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Deputy Commissioner Tim Peabody presented Blaine Miller with the 2025 Legendary Maine Guide Award at the Maine Professional Guide Association Annual Meeting in April 2026.
Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife is proud to announce Master Maine Guide, Blaine Miller as the 2025 recipient of the Wiggie Robinson Legendary Maine Guide Award.
This annual award honors the legacy of Wiggie Robinson, a consummate outdoorsman and a remarkable ambassador for the Maine outdoors. Each year, we recognize a registered Maine Guide who embodies that same spirit—mastery of outdoor skills, lifelong dedication, and a passion for sharing the Maine wilderness with others.
Blaine was a long-time teacher in the Winslow Schools, and he made his mark not only on the students, many who were fortunate to experience guided trips with him, but also the teachers, who enjoyed working alongside him, and learning from him.
One coworker kindly recalled the day that Blaine arrived at the school with a couple of pails of fish, and quickly exclaimed to the home room “who wants to learn how to clean fish?” She said kids were jumping and screaming, “can I? Mr. Miller, can I?”. Blaine showed the students how to clean the fish and how to debone them, while at the same time peppering the kids with fish trivia so they learned even more.
Long before there were funded outdoor programs in Maine schools, Blaine took it upon himself to create his own innovative program to give at-risk students an appreciation of the outdoors, as well as teaching them how to become self-reliant and competent in the outdoors. He routinely took Winslow high students on fishing, canoeing, and camping trips, introducing them to Maine’s wilderness while teaching them outdoor skills, personal responsibility, teamwork, and respect for the natural world.
As one nomination stated:
“There’s something special about having a teacher who is a Maine guide. I wish we all were that fortunate when we were in school.”
Blaine also was quite adept at guiding hunters. Many recalled how he taught them to dress their first deer. Others talked about how generous he was with providing advice and areas to hunt, even his own land where everyone, including friends, was family. Blaine took people on deer hunts, caribou hunts in Canada, moose hunts in Maine and one person remarked how Blaine cooked their freshly harvested bear steaks with a headlamp under the northern lights in Quebec.
Blaine was known for his cooking skills on trips, and many remarked how he could be grilling steaks over an open fire, while cooking pies and biscuits in reflector ovens at the same time, making sure that everything was done at the proper time.
These meals were often part of his canoe trips, which he started in the early 1970s as part of the St. Croix Voyagers. In the 1980s, he founded Allagash Guide Inc. where he is still active with his daughter and son-in-law.
He has guided canoe trips throughout Maine and Canada now for over 50 years. He always would work with his sports to create the experience that was right for them, based upon their skills and comfort in the outdoors. He was a meticulous planner, organizing and outfitting trips and meals, some of which included multiple days of driving, float planes to carry gear and canoes. His organizational skill made sure that these trips went without a hitch.
He also makes sure that his clients were safe and secure in the outdoors. One coworker recanted the day that while supervising a group of boys to Flagstaff Lake, Blaine saw one of the boys go under, and not resurface. Blaine, fully clothed, ran into the water, dove, and pulled the boy to the surface, saving his life. He did this so fast that no one really knew what had happened until he pulled the boy out of the water.
Another friend told the tale of how the night before navigating Chase Rapids, Blaine would summon everyone to the picnic table, where using rocks and sticks, he would set up an imaginary run of Chase’s rapids so everyone would know the best way to navigate through the rapids. He also made sure, no matter how good a swimmer you were, that you wore your lifejacket down through the rapids. He would delay the start of a morning trip through the rapids if you didn’t have your life jacket securely on.
Blaine is still active, and does not seem to be slowing down, as two different nominations talked about recent trips down the Allagash last year with Blaine, with one of them stating it was 44 years after the first trip he took down the Allagash with Blaine.
One nominator may have said it best:
“Blaine Miller’s career embodies the qualities that define a Legendary Maine Guide: exceptional longevity, unwavering professionalism, dedication to safety, ethical stewardship of wildlife resources, mentorship of youth and service to the broader outdoor community. His impact extends far beyond individual clients and reflects positively on the guiding profession in Maine.”
Congratulations, Blaine, and thank you for your extraordinary contributions that have shaped generations of outdoor enthusiasts and strengthened Maine’s outdoor heritage.
The Legendary Guide Award is presented annually to a member of the Registered Maine Guide profession who has served as a leader within Maine’s outdoor community. The award was created in 2009 in memory of Wilmot “Wiggie” Robinson. Past recipients of the award include Gil Gilpatrick, Gary Corson, Gardner Defoe, Matthew P. Libby, Don Dudley, Danny Legere, Richard Scribner, Donald E. Helstrom, Jr, Lance Wheaton, Bonnie Holding, Carroll Ware, Polly Mahoney, Jerry Packard, and Kevin Slater.
