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The historic Bass Park in Bangor, Maine’s downtown is home to Bangor Raceway. At Bass Park, harness racing has been going on nonstop since 1893. In the 1920s, it was also a part of the Grand Circuit of racing.
Horsemen gave Bangor Raceway’s new 96-stall barn and paddock high marks when it opened in 2010. The head of racing operations at Bangor Raceway reports an increase in handle numbers. In comparison to last year, the average handling per race has increased by 45%, while the average daily handle has increased by 62%. Track officials attribute the considerable improvement to a revised timetable and exceptional weather.
Hollywood Casino, which offers slots, table games, and live poker, is also located near Bangor Raceway.
Bangor Raceway History
Known as Maplewood Park in the late 1800s, Bass Park has been the focal point of entertainment and pleasure in Bangor and is home to the Bangor Raceway. For almost a century, Bass Park has witnessed an extensive range of events, including harness racing, baseball, polo, circuses, soccer, fairs, demolition derbies, tractor pulls, horse shows, motorcycle racing, and the world’s first-ever transatlantic balloon race.
When Bass Park was still known as Maplewood Park, it was the place to be. Attendees poured into baseball events, the yearly fair, and the harness races. Nelson was a top-notch stallion who Bass took to the racecourse in 1890. Nelson set a world record for a half-mile track at the time when he ran a mile on the half-track in 2:15.5. The park hosted Queen City’s first aviation flight in 1909 when a train-shipped and built aircraft took off and landed near the racetrack’s infield.
More recently, on September 16, 1992, the park was involved in aviation history when ten balloonists launched in the world’s first-ever transatlantic balloon race from the racetrack’s infield. When the American team finally touched down in Ben Slimane, Morocco, 144 hours and sixteen minutes later, they had set a new endurance record.
When Joseph Parker Bass passed away on March 28, 1919, he left the park to the city of Bangor. When Bass’s estate’s lease on the Maine Music Festival ended in 1933, the city seized ownership of the park. In order for the city to accept the park, it had to consent to rename it in Bass’s honor and allow “public” and “semi-public” uses.
Bass migrated to Bangor in 1863 after being born in Randolph, Vermont, around 1835. After serving as mayor for a period, he represented the city in the Maine Legislature in 1875. He became the editor of the Bangor Daily Commercial after purchasing it in 1879.
Life stories portray Bass as a cunning businessman who was never afraid to voice his moral convictions.
After Bass passed away, a coworker remarked, “He roused the slothful and prodded the stupid, while he admired the clever, even if he was careful not to spoil them with praise.”
Bass, together with F.O. Beal and Ezra L. Sterns, assisted in setting up the Eastern Maine Fair at Maplewood in the fall of 1883. That same year, Bangor Raceway debuted for operation in the park and has continued to operate ever since. Bass persuaded the New England Fair to make a stop in the park in 1886. The business was profitable, making $30,000. The park was named Maplewood because of the maple trees at its main entrance at Cattell Street and the adjoining Maplewood Hotel. A short time later, Bass became the park’s sole owner.
Maplewood fairs focused heavily on agriculture, particularly cattle. At the annual Bangor State Fair, which takes place in late July or early August, agriculture continues to play a significant role, but the midway, entertainment, and crafts now garner much of the attention. In the 4-H events held at the fair every year, kids and teenagers exhibit livestock. The raceway’s grandstand is the backdrop for horse pulling.
Bangor Raceway continues to be the center of attention even though the Bangor State Fair is the primary draw at Bass Park. The raceway is one of the last of its kind in the state of Maine due to the declining harness racing business. The two remaining “full-time” racetrack in Maine are Bangor and Scarborough, as Lewiston Raceway closed during the last fifteen years.
However, Bangor has had to reduce its season to 26 days because to a lack of horses. Even four nights of racing, which were common as late as the 1980s, are no longer sufficient due to a lack of horses. Actually, the raceway has been wrapping up its season ahead of schedule for the state fair.
Residents of Bangor and its city councilors have been debating how to effectively preserve and promote Bass Park ever since they took over. After conducting a special committee in the middle of the 1980s, the city decided that, rather than running the park for profit, it should run it for the benefit of the general public by offering entertainment and recreation.
Opponents of the arena claimed it would be in violation of the conditions of the Bass will when the city decided to construct a new Bangor Auditorium at the park in the early 1950s. The new arena intended to replace the old one, which was no longer functional, therefore the Maine Supreme Judicial Court decided that building the auditorium was well within the terms of the Bass will.
Over time, the city has discovered that it costs more than it anticipated to keep the park in its current condition. Arson burned the two-tiered, 2,000-seat wooden grandstand in April 1949, at a cost to the city of approximately $100,000. Soon after, the city built a 3,000-seat concrete grandstand in lieu of the grandstand, which had stood since roughly 1898.
To reduce the park’s losses, the City Council decided to hand over the harness racing activities to private investors in the beginning of the 1990s. Under Fred Nichols’ direction, the investors have made some minor improvements to the grandstand, including enlarging the refreshment sections and adding more betting windows.
An independent minor league baseball team called the Bangor Blue Ox requested assistance from the city in 1997 in order to construct a baseball stadium at Bass Park. The University of Maine in Orono’s Mahaney Diamond was the venue for the two-year-old team’s games. Baseball would have returned to the park with the proposed $4 million stadium.
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, games were played on a diamond in the racetrack’s infield. According to the ideas of one architect, the stadium would have replaced the racetrack. Another, more palatable concept called for building the stadium between Interstate 395 and the back of the racetrack’s grandstand.
The majority of city council members supported partially funding the project, but they were short of the required two-thirds majority. Then the Blue Ox departed from the town.
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