This one's not quite like the other ones you see in the list to the right, despite being lost and very neat. It's not a building, it's not a place. It's not even "real" in the sense that the Loring WSA or a gyppo logging setup are real. It's instantly recognizable to people from Fort Kent to Kittery to all the way to Amman, Jordan. This was an object that represented a future where we all managed to get over the petty stercus tauri that separates us from each other as humans.
What is it? A replica of the bridge of the USS Enterprise. No CV, No CVN, no bloody A, B, C or D.
In 1984, Bangor resident John Supranovich sent $10 to the Star Trek fanclub based in Oregon and started one of the largest Star Trek fan clubs in the nation. The Kasimar had gone from having 30 members in 1984 to near 300 by the time the show's 25th anniversary rolled around in 1991. A burgeoning membership isn't the most important part of this story, though. Like Chester Greenwood and his dead beaver ear coverings, and Percy Spencer's radioactive chocolate bar melting machine (the microwave) this is a case of Mainers finding something they need, or in this case something they love, and building stuff.
Here are some photos, and there are virtual newspaper clippings after the jump courtesy of Google Newspapers.
This article from 1990 gives us some truly impressive background information on the Kasimar bridge. Funding for the project was donated by "Bangor Daily News charities and other donors" and labor was done by students from a phantom high school named Penobscot Regional (which either doesn't exist or is mis-named in the article) as a class project in 1984. In addition to having a full size mockup of the bridge (as if that wasn't cool enough) they also did work for the Children's Miracle Network, Ronald McDonald house and visited sick kids while in uniform.
http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2457&dat=19900709&id=lQFgAAAAIBAJ&sjid=Mw4NAAAAIBAJ&pg=6403,2147213
10.23.92 - Kasmiar broughtr bridge to central maine egg festival, which of course had a star trek theme.
http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2457&dat=19921023&id=IalJAAAAIBAJ&sjid=RQ4NAAAAIBAJ&pg=1680,2426811
1.27.84 - NCC1784 registry number given. 30 member crew. Capt Supranovich. XO Gerry Palmer. Largest fan club east of mississippi
http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2457&dat=19840127&id=eyg0AAAAIBAJ&sjid=CeEIAAAAIBAJ&pg=3751,4403578
1991 - big convention. 130 members noted here.
http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2457&dat=19910816&id=hK1JAAAAIBAJ&sjid=mg4NAAAAIBAJ&pg=5228,179470
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