The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1932-08-16
Astronomers From All Parts Of
World Arriving Daily For
Phenomenon

Phenomenon
Fryeburg, Me-, Aug. 16.-AStrono-
mers from all parts of the world are
arriving daily in Fryeburg and nearby
points to get ready to observe the
total eclipse of the sun Aug. 81.
While the path of totality is belt
of darkness 100 miles wide across the
northeast corner of Vermont. most of
New Hampshire and southeastern
Maine, here is the exact center OF the
eclipse. Moreover, all past weather
records for more than SO years indi-
cate that Fryeburg and section
within Is miles. including West Bald
win, Limington and Limerick, are
most likely to have favorable
weather.
Ballyhcoing the Eclipse
The Fryeburg- Lowell Kiwanis club
is planning to make the eclipse the
grand smash, the cer,llean climax of
the summer vacation season. Il has
had printed for liberal distribution
an elaborate folder entitled "See the
Eclipse from the Fryeburg- Lowell re-
gion."
Messrs. Sun, Moon and Earth COM
mence their act, which will not be
repeated in this section until 1868.
at 2:2O p. m. The period of totality
begins at 1928 &c. S. IT, and lasts for
90 seconds. At 4:33 p. m. the curtain
falls, so to speak, and the sun again
floods the earth. At least that's the
gamble. The Fryeburg region has
had about 60 per cent clear after
moons the latter part of August for
a good many years. So on that
chance, astronomers from far and
near are flocking to Fryeburg.
Rudy Vallee's Cottage
Hotels, inns, boarding houses and
summer camps are planning for Ca
paclty crowds. Kezar Pond, in Lo-
veil, is close by, where there are ca
pacious summer hotels, and incident
ally, Rudy Vallee's spendid summer
cottage. The Fryeburg fair grounds
will be opened to the public as an
ideal point of vantage.
Cement bases for telescopes and
other apparatus are being built in the
large flat, open field where stands
the Peary memorial on Main street
Here Lieut.. Com. Robert E. Peary
as boy attending Fryeburg Academy
in 1868, found time to lay out a sys-
tenn of rock markers, or meridian
stones, which indicate the true north
and enable surveyors to obtain the
magnetic variation. Bases also will
be placed at various adjacent spots
along the high bare banks of the Saco
river.
Historic Neighborhood
Fryeburg itself Is a delightful old
town, very level, with broad Main
street, fine homes and well-kep;
lawns. It has a few small manufac.
tories and the largest forest nursery
in Maine. The total population Of
Fryeburg. North and Center Frye.
burg is only about $500.
Famous as a town of intellectual
standing, its Fryeburg Academy ir
1892 had completed century of life
the Rev. william Fessenden founding
1t in 1902. Its second preceptor was
Daniel Webster, who studied law anc
taught in 1902 and also served as 9
clerk in the old county registers Of.
flee. Page after page of origina
Webster penmanship may be seen or
file in the modern county building
today. The facilities of the academy
will be open to the visiting scientists
Literary Flavor
Not far outside the town proper al
Lowell Pond is the scene Of Love.
wells fight, when a Massachusetts
company of "a soldiers lost half 1t!
number when ambushed by the In.
dams in 1725. It was in Fryebure
exactly 100 years later that Henry
Wadsworth Longfellow, Portland'
famous poet, heard his first pub.
lished poem, "Lovewell's Fight" SUM
by chorus Of school children.
william Dean Howells wrote o.
Fryeburg in a novel while staying a
a hotel here.
About Is years ago Richard Hard
ing Davis, then editor Of Munsey's
discovered wonderful fishing In Lo'
vell's Pond and he introduced it t.
Newton Newkirk, Boston humorist
Irwin Cobb and other notables WHIT
have visited 1t frequently.
Fryeburg has no motion picture
theater nor pool room.
u Such are the surroundings amit
which the great astronomers will
gather. Fryeburg folk talk Of littl'
!. else these days.