George Maglaras's "Riverstories" on Dec. 3 at 7pm

   Come hear Captain George Maglaras, local historian, lifelong Dover resident, and owner of George’s Marina on Cochecho Street,  on Tuesday, December 3 at 7pm in the Dover Public Library’s Lecture Hall. The audience will enjoy lots of colorful waterfront history and some tall tales focus on Dover’s nearly fifty miles of river frontage along the Cochecho, Bellamy and Piscataqua Rivers.

     George's talk is sponsored by the “Faces of Dover” group, which is seeking interested citizens to join, will investigate the installation of historical markers along Dover’s riverbanks, at significant spots important in the city’s maritime history. The “Riverstories” idea was inspired by an elderly gentleman who recalled swimming in the Bellamy River by Sawyer’s Lower Mills:  all summer long, he and his friends would delight in coming out of the water with their skin temporarily dyed whichever color the woolen mill was releasing into the river that day!   Anecdotally, other stories have surfaced too:  the day in August 1930 when a nearly 40-foot whale beached itself in the shallow Cochecho down by the old power plant, and the mystery surrounding the “Turkish Bath”, near the Orchard Street parking lot, that appears on an old map. 

     The public will be invited to submit other “Riverstories”, known either by legend, by oral history passed down in families, or through personal memories. The “Faces of Dover” project will memorialize the best stories with storyboards along the banks of the three rivers in the city.

      George Maglaras’s presentation is free and open to the public. For more information on how to join or contribute to “Faces of Dover”, contact erfischer17@hotmail.com.