To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the first Maine-Quebec Highway Caravan in 195, a group of interested caravan fans are heading up a new caravan Feb. 9 through Feb. 11. Sarah Lee Brooks and Tim Crowley are co-chairs for the Maine-Quebec Winter Carnival Caravan. They have changed the caravan name. Plans call for this year’s caravan to rendezvous at Dean’s Hotel at Portage on Friday, Feb. 9, for breakfast at 6 a.m. The caravan will leave Dean’s at 7:15 a.m. Persons interested in making the trip need to call 768-2760. There is a $25 registration fee. The proceeds will go to the Ashland Rotary Club and eventually will be donated to the Veterans Cemetery in Caribou.
The caravan will be traveling over private woods roads owned by North Maine Woods – a group of landowners – headed by Al Cowperthwaite. Brooks said the caravan members area grateful to the NMW for their hospitality.
The caravan members will be staying at the Concorde Hotel in Quebec. That’s the hotel with the revolving restaurant that looks down on the Plains of Abraham.
The following are some of my memories from past trips on the caravan.
Fifty years, holy cow! I must have been just a kid. It really felt like an adventure then, and it was. It all began when the Ashland Chamber of Commerce, with Charlie Coffin as secretary, was seeking a way to promote a survey for the suggested highway to Quebec. The route from Ashland to the Quebec border is only about 80 miles. The route from Ashland around through Fort Kent to Quebec is about 250 miles.
It doesn’t seem possible that 50 years ago I made that first trip with George “Pete” Sawyer and Maurice Knowles in Pete’s lead Jeep through the North Maine Woods. We gathered at the Stuart House in Ashland for breakfast and then about 23 of us piled into our vehicles and headed in to the dark woods. It was only about 5:30 a.m.
I don’t recall the first trip being scheduled to land us in the middle of the world-famous Quebec Winter Carnival. But we did and it was great. Since then the trips have been called the ‘Maine-Quebec Winter Carnival Caravan.’
Lumbering companies had crews working in the woods but not all of the roads were plowed. Arrangements were made for the snow-covered sections to be cleared by the time we arrived. The roads were cleared all right, but we still had drivers who became stuck or went off the roads into snow banks.
In 1959 I rode with State Police Sgt. Burt Coffin who drove with his head out the window as it was snowing so hard he couldn’t see. We got about 15 inches of snow that trip.
We had lunch in Camp Maranda, a lumber camp near Clayton Lake Depot, the first year and crossed the border into Quebec at Daaquam. That border station has been closed and crossings are now made at St. Pamphile.
On several trips we didn’t return to Ashland by the woods route because the blizzards were so fierce. We returned through Rivere-du-Loupe. A 1959 clipping from the Bangor Daily News said the group had been forced to abandon four cars which were badly damaged at a perilous crossing at Harrow Mountain. Another vehicle, a snow cat, threw one of its tracks trying to tow several other vehicles. Art Collier had reported that a car lost its gas tank and another froze up.
The trips got to be the social thing to do. As many as 220 registered one year and nearly every one was able to make the trip. The first year John Reed, who was president of the Maine Senate at the time, joined us on the trip,. He became governor later and was unable to make the trips. Others in the official party included: Arthur “Art” Collier, Richard Flood, Richard Holman, Lester Hughes, Carl Tibbetts, A. Kermit Crandall and myself as a Bangor Daily News reporter/photographer. Others included: Hector Tremblay, Pierce Landry, John Bishop, Ike Graves, Archie Bishop, “Bud” Daggett, Lewis Nightingale, George Baker, Ervin Doak, Henry Cyr, Arthur and Warren Kilcollins and Richard McLennan. We were met at the Quebec City limits by police officers for a reception which included Quebecoise music and dancing and a chance to meet and dance with Winter Carnival queens. The mayor and members of the city council and musicians all wore red shirts and tied colorful sashes around their waists.
The carnival parade was really something to witness. It was held after dark and the floats were brightly lit, with every marching unit playing the Carnival song. A huge ice palace was constructed just outside the city walls. (Remember, Quebec City is the only walled city in North America.) At night, colorful lights illuminated the palace. On the Plains of Abraham, the snow sculpture contest was held by different countries from around the world. Around town, in the old city and the newer sections, there were ice sculptures everywhere.
And then there are the folks who sell caribou. This is a drink that will open your eyes.
You can drink from a cup or, as many do, pour the drink into a hollow plastic cane and have a nip every now and then to keep you warm.
The trips were held annually from 1957 until 1969 to coincide with the Winter Carnival in Quebec City.
Then in 2002 the Ashland Rotary Club decided to revive the trips just as a social and cultural event, with 41 people who made the trip in 15 vehicles. In 2004, 54 people made the trip.
Since that time, Brooks and Crowley have been the promoters for the caravan.
