Over 450 people gathered for a traditional-style Native American clambake at the Redmen Hall on Sunday, Aug. 6.

The decades-running clambake is the largest fundraiser for Redmen Hall, and many Redmen members have been participating in the bake for as long as they can remember.

One of the tribe's oldest members, Eben Bumpus, remembers coming to the clambake as a child when it first began in the 1950s.

“I was a kid when I started going to the bakes, and I keep on coming and coming,” said Bumpus.

Bumpus described the event to be a town reunion with many traditions, and he attended this year with his granddaughters Miranda and Payton Buckley.

Bake Master Jeff Reed explained, “A lot of the guys here have family and we have passed the tradition down, so it keeps on going.”

Reed has been going to the bakes for 45 years, and he was happy to see the clambake continuing after a brief hiatus due to the pandemic.

“Thankfully we pulled together as a tribe and here we are, doing it again,” said Reed.

Reed, along with the other Redmen members, served 46 bushels of clams along with corn, chowder, brown bread, potatoes and more.

The traditional bake is done by steaming all of the fixings under a tarp with coals topped with seaweed.

Reed’s wife, Donna, said that her steamer-eating strategy is to “eat as many as possible – keep bringing them!”

The consensus of the diners was clear – that the bake was “delicious.”

“I’ve been to probably about six different bakes and this thing is terrific,” said Jim Camacho. “They got it off the heat right in time – they did one hell of a job.”