This citizen volunteer program was intended to fill a gap in the country’s air defenses. Begun during World War II, it ended its mission on January 31, 1959. In the mid-1950s, 350,000 volunteers from 16,010 observations posts reported to forty-nine “filter centers” across the country. In a letter to the New York Times dated January…
is both an unorganized township and a lake created by the Seboomook Dam. Just north of Moosehead Lake, half the township and all of the lake are in Maine Public Reserved Land protective status. The 6,880-acre lake has over 69 miles of shoreline, with the dam at its eastern end where it spills into the…
Long a potato growing and processing area, it lies northwest of Presque Isle on Route 164, which curves through the town and links it with Caribou to the northeast. See photos. Washburn’s main village is in the southwest near the Aroostook River, which crosses its southern portion. The villages of Bugbee, Crouseville, and Adeline are along the river on Route 164.
A residential community serving the greater Portland area for over a hundred years, the City has developed independent economic resources. See photos. It is part of the Port of Portland and home to a major railroad yard and fuel tank storage facility. The Southern Maine Community College campus includes Fort Preble, named for Commodore Edward Preble.
Dubros Times Selected Depositions of Maine Revolutionary War Veterans This is the Introduction to the publication named above and edited by Sylvia J. Sherman of the Maine State Archives. It provides a context for the depositions selected here. More are available in the publication itself, and still more in the holdings of the Maine State…
(1761-1807) was born in Falmouth, now Portland, on August 15, 1761 and has been called the “Father of the American Navy.” He played a decisive role in keeping the waters of Maine safe from Barbary pirates as Commander of U.S. naval forces during much of the Tripolitan War, 1801-1805. On March 2, 1818, in the…
Beginning in 1952, Loring Air Force Base, and, in 1953, its 42nd Bombardment Wing of B-52 bombers, created an economic supplement to potato processing in Limestone. It was renamed in 1955 for Maine’s Korean War Congressional Medal of Honor winner, Charles J. Loring, Jr. Loring Air Force Base extended for 9,000 acres and its combined…
The town is a port of entry into the United States from Limestone, New Brunswick, Canada. In the north of the town, the Aroostook National Wildlife Refuge straddles the town line with Caswell. The disastrous impact on the community of the demise of Loring Air Force Base in the 1990’s may be told by Limestone’s sharp population decline. The School of Mathematics and Science, a high school for top students from across the state, is now located on the former military facility.
Fort Williams is located in Cape Elizabeth and its grounds constitute Fort Williams City Park. In 1873 construction had begun on earthworks fortifications and was known as the Battery at Portland Head. By 1892, concrete batteries had been placed over the original structure. It remained a sub-post of Fort Preble (near Southern Maine Community College)…
in Washington County, incorporated 1826, is east of East Machias and boasts a large, protected harbor known as Little Machias Bay. A U.S. Navy communication base is on the Bay. Cutler Coast Public Preserved Land, in Cutler and Whiting, has almost five miles of dramatic cliff-bound ocean shore.
in Penobscot County, incorporated in 1811 under the name of New Charleston. Higgins Classical Institute, for “the promotion of christian education,” was established in 1891. Once the site of a U.S. Air Force radar and communications base, it now hosts a correctional center using the former base facilities. See photos.
1975-2004 During this period Maine state government was reorganized as a divided legislature faced an Independent governor, and the archaic Executive Council was abolished. Democrats outnumbered Republicans among registered voters for the first time; but unenrolled (“independent”) voters soon outnumbered either party. Women substantially increased their numbers in the Maine Legislature. Term limits for legislators…