Just southwest of Rockland, the community lies at the point where the St. George River broadens into a long narrow bay. Ship building and shipping were the basis of its fortune and that of the two millionaires (of seven in the whole country) who lived there in 1840. Thomaston has many surviving fine homes, developed by financially successful residents, on its main street.
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.
As with many rural Maine towns, Mars Hill is a community of pickup trucks as an essential tool of the farm economy. See photos. It shares a main street, U.S. Route 1, with neighboring Blaine. Mars Hill is located on the Prestile Stream where U.S. Route 1 forks to Presque Isle and Route 1A leads to Fort Fairfield. Established in the 1960’s, the Big Rock Ski Area on Mars Hill was purchased in 2000 by the Maine Winter Sports Center.
“It happened so unexpectedly, so abruptly, that she forgot to scream. . . . Breathless, spellbound, she moved on tiptoe to the porch, one hand pressed trembling across her lips. The field of oats shimmered a moment before her eyes, then a blue mass swung into it and it melted away, sheered to the earth…
The Maine economy has passed through stages typical of most states, with an initial focus on extractive activities (fishing, logging, slate and granite quarrying, other mining, and ice harvesting), and moving from subsistence farming to substantial agricultural development (apples, blueberries [see video in Hiram], potatoes, poultry). More Economic Data Ice harvesting, from ponds, streams or…