In Memoriam-Earl Raymond

Walter and Earl had worked together during the search for a low-level nuclear waste repository in Maine during the 1980s. Earl was the chief operating officer of the Sewall Company, and among other skills was a renowned surveyor. A graduate of the University of Maine at Orono, Earl went on to earn a Master’s degree at the Yale School of Forestry––now the Yale School of the Environment. After a short stint with the National Park Service and the U.S. Forest Service, Earl joined the Sewall Company in Old Town, Maine in the late 1950s.

Earl’s fingerprints are on a number of significant corners of Maine, not the least of which is the Allagash Wilderness Waterway. The Waterway was established by the Maine Legislature in 1966, following a long negotiation with large landowners, it fell to Earl to organize the surveying and boundary marking of the state-owned Restricted Zone. When those around the negotiation table asked how long it would take to do the job, the Sewall Company representative said three summer seasons. No go! The job had to be done in 6 months. Earl took on the challenge, and his first decision was to hire Penobscot citizen and guide Joseph Sapiel to lead the operation––set up the camps, cook the meals, and move the teams of surveyors to their work. Guide Sapiel agreed to take on the work, but only if Earl would also hire his grandson as second in command––’Cookee’, in the parlance. With Joseph’s Sapiel’s and his grandson’s help, Earl’s crews completed surveying and marking the Waterway boundaries in the 6-month window they were given.

Earl joined the IAT board of directors the moment Walter put the question to him, and shortly thereafter he proposed a route across Wassataquoik Stream, along the Keep Path—and old route to Katahdin from the east, and up to the summit of Deasey.

A few years later, in June 2009, Earl joined a delegation of Maine and Newfoundland IAT leaders to Scotland. Some of us climbed Ben Nevis, the tallest mountain in the UK. At 80-years old, Earl stuck with me as I limped down the mountain on my recently surgically repaired ankle. We crossed a mountain stream half way down and Earl urged me to “ice” my foot and ankle. Earl looked after us!

In 2015, Earl decided that the Fire Lookout on Deasey Mountain needed to have the watchman’s fire spotting table restored. He found a copy of the original 360˚ map of the land surrounding Deasey at the Sewall Company and he fashioned a new alidade––surveyor’s spotting device––to be installed on the circular table top. The new tabletop and alidade were installed by Earl and others on June 3, 2016.