Friendship

The Brick School, 1850-1923, in Friendship (2005)

Settled in 1750, its boat building heritage began soon after and became best known for its specialty – the Friendship Sloop. See photos. The town, whose islands extend far out into Muscongus Bay, hosts the Friendship Sloop Races each summer, organized by the Friendship Sloop Society. The harbor, with its wharfs, moorings, and public landing, is a central economic and social focal point for the community.

Fisheries, Commercial

Fishing Vessel, Cundy

In 1950, Maine had record seafood landings of 356,266,000 pounds without aquaculture. Maine ranked among the top seafood producing States. In 2009, the last year available for national seafood landings, Maine ranked 11th in pounds landed and 3rd in value. The preliminary 2010 landings were 251,299,375 pounds including aquaculture valued ex-vessel at $450,664,717, an average…

Cutler

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.

Crosby, Cornelia

Cornelia "Fly Rod" Crosby (Maine State Museum)

Cornelia “Fly Rod” Crosby (1854-1946) was born in Phillips on November 10, 1854. As a recent account of her life is subtitled, she was “The Woman Who Marketed Maine.” After her father died and then her brother, she lived with her mother until attending St. Catherine’s School, an Episcopal girls’ school in Augusta. After graduating,…

Concord

Lily Pond in Concord on the Kennebec River Road (2014)

is now an unorganized township in Somerset County after having been a town for over 100 years. Incorporated on January 25, 1821 from Plantation Number One, R1, BKP., WKR., it surrendered its organized status on July 6, 1935, and thus became deorganized. The Great Depression of the 1930’s forced many marginal towns, unable to raise…

Charlotte

Pennamaquan Lake in Charlotte (2004)

in Washington County, incorporated in 1825. Its Pennamaquan Wildlife Management Area, a 1,500-plus acre site, offers opportunities for boating, canoeing, hunting, fishing, and viewing of eagles, deer and waterfowl. The first settlement was established about 1807-1810.

Casco Bay

Schooner Near Halfway Rock (2001)

The Bay contains about 200 islands (depending on what one counts as an “island” but only about 138 “good sized” islands). The Bay is bounded by Cape Elizabeth in the south and Cape Small in the north. Halfway Rock is about half way between the two capes which are about twenty miles apart, and about…

Economic Data

Gross Domestic Product by County County by Rank $Billions GDP $Billions % of Total $ GDP People % Total People GDP /Capita Rank /Capita Rank/ Capita Per Capita GDP 1 Cumberland $19.40 34.04% 293,557 21.93% $88.45 Cumberland 1 $88.45 2 York $7.40 12.98% 206,229 15.41% $48.03 Hancock 2 $54.82 3 Penobscot $6.00 10.53% 151,096 11.29%…

Aroostook County

Map of Maine Counties and Baxter Park

the “rooftop of Maine,” John Steinbeck. This northernmost county, known as “the County,” is the state’s largest, established in 1839, during the “Aroostook War.” Famed for its potato growing, the County’s premiere crop has declined steadily, as has its population. Nevertheless, agriculture still dominates the County’s economy and its culture.

Abbot

is a town in Piscataquis County, incorporated on January 31, 1827. It was one of several tracts granted to Bowdoin College in 1794 and was named for the College’s treasurer, John Abbott. (The final “t” in the town’s name seems to have been lost over the years.) In the 1870’s the town was prospering with two railway stations and a rail link to Bangor. Two covered bridges spanned the Piscataquis River.