Russians and Yankees Battle Mosquitoes on Cranberry Isles

2014.292.2047

Russians and Yankees Battle Mosquitoes on Cranberry Isles

Document. Newspaper article, "Russians and Yankees Battle Mosquitoes on Cranberry Isles" Boston Evening Transcript, Saturday, July 28, 1928, page 3. An Expert Leads the Forces and Guarantees to Drive the Pests Out or No Pay; By Karl Schriftgiesser, Northeast Harbor, Me. Article begins: "Eighteen Russians and native Yankees are fighting a desperate battle on the Cranberry Isles that shelter the south side of Mt. Desert from fury of the seas." This sardonic article explains the project to rid the Cranberry Isles of mosquitoes. Mentions Moorfield Storey's role; and Major Edward Skinner was the engineer (founder of the United States Drainage and Irrigation Company); cost $12,000. Article states that "It is the first place anywhere in the State of Maine that mosquito eradication will have been attempted." Mentions several sites to be worked on: a crisscross of trenches will drain a "salt marsh covers between eight and nine hundred acres and is free of all drainage." As well as "The "haith," as it is known locally, is nearly a mile in length. Now a long trench stretches the long way and other transverse ditches help to drain it." And "A dozen or so other swamps and salt marsh areas dot the island." "Deep down into these beaches of rock and gravel and sand wooden outlets have been sunk. In some instances the depth has been from six to twelve feet. The outlets have been constructed of heavy timbers rather than of iron or clay pipes because wood alone can withstand the constant buffeting of heavy rocks tossed hither and yon by a sea that is often in an angry mood. Iron would break, clay would crumble, wood alone can stand the strain." "On Great Cranberry there is a point of ground known locally for years as Pond Point. In this area are (or rather, were) Birlem's pond and the so-called Salt Lakes. Scientific drainage has entirely dissipated Birlem's pond and when the huge twelve-foot drain through a dishearteningly rocky beach has been completely cut the Salt Lakes will have been drained slowly into the sea." Mentions the 70-foot whale that beached itself there during WWII. "Near Green Spot and Long Point other treacherous bogs have been drained. Islesford, as Little Cranberry rather vainly calls itself, is fast being dried up. Sutton, the aristocrat of the small archipelago, is quickly becoming a pestless place." "Some of the native population is skeptical of results. Others, led by such whole-hearted citizens as Mr. and Mrs. John Hamor and Millard Spurling, have done fine work to help Mr. Storey in the war of which he is the prime mover. Summer residents of the islands and nearby harbors, the Cranberry Club, and other organizations have helped considerably." See complete transcript by Bruce Komusin. Article was in a wood and glass frame with cardboard backing, badly deteriorated. Removed from frame 9/18/14.

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