By Sarah Hinckley

“It’s a six pound razor blade and you’re chopping an inch from your toe.” —Timber Tina   The number of lumberjills working at the Maine Lumberjack Show in Trenton is greater this year than ever before. Above, Michelle Morse, a teacher at Lamoine Elementary School, waits to begin the chopping competition at the start of the show. Timber Tina Scheer owns and operates the lumberjack show on Route 3 in Trenton and announces for competitions around the country. The lumberjills of season 2005, clockwise from left, Allison Melton, Ms. Scheer, Ms. Morse, and Ms. Jones. At top, Alissa Jones competes with the crosscut saw. Sarah Hinckley Photos

There are four women, including Ms. Scheer, and six men performing historic lumberjack stunts for the 2005 season. Each night combinations of four athletes compete in teams performing exercises common to the first European settlers of the United States. Matches that include ax throwing, wood chopping, log rolling, crosscut sawing, hot sawing (with a chainsaw), speed climbing, and jousting make up the one-hour, fifteen-minute show.

“What people don’t see is that it’s very dangerous,” said Ms. Scheer about some of the super sharp tools, especially the axes. “It’s a six pound razor blade and you’re chopping an inch from your toe.”

None of these lumberjills weigh more than 170 pounds soaking wet. Still, they are able to deftly maneuver a chainsaw weighing more than ten pounds, as well as wield long, heavy-ended crosscut saws and razor-sharp axes.

Each of the athletes at the lumberjack show has to be proficient in chopping with an ax. They can then choose to add logrolling or climbing to their repertoire in order to compete. Eventually most of the athletes are able to contend in all of the events but few women reach that level.

“I like them all,” said lumberjill Michelle Morse of Eastbrook. “If I had to choose a favorite … it used to be chopping, but I’d have to say it’s now climbing.”

Ms. Morse is the only female speed climber in the Down East show and one of very few in the world, according to Ms. Scheer. When she performs she goes up against one of the male athletes, climbing 40 feet up a red cedar trunk.

“This is the first year we’ve had the Jacks against the Jills — because Michelle is speed-climbing,” said Ms. Scheer. “It has enabled us to have a bit of a twist to the show.”

“I never pictured myself doing this,” said Ms. Morse, who is in her second year of working at the lumberjack show. “I’m petrified of heights.”

During the rest of the year she teaches physical education at Lamoine Elementary School and coaches youth soccer and basketball. In the summer months, her time is split between working at the lumberjack show and as a member of the pit crew for Morse Racing Team.

Alissa Jones of Mount Desert began with the lumberjack show four years ago after answering an ad in the newspaper. She had attended a show with her family the season before and thought it looked fun.

“I’m always amazed at people who tell me they watched it and decided they wanted to do it,” said Ms. Scheer. “I can tell within five minutes if people are going to make it.”

The summer she began Ms. Jones was the only lumberjill. But she was no novice to the equipment. Ms. Jones and her father maintain 15 properties around Mount Desert Island, which includes cutting and downing trees. It was with her father’s encouragement that she decided to try competing.

“I practiced every day for two weeks before she (Ms. Scheer) let me be in the show,” said Ms. Jones, who spent Saturdays this summer teaching youngsters how to log roll at the YMCA.

She and Ms. Morse have traveled with Ms. Scheer’s world champion lumberjill team, Chics with Axes, when they’re available in the off-season.

“Every show there’s always something hilarious that happens,” said Ms. Jones about life on the road. After a performance in other cities, it seems like everyone knows the lumberjills when they go out.

Allison Melton of Pottstown, Pa. also started with the Maine Lumberjack Show by answering an ad in the newspaper. As part of the University of Maine Orono’s woodsmen team she has been competing for three years. A softball player in high school, Ms. Melton’s choice for a college sport is nontraditional, but she’s still at the top of her game.

“My right shoulder is a decent size bigger than my left from starting the chainsaw,” said Ms. Melton. “I think it keeps us in good shape.”

Lumber sports is a family tradition for Ms. Scheer. In Wisconsin she was one of six children who began by taking logrolling lessons. She and her siblings drew a lot of attention and eventually decided to start their own show. The Scheer siblings still involved in lumber sports have achieved international recognition. Ms. Scheer has traveled to Australia and New Zealand with her lumberjill team 10 different times.

“They’ve never had women chopping over there,” she said about the land down under. “A lot of the guys didn’t like it too much.”

Apparently she has started a trend there. Four years after beginning in Sydney, Australia the women competition at the Royal Sydney Show continues to grow. Forming the lumberjill team, Chics with Axes was not motivated solely to pave the way for women in lumberjack sports.

“These were the girls I was hanging out with,” said Ms. Scheer about fellow lumberjills from Maine, Wisconsin and New York.

These days Ms. Scheer does less competing and more emceeing and promoting of events. When she’s not announcing the show in Trenton she’s doing the Stihl Timbersports Series. The Great Maine Lumberjack Show has been host to the television sports network ESPN and the Stihl series four times.

Trenton seems like a world away from Wisconsin, but in Maine, forestry is one of the leading industries. Ten years ago when Ms. Scheer decided to leave Wisconsin she chose the area she had visited as a teenager with her family to establish her own business.

Once the season in Trenton wraps up Labor Day weekend, Ms. Scheer will pack up and head back to Hayward, Wis. Traveling the lumbersports circuit will resume and the local lumberjills will join the show when possible.

“I still get wicked excited to be here,” said Ms. Morse about working at the lumberjack show. “It’s so not work.”