“Fly Rod” Crosby Debuts at the P.O.

Cornilia “Fly Rod” Crosby once stated, “I am a plain woman of uncertain age, standing six feet in my stockings…I scribble a bit for various sporting journals, and I would rather fish any day than go to heaven.”

Crosby was born on November 10, 1854 in Philips, Maine. In 1897, she became the first registered guide in the state, and for many years wrote a popular newspaper column about the Maine outdoors that was nationally syndicated. Her stories of life in the wild were an inspiration to girls and women of the era, and had much to do with popularizing the concept of Maine as a recreational paradise. She shot the last legally harvested caribou in the state, and once caught 200 trout in a single day.

After a leg injury put an end to her woodland sojourns, she continued to write, and lived until the age of 92. She rests now in the Strong Village Cemetery in Strong, Maine.

Belfast Garden Club volunteers recreated her likeness in scarecrow form for an autumnal display in the post office garden, where she looks down toward the Bay, no doubt dreaming of fish.