Category archive: History

Folk music and public dance in Rangeley

RANGELEY — The Rangeley Friends of the Arts is sponsoring a day of music and dance folk history at the Rangeley Lakes Regional School with Old Grey Goose Wednesday, April 27.read more

Outdoor Sporting Heritage Museum announces 2016 spring calendar

OQUOSSOC — The Outdoor Sporting Heritage Museum in Oquossoc is gearing up for another record season of sharing the region’s rich outdoor history. The award winning museum will open on May 4th and is slated to premiere 4 new interesting exhibits. “ In 2015 over 5300 visitors came to visit making it our best season ever.read more

Border Patrol holds local media workshop

Story & Photos By Dee Menear Irregular Staff Writer RANGELEY — The U.S. Border Patrol recently held series of day-long workshops at Border Patrol Stations along Maine’s borders so members of the media could be educated about the Border Patrol’s mission, history, operations and procedures.read more

Historical society holds open house

By Dee Menear Irregular Staff Writer MADRID — The Madrid Historical Society held an open house during the Phillips Old Home Days Celebration. The society preserves the history of Madrid in the Schoolhouse Museum. The schoolhouse was built in 1872 and was used as a school for the next 87 years.read more

01/30/2015 – Museum special winter opening

Rangeley- For the first time ever, the Outdoor Sporting Heritage Museum in Oquossoc will open its doors in support of Rangeley’s celebrated Snodeo and New England Pond Hockey Tournament events. OSHM will turn up the heat and open its doors for a first ever winter opening on Friday, Jan. 23^rd through Sunday Jan. 2^nd for Rangeley’s Snodeo. The museum will again re-open the following Friday Jan. 30^th through Sunday, Feb. 1^st in support of the New England Pond Hockey Tournament. OSHM will feature some never before displayed items celebrating “Winter in Rangeley” during both weekends. Antique snow machines, outdoor equipment, sleds, snow shoes, old winter-time photos and all things “winter” are on tap for this event. OSHM’s extended collection of outdoor sporting memorabilia and history, which prompted Yankee Magazine to proclaim it the “Best Sporting Museum in New England, will also be featured.

“We felt that these two great events would provide a great opportunity for us to share some unique winter themed artifacts from the region and we wanted to support the community and our local businesses during these two always fun events”, shared OSHM’s Executive Director, Bill Pierce. “We look forward to welcoming visitors wishing to warm up to some of our fantastic regional history”, added Pierce. The Rangeley Lakes Region Historical Society and the Outdoor Sporting Heritage Museum wishes to thank our membership and especially S&K Quality Fuels for making this special opening possible.

The Outdoor Sporting Heritage Museum is located in Oquossoc Village at the corner of Routes 4 and 17. The Museum will be open from 9am to 3pm each day. If you would like to volunteer or have an artifact that you wish to loan or donate or need more information, please call Bill Pierce at 491-4771.

01/24/2015 – Museum special winter opening

Rangeley- For the first time ever, the Outdoor Sporting Heritage Museum in Oquossoc will open its doors in support of Rangeley’s celebrated Snodeo and New England Pond Hockey Tournament events. OSHM will turn up the heat and open its doors for a first ever winter opening on Friday, Jan. 23^rd through Sunday Jan. 2^nd for Rangeley’s Snodeo. The museum will again re-open the following Friday Jan. 30^th through Sunday, Feb. 1^st in support of the New England Pond Hockey Tournament. OSHM will feature some never before displayed items celebrating “Winter in Rangeley” during both weekends. Antique snow machines, outdoor equipment, sleds, snow shoes, old winter-time photos and all things “winter” are on tap for this event. OSHM’s extended collection of outdoor sporting memorabilia and history, which prompted Yankee Magazine to proclaim it the “Best Sporting Museum in New England, will also be featured.

“We felt that these two great events would provide a great opportunity for us to share some unique winter themed artifacts from the region and we wanted to support the community and our local businesses during these two always fun events”, shared OSHM’s Executive Director, Bill Pierce. “We look forward to welcoming visitors wishing to warm up to some of our fantastic regional history”, added Pierce. The Rangeley Lakes Region Historical Society and the Outdoor Sporting Heritage Museum wishes to thank our membership and especially S&K Quality Fuels for making this special opening possible.

The Outdoor Sporting Heritage Museum is located in Oquossoc Village at the corner of Routes 4 and 17. The Museum will be open from 9am to 3pm each day. If you would like to volunteer or have an artifact that you wish to loan or donate or need more information, please call Bill Pierce at 491-4771.

Rangeley Logging Fest a cut above the rest

Story & Photos By Dee Menear Irregular Staff Writer RANGELEY — The Rangeley Logging Festival has been named by Yankee Magazine as one 2014’s top 20 Maine Events and it is no wonder. The twoday festival is in its 34th year and the weekend is filled with events related to the logging history of the Rangeley region.read more

Museum holds Rangeley history

By Dee Menear Irregular Staff Writer OQUOSSOC — The Rangeley region has deep ties to several early outdoor sportsmen. Carrie Stevens was well known for her hand-tied flies. Cornelia “Fly Rod” Crosby, who once caught 200 trout in one day, worked hard to promote the area. George Shepard Page caught eight brook trout totaling almost 52 pounds.read more

The Youth Ensemble of New England to perform at RFA Lakeside Theater

The Youth Ensemble of New England

The Youth Ensemble of New England is a youth orchestra made up of about thirty young people from the age of 10, through college-age. The orchestra is based at Thayer Conservatory in Lancaster, Massachusetts.

The orchestra plays concerts for churches, schools, and civic organizations. Their concert repertoire is taken from a variety of great classical and sacred music composed in the Baroque period up to the present time. A number of talented young performers that are members of the orchestra are featured in the concerts as soloists. The concerts are lively and interesting and appeal to young and old alike.

The orchestra performs throughout New England, and has had concert tours to Iceland, England, Scotland, Canada, Maine and New York and they are getting ready for a tour to California.

History

The Youth Ensemble of New England is an outgrowth of the New England Youth Ensemble that was started in 1968 by Dr. Virginia-Gene Rittenhouse. This orchestra has toured to over 40 countries, and is now based in Maryland at Washington Adventist University. When a number of the former members of the Youth Ensemble had children, they asked Dr. Rittenhouse to start another group for these young people. She started the Chamber Ensemble in 1999. Her niece, Dr. Connie Rittenhouse Drexler assisted her with the orchestra, and in 2004 Dr. Rittenhouse asked her to take over the directorship of the Chamber Orchestra. The chamber orchestra still has a number of members that are the children of the original Youth Ensemble members.

Director

Dr. Connie Rittenhouse Drexler was one of the original Youth Ensemble members, playing violin and viola in the orchestra and as a piano soloist. She grew up with the orchestra and it was one of the biggest influences in her life. She studied piano with her aunt, Dr. Virginia-Gene Rittenhouse and went on to major in piano and pre-med at Atlantic Union College. She received a Masters in Piano Performance from Boston University and then attended medical school at Loma Linda University in California. She is now assistant professor of medicine at University of Massachusetts Medical Center and works in Internal Medicine in the hospital setting. She is married to Dr. David Drexler. They have two children, Robert, and Katharine, both of whom have played in the Chamber Orchestra and Youth Ensemble. One of her greatest joys is sharing the great heritage of music with her students and audiences.

Tickets will be available at the Rangeley Lakes Chamber of Commerce on 6 Park Road in the center of Rangeley, Maine.

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