James Farnham Carter
CARTER, James Farnham, 70, WASHBURN & LITTLE MUNSUNGAN LAKE, at Presque Isle, December 28, 2011. A celebration of his life will be held this spring at Munsungan Hunting and Fishing Club. Arrangements in care of Lancaster-Morgan Funeral Home, Caribou.
WASHBURN & LITTLE MUNSUNGAN LAKE – James Farnham Carter of Little Munsungan Lake and Washburn passed away after a brave battle with cancer on December 28, 2011, at a Presque Isle health care facility. Jim was born June 24, 1941, in Washburn and was the son of Ray H. Carter and Mavis Farnham Carter. Jim graduated from Washburn High School and went on to attend the University of Maine at Orono where he was a member of Sigma Chi Fraternity and graduated in 1963 with a degree in Agricultural Sciences. Jim was an Armor Officer in the United States Army, spending several years in the southwestern part of the United States as a tank platoon leader with Paratrooper Wings. He was honorably discharged as a Captain in the US Army.
Jim was foremost a woodsman, river man and trapper. Early in life he learned his wood’s ethos from his father Ray and the Daggett brothers. His trapping skills paid a large part of his college costs. He received his Master Maine Guide designation before he was 15 years old. Jim’s love was the woods but his passion was the camp at the mouth of Munsungan that his father and several friends built in 1938. Sometime along the way Jim horse-traded with the paper company and took possession of the property. In the early 1990’s, after he stopped farming, he set about transforming that family camp into a successful sporting camp in the traditional style of the old Maine Logging and Hunting Camps. Visitors to Munsungan Hunting and Fishing Club were regaled with excellent food and his pontifications on the world according to Jim. He loved to share his knowledge of the North Woods from the Paleo-Indian thru to the present day. His keen observations of the animals, fish, and forest he willingly shared with his guests who visited his domain, after passing the “Don’t Shoot The Camp Road Birds!” sign en route to camp. He loved dogs almost as much as he loved the woods. Until the loss of his beloved bird dog Martha earlier this spring, Jim was never without a dog as his constant companion. All dogs were always welcome at camp.
Prior to operating Munsungan Hunting and Fishing Club, Jim worked with his father in the family seed potato business, Carter Seed Farms, which he eventually took over in 1970. Jim was honored as the “Outstanding Young Farmer of Maine” in 1973, and was Maine’s representative in the 1974 Outstanding Young Farmer Award Congress and was a past president of the Maine Potato Council. In addition to raising seed potatoes, he also raised registered Hereford beef cattle for many years at his farm on the Caribou Lake Road.
During his farming years, Jim was active in the Washburn Rotary Club, the Aroostook County Republican Committee, as well as the Atlantic Salmon Federation, the Nature Conservancy and many other clubs and organizations.
He is survived by daughters, Hannah S. F. Carter, PhD., of Gainesville, Fl, and Alexandra S. Weeks and her husband, Captain Marc Weeks, USN, of Jacksonville, Fl; two sisters, Gail Carter of Portland and Mary Kaler of Boothbay Harbor. Jim also had a Munsungan “family,” wonderful friends who spent a great deal of time with him at camp and shared his love of the woods. His close friends Ed Dinsmore and Dr. David Jones provided great comfort and companionship at the end of his days.
A celebration of Jim’s life will be held this spring at Munsungan Hunting and Fishing Club. In lieu of flowers, a tribute account has been established in Jim’s name for memorial contributions to The Nature Conservancy (#1109129) or donations may be made to Hospice of Aroostook. Memories and condolences may be shared with the family at www.lancastermorgan.com.
