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In Time and Eternity: Shakers in the Industrial Age

Loons Point, Sabbathday Lake, ca. 1915

Loons Point, Sabbathday Lake, ca. 1915

Item 6633 info
United Society of Shakers

Caption by Elder Delmer Wilson. Among the thousands of pictures taken by Elder Delmer Wilson are many of the lake, especially this particular view of Loons' Point. Apparently, he saw more than the clouds and pines in the reflective waters of Sabbathday Lake.

For other members of the community, the lake was a timeless, unchanging reference point. This sentiment is eloquently expressed in the following verses from a poem by Sister Aurelia Mace:

The years rolled by, the village grew The mighty forests fell. You saw the steeple rise afar, You heard the Sabbath bell. You heard the whistle of the train Upon its iron rails. The wilderness was all aglow Along the hills and dales. O lovely lake, I walk thy shores, This calm midsummer day, And muse on wonders thus hast seen In ages passed away.