Come to the Tunbridge Fair

 

One Friday in September we went to the Tunbridge World's Fair.

Senior Day as it turned out.

Lots of food, lots of animals, but the best part was Antique Hill with anything you could think of from times gone by.

Blogger has mixed up all the photos so no order remains to them but see if you can spot any of these items: a sleigh, a Giant, cream separator, log splitter, a loom, a barrel chimney, a school marm, hand hewn logs and log water pipes.

Last of Maine Trip

After reading and hearing about the fort up the Kennebec from Fort Western when we were in Augusta, we went looking for Fort Fairfax outside Waterville where we were staying at a very nice Hampton Inn.

We chanced upon it.

 

While Fort Western had the garrison structure remaining, Fort Fairfax only had the remains of its block house. Not much to this park in comparison to Fort Western.

Another interesting attraction in Waterville was the 2 Cent Bridge over the Kennebec River.

The red structure is where the toll was collected.  Originally 1 cent then increased to 2 cents. 

The bridge was used by employees of the paper mill on the Winslow side of the river.  Those mills are now closed but ...

... something is coming out of them and looks to be polluting the water.

Of course the fad of attaching locks to bridges found its way here too.

It is lovely bit of the river that has been restored in recent years.

Sunday morning the 12th we headed home.  It had been good to get away and for a time forget the pandemic.  But there were times especially in restaurants when we were conscious that we may be taking a chance and getting exposed despite our vaccinated status. Fortunately, we came home healthy,  have since gotten our flu shots and look forward to soon getting the Covid booster.

Maine Capital

 Augusta is Maine's capital city.

What brought us to town was Fort Western - the first European structure in the area - built in 1754.  It's the oldest wooden garrison in North America.

It was built as a resupply fort and military outpost for the Province of Massachusetts and its mission was to supply the provincial Fort Fairfax up the Kennebec River during the French and Indian War. At this point in the river the larger ships couldn't travel upstream so supplies were transferred to wooden bateaus and rowed up to Fort Fairfax.

Once the war ended settlement began around the fort which led to Augusta becoming a town.

We arrived at the fort shortly after it opened and were given an extensive history tour. Our guide dressed in period costume was a high school student named Dorothy.  I was amazed by how much she knew and thought she was a college graduate.

 

She took us first to one of the two blockhouses that would have been on corners of the fort.  This was a re-creation since the original structures didn't survive.

The 5 lb cannons wore sheepskin to keep them dry and free from rust.

The structure below is what dates to 1754.  Originally it housed the garrison. 

In 1767 the Howard family purchased it and had a store here until 1807.

It was also the Howard home from 1770-1852.

It became tenement apartments in 1852 until 1920.

Views of Augusta across the Kennebec River from the fort.

In 1922 Fort Western became a museum.