Experts ponder future Brewer history trail

BREWER – Because the city has a past that spans two centuries, narrowing down what should be highlighted along the city’s Historic Waterfront Trail System is a daunting task.

The job is so important to city officials that they delegated the work to a team of local and state historians and other experts, including cultural and social historian Marilyn Zoidis, a Bangor native now with the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.

Local lore, including tales of Brewer’s connection to the Underground Railroad, have a place on the proposed trail, Zoidis told the group Tuesday during a two-day conference about the trail.

“It’s very real” to those who believe that local lore, she said.

The city hosted the two-day conference, which started Monday, to discuss the region’s history and to identify significant historic elements of the waterfront to include in displays along the trail.

The historic trail will run the length of Penobscot Landing, the city’s planned waterfront redevelopment, which starts near the Penobscot Bridge and extends to the former Eastern Fine Paper Co. mill that is being redeveloped into The Mill at Penobscot Landing.

“You can’t think of this trail as starting from one end and going to the other,” Zoidis said during the conference. “There could be some repetition [of information along the trail.] How the visitor is going to use the trail is something we’ve been very conscious of.”

Construction on the trail itself is expected to begin next summer. The cost of constructing the trail is being paid for by the U.S. Department of Transportation in partnership with the city of Brewer. The concept plan for the trail also is being paid for through the U.S. Department of Agriculture-Rural Development with a city match.

“History isn’t something that just happened 200 years ago,” Carol Bossert, interpretive writer and consultant from Rockville, Md., said. “It’s a continual process. Brewer didn’t stop in 1812 [when it separated from Orrington], and it didn’t stop when the mill shut down.

“[The walking trail] is giving visitors to Brewer and the Brewer community a sense of pride,” she said.

Including local industries, such as brick and paper making, which played a major part of the city’s economic history, local heroes and the story behind the city’s founding fathers are important aspects that should be included, Brewer Historical Society president Jeffrey Hamaday said.

Ties to the Penobscot Indians and fishing are other facets that should be included, the team members stressed.

The city doesn’t want just plaques with history printed on them to line the trail. City officials want to create the most interesting and comprehensive historic riverside walking trail possible, one that includes interactive displays that draw people of all ages to the Penobscot River, said D’arcy Main-Boyington, Brewer deputy director of economic development.

“There have been some very exciting concepts developed,” she said after the meeting. “We got more information out of this than we expected.”

The trail system is expected to include a river history museum that spotlights the region’s history, industries and cultures; a visitors center; an interactive informational kiosk; and audiovisual interactive displays.

Brewer City Council hired Informal Learning Experiences Inc. of Washington, D.C., in July to create the trail’s concept designs. Robert “Mac” West, ILE consultant working with the city, suggested that some of the displays be equipped for interacting with personal digital devices, such as iPods, used by today’s youth.

State Rep. Charles “Dusty” Fisher, D-Brewer, also suggested during the gathering that the river itself be a part of the historic displays.

“There is a dark side of the river,” he pointed out during the discussion. “[Approximately] 130 sawmills disappeared in one flood. One day they were there and the next they were gone. That’s an important part of this river’s history.”

West has the job of collecting all the data and formulating a report for the city and using the data to create concept plans for the trail.

“He’s going to use this information to create ideas and concepts for the displays and where they’ll be located, and if there is a museum, how big it would be and what would be included in it,” Main-Boyington said. “He’s going to keep working for us for the next five months or so. This is one task of probably 10 that we have for him.”