Maine Humanities Council

A one-week seminar for high school students who enjoy history

It’s 1775—the start of the American Revolution. Benedict Arnold, a man better known to history as a traitor, led a risky and ultimately doomed expedition of rebel colonists through Maine to challenge the British in Quebec. At the time, Maine belonged to Massachusetts. Its wild, forested land offered no cities, roads, hospitals, or services to those colonists brave enough to build their lives there. Arnold, like the residents, struggled with fierce winter storms, transportation issues, food challenges, and unreliable relationships with Native Americans.

Want to know more about this controversial figure and experience life on the frontier? Come to History Camp 2010!

• Learn about Benedict Arnold’s risky secret mission to invade Quebec by marching through the wild forests of Maine.
• Investigate what life on the frontier was really like—the houses, the boats, the food, the clothes, the relationships with Native Americans.
• Get a behind-the-scenes look at how museums work.
• Work with primary sources (letters, furniture, boats, objects—the actual “stuff“ of history).

History Camp Staff

• Tom Desjardin, Historian, Maine Bureau of Parks and Lands
• Nicole Rancourt, Humanities teacher, Whittier Middle School, Poland