my altogether too frequent visit with Ken Brown and Brown’s Wharf. Ken had fabulous stories of many adventures here in Maine, around the U.S. and abroad. It seemed there was no end to his wonderful tales. I was a devoted audience. He had friends from far and near, many who returned yearly to stay at Brown’s and catch up with Ken and family. He sat in the corner of the office pretending to be nobody special, watching and listening. New visitors to the Wharf had no idea who he was and he enjoyed the anonymity until someone got a little frisky at the front desk. I only saw him come out of the chair in a hurry a couple times. Once speaking fluent German he completely demolished an arrogant visitor who was giving one of the staff a hard time. The person was so freaked out he fairly flew out the door never to be seen again. Horace Lee would gleefully back up my observation. Horace and I fought over the chair next to Ken!

One of the most fascinating stories Ken shared was about his friend and frequent visitor to the Inn, Herman Bayerdorffer. He and Herman would joke in German and I, with limited German language skills, would only catch a word here and there. Herman was quite fascinating as were many who stopped in to say hi.

I got to meet Herman and visit a few times. He owned some hunting camps on Sebec Lake and a business nearby. Herman also had a big connection to Greenville and the float plane industry. He and Max Folsom and a couple other adventuresome types bought and flew a DC-3 (C-53) with floats mounted for water takeoffs and landings. I flew a couple times, 35 or so years ago, in Folsom planes, so I had some knowledge of this project. Greenville was pretty laid back in those days.

Funny how things come full circle. I got to go back to Greenville the other day to photograph a project undertaken by our very own local Bristol Marine – the repair and restoration of the historic steamboat Katahdin. Previous engine and electrical work has been completed with more work scheduled for the fall. There was still two feet of ice on Moosehaed Lake at the boat landing and it was probably 20F chillier than the temperature at home. Greenville has undergone some changes since my last visit.

The Bristol crew is replacing a section of the stern upper deck. All the components were created at the Boothbay Harbor yard by Ross Branch and crew. Measurements were meticulously taken off the existing structure prior to demo and completely duplicated in the shop at Bristol Marine. The new components were then trucked to Greenville where they are being reassembled and installed.

The Bristol crew shown in above photo includes Eric Graves, project manager, Marcus Skirbe and Kevin Danfelser. They will be working on the project until completion which is about five weeks out. If you have a chance to visit the Moosehead region, figure on about a three hour drive up I-95, off to Dexter and Guilford then on to Greenville. Once off the interstate it’s a pretty interesting travel through small towns with open fields and lots of woods. The roads are quite good with only occasional frost heaves to annoy.