Newport

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Bird in its safe habitat near the Sebasticook River in North Newport (1014)

Newport features the six-mile long Sebasticook Lake, providing recreational opportunities for residents and summer visitors. Drought conditions in 2002 lowered the water level substantially. See photos. Prior to the opening of what became the Maine Central Railroad in 1855, Newport was a center of stage coach transportation. Newport is still a heavily traveled crossroads, now of Interstate 95, U.S. Route 2, and Maine Routes 7, 11, and 100. The area east of Sebasticook Lake is known as East Newport.

Newfield

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The old center of Newfield village was destroyed by the great forest fire of 1947. See photos. The Willowbrook Historic District covers this area and the buildings that survived the fire. In 1984 the application to establish the historic district reported “Very little change in the buildings or landscape has occurred in the last one-hundred years so that the sense of time and place of a remote southwestern Maine rural community of the 19th century remains strongly present.” At the source of the Little Ossipee River, and dotted with ponds and streams, Newfield is a rapidly growing community about twenty miles northwest of Sanford

Newcastle

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Deer Meadow Brook from Frank Steele Woods in South Newcastle (2011)

Damariscotta Lake is a major destination for adult alewives with intentions of spawning the next generation. The fishway near the dam at Damariscotta Mills in Newcastle provides access to and from the lake. See photos. Newcastle, located on U.S. Route 1 just west of the Damariscotta River, is home to Maine’s oldest Catholic Church, St. Patrick’s, completed in 1808. Several nature preserves in Lincoln County are in Newcastle. Nearby Great Salt Bay is protected by Maine legislation and is the state’s first marine shellfish protected area.

Newburgh

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Small Waterfall on the West Branch of Souadabscook Stream (2014)

Settled in about 1794, the town is on the old stage route from Bangor through China to Vassalboro near Augusta. Newburgh Center village is on combined U.S. Route 202 and Maine Route 9. See photos. The Kennard Road hiking trail, originally developed by the Newburgh Heritage Trust, is a one-mile walk, with parking available.

New Vineyard

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Porter Pond in New Vinyard; probably Saddleback Mountain in distance (2017)

Framed by the Carrabassett and Sandy Rivers, this irregularly shaped town’s main village lies on Maine Route 27 between New Portland and Farmington. See photos. The Maine Wood Turning company is on Route 27 in the village. Nearby Bauds, Mill, and Lily ponds, and frontage on Porter Lake, provide wide fishing and recreational opportunities.

New Sweden

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Little Madawaska River, a tributary of the Aroostook River, crossing Jemtland Road in New Sweden (2016)

After the Civil War, Maine, like other states, was losing population to the great westward migration. A conscious public policy of encouraging Swedish immigration resulted in the very successful settlement of Swedes in New Sweden. Just northwest of Caribou on Maine Route 161, the town is just south of Stockholm.

New Sharon

Bridges, Cities & TownsLeave a comment
1916 Bridge over the Sandy River in New Sharon (2003)

just east of Farmington, has been growing consistently in population over the past four decades. New Sharon village straddles the Sandy River, which winds through from Farmington on its way to Starks and then Norridgewock where it enters the Kennebec River. The 1916 steel bridge, now retired from service, crosses the river at the end of the main street.

New Portland

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Bridge over the Carrabassett River in New Portland (2017)

North New Portland hosts Morton’s Country Store, the Community Church, and Chase Memorial Hall. This village lies at the junction of routes 146 and 16, with Gilman Stream, and its Dam, flowing through it. See photos. The Carrabassett River, with its spectacular rocky bed, passes through East New Portland Village and under an arch bridge.

New Limerick

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Cottages in New Limerick at Nickerson Lake (2012)

In the 1880’s the town had a large tannery, two saw mills, and a starch factory. It has frontage on Drew and Nickerson lakes, along with a half-dozen small ponds. See photos. The main village of the town, just west of Houlton, nearly surrounds Nickerson Lake, which it shares with Linneus. It is the birthplace of Dora Pinkham, the first woman to served in the Maine Legislature.

New Gloucester

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Pineland Farms near the Intervale Road in New Gloucester (2013)

home for Pineland Center from 1908 to 1996, that facility for the mentally retarded was known as the “Maine School for the Feeble-Minded” and later as the Pownal State School. See photos. It has been redeveloped as an office park. The multiple-use campus hosts professional, educational, and civic organizations, along with a conference facility. Pineland Farms and its Equestrian Center are major facilities nearby.

New Canada

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Power Lines and Cropland off the Caribou Road in New Canada (2018)

Daigle is the principal village in the town, which is located just south of Fort Kent on Maine Route 161 near Daigle Pond. Boat launching facilities are available on the small chain of First Lake, Second Lake, and Third Lake in the southwest corner of the town. A section of Maine’s Public Reserved Land, the New Canada lot, is a 1,000-acre original public lot located north of the Eagle Lake Unit.

Nevelson, Louise

People (non-government), SocietyLeave a comment
Louise Nevelson, ca. 1955, Smithsonian Archives of American Art

(1899-1988) was a prominent sculptor, painter, and printmaker, born on September 23, 1899, in Pereyaslav, Russia. At the age of five, she came to Rockland with her mother, older brother, and younger sister to join her father, Isaac Berliawsky, who had immigrated a few years earlier. Although she took the commercial course at Rockland High…

Nelson, Charles Pembroke

U.S. RepresentativesLeave a comment

(1907-1962), son of John E. Nelson and a U.S. Representative, was born in Waterville on July 2, 1907. He is the son of another U.S. Representative John E. Nelson. Charles Pembroke Nelson graduated from Cony High School in Augusta in 1924, Colby College, Waterville in 1928, and from Harvard Law School in 1931. Nelson was…

Nearing, Helen Knothe

People (non-government), SocietyLeave a comment
Mail Box at the Good Life Center (2008)

(1904-1995) was a self-sufficient organic farmer and author whose life with her husband, Scott Nearing, struck a powerful chord with thousands of people. Later labeled the “back-to-the-land movement,” generations of people, some disenfranchised by McCarthyism, the Vietnam War, and the greed of modern society, adopted new values exemplified by the Nearings and others. These included…

Nashville

Cities & Towns, RiversLeave a comment
Location Map for Nashville

Located northwest of Ashland and south of Portage Lake on Route 11. Little Machias Lake, through which the Little Machias River runs, is in the northwest corner of the plantation. Nashville hosts two lots of Maine’s Public Reserved Land, of which about 10% of the acreage is reserved for wildlife, with the remainder allocated to timber management and harvesting.

Naples

Cities & Towns, RecreationLeave a comment
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

Norlands

HistoryLeave a comment

The Norlands Living History Center in Livermore provides a live-in opportunity to those who want to experience life as early Maine settlers did. Unfortunately, the great barn burned to the ground on April 28, 2008, damaging the adjoining mansion. A major focus is on the lives of the famous Washburn family that made a significant…

Nuthatches

Birds, Ecology, WildlifeLeave a comment
White-breasted Nuthatch (2010)

are small, needle-nosed birds about the size of a chickadee, but more streamlined. Nuthatches come in two varieties in Maine: White-breasted (larger) and Red-breasted (smaller with a black eyeliner). They are frequent visitors to bird feeders, with, as expected, a preference for nut-like food. In fact, their name comes from their habit of wedging nuts…