PORTLAND, Maine — It’s always risky to say that someone or something is one of a kind, but that label may apply to Butch Phillips.
In a workshop in the basement of his home in Milford, Phillips — who is 82 and a member of the Penobscot Nation — makes birch-bark moose calls. He’s been creating them for more than three decades and knows of no one else doing the same work.
The November issue of “Down East” profiles Phillips, who is certainly keeping busy. The hundreds of moose calls he’s made started out selling for modest prices, around $35 or $45. Demand has surged, though, and prices have risen to as much as $800.
“I’m selling them as fast as I can make them,” he said.
Editor-in-chief Brian Kevin joined 207 to talk about Phillips and other stories in this issue, including tales from the “611 miles of arbitrary-seeming nooks, crannies, and odd angles” that make up the border between Maine and Canada.
Interested in scaling the highest point along the border? Or maybe you’d like to take a two-nation vacation along the St. Croix Riviera? Watch our interview to learn more.