SKOWHEGAN — When the Skowhegan Chamber of Commerce was founded 75 years ago, the property valuation of the town was about $5 million. Today, as the chamber looks into its history to mark its anniversary in 2015, the combined real estate and personal property value for Skowhegan is more than $969 million.
Since its founding in 1940, the chamber has expanded into nine other central Maine communities, forming what is now the Skowhegan Area Chamber of Commerce.
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“There’s a lot of history here,” said Executive Directory Cory King. “There are some historical documents that were found in the library in storage. They were some of the first chamber documents, the first newsletters from back in the ’40s.”
King, 36, a graduate of Messalonskee High School who earned a degree in corporate communications at Ithaca College in 2001, said he and his committee of three volunteers will tap into the documents for chamber-sponsored events this year.
“Each event that we do this year, we want to have a historical piece that goes with it that talks about what’s been done in the past and who was involved back then so it highlights some of the 75 years of history,” he said.
Among the founders of the Skowhegan chamber was businessman Henry Valliere, whose daughter, Katie Ouellette, 84, later became the first female president of the local chamber.
Ouellette, who was chamber president in 1979-80, said the group started off as the Skowhegan Tourist Hospitality Association to boost local businesses by attracting visitors to the region. In the early days, she said, the chamber was a large group split into several committees.
“The founding of the chamber in 1940 was so intense so far as Skowhegan business was concerned,” she said. “There used to be committees — there was no chamber office then — meetings were held wherever the committee chairperson was at the time.”
King said the first Chamber of Commerce in Maine was established in 1889. The Waterville Chamber, now the Mid-Maine Chamber of Commerce, is among the oldest, established in 1912. He said chambers in the larger cities in Maine — Bangor, Portland, Augusta, Lewiston — were created first, followed by a second tier in large towns such as Skowhegan.
Melanie Baillargeon, director of communications at Maine State Chamber of Commerce, said because each of the local or regional chambers are separate entities that answer to their own boards of directors, the state board does not collect or maintain records on dates of incorporation.
King said the modern versions of some of the older chamber traditions such as the annual Log Days events will be recognized this year with a nod toward history using the documents found at the library.
He said the relatively new River Fest will be celebrated this summer by looking back on Log Days, which began in the late 1960s to mark the end of the log drives down the Kennebec River. Log Days featured woodsman events such as sawing and chopping competitions, log rolling on the river, pulp tosses and a bean-hole bean dinner.
King added that the chamber-sponsored Getting to Know You Fair, later called the Skowhegan Community Action Fair, is now called the Fab Fair, held each February as a cabin fever reliever, originally just for area businesses.
New chamber events slated for this year include the 20th annual Maine Hog Rally for the Harley Owners Group of motorcycle enthusiasts which will be held in July in Skowhegan.
King said the first Hog Rally was held in Skowhegan, and this year as many as 500 Harley Davidson motorcycles are expected to roar into town. King also plans to host the area’s first business workshop day in April or May and the second annual Celebration of the Arts, a day of music and artists.
King said the annual chamber budget these days is right around $100,000, with the director making $32,000 with no benefits. Annual funding comes from dues from the 210 business members, fundraising from chamber events and $24,000 annually from taxpayers at the annual Town Meeting.
Ouellette and King, who took over at the chamber eight years ago, noted that the 10-year-old Main Street Skowhegan program has taken over some of the duties the chamber used to perform and also frees up time to concentrate with other chamber members in Madison, Anson, Smithfield, Norridgewock, Mercer, Canaan, Cornville and Athens, as well as on regional tourism.
“We partner together with the Main Street Program. I got here when the first director was here, and they were having some growing pains with the Downtown Business Association, and we helped try to facilitate that,” King said. “All the events we are doing now are running better than they ever have, attendance wise.
“It’s always hard to judge what draws someone to an area, but one of the things is when they see things that are happening. We are still one of the heavier trafficked chambers in the state. In May through October we’ll get 30 or 40 people a day looking for places to eat, places where they can stay. Even if they’re just passing through to stop and get lunch and buy a soda pop somewhere.”
Doug Harlow — 612-2367
Twitter: @Doug_Harlow
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