MSAD #39 students (center) Calvin Downey and Jared Eastman were recently among eight in the state who won the Maine History Day contest in Augusta by doing a skit about the famed Stanley Steam car inventors, F.E. and F.O. Stanley. The students, now on their way to Washington D.C., were in Kingfield this past week to visit the Stanley Museum where Kim Richmond White, Office Manager (left) and Jim Merritt Archivist for the Kingfield museum, presented them with Stanley tee shirts and books on the famed brothers. (Laura Dunham photo) KINGFIELD — The Stanley Museum this week hosted two MSAD #39 students who won a competition recently in Augusta for grades six through 12. Thirty-one students across the state vied for the chance to go on to Washington D.C. in June.

Calvin Downey of Buckfield and Jared Eastman of Sumner created a skit complete with props that depicted the life of the famed Stanley Steam car inventors, F.E. and F.O. Stanley of Kingfield. The students will now go on to compete against hundreds of others in the National History Contest in Washington D.C.

"We wanted an inventor and thought it would be cool to have one from Maine," said Eastman. The Stanley twins were great inventors not only of the steam car but the airbrush and dry plate photography among other things and "they had good traits like team work, sobriety and respect," said Downey.

The two students created a time capsule containing items about the Stanley brothers. Downey used it to create questions he posed to Eastman who portrayed one of the brothers. A life-sized cardboard cut out created by the boys portrayed the Stanley brothers.

As part of the eight-minute skit in Augusta, the boys sang and danced to the Stanley Steamer song that debuted in 1948 in the film "Summer Holiday." As part of their preparation, the students contacted the Stanley Steamer Club in Great Britain, used the Stanley Museum Web site in Kingfield and were anxiously awaiting the time when they could actually come to Kingfield to visit the museum.

The students also spoke to fifth graders about the achievements of the Stanley brothers when they were 10 years old which included a maple syrup business using buckets that were made from birch.

Besides winning the award for performance, the boys won a special award for an in depth study of a Maine person.

Kim Richmond White, Office Manager at the Kingfield museum, and Jim Merritt, Archivist, welcomed the two young historians to the Stanley Museum on Friday presenting them with Stanley Museum tee shirts and a book on the history of the famed Stanley Steamer inventors.