Machias   June 22

Quiz time. Who knows what a galamander is? No, it’s not a female salamander.

A galamander was a wooden cart that was used to pick up and transport huge blocks of granite in the days before steam engines and hydraulics. I learned about galamanders in a historical park in Franklin, which used to be the center of Maine’s granite production. Granite from Franklin was used to build the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard, pave the streets of Washington, DC and as curbstones in cities from Boston to Philadelphia.

The galamander, pulled by horses or oxen, passed over the granite block which was then lifted about a foot off the ground by leverage action. The several-ton block was then taken to local wharves and put aboard ships, which had to be carefully balanced lest they sink under the tremendous weight.

The rest of my day’s ride was through blueberry and wreath-making country.

In Harrington two very large buildings dominate the village. Although silent now, come October the buildings will be jammed with local people in a pre-holiday frenzy of wreath making. The Worcester Wreath Co., in business since 1972, until last year made wreaths and other live Christmas decorations exclusively for LL Bean. Now they focus on meeting the needs of Wreaths Across America.

In 1992, Worcester Wreath found themselves with a surplus of wreaths nearing the end of the holiday season. Morrill Worcester, the company’s owner, remembered his boyhood experience of traveling to Arlington Cemetery. Worcester realized he had an opportunity to honor our country’s Veterans. Arrangements were made for the wreaths to be placed at Arlington in one of the older sections of the cemetery, a section which had been receiving fewer visitors with each passing year.

A number of other individuals and organizations stepped up to help—a local trucking company provided transportation to Virginia. Volunteers from the local American Legion and VFW Posts decorated each wreath with traditional red, hand-tied bows. Members of the Maine State Society of Washington, D.C. helped to organize the wreath-laying, which included a special ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

The annual tribute went on quietly for several years, until 2005, when a photo of the stones at Arlington, adorned with wreaths and covered in snow, circulated around the internet.  Suddenly, the project received national attention. Thousands of requests poured in from all over the country from people wanting to help with Arlington, to emulate the Arlington project at their National and State cemeteries, or to simply share their stories.

Unable to donate thousands of wreaths to each state, Worcester began sending seven wreaths to every state, one for each branch of the military, and for POW/MIAs. In 2006, with the help of the Civil Air Patrol and other civic organizations, simultaneous wreath laying ceremonies were held at over 150 locations around the country.

The annual trip to Arlington and the groups of volunteers eager to participate in Worcester’s simple wreath-laying event grew each year until it became clear the desire to remember and honor our country’s fallen heroes was bigger than Arlington, and bigger than this one company.

In 2007, the Worcester family, along with veterans, and other groups and individuals who had helped with their annual Christmas wreath ceremony in Arlington, formed Wreaths Across America, a non profit 501-c3 organization, to continue and expand this effort, and support other groups around the country who wanted to do the same. www.wreathsacrossamerica.org

If it’s not pine trees or bays and rivers around here, it’s blueberry fields, specifically wild blueberry fields. None of those bloated, cultivated, all-in-a-row high-bush blues, these blues grow close to the ground and are almost ignored and untouched until harvest time in late July and early August. Washington County, where I am now, is the center of Maine’s blueberry production.

Wild blueberry field

Wild blueberries, as I found out at Blueberry Hill Farm, the state’s wild blueberry research facility, have more beneficial antioxidant and phenolic compounds than their large, cultivated cousins. The berries are grown on a two-year cycle. Each year, half a grower’s land is managed to encourage vegetative growth and the other half is harvested. After harvest, the plants are pruned to the ground by mowing or burning. And being native to Maine, wild blueberries are naturally resistant to native pests.

For wild blueberry recipes, go to: www.wildblueberries.com

To understand why I'm riding and raising money, please go to the first post--April 26.
To make a donation to the ALSA, please go to: http://web.alsa.org/goto/deirdresride