10/15/2025
On November 11th of 1946, an obituary appeared in newspapers throughout Canada, Maine, and most of the United States. It was a tribute to a Mainer the whole world had come to know.
It was a fitting tribute to one of the most famous Maine sportsmen in New England history, and an honorarium to the first of all Registered Maine Guides. And, that first Registered Maine Guide was a woman.
Cornelia Thurza Crosby was born in the Franklin Town of Phillips, Maine, on November 10th of 1854. Her parents were Lemuel, and Thurza Cottle Porter, Crosby and it appears that Cornelia had a brother, Ezekiel, and possibly a half sister named Clara Toothaker.
Cornelia grew up being schooled locally and at home, and then attended St. Catherine’s, an Episcopal finishing school in Augusta. She was a gangly young woman who stood six-feet tall, was lanky in appearance, and frail of health.
She worked as a housekeeper in hotels, as a bank teller, and as a telegrapher. As a way to improve her health, Cornelia began exploring the outdoors of Maine and soon began to fish. Not only did she soon become good a fishing, with bamboo rods and at fly-casting, she soon earned the nickname of “Fly Rod” Crosby.
Cornelia also developed a distinct love of the outdoors. Camping, hiking, canoeing, hunting, and all form of outdoor sports activities, which became her passion. And, she worked to learn everything she could about being in the wide open outdoors of Maine.
Soon, she began earning a living by taking hunters and fishermen into the Maine wilds and the oddity of a woman being their guide was enough to keep interested parties lined-up for trip after trip.
She was one of the first promoters of the catch and release philosophy. And, she was the last person to legally shoot a Caribou Buck in the State of Maine.
She was hired by the Maine Central Railroad to help spur Maine tourism and Cornelia arranged a Maine sportsmen’s show at Madison Square Garden in New York City.
And, she hosted the event while wearing a green, knee-length, doeskin dress, which caught the attentions of all who saw her. Cornelia had just made hunting and fishing the Maine woods a sexy thing.
By March 19th of 1897, Cornelia received a telegram from one of the Commissioners of Inland Fisheries and Game for the State of Maine. The telegram told Cornelia that a new bill requiring Maine Guides to be registered with the state had passed the senate.
Out of a total of 1,316 to be accepted, Cornelia became the first officially Registered Maine Guide in the history of the Pine Tree State. Fly Rod had become a famous Maine Sportswoman and her nickname, “Fly-Rod Crosby” had become known the nation over.
In the latter 1800s she began writing articles, “Fly Rod’s Notebook” for magazines and newspapers. The articles were written about her exploits and experiences in the northern Maine woods.
“Fly Rod’s Notebook” was syndicated in newspapers and her travelling to off-season exhibits promoted Maine as “The Nation’s playground.” Soon, tourism in Maine was abounding with paying, year round, sportsmen who sought the experiences that they had read about in her stories.
By the early 20th century, Cornelia was the undisputed Queen of Maine hunting, fishing, camping, snowshoeing, canoeing, hiking, bird watching, foliage, and everything having to do with Maine’s outdoors.
On November 11th of 1946, one day after her 92nd birthday, Cornelia Thurza Crosby – the woman the world came to know as Fly-Rod – died at St. Mary’s Hospital in Lewiston. Her body was carried home to Franklin County and laid to rest in the Strong Village Cemetery, in the town of Strong.
In a time when women were only just beginning to find their voices in America, Cornelia Thurza Crosby heartily blazed a trail through the Maine wilderness to pioneer a new place for women in the male dominated world of outdoor sporting.
Today, Cornelia Thurza “Fly Rod” Crosby is a celebrated and iconic Maine trailblazer and one of the most legendary of our Stories From Maine.
