Salt Story Archive

In the midst of renovating The First Coast Airstream, I'm trying to gather information from some of the story archives and publications before TFC. As a graduate of the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies, it's only natural that I would find myself exploring the extensive catalog of Salt's story archives. 

The Salt Story Archive is an amazing resource for Maine stories. And for The First Coast's purposes, it's incredibly easy to navigate. You can search stories by town, so I can navigate to stories specifically about Stonington and Deer Isle, Lubec, Jonesport and Beals, Friendship, and Chebeague Island. 

I went to the Salt Story Archive to see what's already been produced about these towns. Are there follow-up stories I want to investigate? Are there interesting characters or places that need to be revisited? Or, are there stories that I'd like to feature as part of TFC's exhibits? 

The Archive is full of stories. There are a couple in particular I'd like to share, in the hopes that The First Coast explores these people or places on our journey up the coast this spring. 

"Crazy Avery" by Jill Harvey 1986

Talk about great storytelling, Avery Kelly of Beals Island sounds like the type of person we'd love to sit down in the Airstream and listen to for hours. Avery died in 2003, and so that dream will not come to pass. But, I would love to get in touch with his family, to hear stories of the stories he told and to honor the legacy of his Maine storytelling practice. For more of Avery's stories read "Crazy Avery Goes to New York" by Jill Harvey, 1986. And here's another piece, a radio story by Scott Gurian, of Avery recounting his adventures in New York.

(...to be continued, this post is ever expanding!)

You can explore stories on the Salt Story Archive by searching for specfic people, regions, towns, or topics. If you're interested in reading, seeing, or hearing to stories from the past 40 years of Salt, visit the archive here!