Help us Launch the New Goose Eye!

Goose Eye No. 6, "Lines on the Map, Part One" will be released June 20

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Upcoming event:

Goose Eye No. 6 Launch Party
Saturday, June 20, 2026, 5:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.
Intervale Gateway
Bethel, ME 04217
(Optional walk at 5:30 p.m., party begins in barn at 6:00 p.m.)

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Hello, friends!

We are excited to unveil the latest issue of Goose Eye, which has just been sent off to the printer! We invite you to join the Museums of the Bethel Historical Society, our partners, the Mahoosuc Land Trust, and our gracious hosts, the Shepley family, for a party at the Intervale Gateway (the triangular piece of land between Intervale Road and Route 26 as you enter Bethel Village) on Saturday, June 20, to celebrate the launch!

We’ll be kicking off the evening at 5:30 p.m. with a guided walk around the historic Intervale Gateway. (Meet at the corner nearest Davis Park.) The Intervale Gateway was the Mahoosuc Land Trust’s first conserved property and offers a lovely short walk with views of Bethel village. MBHS Executive Director will provide a few general historical notes on the area and MLT leaders will discuss the organization’s history with the property.

Following the walk we will congregate under the tents beginning at 6:00 p.m. (Feel free to join us at this time if you want to skip the walk.) Light refreshments will be served and you’ll have a chance to pick up or purchase a copy of the new issue. At 6:30 p.m. we’ll hear remarks from Goose Eye editor William Chapman, and contributors, Kirk Siegel and William B. Krohn.

Goose Eye No. 6

Goose Eye No. 6 is entitled “Lines on a Map, Part One,” and is the first in a two-part series exploring some of the stories behind the many different kinds of lines that we take for granted when looking at a modern map. There those that represent natural features such as rivers, mountains, and coast line; those that identify physically real features created by human intervention, such as trails, roads, and railroad track; and still others that mark purely legal or political boundaries. The issues will seek to show how none of these are timeless or inevitable; they all reflect particular historical circumstances and contingencies. The lines on today’s maps encode a legacy of conflict and struggle by humans both against nature and against fellow humans.

The cover of Goose Eye No. 6 features a beautiful painting of Goose Eye Brook, used with the kind permission of the artist, Joel Babb.

Given the overlap between this topic and the work of our local land conservation organizations, MBHS asked the Mahoosuc Land Trust to partner on the production and release of this issue. Goose Eye No. 6 includes an essay by MLT Executive Director and co-founder Kirk Siegel, who reflects on how growing up roaming freely in the White Mountains formed a conservationist—and how our future depends on rebuilding relationships with land through deeper connection with Wabanaki communities and Indigenous ways of knowing.

Here’s a look at what else you’ll find inside!

• Brett Ciccotelli, Stephen Engle, and Bryan Wentzell reflect on a unique map they created which shows Waponahkik—Wabanaki Territory—stripped of imposed political boundaries.

• William B. Krohn writes about Kennedy Smith, the pioneering founder of three sporting camps in northern Franklin County, Maine, and constructor of many miles of buckboard trail.

• Larry Glatz recounts the many adventures of eccentric entrepreneur, relentless self-promoter, and transcontinental railroad advocate Josiah Perham, of Wilton, Maine, in the first of a two-part series to be concluded in Goose Eye No. 7.

• David Crouse discusses the long-running dispute between Massachusetts (and later Maine) and New Hampshire on the precise location of the Maine–New Hampshire border, focusing on the implications for a few Maine and New Hampshire communities in the White Mountain region.

• Larry Glatz explores the fragmented and confusing processes behind the naming (official and unofficial) and “unnaming” of Maine’s many areas of “unorganized territory.”

We would like to thank all of readers for their ongoing support which makes putting out a high-quality journal possible for our small organization. We are very proud of the latest effort and look forward to sharing it with all of you!