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Museum of History, Mystery
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Once a station along the Maine Central Railroad,
the depot is now home to the Bucksport Historical Society’s
museum. |
The former railroad
depot on the
Main Street
waterfront, near the town dock, is actually the museum for the
Bucksport Historical Society.
Built in 1874 as a
station along the Maine Central Railroad, the building is still
unheated—which is why the Historical Society opens the museum only
in July and August.
Two winters ago,
Society members opened the museum on a cold day to researchers from
television’s History Channel. They were pinning down the details of
Buckport’s most famous murder that was never solved, that of Sarah
Ware in 1898.
Society President
Fran Bemis remembers firing up the museum’s wood stove for the
visitors, but she wasn’t pleased when the program aired. More
attention was paid to connected events in
Bangor,
she felt. Bucksport—as the scene of the crime—just didn’t get its
due.
At the Society’s
last meeting in October, members watched videos of the History
Channel show.
“They were real
professional people who came in, and we told them what happened with
the murder,” Bemis said. “But they kind of made up their own
stories. I don’t think they got it anywhere near right.”
Bemis cares deeply
for Bucksport’s history, although she is having a hard time
convincing others to care as much. In a good year the museum gets
about 500 visitors during July and August. It is open on Wednesdays,
Thursdays and Fridays between 1 and
4 p.m. only.
Admission to the
museum is $1 for non-members.
“We have to charge
that, because that’s our only way of getting any money,” Bemis said.
“We have a lot of bills to pay every year. But people seem more
interested in going to
Fort Knox than
seeing our museum. The Fort gets thousands.”
Society membership
costs just $5 for the year. The next meeting is June 3 at 1 p.m. at
the museum, when members decide how they will staff the summer hours
there.
The membership list
for the Society, which formed in 1964, is thin at the moment. That’s
because many members have passed away through the years. At 85,
Bemis wishes more of Bucksport’s younger people would take an
interest in the town’s past.
“It’s different
today,” she said. “I have always loved Bucksport history, but people
don’t always have the same ideas that we did.”
Those interested
in helping out with the Society or museum can contact Bemis at
469-2464.
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