Temple Stream: A Rural Odyssey Review

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Temple Stream: A Rural Odyssey ReviewOften the journey is more important than the destination, and that's the sort of journey author Bill Roorbach traveled in writing this delightful book. In 1992 Roorbach and his wife bought an old house on the banks of the Temple Stream in rural Maine. Their occupancy of the house was frequently interrupted by career needs, but they always returned to their stream-side home with joy and relief.
The Temple Stream rises from a well-hidden artesian spring (sorry, that COULD be seen as a spoiler) on Day Mountain in Avon, my town, and gathers influence on its trip through Temple to join the Sandy River in Farmington, and from there to the Kennebec River, Merrymeeting Bay, and the Gulf of Maine. In the 19th century the stream drove dozens of mills -- sawmills, gristmills, fulling mills. Products of the mills were consumed locally or shipped downstream, bringing wealth back upstream. All that industry washed away when the railroad came, providing a means for raw ingredients to be transported to central mills. Roorbach refers to this change as "the true down-trickle of economics" (p. 14).
Fascinated by the natural history of the region, Roorbach formed the intention of traveling the full length of the Temple, by canoe and on foot. He began this project in the summer of 1999 and completed it at the winter solstice in late 2000.
Temple Stream: A Rural Odyssey is the story of that quest, interspersed with his personal history, the history of the local settlements, and a Pandora's box of the rich environment around the stream. Roorbach observes the beavers and describes their impact on the stream; consults a field botanist for more detailed understanding of the flora of the region; calls on his lifelong interest in bird-watching; and grows in appreciation of our watery planet through a chance encounter with an elderly hydrologist, found barefoot in a flood pipe with her long skirt rucked up. Local characters and customs are whimsically described, some of them "composites;" I won't meet the Thoreau-quoting giant Earl Pomeroy or the mad house-sitter Mrs. Bollocks on my errands in town but their ways are familiar.
All these characters, all the small renewals of nature, even the birth of Roorbach's daughter are presented in a gentle and contemplative style and loosely marked off by solstice and equinox. There are no real denouements here, but if you've ever lost yourself for a while in a stream and wondered where it's going, this book may bring you some of the pleasure it brought me. If you have any interest in memoirs of rural life, I recommend this book to you.
Linda Bulger, 2008
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