The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1897-08-15
MoosEnonN ooRNER.
ITS UplSuo euidcboard frou, which 1t cot Its
Nane.

M~oosEuoRY CORNER, Blanchard, Me-. Aug.
14.-The guIdeboard which has stood at this
country crossroads for sixty years is famous all
over New England, and is visited and admired
by hundreds OF tourists every summer. The
idea Of using the blades of moose anticrs instead
OF boards for telling tho public the names Of and
distances 10 near by places originated in tho
brain OF Tom Puffer, tho giant blacksmith OF
Piscataquis county. who owned a shop at tho
corner now called Mooschorn. AT the centre Of
four crossroads he nut down a stout post, upon
which he strapped tho antlers Of two gigantic
moose. one above the other. and placed at right
angles, so half an antlcr pointed down every
road. Tho pamc Of the town and its
distance were painted upon tho antlcr blades,
and for more than a quarter Of a century the
town OF Blanchard had the most valuable guide
board IN tho Union.
Blacksmith Puffor erected his moose-horn
guideboard GO years ago this summer After his
death the boys took liberties with 1t, and finally
succeeded in shooting the upper set OF antlers
away. Tho lower set Is in place to-day. Upon
one blade, painted in rude letters. Is this IN 'crip-
ton: "Munson o miles, On the opposite horn
the reading is: "Blueberry Plains, 2la miles"
The antlers measure seventy.tw inches from tip
to tip. and the blades are eight inches wide. Old
residents say that the upper set, which the boys
used for a target, was considerably larger, with
much wider blades.
Seventy.ive years ago, when the region north
of Dover was a wilderness. Puffer came here and
put up a blacksmith shop, getting his trade from
the outgoing and incoming woods teams. When
he was not busy in his shop he made long trips
in tho woods. One spring when he was cruising
on the north side Of Bald Mountain, which Is
west of Moosehead Lake, he came upon a clear
ing that was thickly strewn with antlers of
moose and caribou. They were 80 plentiful that
he said he could Ali a long rack with them with
down several boatloads to blanchard and cut
them up for handles for hunting knives which
he forged in his shop. The widest moose ant
lers he saved, hoping he would be able to sell
them. One set of moose horns. so tall that
when set up on end a man could walk under the
arch without touching 1t, is believed to bo the
largest pair ever worn upon earth. Charles
Button, an aged resident, who saw them when
Puffer was alive, says they were fully eight feet
from tip to tip. If his estimate is correct, they
were larger than the horns of tho largest Irish
elk that has been found.
Puffer soon learned that it was easier to find
moose horns than to sell them. He was getting
old and rich, and n few years before he sold out
his shop he put up, the moose;horn guideboard
which has made the corner famous. Two or
three years before his death he moved to Exeter
and made II will, leaving his money to the town
and requesting that the great moose antlers be
placed above his grave for q monument. His
grave iB now marked by n marble slab. The
town got the money and spent it for current cx-
penses. Nobody knows where the moose antlers
went. II ANYBODY has them to-day he can sell
them for $1,000.