Peter Cain liked to spice things up.

He worked as a zookeeper, served in the Navy, founded a museum that taught people about rural life in Maine, operated a steamboat on the Kennebec River, ran a boarding home for injured war veterans, became a skilled fencing instructor, and worked as a blacksmith for nearly 50 years.

Additional Photos

Peter Cain teaches a blacksmithing class at Gardiner High School in the late 1980s. Mr. Cain died Friday at a Portland nursing home at age 74. Family photo

“Some people called him interesting and others called him fickle,” said his daughter, Crystal Cain Castro of Gorham. “I’ve grown over the years to appreciate all of it.”

Mr. Cain, who grew up in Wiscasset, died Friday at a Portland nursing home. A longtime resident of Randolph, he was 74.

His daughter said he had been diagnosed with Interstitial Lung Disease, which she suspects was caused by inhaling smoke from working over a coal-fired blacksmithing forge.

Mr. Cain came from a long line of practicing blacksmiths in his family, and took up the craft when he was 25 years old. “He loved the artistry involved with being a blacksmith and being able to repair things,” his daughter said.

Mr. Cain, whose forge was located in Randolph, taught blacksmithing to Castro’s husband, Brian, who now practices it as a hobby. He also taught classes at Gardiner High School and Gardiner adult education.

“One of his passions was teaching blacksmithing. He wanted people to use their hands and to remember where things come from,” his daughter said.

Mr. Cain was born on the family’s farm in Wiscasset in 1937. He attended local schools, but dropped out of high school to hitchhike to California, where he became a zookeeper at Thousand Oaks Ranch. “He loved working at the zoo. He talked about it his entire life,” his daughter recalled.

Mr. Cain eventually joined the Navy, where he served aboard the aircraft carrier USS Ranger for several years. His Navy career, however, came to an abrupt and nearly tragic end.

Castro said her father was repairing a pilot’s ejection seat when the seat malfunctioned and propelled him into the partially open canopy. He was ejected out of the plane and landed on the wing. The accident broke his skull and back. He underwent more than a year of rehabilitation.

Mr. Cain and his wife, Lorna, moved back to the family farm in Wiscasset in 1968. They eventually settled in Randolph, where they operated a boarding house for veterans for three decades.

Mr. Cain and his father, Ken Cain, founded The Richmond Rural Museum — an interactive teaching museum where visitors could experience what life might have been like in colonial Kennebec Valley times.

The museum featured a working blacksmith shop, wheelwright shop, gristmill, and ice cutting demonstrations — all of which Mr. Cain built himself.

He also found time to restore a traditional steamboat. The Jason Collins — named after his grandfather — was used to run tours on the Kennebec River. The boat was relocated to Long Lake in Belgrade during the summer months, operating tours from the dock at The Village Inn for many years.

At age 50, Mr. Cain went to college to study art, but instead took a fencing class. He liked fencing so much that he became a teacher and coach for the University of Maine at Augusta fencing team.

A celebration of Mr. Cain’s life will be held Saturday at Slates, a restaurant in Hallowell.

Staff Writer Dennis Hoey can be contacted at 791-6365 or at:

dhoey@pressherald.com

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