Fly Rod Crosby

[Rollin Thurlow]

I don't get to downtown Portland Maine too often but I found myself walking around the downtown area recently and had a few hours to kill so I went to their historical museum but found it was closed on that day. I was very surprised to see that they had a large poster of the famous Maine Guide, Fly Rod Crosby, fishing on Moosehead Lake in a E.M. White canoe. Its a well known image, in these parts anyway. I have no idea how long the image has been on display. Jerry Stelmok uses the image on his website for his E.M. White canoes.
I guess I'll have to make more of an effort to get the museum when its open to see if they have any follow up on Miss Fly Rod or wooden canoes even.

 

[Benson Gray]

I think that they are just recycling some old posters from previous exhibits since none of their current displays appear to feature that image or any canoes. This picture was used in an exhibit titled "Umbazooksus & Beyond: The Maine Woods Remembered" from 2005. The first link below has more details. The second link has a small display canoe from that exhibit which you may have seen before. The third link goes to their copy of that famous Fly Rod Crosby image.

Benson

Umbazooksus & Beyond: The Maine Woods Remembered

Visitors to the Maine woods in the early twentieth century often recorded their adventures in private diaries or journals and in photographs. Their remembrances of canoeing, camping, hunting and fishing helped equate Maine with wilderness.

www.mainememory.net

Quarter-scale model canoe, ca. 1997

Jerry Stelmok's Island Falls Canoe Company built this quarter-scale model of the Old Town Canoe Company Otca wood-canvas canoe, first introduced in 1906. The red paint and black stripe with Greek ends is Design No. 37, introduced in 1932.

www.mainememory.net

Cornelia Crosby, Moosehead Lake, ca. 1895

Cornelia "Fly Rod" Crosby in the canoe, in the shadow of Mt. Kineo, Moosehead Lake, ca. 1895. Crosby, of Phillips, worked for a number of years for the Maine Central Railroad where she promoted tourism in the Maine woods. She was a noted fly fisher and hunter.

www.mainememory.net

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