Author, Sportswoman. She was Maine's first licensed guide. On March 19, 1897, the Maine legislature passed a bill requiring paid hunting and fishing guides to register with the state. Maine registered 1316 guides in that first year. The honor of receiving the first Maine guiding license went to Cornelia Thurza Crosby or "Fly Rod" as she was called. Through her widely-read newspaper columns that described her hunting and fishing adventures in the woods and Rangeley Lake, she put Maine on the map and attracted generations of visitors. Full of zest and humor, she once stated, "I am a plain woman of uncertain age, standing six feet in my stockings...I scribble a bit for various sporting journals, and I would rather fish any day than go to heaven." Fly Rod, as she christened herself, showed an independence and athleticism unusual for women of her time. Penobscot ballplayer Louis Sockalexis remarked, "Her face is white, but her heart is the heart of a brave." Fly Rod had many warm friends among the Penobscot Indians who served as her guides in the Maine woods, including Joe Francis and tribal governor Peter Nicolar. Fly Rod attracted the most fame for her exhibit at the New York Sportsman's Exposition in 1898. Wearing a "scandalously short" (mid-calf) skirt, she displayed a recreated hunting camp complete with log cabin. Other famous visitors stopped by, including Annie Oakley and Buffalo Bill Cody. Fly Rod Crosby was the first and last known person in Maine to bring down legally a caribou. A tragic knee injury in 1899 put an end to Fly Rod's mobility, but she continued to write her popular columns. She was educated at St. Catherine's School, an Episcopal girls' school in Augusta. She lived a long life, dying at ninety-two on Armistice Day of 1946, in Lewiston. The "Rangeley Record" said, "Rangeley has lost one of its most famous people and America has lost its most famous woman sportsman. May her soul rest in peace."