Still a basically rural community, Manchester has maintained its old 1793 North Manchester Meetinghouse. It also features a sustainable forestry project within a few hundred yards of the Meetinghouse on Scribner Hill Road. A suburb of Augusta, the town has substantial frontage on the northern half Cobbosseecontee Lake.
Maine’s Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife has developed a summary table describing well-known mammals that make their home in the state. To expand that effective presentation, we have added some creatures to the table. Features Size Habitat Food Litter When Behavior BEAVER Largest rodent, flat scaly tail, large front teeth; sexes indistinguishable L 35-46″…
was the United States battleship that steamed past the lighthouse in Havana (Cuba) Harbor in January, 1898. In a few weeks the U.S.S. Maine was destroyed there on February 15, 1898 by an explosion. A memorial is in a small park in Bangor. The event, which killed 260 men, sparked a national debate and outrage…
is a college located in Castine created primarily to educate and train students for service in the U.S. Merchant Marine. Former Governor Kenneth M. Curtis, once its President, is a distinguished graduate. According to the statute establishing Maine Merchant Marine Day each May 22nd, “The purpose of commemorating the United States Merchant Marines is to…
Named for the Malecite Indian word for “caribou,” it is located on the New Hampshire border, with substantial frontage on Umbagog Lake and on Upper and Lower Lower Richardson Lakes. A section of Maine Public Reserved Land sits just north of the Lake Umbagog National Wildlife Refuge on that lake’s Sunday Cove. The plantation is accessible from Maine Route 16 in Lincoln Plantation.
was named for the river whose Indian name means “having its outlet among the reeds” and “worn out grass (land).” A monument marks the landing of the Acadians. Its main street, U.S. Route 1, is dominated by Fraser Paper Company, whose plant straddles the border with Edmunston, New Brunswick. Agriculture remains a significant portion of the economy. Most residents in this heavily Catholic community are fluent in French and have extended family members in Canada.
The name (the Indian term for “bog” or “wet ground”) is appropriate since the main village lies at the north end of a bog on Molunkus Stream. See photos. The township has some frontage on Molunkus Lake. A 485 acre section of Maine Public Reserved Land is here.
(1896-19??) was born in the rural and forested community of Enfield on August 16, 1896, the son of a master carpenter. His father had emigrated from Scotland and, in the “new world” had evangelical ministry. His mother was Nellie Rosilla Guptill of Cherryfield, Maine, a descendent of that town’s first settler, a millwright by the…
(1815-1869) a U.S. Representative, was born in Limerick on April 8, 1815. He received an academic education, studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1837 and began his practice in Biddeford in 1837. A member of the Maine House of Representatives in 1841, 1842, and 1845, he served as speaker in 1845, then served…
The map at left is the 1922 USGS 15 Minute Series, Moosehead Lake, ME Quadrangle, Northwest Corner, from the University of New Hampshire Dimond Library. The Kineo Cottage Row Historic District is a collection of seven wood-framed cottages built in conjunction with the Kineo Resort complex between 1901 and 1912. They were designed in the…
is in Falmouth and hosts the Baxter School for the Deaf, public reserved land, and the former summer home of Governor Percival Baxter. Approximately 100 acres, it is connected to the mainland by a causeway at the mouth of the Presumpscot River. While human influence has greatly altered the natural environment on the Mackworth Island…
This was the name of the former Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation, now merged with the Department of Health and Human Services. (Even earlier its functions were embedded in the old Department of Mental Health and Corrections.) See an early “Maine Insane Hospital” at Kennebec Arsenal Its pre-merger mission statement was described as…
The Great Northern Paper Mill and the Bangor and Aroostook Railroad have been keys to the economic life of Millinocket for many years. See photos. The declining employment in the paper industry contributed to the steady loss of population over the past forty years – 42%. Millinocket is the gateway to Baxter State Park and its famed Mount Katahdin.
The town, and its Burnham Tavern, was the site of anti-British plotting resulting in capturing the schooner Margaretta. The Tavern was built in 1770, the only building in eastern Maine directly connected with the American Revolution. The Washington County seat, it is located on the Machias River, the engine of its earlier lumbering and shipbuilding industries. Once a haven for pirates, and now a commercial center, it is home to the University of Maine at Machias.
The town lies primarily on the west side of Machias Bay as the Machias River enters the Bay. It offers many sheltered harbors including the well known Bucks Harbor. Machiasport was at the center of controversy in the late 1960’s when an oil terminal was proposed, unsuccessfully, for the quiet coastal community.
Mount Battie and the picturesque stone mountain tower, located in Camden, are rich in legend and history. In 1897, Columbus Bushwell, a Camden resident, built a carriage road to the top of the mountain. Today this old carriage road is part of the 25-mile hiking trail system in Camden Hills State Park. In 1898, Mr.…
Through the summer and into the fall of 1947 Maine received only 50% of its normal rainfall. Vegetation dries; water supplies dwindled. But the autumn rains never came and by mid-October, Mount Desert Island was experiencing the driest conditions ever recorded. The stage was set for a disastrous blaze in the state’s history of forest…
It was like sitting in a chimney and waiting for the smoke to blow away. It was, in fact, a cloud-factory,– these were the cloud-works, and the wind turned them off done from the cool, bare rocks. [Thoreau] Washington Irving described the Kaatskill Mountains as “a dismembered branch of the great Appalachian family…swelling up to…
After a trip of four to six months, depending on interests, style, and luck, the north-bound Appalachian Trail “thru hiker” finally arrives at Mount Katahdin’s summit in Mount Katahdin Township in Baxter State Park. Mid-October is the deadline for unrestricted permission to climb the mountain. In 2007 an early snow and resulting ice delayed the…
The Appalachian Trail runs along the northwestern portion of Lake Hebron, then veers north toward the Doughty Ponds. See photos. In Maine, “Monson” often means “slate” to those who know that its high quality products have been shipped worldwide.