Michael Morrison, a photographer, mechanic, haunted house curator, and longtime fuel truck driver for Colby and Gale Inc., stands along Biscay Road in Damariscotta on Friday, Oct. 18. (Johnathan Riley photo)
Whether it’s navigating a Colby and Gale fuel truck, taking the perfect photo, fixing an outboard, or creating a papier-mâché dragon, the best of Michael Morrison arises from a good test.
“If it’s a challenge, I like it,” he said.
Morrison, of New Harbor, is originally from Swan’s Island, where his family owned a fishing wharf, where they bought lobsters and clams and sold fuel to fishermen, as well as a campground.
“When I was growing up, that was part of my job, to help clean up trash and all that fun stuff,” Morrison said. “It was a nice time down there.”
When Morrison was around the age of 16, he, his mother, and seven siblings moved to New Harbor. The decision to move, Morrison said, came about after his father died and it became difficult to run the family businesses.
“It was better off to sell the property and the business and move somewhere else,” Morrison said. “So we ended up taking a drive. We found this area down here, liked it, found a house we liked, moved there, and we’ve been there ever since.”
Morrison graduated from Lincoln Academy in Newcastle in 1980 and started lobstering out of Bremen with Bruce Poland. However, Morrison decided to change careers after feeling like it wasn’t his calling.
“I could do alright, but I wasn’t a real good fisherman,” he said.
Morrison went to work as a foreman at Seaboard Manufacturing in Warren, a company that built pallets and lobster traps. By the time Morrison stopped working there after two and a half years, he could operate every piece of equipment he needed.
“So if they needed me to help out with something, I did it,” he said.
His next job was at Hanley Construction in Bristol as a driver and operator where he learned how to drive large vehicles transporting gravel. In 1987 he began work at Colby and Gale Inc. driving fuel delivery trucks to homes around Lincoln County.
For 33 years, Morrison said he enjoyed delivering fuel to the fishing wharves down in New Harbor and getting to know the folks along his routes in Bristol, Damariscotta, and Newcastle. By the end of his time driving the trucks in 2020, he knew just about everyone, he said.
“I loved driving the truck and seeing people and because I did most of the docks, I knew about most of the fishermen,” he said.
A firefighter drives a miniature fire truck in the Olde Bristol Day parade on Aug. 10 in New Harbor. The vehicle was constructed by Michael Morrison. (Johnathan Riley photo)
Morrison’s time driving the fuel truck came to a close when he failed his annual health exam for the Hazardous Materials Safety Permit Program due to a lung infection.
“I did like seeing the people … and to stop doing that kind of hurt,” he said.
Since 2020, Morrison has been working as a mechanic for Philip Power Products, a small-engine repair shop owned and operated by Colby and Gale at its Biscay Road location in Damariscotta.
Learning to work on motors was something Morrison picked up as a kid growing up on an island.
“I had to do it on the island because down there you didn’t really have too many mechanics, you figured it out yourself,” he said.
In 2000, Morrison figured out how to make a papier-mâché dragon for what would become a haunted house he and his family put together every Halloween at the house New Harbor for 17 years.
The idea for a big haunted house began when Morrison’s sister, April Morrison, said she wanted the theme that year to be a castle.
“And I said, ‘Well, every castle needs a dragon,” he said, laughing. “It was such a big hit, I decided to save it.”
The dragon was just the beginning, according to Morrison. The next year he outfitted the mythical reptile with glowing eyes and the capacity for it to breathe smoke. He also built a false front of a castle with turrets.
“Every year it seemed to get bigger,” he said.
The haunted house grew in scale and in attendance each year. Morrison said it was always free because he felt that it was important that there should always be something that families could without spending money.
“Growing up we didn’t have a lot so we had to figure out our own fun,” Morrison said. “So when we could afford to do a little something, I said, ‘Well, you know we got a lot of kids around here,’ so we started doing that and it just kept expanding.”
Pemaquacky, a Michael Morrison creation, sits in its roost at the Mill at Pemaquid Falls in Bristol on Jan. 22. (Johnathan Riley photo)
Eventually, the work required to put the event together was too much and the family ceased the haunted house operations in 2017.
The family gave away most of the haunted house materials to a high school in Lisbon, which used them to generate money for the school.
However, Morrison kept the two dragons he made, which he named Colby and Gale.
These days, Morrison still decorates the front yard of his family’s home, but during December.
Over the last few years, Morrison has constructed characters from the 1939 film “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” including the reindeer, Santa Claus, Yukon Cornelius, and the Abominable Snowman.
“I kind of missed doing something big,” he said.
Morrison’s creations are not seasonally dependent, as evidenced by the large fiberglass duck, Pemaquacky, he constructed for the Pemaquid Watershed Association’s Rubbery Ducky Race. PWA later merged with the Damariscotta River Association to form Coastal Rivers Conservation Trust.
Another of his fiberglass creations, a giant fiberglass pumpkin, is seen by thousands every year during the Damariscotta Pumpkinfest and Regatta in front of Skidompha Library.
Morrison also grows real pumpkins of about 300-400 pounds for the festival at Colby and Gale. He also helps with mounting the outboards on the pumpkins used in regatta.
Parade goers in Lincoln County have seen Morrison’s miniature first responder vehicles including fire trucks, police cars, and a small fuel truck for Colby and Gale. Morrison builds the vehicles out of old go-karts and donates them to the agencies.
“It’s playtime, basically, it gives me something to do, it’s a challenge,” he said.
The iconic Damariscotta Pumpkinfest and Regatta pumpkin, made by Michael Morrison, sits in front of Skidompha Library in Damariscotta on Oct. 10. (Johnathan Riley photo)
Morrison has also filled his time as a photographer for most of his life. April Morrison gave him a camera when he was a teenager and he’s carried one with him ever since. On Swan’s Island, Morrison remembers taking photos of deer fondly and that’s where he cultivated his love for nature photography.
“It was kind of fun, there (were) a lot of deer on the island,” he said. “I’ve always taken a few photos here and there.”
Like most of Morrison’s projects, he takes photos because he likes the process. At home, he has over 300 albums, each containing 300 photos for a total of 90,000 print photos, which doesn’t include his switch to digital.
“It’s for the joy of capturing a moment,” he said. “I see something I like and I try to capture what I see, what you see is what you get, and I don’t like manipulating the photos, that’s cheating.”
Morrison keeps his camera within reach and stash of dog treats in case he runs into any canines needing a snack.
“Never met a dog I didn’t like,” he said.
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