(As reported in the Bangor Daily News)

10 years ago – May 31, 1997

BREWER – After three weeks in captivity, the bald eagle named “Yankee” made a few awkward flaps with its newly healed wings and shot 50 feet into the air, perching on a pine tree and chirping to her mate.

For Arthur Howell Jr., the Amity animal conservator who gave his “blood, sweat and tears” to the once-endangered bird, the release was nothing short of remarkable.

After exchanging chirps, the female and her mate took flight, locked talons and fell roughly 120 feet to the ground in a courting ritual. The event was not unusual, since now is the height of mating season. Normally, such spirals start several hundred feet higher and do not reach the earth.

It was a dramatic ending to a story that began May 12, when the wounded female was found far from her nest. Wildlife authorities believe Yankee clipped a power line, suffering a bruised wing and electrical burns to her neck and backside. A week after she was brought to Amity’s Howell Conservation Center and Wildlife Refuge, the eagle had an emergency operation on its esophagus that required delicate aftercare.

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BANGOR – When Bangor Raceway opens its 28-day live harness racing meet at historic Bass Park, three generations of Lanphers from Orland will be part of the opening night racing program.

Debbie Lanpher Freeman and her brother, Rusty Lanpher, will be driving. Their mother, Janice “Jenny” Lanpher, will be paddocking, and their father, Russell Lanpher Sr. , will be paddock judge.

Rusty Lanpher’s grandson, Russell Lanpher III, will be paddocking, also.

Harness racing is part of a long tradition in the Lanpher family that has continued for more than three decades. This year, Russell and Jenny Lanpher are beginning their 32nd year in the sport – and also celebrating 44 years of marriage.

25 years ago – May 31, 1982

ORONO – The University of Maine’s Black Bear baseball team will board Delta Airlines Flight 355 at Bangor International Airport for destination Omaha, Neb.

John Winkin’s Bears captured their second straight National Collegiate Athletic Association Northeast Regional title in dramatic fashion, receiving an eighth-inning homer from designated hitter Ed “Poochie” Pickett to subdue a determined, never-say-die band of midshipmen from the United States Naval Academy, 4-3, before 3,300 UM partisans at the Mahaney Diamond.

Maine will now meet Miami, the winner of the Atlantic Regional in the College World Series first round game.

Pickett’s homer was his second of the regional, and both homers accounted for the winning runs as his three-run blast in the opener beat Seton Hall.

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HOLDEN – The Holden Fire Department placed first overall in the third annual firefighters’ muster sponsored by the Southwest Harbor Fire Department.

Eight muster teams competed in the dry hose, wet hose, bucket brigade and mystery events. The teams included participants from Southwest Harbor, Trenton, Stockton Springs, Bucksport, Orland, Holden, Hudson and York.

Winners of the wet hose event were members of the Holden Fire Department.

The Bucksport Fire Department received a trophy for the truck driven the farthest to attend the muster.

Winning for best overall truck was the Orland department.

50 years ago – May 31, 1957

HAMPDEN – Miss Venessa M. Heath, a home economics major at Farmington State Teacher’s College, receiving her degree in June, will teach home economics education at Hampden Academy beginning in September.

Miss Heath, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Alvin Heath of Penobscot, is a member of Phi Mu Sigma Sorority and served as its treasurer for two years. She is a member of the Home Economics Club, the Outing Club, the Square Dance Club and the Agnes P. Mantor Chapter of the Future Teachers of America.

As a junior, Miss Heath received the State Grange Scholarship and has been the recipient of State Board of Education scholarships. She has been a constant dean’s list student during the four years as an undergraduate.

Miss Heath graduated from Bucksport High School in 1953.

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HAMPDEN HIGHLANDS – Miss Nancy Ruhlin, daughter of Dr. and Mrs. Carl W. Ruhlin of Hampden Highlands, will be graduated from Abbott Academy in Andover, Mass.

While at Abbott Academy, Miss Ruhlin has been active in extracurricular activities. She has been a member of the lacrosse team for which she received her class numerals and is president of the Abbott Chapter of World University Services, an organization to improve relations among international scholars.

Before attending Abbott, Miss Ruhlin was graduated from Hampden Consolidated School. She will enter the University of Maine in September where she will study in the field of elementary education.

100 years ago – May 31, 1907

BANGOR – The weatherman was good to the veterans Memorial Day and the G.A.R. was enabled to have its program as scheduled. The parade was an impressive one. Many veterans of the Civil War appeared in line and showed that they hadn’t forgotten the maneuvers by their carefully executed movements.

The unique and impressive service of commemorating the departed sailors who fell in the civil conflict was performed on the Bangor-Brewer bridge. The service was read and flowers scattered upon the river to float down to the ocean, where many blue-coated soldiers had found their graves. Misses Bernice Bartlett and Elsie Tibbetts, bearing banners, headed the procession on the bridge.

When the line of march swung around the East Side Pharmacy corner onto State Street, the Bangor Band contributing an inspiring march, comments of admiration flowed freely. The general verdict was that it was one of the best exhibitions of the parade ever seen in Bangor.

The Bangor High School cadets had the last position in line and the young soldiers, with their white trousers, marched with an ease which betokened excellent drill work.

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BUCKSPORT – S.H. Powers of Houlton arrived to spend Memorial Day with the veterans. Sixty years ago, Mr. Powers came to Bucksport and learned the cabinetmaker’s trade with Daniel Remick. Then he went to Bangor where he remained for a number of years. Afterward he went to Aroostook County where he engaged in the manufacture and sale of furniture, and has now retired from active business.

The schooner J.M. Morales, Capt. Henry Johnson, completed discharging her cargo of coal for the Deveraux Coal Co. and sailed in tow for Bangor to load lumber for Sterns Lumber Co.

Street commissioner George Eldridge has had crews and road machines at work on Main Street scraping up and carting off the mud and dirt, which makes a great improvement in the looks of the street. Mr. Eldridge intends to have all the holes in the road filled up with gravel and when the work is completed, he will have a road that will compare favorably with most of the country roads in the state.

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ORONO – The usual Memorial Day exercises were held in Orono. In the forenoon two pupils from each of the primary schools and grades three, four, five and six marched to the soldiers’ monument in Monument Square. They placed wreaths about the monument and sang “America” and “The Star Spangled Banner,” and gave the flag salute.

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OLD TOWN – Hargrave’s circus pitched its tent at Webster Park yesterday morning and played to large audiences both in the afternoon and night. The circus has improved greatly since it was here last and the big crowds that attended seemed satisfied with the performance.

The members of S.J. Oakes Post, G.A.R., observed Memorial Day in the usual manner. The parade formed on Main Street in the morning and the veterans of the greatest war ever held went to Great Works and Milford to lay flowers on the graves of their departed comrades.

A great many Old Town people attended the baseball game in Bangor yesterday. Both games were won by Bangor and both were fast and worth watching. Old Sockalexis distinguished himself by getting two hits out of three times at bat and this greatly pleased the crowd, with whom he is a great favorite.

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CASTINE – Notices are up for a free lecture at the Congregational vestry on “The Development of the Telephone,” with free toll demonstration. The whole is to be in charge of A.M. Fairbanks.

Compiled by Ardeana Hamlin