[Chickie]

The December 9, 1949 edition of the Laconia Evening Citizen gives a detailed account of the dredge’s move from Quincy to Lakeport. The 45 X 75 foot dredge was sawed in half and loaded onto two large trailer trucks – each section being 75' long by 22-1/2' wide. It began its journey on the morning of December 8th and arrived in Somerville that evening, where it spent the night. At dawn the next day it continued its way north, passing through several congested Massachusetts communities, and headed towards open country and the New Hampshire border. The caravan moved along Rts 28 and 3 to Concord, then Rt 4 to 106. The weather was described as “near-zero cold”. Arriving in Laconia, and with the able guidance of Chief Dunleavy and Laconia PD, it inched its way up Main Street, down Church Street to Normandin Square, where it began the final leg of its journey along Union Avenue. It had left Concord at 1:15 and arrived at the Wallace (Foxy Boats) property in late afternoon of December 9th. It was reassembled and launched into Lake Paugus on February 17, 1950. Account of the launching reported it crushed the 15-inch ice “like an egg shell”.