Fiberglass and aluminum canoes are too high-tech for 77-year-old Burt Libby of Litchfield, who for the past 10 years has been building wooden, canvas-covered canoes in the traditional manner.

Tradition and cultural heritage are what Millinocket’s three-day Wooden Canoe Festival, which begins Friday, Aug. 20, is all about. Kermit Krandall Park, located in town on Congress Street along Millinocket Stream, will come to life with displays of beautiful wooden canoes that shine like glass.

There will be lots to see, including displays of wooden paddles, caned canoe seats and backrests, hand-woven backpacks and fish baskets. And there will be lots of things to do, such as paddling sea and white-water kayaks along the stream, or trying your hand at making a wooden paddle, or watching Barry Dana build a birch-bark canoe the way his American Indian ancestors did centuries ago.

The Katahdin Area Chamber of Commerce, which sponsors the event, wants to bring more visitors to the Millinocket area. “One of the Chamber’s goals is to bring people from all over to Millinocket and demonstrate we have more than just a paper mill,” said Karen Beale, an organizer.

“We have an area of recreational beauty, and recreation has a long history here,” she said. “It’s not just a blue-collar community. There are lots of people in this community, who are blue-collar workers, who build beautiful canoes and who have many skills.”

Libby will be at Millinocket’s festival showing visitors his canoe-building skills. Two years after he retired as a real estate appraiser for the Maine Department of Transportation in 1987, Libby built his first canoe for his wife and has been addicted ever since.

He likes to build a canoe in the traditional manner using materials such as cedar for the planking and ribs, and spruce for the rails. Libby uses machine tools, such as band saws, table saws and power sanders, to save time.

That wasn’t always the case. He built his first canoe by hand. His wife wanted a canoe she could put on and take off a car by herself. So he designed a 13-foot lightweight canoe. He cut the weight by making everything thinner.

“It didn’t go very fast,” recalled Libby. “I didn’t know if this was something I wanted to do or not. But when I took it off the form, set it on sawhorses, stepped back and looked at it, I decided to build another one just like it for me.”

Libby says he hasn’t built many canoes, maybe 35 during the last 10 years. He says it’s hard to find good raw materials at reasonable prices. “You want absolutely clear cedar [with no knots],” he said. But, he said, it was even more difficult to find 20-foot-long, clear pieces of spruce for the rails.

One traditional habit Libby has avoided is putting a handful of tiny brass tacks in his mouth and spitting them one by one into his fingers to be pushed into cedar planks at evenly spaced intervals and then pounded in forming the side of canoe. “I don’t know how they did it, but I know I was impressed,” he said of the builders he watched many years ago.

He paints all of his wooden, canvas-covered canoes green, unless the person he is building for specifies another color. “Canoes are supposed to be green,” said Libby. “It always has been the standard canoe color.”

Building a canoe takes months of work. Libby said it takes about three “working” weeks of labor, or about 120 hours. But, he warns, those trying it for the first time must have a workplace they won’t need to use for anything else for two to three months.

Libby said it takes two or three days to mill the lumber, then it has to stay on the form for about one week to take shape. The special filler placed on the canvas takes about a month to cure and harden so it can be sanded. It can take several days to dry each coat of paint, and Libby uses a minimum of five coats.

There are many canoe builders like Libby, according to Randy Jackson of Millinocket, who was instrumental in starting the Katahdin Area Chamber of Commerce event three years ago.

Jackson views canoe building as an art form.

“There is something about boat builders’ appreciation of the wood and the way the canoe floats on the water,” said Jackson. “It is just very precise. If you have one in your family, it is passed down for generations. It is a way of getting back to the heritage of this region.”

When Jackson was looking for a job on the East Coast 23 years ago, one came up in Millinocket. All it took was one look at a map and his decision was made. “All I could see was the lakes and streams,” he recalled.

More than three years ago, Jackson had the idea of starting a wooden canoe museum in Millinocket. “I wanted to show the banks and people with money or grants available that it was a very viable proposition,” he said. So he began organizing the festival, which has drawn annual crowds of more than 2,000 people.

Some of the funding for this year’s festival was donated by Garth Evans of the Golden Rule Foundation. Jackson said he plans to seek grants from the nonprofit foundation, whose focus is the preservation of heritage across the country, to build a wooden canoe museum. He hopes to lay the groundwork for a new museum this year.

“We could bring in all of the camping, canoeing and the outdoor scene into a recreational museum where people could come and build canoes, pack baskets and paddles,” said Jackson.

He would like to see a museum located on Penobscot Avenue to bring more traffic to the downtown area. He also plans to seek a grant to revitalize the old river driver’s house, located northwest of Millinocket on Ambajejus Lake.

Members of the Chamber said Jackson acts like their conscience in making sure the canoe festival remains a special event with displays and demonstrations that are directly related to the time-honored traditional craft.

“It is the craftsmanship of outdoorsmen,” said Jackson. “You have got to be able to feel it and build it with your own hands. You are building something usually based on a form that is tried and true.”

Libby admits canoe building is a lot of work, but he is quick to say it is a labor of love. “They have got such nice curves to them. You can walk past one and run your hands over it, and you won’t even get your face slapped,” he said with a chuckle.

Friday, Aug. 20

3-6 p.m. — Booth setup.

6-9 p.m. — Music, desserts and conversation by the campfire; Ken Pierce and Johnny Johnson playing jazz, rock and folk music on guitar and bass.

Saturday, Aug. 21

7-9 a.m. — Registration and setup for entries in Wooden Canoe Show; business booths setup.

9 a.m.-5 p.m. — Wooden Canoe Show; wooden canoe building display and business booths; artifacts and items from the history of canoeing and fishing; Tina Roberts, photographic and oral history display; fly tying and fly-fishing demonstration, “Hooked on Fishing Not On Drugs”; all-day videos: “Woodsmen and River Divers,” “From Stump to Ship”; canoe-yard display of any boats for sale.

9:30-10 a.m. — Caleb Davis/Tremolo, classic solo paddling.

10-11 a.m. — Chandler Morse, “What is Bugging You About This River.”

11 a.m.-noon — Richard Silliboy, Indian basket making.

Noon-12:30 p.m. — Caleb Davis/Tremolo, different paddle shapes’ advantages and disadvantages.

12:30-2 p.m. — Warren Cochrane of Allagash Canoe Trips, canoe-poling demonstration.

2-3 p.m. — Jane Barron, packing for good cooking on a canoe trip.

2-3 p.m. — Canoe judging by participants, completed by 4 p.m.

3-3:30 — Caleb Davis/Tremolo, how to sharpen tools.

3:30-4 p.m. — Chandler Morse, canoe and outdoor skills for kids.

4-5 p.m. — Presentation of awards for Wooden Canoe Show.

5-7 p.m. — Bean Hole Bean supper by the river, Pioneer Hose Co.

7-10 p.m. — Music: Matthew Heints, The Northwoods Balladeer; Ken Brooks and Back Trackin (formerly Bluegrass Supply).

Sunday, Aug. 22

8 a.m.-4 p.m. — Caleb David, master paddlemaker, make your own wooden canoe paddle in a day. (Midday break will allow participants to enter boat parade.) Advance registration required: Call Caleb at (800) 908-9071. Cost $60.

9 a.m.-3 p.m. — Wooden canoe building display and business booths; artifacts and items from the history of canoeing and fishing.

9-10:30 a.m. — Linwood Parsons, water safety demonstration; Linwood and Betty Parsons, Ronn and Jacqui Youngby, paddling lessons.

10:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. — Registration for Canoe-in and boat parade.

10:30-11:30 a.m. — Barry Dana, American Indian techniques of birch-bark canoe building.

11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. — Dave Cook, archaeology and history of Maine canoe routes.

Noon — 50/50 Rubber Duck Race.

Noon-3 p.m. — Riverside cookout.

12:30-1:30 p.m. — Bob Cram, “Outdoor Cooking Techniques.”

1-2 p.m. — Canoe-in and boat parade (Bill Miller, emcee).

1:30-2:30 p.m. — Chandler Morse, “Hiking as a way to enjoy the outdoors.”

2:30-3 p.m. — Awards for Canoe-in and boat parade.

3-4 p.m. — Barry Dana, birch-bark canoe building techniques.

4 p.m. — Closing.

Throughout the weekend: New England Outdoor Center, sea kayak and white-water kayak demonstrations.