ORRINGTON - Hold your horses, thrill-seekers: a carousel is coming to town.

The 1894 Armitage-Herschell carousel - or, as it was known in its heyday, “steam riding gallery” - is being installed at 19th Century Curran Village in Orrington, a living-history museum on the shores of Fields Pond. It is among the many artifacts donated to Curran by Willowbrook Museum Village in Newfield, which closed in 2016. 

 Willowbrook was well-known in Southern Maine as a family destination. Its extensive collection, which educated visitors about the lives of rural Mainers at the turn of the twentieth century, was accessible to young and old. 

But the museum’s greatest temptation was the carousel. 

Although paying visitors were able to ride, classes of schoolchildren on field trips had to stand and salivate as the horses flew by - that is, until Willowbrook’s final years, when field trip groups were at last allowed to take a spin. 

For Dr. Robert Schmick, former Director at Willowbrook and now Director at Curran Homestead, the carousel will bring new life to the Orrington museum. 

BANGOR – Pumpkins in the Park, a fun Halloween-themed fundraiser for UCP of Maine, will return with a 19th edition, beginning October 22, and will include an extra day, according to the social services organization.

The 2021 edition of Pumpkins in the Park will be a virtual edition, like last year, according to Andrew Lohman, marketing and communications manager for UCP of Maine. Citing continuing uncertainty connected to the pandemic, Lohman said the event will be conducted online with participants being encouraged to share photos each day on their social media pages while tagging UCP of Maine.

“We’re asking folks to use the hashtag #PumpkinsInThePark and #UCPofMaine when they post photos connected to the events going on each day,” Lohman said.