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RANGELEY — The Carrie Stevens Weekend and the Oquossoc Lupine Festival will be held Saturday and Sunday, June 24 and 25, at the Rangeley Lakes Region Historical Society’s Outdoor Sporting Heritage Museum, Routes 4 and 17 in Oquossoc Village.
The Lupine Festival, featuring 23 vendor booths offering a wide variety of art, antiques and crafts for sale, will take place Saturday only. Anyone who shares a receipt for any purchase from these vendors will get their choice of $1 off any museum admission or $5 off any new, annual membership to the museum. Also on tap for both Saturday and Sunday inside the museum, Carrie Stevens Weekend celebrates one of the region’s most well-known personalities and her important contributions to the world of fly tying and fly fishing.
The museum will unveil a very important addition to its already impressive collection Saturday at 11 a.m. The museum has acquired Stevens’ 6 lb. 12 oz. brook trout caught at Upper Dam. The widely-publicized trout was mounted by the legendary Herb Welch. This famous catch took second place in the 1924 “Field and Stream National Fishing Contest.”
The recognition in “Field and Stream” magazine and subsequent newspaper stories propelled this unassuming local lady’s name into the national spotlight! “Carrie’s famous brook trout mount is truly one of angling’s crown jewels and is one of the finest examples of the work of master taxidermist, Herb Welch, shared OSHM Executive Director Bill Pierce.
The museum recently acquired a private collection of 33 Carrie Stevens flies, some of which were from the first two years of her legendary tying career, adding significantly to the over 200 Carrie Stevens flies OSHM currently has on display. This special event will feature fly-tying demonstrations by eight of the most respected tiers of Carrie’s Streamer patterns in the world as well as several surprises.
There will be a special clinic on the “Stevens Method” from noted expert Leslie Hilyard. The clinic will share how Stevens’s tying technique evolved over a career spanning 30 years. Space for this portion of the event is limited and will be by reservation only.
OSHM invites all collectors of Carrie Stevens flies to bring their collections to swap, sell or simply share with attendees. Perhaps you’d like to have a Stevens fly of your very own? There will be several authentic Carrie Stevens flies available for purchase, representing patterns already preserved in the museum’s collection. Carrie Stevens flies can also be examined for authentication purposes by experts Graydon and Leslie Hilyard, who will be signing copies of their book, “Carrie Stevens, Maker of Rangeley Favorite Trout and Salmon Flies.”
“By combining the Lupine Festival on our grounds and the Carrie Stevens Weekend events inside, we feel folks are sure to have a great time. We hope folks will come and help us celebrate,” Pierce added.
For more information, please email Rangeley Lakes Region Historical Society Executive Director Bill Pierce at wapierce1@gmail.com or phone 207-491-4771. 
