Celebrate the Maine Woods at the Thoreau-Wabanaki Trail Festival on July 23-28, 2025
The annual Thoreau-Wabanaki Trail Festival commemorates the ways the Wabanaki people and naturalist philosopher Henry David Thoreau’s three trips into the Maine Woods, two of which were launched with Penobscot guides on Moosehead Lake. The trail consists of traditional Wabanaki canoe routes and portages over the great Maine rivers of the Kennebec, Penobscot, and Allagash drainages, which Thoreau made universally famous in his book “The Maine Woods.”
The 19th Annual Thoreau-Wabanaki Trail Festival opens Wednesday, July 23, with a Birch Bark Canoe Exhibition and Flotilla on Moosehead Lake in Greenville. Friday, July 28, closes the Greenville portion of the commemoration with Dr. John Kucich, president of the Thoreau Society and professor of English at Bridgewater State University. He is joined by Dr. Darren Ranco, professor of Anthropology, chair of Native American Programs, and coordinator of Native American Research at the University of Maine. The last three days of programs are spent with Penobscot Nation guides and cultural keepers, in an exploration of traditional “Penobscot Ways in the Woods & Waters,” a cultural immersion canoe-camping trip. Advance registration is required for this Penobscot trip.
For the first time, a collaboration between the Thoreau Society and the Wabanaki will be held in Greenville in a mutual closing of the festival on Moosehead Lake. Dr. Kucich will be presenting his recently published book, “Unsettling Thoreau: Native Americans, Settler Colonialism, and the Power of Place” (University of Massachusetts Press, 2024). Dr. Ranco, a member of the Penobscot Nation, will be joining him for that dialogue. Professor Ranco is currently a Senior Ford Fellow, working on a project called “Decolonizing Land Relations in Dawnland: Landback and Rematriation Across Wabanakik”. His research focuses on the ways Indigenous Nations resist environmental destruction by using Indigenous science and diplomacies to protect their natural and cultural resources.
Other programs are to include partnered nature walks in Moosehead Lake environs with Concord-based evolutionary ecologist Amity Wilczek and Moosehead’s own Master Maine Guide Alexandra Conover Bennett; Moosehead Lake’s Night Sky/Aurora Borealis with photographer Isaac Crabtree; and The Art of River Traveling, with Penobscot Guides Jason Pardilla and Ryan Ranco Kelley. Moosehead Lake Region audiences are also looking forward to Thoreau Society Historian Richard Smith’s enactment of our namesake naturalist philosopher.
SCHEDULE
For details about the Thoreau-Wabanaki Festival schedule, visit www.thoreauwabanaki.org, email: info@thoreauwabanaki.org, or contact 207-534-7715.
CANOE TRIP
Penobscot Ways in the Woods & Waters, Saturday – Monday, July 26-28, 2025
Like Thoreau, participants learn under the wing of Penobscot guides about Wabanaki ways and the Penobscot life connection to Maine woods and waters. Trip features easy canoe/camping. Days feature guided activities, and may include learning plant identification & traditional medicinal uses; history, archeology, flintknapping, Native ways of being in the natural world, the importance of the ash tree to Wabanaki culture, and sweetgrass weaving; visit to a wigwam, exploratory walks. Cultural immersion includes traditional drumming & singing demonstrations; campfire circle talk; learning about birch bark canoes. Monday after breakfast, paddlers move downstream to Indian Island, load out, have lunch, and gather into a closing circle before saying goodbyes. Advance registration is required. For details email: info@thoreauwabanaki.org.
ACCOMMODATIONS
If you are planning to come to Moosehead Lake, advanced reservations are highly recommended.
Cabins are on hold only until April 1, at which time they will be released to the public. If interested, contact Suzanne: 207-349-0538 (cell) or email: suzauclair3@gmail.com or info@thoreauwabanaki.org.
Another possibility is for (2) campsites at Lily Bay State Park. Each site holds up to 6 people, so accommodating up to 12 people. TWF has booked these two sites, so anyone interested should call me, 207-534-7715 (Rockwood) or email: info@thoreauwabanaki.org to book them. (Cost is $30 per campsite, check payable to Thoreau-Wabanaki Trail Festival. These are first come, first served.)
The Mission of the Thoreau-Wabanaki Trail Festival is to:
Encourage the understanding, appreciation, and stewardship of Maine’s unique cultural and natural heritage; and Provide spiritual renewal in Maine’s North Woods for all Maine residents and visitors.