Franklin County Maine Rangeley Logging Festival
Rangeley, Maine, is a small town in the western mountains where the forest has always been the working landscape, and for one July weekend each summer the town turns its attention to the trade that built it. The gathering on the Maine Forestry Museum fairgrounds goes by more than one published name — Logging Festival, Logging Festival Days and, in the billing for its most recent dated edition, the 45th Annual Logging Festival — and the sheet title carried at the top of this article is never printed exactly in the layers read. A regional television layer uses the sheet-title core for the parade, while the museum’s own layers print the shorter forms. The event is a celebration of logging heritage, held on the museum fairgrounds on Route 16, with a parade down Main Street and a programme of contests, dinners, inductions and displays. Rangeley is not the county seat of Franklin County — Farmington holds that role. Adults paid ten dollars at the 2026 edition, children from six to seventeen paid five dollars, and children five and under entered free, while the Friday Educational Day carried no charge at all.
About
The Rangeley Logging Festival is a working-heritage festival, built around the skills, food and people of the Maine woods. The Maine Forestry Museum organises it, and the museum’s own layers give the fullest picture: an Educational Day on the Friday, a parade and a festival day with arts and crafts vendors on the Saturday, and a programme running from the Bean Hole Dinner, known as the Burying of the Beans, through Logger’s Hall of Fame inductions to woodsmen’s competitions in chain sawing, pulp piling and axe throwing. A lumberjack and lumberjill competition, two-man chainsaw demonstrations and the Little Mr. and Miss Woodchip competition fill out the competitive side, while museum displays and vendors fill the fairgrounds. The museum’s former name, the Rangeley Lakes Region Logging Museum, still appears in its own layer, so the two organiser forms are carried side by side here and never merged.
The festival’s published names deserve the same care. The layers vary: Logging Festival Days in one place, Logging Festival in another, and the 45th Annual Logging Festival as the billing for the July 2026 edition. What sets the gathering apart is that a museum runs it, so the festival doubles as a living display of the collection, with the competitions showing the working skills of the trade in public rather than staged for show.
Quick Facts
| Item | Detail |
| Published name | Logging Festival / Logging Festival Days |
| Host town | Rangeley, Franklin County |
| County seat | Farmington, not Rangeley |
| Venue | Maine Forestry Museum fairgrounds, Route 16; parade on Main Street |
| Organiser | Maine Forestry Museum, formerly Rangeley Lakes Region Logging Museum |
| Latest dated edition | 45th Annual, July 17–18, 2026 |
| Previous dated edition | 40th Annual, July 16–17, 2021 |
| Admission | Adults ten dollars; children six to seventeen five dollars; five and under free, 2026 |
| Educational Day | No charge, Friday July 17, 2026 |
| Working Forest Tour | Ten dollars, 2026 |
History
The layers read state no founding year for the festival itself, and this article derives none. The billing for the 2026 edition is 45th Annual, recorded as printed, and the arithmetic that would follow from it is left alone. What the record does give is a museum with a dated beginning and a festival with dated editions: the Maine Forestry Museum was founded in nineteen seventy-nine, according to a review layer, a date that belongs to the organisation, not to the festival. The festival’s history is told through its editions, the two best documented being the 40th Annual in July 2021 and the 45th Annual in July 2026, with an older tourism layer placing the event on the last Friday and Saturday in July.
The 40th Annual edition ran July 16–17, 2021, documented in a museum schedule layer and a state-agency layer, with the parade on Saturday July 17 at ten in the morning. The Little Mr. and Miss Woodchip competition was in its thirty-sixth annual running that year. The 45th Annual edition ran Friday July 17 and Saturday July 18, 2026, documented in the museum’s own events layer, with an Educational Day on the Friday and the parade, the festival and the vendor day on the Saturday. Five years and five annual numbers separate the two editions, which fits a yearly July weekend even though the layers read do not spell out every intervening year.
For a useful comparison, see the Franklin County Maine Rangeley Birding Festival for another county festival.
What to Expect
The museum’s own events layer sets out the weekend’s shape in full for 2026. Friday July 17 was Educational Day, running from eight in the morning to four in the afternoon with no charge for entry, and it included a Working Forest Tour carrying a fee of ten dollars, hosted by a land company. Saturday July 18 carried the rest: the Logging Parade from ten to eleven-thirty in the morning, under the theme Maine Forests — Log It, Hike It, Fish It, Hunt It, Camp It, Ride It, Love It, followed by the Logging Festival and Arts and Crafts Vendor Day from ten in the morning to four in the afternoon.
The programme is the heart of the event. The Bean Hole Dinner, billed as the Burying of the Beans, is the festival’s signature meal, cooked in the ground in the old logging-camp manner. Logger’s Hall of Fame inductions add new names to the trade’s honoured list, and the woodsmen’s competitions put chain sawing, pulp piling and axe throwing in front of a crowd. A lumberjack and lumberjill competition and two-man chainsaw demonstrations carry the competitive side further, and the Little Mr. and Miss Woodchip competition gives the youngest visitors a part of their own.
Planning Your Visit
Plan around a July weekend, and check the museum’s own layer for the next edition’s dates before travelling, since the weekend has fallen on different July dates across the editions on record. The 2026 edition ran July 17–18, the 2021 edition ran July 16–17, and an older tourism layer places the event on the last Friday and Saturday in July, so the calendar position within the month is not fixed. Arrive the day before if you can, since the Friday Educational Day opens at eight in the morning and the Saturday parade steps off at ten.
Admission is straightforward and fenced to the 2026 museum layer. The Logging Festival charges adults ten dollars, children from six to seventeen five dollars, and children five and under enter free. Educational Day on the Friday carries no charge, and the Working Forest Tour is a separate ten-dollar fee, not part of festival admission, so a visitor who wants the tour should budget for it on top of the festival charge. Bring sun protection and comfortable shoes, since the fairgrounds are outdoors.
A Sample Itinerary
Friday belongs to Educational Day, the quieter half of the weekend. Arrive at the fairgrounds when the day opens at eight in the morning, and spend the morning with the museum displays, which set out the tools and the history of the trade before the contests begin. The Working Forest Tour is the day’s deeper outing, carrying a ten-dollar fee and hosted by a land company. Use the afternoon to walk the grounds, talk with the vendors, and get your bearings for Saturday.
Saturday is the fullest day. Be on Main Street before ten in the morning for the Logging Parade, which runs until eleven-thirty under its 2026 theme celebrating the many uses of the Maine forests. Follow the parade crowd to the fairgrounds for the Logging Festival and Arts and Crafts Vendor Day, which runs from ten in the morning to four in the afternoon. Spend the middle of the day with the woodsmen’s competitions, the lumberjack and lumberjill competition and the two-man chainsaw demonstrations. The Bean Hole Dinner is the meal to plan around, and the Logger’s Hall of Fame inductions give the afternoon its ceremonial note.
How It Compares
Set beside a county fair, the Rangeley Logging Festival is narrower and deeper: one trade, one museum and one weekend, explored in detail rather than skimmed across many exhibits. A county fair offers a little of everything — livestock, rides, food and contests across many fields — and the logging festival offers a great deal of one thing, with the museum behind it and the working skills in front of the crowd. Visitors leave knowing how a bean hole dinner is cooked and how a two-man saw is handled.
Set beside a museum visit on an ordinary day, the festival is louder, larger and more social, with the collection brought to life by contests, a parade and a dinner. A quiet museum day lets a visitor study the tools at leisure, while the festival adds the sound of saws and the crowd on Main Street. The festival compresses a season of museum visits into a single July weekend.
Checklist
- Check the museum’s own layer for the next edition’s July dates before travelling
- Arrive in Rangeley the day before if you want the Friday Educational Day from eight in the morning
- Be on Main Street before ten in the morning for the Saturday parade
- Budget ten dollars for an adult festival ticket, five dollars for children six to seventeen, free for five and under, all per the 2026 museum layer
- Budget ten dollars more if you want the Working Forest Tour, a separate fee
- Bring sun protection, comfortable shoes and a light layer for cool mountain evenings
- Ask about the Bean Hole Dinner timing when you arrive
- Allow time for the museum displays between the competitions
- Remember Rangeley is not the county seat — Farmington holds that role
- Look for the published names Logging Festival and Logging Festival Days, since the sheet title is never printed exactly
Beyond the Festival
The festival sits in the Rangeley Lakes region, and the town itself rewards a slower look once the weekend’s schedule loosens. Main Street, the parade route, is the town’s centre, with shops and places to eat within easy walking distance of the fairgrounds. The Maine Forestry Museum is worth more than the festival hours allow, since its displays carry the history of the trade that the competitions perform, and a return visit on a quieter day lets a visitor study the tools at leisure. A visitor with an extra day can walk the town, revisit the museum and take in the lake country.
Why It Matters
The Rangeley Logging Festival matters because it keeps a working trade visible in the place where it was worked. Logging built Rangeley and the towns around it, and the festival puts the skills, the food and the honours of that trade in front of a crowd each July rather than leaving them to the museum’s shelves alone. The Logger’s Hall of Fame inductions say the point plainly: the trade had people worth remembering, and the festival remembers them in public, on the fairgrounds, in front of the town. The Bean Hole Dinner does the same for the food, and the competitions do it for the skills, performed live rather than described on a plaque. It matters too because the museum organises it, which keeps the festival tied to the record rather than to spectacle alone.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which name should a visitor look for when searching for the festival?
The layers read print Logging Festival, Logging Festival Days and the 45th Annual Logging Festival, and a regional television layer uses the sheet-title core for the parade, while the sheet title itself is never printed exactly. This article carries the published forms as they appear and keeps them unmerged, and the museum’s own events layer is the fullest source for the current billing.
What does the Working Forest Tour cost, and is it part of festival admission?
The Working Forest Tour carries a fee of ten dollars per the 2026 museum layer, and it is a separate tour fee, not part of festival admission. Educational Day on the Friday carries no charge, and the Logging Festival itself charges adults ten dollars, children from six to seventeen five dollars, and children five and under enter free, all per the same 2026 museum layer. A visitor who wants the tour should budget the ten dollars on top of the festival charge.
What is there for younger visitors at the fairgrounds?
Younger visitors can watch the woodsmen’s competitions, the lumberjack and lumberjill competition and the two-man chainsaw demonstrations, visit the museum displays and the vendors, and take part in the Little Mr. and Miss Woodchip competition, which was in its thirty-sixth annual running in 2021. Children from six to seventeen paid five dollars at the 2026 edition, and children five and under entered free.
Is Rangeley the county seat of Franklin County?
No. Rangeley is the host town, and Farmington is the county seat of Franklin County. The festival is a Rangeley event on the Maine Forestry Museum fairgrounds on Route 16, with its parade on Main Street, and the seat status belongs to Farmington, not to the town where the festival is held.
What to Expect From the Next Franklin County Maine Rangeley Logging Festival
How often is Franklin County Maine Rangeley Logging Festival held?
The editions on record fall in July, one weekend each summer, with the 40th Annual in July 2021 and the 45th Annual in July 2026, and an older tourism layer placing the event on the last Friday and Saturday in July. The pattern in the layers is a yearly July weekend, and the museum’s own layer is the place to confirm the next edition.
When is the next Franklin County Maine Rangeley Logging Festival?
No edition after the July 2026 weekend appears in the layers read, so this article states no later date. The 45th Annual ran Friday July 17 and Saturday July 18, 2026, and the next edition’s dates will come from the museum’s own layer when they are announced, which is the source to check before travelling.
Will the dates change?
The weekend has fallen on different July dates across the editions on record — July 16–17 in 2021 and July 17–18 in 2026 — so the calendar position within July is not fixed. Check the museum’s own layer for the announced dates rather than assuming the previous year’s weekend will repeat.
The Rangeley Logging Festival is a July weekend on the Maine Forestry Museum fairgrounds, where the trade that built the town is cooked, contested and honoured in public. Come for the parade on Main Street, stay for the saws and the Bean Hole Dinner, and leave with a clearer sense of how the Maine woods were worked — and why Rangeley still gathers each summer to remember it.
