LARRY'S RAMBLE: Mellie Dunham, part 2 the snowshoes

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Mellie Dunham, part 2 the snowshoes

The Peary snowshoes - click to enlarge
Photo: Norway Historical Society via www.mainememory.net

Mellie Dunham began making snowshoes in 1878 using a mold the Clarence Smith had given him. Mr. Smith was the man who first made snowshoes with the toe turned up, now a common practice.
He made and sold a few pair each year and the business for his quality craftsmanship grew, by 1885 he was making and selling over 30 pair each year. Local newspapers printed articles about the quality and great aspects of his work, and he began to become more well known, by 1895 he was making 75 pair a year.
In 1901 he took several pair of snowshoes to a Sportsman Exhibition in New York City and was so well received that he took his son-in-law, a nephew and a neighbor into the business and by 1904, making 314 pair, was the largest maker of snowshoes in Maine.
In 1905 he made 75 pair for Commodore Robert E. Peary to be used on his last two Arctic Explorations. Several pair were 60 inches long and 12 inches wide, and most were 48 inches long and 12 inches wide.
Mr. Dunham with his son-in-law named the business Norway Snowshoe Company in a building in town, enlarged it in 1910 and by 1912 were making over 500 pair a year. Mr. Noble took over the business in 1924.