I have been looking for a ground-level image of what workers at the H&W/Scott Paper Mill called the “Queen Mary.”

This was a large steel structure that was used as a log-sorting device during the annual Kennebec River log drives circa 1954-1969. It was a floating machine, anchored by cables to both the Waterville and Winslow sides of the Kennebec River. Its location, as best that I remember, was about 100-200 yards south of the old railroad piers that today, is where the south end of the Rotary Bicentennial ends in Winslow. The machine was about 200 feet from the shoreline and we had to navigate a walkway to gain access to this structure.

I worked on the Queen Mary for a couple of summers when I attended the University of Maine during the early-mid 1950s. We had to separate 4-foot logs to go in one of two channels. The logs with red dots on both ends were to go a bit further south and enter the H&W/Scott Paper canal; logs with blue dots were to be diverted back out into Kennebec’s main channel and head to Augusta.

I recently gained access to a high-quality aerial photo of the Queen Mary, but would like very much to find a ground-level image of this log-sorting machine. Maybe someone who worked in the wood yard or on the Queen Mary during the time period (1969 was the last year it was used to sort logs) has a photo.

Jack NivisonWinslow jjniv57@roadrunner.com

Copy the Story Link