Historical past college students at UMaine associate with Bangor to rehabilitate Kenduskeag Stream Heritage Path

A bunch of historical past college students on the College of Maine have partnered with the town of Bangor to rehabilitate indicators on the Kenduskeag Stream Heritage Path, a 2.2-mile city and wilderness footpath that intersects downtown Bangor. 

Eight college students created interpretive indicators to exchange broken ones at factors of curiosity alongside the path. The brand new indicators will inform tales concerning the historical past of Bangor, together with the drowning of Charlie Howard, the Nice Hearth of Bangor in 1911 and the continued significance of Wabanaki individuals of their homeland.

College students will current their work to the general public on Wednesday, Dec. 11 on the Bangor Public Library. 

The town will use the student-researched indicators as half of a bigger effort to revive and maintenance the path, a preferred vacation spot for metropolis residents and guests. Metropolis of Bangor Parks & Recreation has began changing lighting alongside the path and has devoted $40,000 in capital funds to reinforce it, which incorporates fabricating and putting in new signage, changing fencing and general path enhancements.

“It’s a win for everyone,” stated Bangor Parks & Recreation Director Tracy Willette. “And it’s been thrilling for us to see the passion that the scholars should observe by (with) this venture.”

Willette stated the partnership with UMaine couldn’t have come at a greater time. Liam Riordan, professor of historical past, is educating the senior seminar course liable for the signage venture.

His theme for the course is public historical past, the thought of speaking historic info to a normal viewers. The venture inspired group collaboration — amongst college students and group companions — and creating dialogue with the general public.

“This venture has been the proper near my educational profession at UMaine,” senior Madison Humphrey stated. “It has pushed me out of my consolation zone, encouraging me to work together with members and organizations of the general public.” 

Humphrey stated she didn’t know something about her subject, Norumbega Corridor and the Hearth of 1911, till the category. 

“Now, my family and friends suppose I’m loopy each time we drive by Norumbega Parkway and I spout details and figures about this mythological ‘Quincy Market in Bangor,’” she stated.

Her proposed signal consists of an accessible hyperlink to an internet site with a strolling tour and map of the downtown district that burned down.

The general public presentation is meant to encourage the group to present suggestions on the proposed indicators. Riordan will then work on updating the content material and design earlier than the town finalizes and installs the brand new indicators alongside the path. Every signal is roughly 2 toes by 3 toes in dimension, and they’re going to use the present concrete pillars with changed circumstances and plexiglass. If all goes effectively, Riordan stated two new signal places might be added to the present ones.

The brand new indicators embody written narratives, photographs and QR codes that hyperlink to movies, songs, extra photographs and web sites for associated organizations. The Bangor Public Library, Bangor Historic Society, UMaine’s Zillman Artwork Museum and Particular Collections at Fogler Library aided college students in gathering all the historic multimedia content material. As well as, the Clement and Linda McGillicuddy Humanities Heart has offered funding to print prototypes of the proposed indicators to share with the general public.

“My involvement in engaged on the Kenduskeag Stream Path indicators has been nothing in need of extraordinary,” stated Amanda Levesque, a senior majoring in historical past. “I’ve been very lucky to work with like-minded college students on this venture, which has confirmed to be a job, but is so fulfilling on the similar time.”

Levesque’s signal addresses the Estevan Gomes memorial, which the town eliminated in 2020 following an act of political activism that defaced the memorial and the path signal commemorating it. Levesque stated her new signal explains the reality of Gomes’ voyage of 1524 — his seize of roughly 58 Algonquian-speaking Indigenous individuals and try and promote them into slavery in Europe — and explains the Penobscot Nation’s historic and modern relationship with the Kenduskeag Stream and the native space round what’s now generally known as Bangor.

The interpretive path indicators haven’t been up to date because the metropolis put in them within the early 2000s, and Riordan stated the venture reveals how historic understanding adjustments over time. An internet site linked to the brand new path indicators will embody entry to PDFs of the unique path indicators for comparability. Riordan additionally famous {that a} lately issued on-line survey requesting group enter can form the content material of the brand new indicators, that are nonetheless being modified. 

Earlier within the semester, the scholars offered their proposals to 2 completely different Bangor metropolis commissions and on the Maine Archives & Museums Annual Convention in Lewiston.  

Along with gaining expertise in public talking and presenting analysis, the venture has allowed college students to kind sturdy connections with one another by off-campus subject journeys, a shared sense of nerves and mutual reliance to see the venture by to completion. 

“Whereas the category has definitely required a variety of onerous work and late nights, I’ve not often needed to deal with it alone,” senior Liv Neuhauser stated. “We carpool to class, seize espresso on our option to group occasions, and you’ll all the time discover a couple of of us on the library bouncing concepts off each other.”

Neuhauser researched Stephen King’s affect on Bangor and stated it has helped her see the methods by which in style tradition can form a metropolis’s financial, social and cultural id. Her signal compares the fictional locations in King’s novels to the actual locations in Bangor that impressed them. 

Different indicators embody discussions on organized labor and the founding of Bangor Public Library, the native affect of the lumber trade, the historical past of the Kenduskeag Stream Canoe Race, a petition to the state issued by the Penobscot Nation in 1821 to guard fishing assets on the stream, and an indication with a screenprint by artist Francis Hamabe to commemorate Bangor’s bicentennial in 1969 that additionally introduces the path and offers a normal orientation. 

Contact: Ashley Yates; ashley.depew@maine.edu