Blue Hill Peninsula Stories: Stories of the Mountain

Blue Hill Peninsula Stories: Stories of the mountain

Blue Hill Peninsula Stories: Stories of the Mountain

Blue Hill Peninsula Stories is a series of oral history interviews conducted by students in the George Stevens Academy “Audio Production 1” course, and archived and shared digitally on Maine Sound & Story as a community resource. Participants interview local residents gathering stories about significant places and natural resources unique to the Blue Hill Peninsula community. Each year, a theme will be identified to focus the stories and create cohesive narratives around important local issues such as sea level rise, food scarcity, changing weather patterns, and access to the working waterfront. In year one, students interviewed participants about the history of use and conservation of our town’s namesake, Blue Hill Mountain.

This project is a partnership between George Stevens Academy, Blue Hill Heritage Trust, and Maine Sound + Story, and was funded through a generous grant from the Maine Community Foundation.

To access the audio archive, click here.

Blue Hill Peninsula Stories: Stories of the mountain

Chrissy Beardsley Allen

Chrissy Beardsley-Allen is the Dean of Student Life at George Stevens Academy. She is a prominent member of the community and previously worked for Blue Hill Heritage Trust. In this interview, she speaks about how collaboration between landowners and conservation organizations like BHHT have kept the mountain accessible to the community, as opposed to being privately owned and developed. She also talks about the personal meaning of Blue Hill Mountain to herself, and the community as a whole.

Blue Hill Peninsula Stories: Stories of the mountain

Brad Emerson

Brad Emerson, the son of Gordon Emerson, talks about his father’s impact on the town. Brad owns an antique shop and writes for a number of websites about Maine architecture. His family has lived in the Blue Hill area for generations. In this interview, Brad speaks about the history of land ownership and access on the mountain and his father’s role in making it available for future generations.

BLUE HILL PENINSULA STORIES: STORIES OF THE MOUNTAIN

Birgit Frind, "More Than Just Birds"

Birgit Frind is a local activist in Blue Hill. She works on issues related to the upkeep of Blue Hill Mountain. She has helped maintain trails, worked with the owners of the AT&T tower, and has helped make the mountain more hiker-friendly. In this interview, Birgit shares her experience advocating for the mountain’s Osprey and provides insight into what goes into local activism and the importance of preserving access to the mountain.

BLUE HILL PENINSULA STORIES: STORIES OF THE MOUNTAIN

Jim Dow

In this interview, Jim Dow recounts his life as an environmental lawyer and as Blue Hill Heritage Trust’s first Executive Director. Dow shares how the Blue Hill community inspired him to dedicate much of his professional career to conserving land on the peninsula, and specifically Blue Hill Mountain. As a lifelong Mainer, Dow has extensive knowledge of Maine’s landscape and believes in a unique approach to land conservation. He describes that while often overlooked, interpersonal relationships are integral to the successful protection and accessibility of land. Additionally, Dow explains how important it is for the greater Blue Hill community to have access to recreational land.

BLUE HILL PENINSULA STORIES: STORIES OF THE MOUNTAIN

Megan Granger

Megan Granger, School Counselor at the Blue Hill Consolidated School, has her LCPC (Licensed Clinical Professional Counseling) and is trained in NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Health). In this interview, Megan shares her experiences running up Blue Hill mountain every morning year round and describes how she uses her experiences to help teach her students that running and getting outside in nature is a great way to improve mental health and have a positive mindset.

BLUE HILL PENINSULA STORIES: STORIES OF THE MOUNTAIN

Isaac Vaccaro

Isaac Vaccarro is a math teacher at George Stevens Academy as well as a Cross Country, Indoor Track, and Track & Field coach. In this interview, Isaac talks about his relationship with Blue Hill Mountain and how it has impacted his running career. He shares his call to action that everyone who can should go up the mountain and look down on their town because it’s truly incredible and gives you a different perspective on our community.

BLUE HILL PENINSULA STORIES: STORIES OF THE MOUNTAIN

Denny Roberston

Denny Robertson, a graduate of George Stevens Academy, speaks about his lifelong relationship with Blue Hill Mountain. Growing up and living in Blue Hill “almost” his entire life, he shares memories from his childhood and life around the mountain. Robertson was the previous Fire chief of the Blue Hill Fire Department and shares the story of the Fire Tower being built on top of the mountain. Still actively involved in local firefighting, this interview was interrupted when Denny had to go because of a fire call.