Steve Thompson stood amid the gravestones at the rear of Pine Grove Cemetery in Waterville and tried to imagine the scene there in 1890.
At the time, it was the site of the North Kennebec Agricultural Society fairgrounds and included a harness racing track, formerly known as a trotting park.
The racing there would have been dominated by Nelson 4209, a renowned horse also known as “The Northern King.” The stallion — owned, trained and driven by Palermo native Charles Horace “Hod” Nelson — established world records for the mile and half-mile.
In an era when the lives of many Mainers were tied to livestock or farming, Nelson’s feats on the track were big news around the state and beyond.
“Back in the day, the horse was king. And for folks, the horse was their transportation to the marketplace, it was their worker in the field,” Thompson said. “It also was a warrior in the battlefield and entertainment, first on the roads and eventually when they got to the fairgrounds and trotting parks.”
The 67-year-old Thompson, a Limestone native, first visited the Waterville location with his cousin, Clark Thompson, who was then conducting research for his book, “Maine’s Trotting Horse Heritage Trail,” published in 2009.
As the childhood chums discussed the former fairgrounds established in 1856, it piqued Steve Thompson’s curiosity.
“I asked myself, if this one turned into a cemetery, what happened to the rest of them? I figured there had to be more,” he said.
Thompson has spent the last six years trying to answer that question. He first started a blog called “Lost Trotting Parks,” at losttrottingparks.blogspot.com, and later formed the Lost Trotting Parks Heritage Center, at losttrottingparks.com, a nonprofit entity essentially consisting of an online museum focused on preserving the history of the Maine harness racing venues.
Lost Trotting Parks’ theme is “Bringing the past to present to create the future.”
Clark Thompson’s book, for which he placed granite markers at 20 sites of historic significance to Maine trotting horses, drivers, trainers and locations, was the impetus for Steve Thompson.
He has discovered at least 105 trotting parks existed in Maine, from approximately 1845-1924. Some were in larger cities, such as Maplewood Park (later Bass Park) and the 1-mile trotting park in Bangor and Rigby Park in South Portland.
Others included the likes of Lakeside Park in Princeton, Birch Grove Park in Newport and tracks in Kingfield, Cherryfield and Van Buren.
“I think probably the bigger tracks, the ones that prospered, were connected with an agricultural fair,” Clark Thompson explained. “But there was a love-hate relationship there. A lot of people didn’t really think that trotting belonged as part of an agricultural fair.”
Based on available documentation and photographs, the allure nonetheless was undeniable.
Steve Thompson contacted people at local historical societies, town offices and libraries seeking any information they had on old trotting parks.
“What I found as I started doing this is this is a slice of Maine life that was not being consciously preserved by any historical society,” said Thompson, who before his retirement was a career education and information consultant for the state of Maine.
“A lot of historical societies had materials, but they weren’t displaying them; they weren’t doing anything that really promoted this part of their history,” he said.
Thompson accumulated photocopies and digital scans of countless documents and photographs. Some showed trotting parks with large grandstands filled with spectators while others pictured patrons in horse-drawn buggies lined up around small-town racetracks.
He also gathered newspaper clippings, books and periodicals about agriculture, farming and harness racing. He created online storyboards — nearly 2,500 of them — depicting Maine horses, horsemen, fairs and other events from the era.
Clark Thompson said rivalries developed among towns as fans visited other local trotting parks for races pitting a local horse against their own, and vice versa.
One valuable resource was an extensive postcard collection depicting trotting parks that was loaned to Steve Thompson by Bruce Nelson of Cape Elizabeth and can be viewed on the Lost Trotting Parks Heritage Center website.
Last year, Thompson began taking his show on the road. He uses a restored 1967 Chevrolet C-10 — the last pickup truck purchased by his father, Keith Thompson, on the family potato farm in Limestone — as a rolling museum of sorts.
There are 28 square feet of display space on each side panel where he can place storyboards and photos. If electricity is available, Thompson can show video displays on LCD TVs.
Last year, he visited five of Maine’s agricultural fairs. He has more trips planned this summer.
“The truck has the ability to go anywhere, to set up at local historical societies, shopping malls, car dealerships or whatever,” Thompson said.
He would like to be able to take the rolling museum to Maine schools, where the story of the trotting parks can be shared with youngsters. He continues to seek sponsorships that will allow him to make such trips.
Ultimately, he dreams of having a building where everything related to trotting parks can be housed and displayed.
The proliferation of the automobile and modern industry, along with the development of other sports and leisure activities, meant more attention was focused on the larger commercial centers, not rural communities.
Thompson said the onset of parimutuel betting boosted interest in harness racing, but the implementation of state lotteries and casinos have probably have hampered the sport.
There are 25 sanctioned agricultural fairs scheduled across the state in 2015, and 10 of them will include harness racing, though not all offer parimutuel wagering.
Thompson hopes his work will help bridge the future with the present, helping more people to appreciate the role of the harness horse in the fabric of Maine society.
The challenge is significant, given the landscape on which harness racing is trying to survive compared to the heyday of the trotting parks.
“The horse is so far out of the everyday consciousness for most Mainers that they don’t even relate to it,” Thompson said.
He wants to make sure agricultural fairs and harness racing in Maine continue to build on the tradition established by the trotting parks.
“This history is critical and future generations need to be a part of it and be able to see it and experience it,” Thompson said.
He fears future history buffs might find themselves standing on a parcel of land and discover it once was home to a forgotten sport called harness racing.
For more information on the Lost Trotting Parks Heritage Center, contact Steve Thompson at P.O. Box 263,
Hallowell, ME 04347 or via email at losttrottingparks@gmail.com.