Economy, Current Issues

Tree stand in T8 R10 NWP

Maine’s economy represents 0.4% (less than half a percent) of the U.S. national economy. With a slow national pace, Maine is likely to have slow growth as well. The important forest products sector has been blunted by the recent events, including a slowdown in construction and the transition from printed media (newspapers, magazines) to digital…

Southwest Harbor

Location Map for Southwest Harbor

It lies on the southwest entrance to Somes Sound, diagonally across from Northeast Harbor, a village in the town of Mount Desert. Southwest Harbor has been both a fishing and summer resort community from its earliest days as a town. See photos. Maine Route 102 begins at entrance to Mount Desert Island and leads directly south to the main village of Southwest Harbor. Here the Wendell Gilley Museum celebrates the life and work of Gilley, a pioneer of decorative bird carving. South of the harbor, the small villages of Manset and Seawall face the entrance to Somes Sound and the Cranberry Isles.

Sebago

Panoramic View from Dyke Mountain Road in Sebago (2018)

Several villages dot the towns landscape: North, East, and West Sebago; and Sebago Center; among others. See photos. The village of East Sebago hosts the town’s elementary school, veterans memorial park, and public library. Along with its substantial shoreline on the Lake, the town has a hiking trail to the summit of the 1392 foot Douglas Mountain, with a nature preserve overlooking the Lake.

Old Orchard Beach

See photos. Richard Boynthon settled the area in 1631 and hosted meetings of the councilors governing Sir Fernando Gorges‘ Province of Maine in the early 17th Century. Thomas Roger planted an apple orchard in 1638 that became known as “Rogers’ Garden by the Sea” by 1657. The Boston to Portland railroad passed within two miles of town in 1842 and the Grand Trunk Railroad connected Old Orchard Beach to Montreal in 1853, encouraging Canadians to visit the beach. By 1873 the Boston & Maine Railroad passed through the town, now served by Amtrak.

Northport

The modest Northport Music Theater features contemporary American musical theater. See photos. In addition to its long coastline facing Islesboro on Penobscot Bay, the town has frontage on the three-mile long Pitcher Pond and all of its Knight Pond. The historic Bayside village, of closely space summer cottages, lies off U.S. Route 1. St. Clair Preserve protects nearly all of unspoiled Knight’s Pond with 304 acres of mixed forest, bogs, swamps and fields has been home to black bears, bobcats, fishers, foxes, and deer.

Naples

Long Lake on Route 302 in Naples (2013)

Blessed with ample access to Long Lake, Sebago Lake at the intersection of U.S. Route 302 and Maine Routes 11, 35 and 114, Naples has long been a vacation resort community. See photos. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Nathaniel Hawthorne have sung its praises. The Songo Lock, built about 1830 and now shared with the town of Casco, linked Long Pond and Brandy Pond with Sebago Lake

Mount Vernon

The village of West Mount Vernon, with a small church and fire department, is located at the north end of Echo Lake and the south end of Taylor Pond. See photos. In 1926, the novelist Erskine Caldwell moved to an old farmhouse in Mount Vernon, where he lived until the early 1930’s. The main village, Mount Vernon, is in the north of the town on Minnehonk Lake.

Kennebunkport

Dock Square list of Shops in Kennebunkport (2012)

in York County, incorporated 1653 as Cape Porpoise. See photos. After early white settlers were driven away by Indian raids, it was reorganized as Arundel in 1718. In 1821 its name was changed to Kennebunk Port. It has long been an attraction for tourists and summer residents. Well-known residents included writers Booth Tarkington and Kenneth L. Roberts.

Ellsworth

Settled in 1763, it has relied on lumbering, shipbuilding, and industry to support its economy. The classic Grand Theater has been saved as an active movie and performance space. See photos. At the confluence of seven highway routes, the city is a shopping center for the area and summer tourism. The Col. John Black Mansion, a modified Georgian design, was home to the land agent for William Bingham.

Casco

Songo Lock in Casco (2003)

settled by Europeans in 1771, in Cumberland County, incorporated in 1841, is on the north shore of Sebago Lake. The Songo Lock, built about 1830, linked Long Pond and Brandy Pond with Sebago Lake, allowing boat passage from Harrison to Portland. Nathaniel Hawthorne, author and Bowdoin College graduate was its most prominent resident.

Boothbay

Marina in East Boothbay (2007)

includes Damariscove Island, an early fishing outpost, providing critical food (fish) to the starving Pilgrims. Harvesting the sea is still a significant occupation. Now the Boothbay region is a center of summer tourist activity, with the Boothbay Playhouse and the Railroad Museum. See photos and video.

Belgrade

Long Pond south from Castle Island Road (2018)

Named for Belgrade, Serbia, it is a center for the Belgrade Lakes Region that attracts summer visitors to enjoy fishing, boating and lakeside cottages. Great Pond dominates the town. Belgrade Lakes village at the north end of the pond stands between Great Pond on the east and Long Pond on the west. Belgrade’s population has showed continuous growth for the past several decades, slowly changing from a rural resort community to a residential suburb of Waterville and Augusta. See photos.

Baldwin

Field near Valley Lodge with a small cemetery in the woods (2018)

Baldwin is the only one of the towns surrounding Sebago Lake that has no frontage on that lake. East Baldwin village is located in the southeast corner of the town. West Baldwin village sits at the western edge of the Saddleback Hills, which span the width of the town. See photos.

African Americans

Rock Rest, a former travel inn in Kittery that served Black Americans in a manner similar to "Green Book" travel guide (2018)

were in Maine at least as early as 1736 when a church in York purchased a slave for its minister. John Brown Russwurm was Bowdoin College‘s first black graduate, in 1826. The third black to graduate from an American college, he went on to become the co-founder and co-editor of the country’s first black newspaper,…

Monhegan Island

Chairs on Monhegan Overlooking the Harbor (2007)

Attractive to artists since the late 19th century, its first draw was fish. See video and photos. After early European explorers passed by (Cabot in 1497, Weymouth and Champlain in 1605), the abundance of fish soon became apparent. Botanists have identified over six hundred varieties of wildflowers on the island. Monhegan Light was commissioned on July 2, 1824.

Economy

Haying in Western Maine (George French Collection, Maine State Archives)

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…