The Lost Trotting Parks Storyboard Archives

The Lost Trotting Parks Storyboard Archives

Monday, November 28, 2011

Wathen's Scotch Fez -- 1946 Hambletonian -- Sold to Party in France



Prix d'Amerique 1950 - Scotch Fez / Sören Nordin

Poetry in Motion -- Bass Park -- Bangor, Maine -- Late 1940's


Volo H -- Red -- Gary -- Wendall Wathen -- 1940's


Wathen's Guy H 2.00 3/4 at Lexington, Kentucky -- October 1944



Dale H Winning at Skowhegan -- Wathen Up -- 1940's


Wathen's Volo H at the Windsor Fairgrounds -- 1940's


Wathen's Volo H Defeats H.E. Direct and Court Jester at the Kite Track -- 1940's


Wathen's Scotty H. Defeats Janet Abbe Tweedie Outside Second!


Wathen's Calumet Elam 2.06 1/4 Winning at Cornish, Maine -- Wathen Up!


The Wathens with Dude McKlyo at the 76th Exeter Fair


Guy Dale in Action -- Cal Abbe Winning at Gorham, Maine



Horsemen of the Late 1930's


Tuesday, November 22, 2011

The Wathen's of Fort Fairfield, Maine -- Two of their Horses Performed in the Hambletonian at the Good Time Park in Goshen, NY

A while back I created a series of storyboards on Maine horses in the Hambletonian. This initiative resulted in connecting with Wendell 'Red' Wathen who now lives in Southern Pines, North Carolina. Wendell loaned me the family photo album that tells the story of the Wathams and their horses. When I finish scanning photos more storyboards will appear. I appreciate the opportunity Wendell has given me to visually tell their story.


Saturday, November 12, 2011

Lost Trotting Park in Windham, Maine


Dennis St. Pierre dropped by and we reviewed my placement of the track in the Google Earth aerial. We both agreed that I had placed the track in the wrong location. The track I outlined would have been almost 1400 feet long. The location of the track is up the road a bit and only 850 feet in length. The track may habe been a training track. We'll check in with the Windham Historical Society.

Corrected Location of Windham Track


From the Maine Press Association -- 1898

Courtesy of Peter Stowell

Thursday, November 10, 2011

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Maine Horses and Horsemen -- Turf, Farm, and Home -- October 31, 1906

Training the Colt

Has the Horse Sense?

Who Wouldn't Be a Horseman?


Pine Tree Stock Farm For Sale

Farmingdale, Maine

Once a Golf Course, Now Owned by CMP

Blue Skies -- Early morning greets the horseman in these times of change. Uploaded to Vimeo

In 1893 a financial panic gripped the United States. As a result many horse breeders left the business. Horseman were unable to pay fees at the tracks. Harness racing and horse breeding had entered difficult times. Many tracks closed. Later with the introduction of the automobile, the times were changing. Hod Nelson, who gained his fame through his champion trotting stallion Nelson, owned Sunnyside Stock Farm. The seventy acre farm was located on the Oakland Road in Waterville, Maine (now Kennedy Memorial Drive) with the Kennebec River to the East. This song perhaps reflects some of the emotions thought by horsemen during this time period. The horse was our worker in the field, our transportation to the marketplace, a key contributor to our economy, our warrior in the battlefield, and our entertainment at fairgrounds and trotting tracks throughout Maine. At one time trotting tracks were built in more than 100 Maine communities. Maine's harness horsemen, standardbred horses, horse breeding and harness racing have long been a Maine tradition -- a way of life.

Blue Skies from Stephen Thompson on Vimeo.
Blue Skies -- Copyright 2011 -- Stephen D. Thompson