its historic district features a variety of architectural styles, primarily from the booming 19th century economy. Located on Penobscot Bay, its shipping and shipbuilding brought a population explosion between 1810 and 1850. In the mid-20th century, Belfast was home to the chicken broiler industry. It has transformed into a tourist destination, touting its historic structures. See video and photos.
Leon Leonwood Bean (1872-1967) was born and raised in Greenwood in rural Maine. Orphaned at an early age, he worked at odd jobs, including a stint on a farm in Hebron, and did as much hunting and fishing that he could. It was not until he was 39 years old in 1911 that his business…
is the northern most campground in Baxter State Park. The site, in T5 R9 WELS township, offers tent sites, cabins, a bunkhouse. Canoeing and hiking provide opportunities for sweeping scenic views, and wildlife observation. Hiking trails are well marked as the signs at left attest. Black Cat Mountain or Traveler Mountain await a climb with…
Abol, Chimney Pond, Daicey Pond, Katahdin Stream, Kidney Pond, Nesowadnehunk Field, Roaring Brook, Russell Pond, South Branch Pond, and Trout Brook Farm are the major campsites in Baxter State Park. Chimney Pond and Russell Pond are not accessible by automobile. The south entrance provides access to Abol, Daicey Pond, Katahdin Stream, Kidney Pond, Nesowadnehunk Field,…
At night, he saw the stars in the sky in their fixed positions and the crescent of the moon floating like a boat in the blue. He saw trees, stars, animals, clouds, rainbows, rocks, herbs, flowers, stream and river, the glistening dew in the bushes in the morning, distant high mountains which were blue and…
The city’s Customs House was an important center for revenue and recording the history of shipping in the area. The nearby elegant City Hall dominates the downtown. Home to Bath Iron Works on the Kennebec River, the city has had a long history of shipbuilding, including nine clipper ships during the 1850’s.
After Newport, Rhode Island, Bar Harbor was the resort of choice for wealthy eastern Americans until the great fire of 1947 destroyed many homes and forested areas. Acadia National Park dominates tourists’ itineraries when the town’s population swells each summer. The College of the Atlantic is located here.
With these tax credits, we will keep more of our home-grown graduates here, and open the door of opportunity for the next generation of Maine entrepreneurs and leaders. Last year, the Legislature overwhelmingly approved Opportunity Maine, a tax credit program that will help students overcome college debt if they live and work in the State…
It’s my goal that children start school ready to learn, and graduate from college ready and able to succeed here in Maine. Early childhood was the heart of my economic Summit held in November. More than 200 Maine business and community leaders came together to understand the positive economic returns from early childhood investments. I…
For too long, our country and our state have been dependent on costly foreign oil. For too long, our country and our state have been dependent on costly foreign oil.Eighty percent of Maine’s homes are reliant on oil for heat. As prices have risen, we have sent billions of dollars out of state to pay…
But success also depends on innovation. Maine has led the country on health care reform, an innovation that matters to families and businesses alike. When the federal government passed a poorly designed Medicare drug benefit that actually hurt some senior citizens in our State, Maine stepped forward to ease the transition. When the federal government failed to…
And I believe a solution exists that will save taxpayer money and improve the treatment of the people in our care. President Lincoln wrote to Congress in 1862: “The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As…
Madam President, Mr. Speaker, Madam Chief Justice, members of the Legislature, members of the Cabinet, distinguished guests and my fellow citizens: We come together tonight as Maine stands on the verge of a new era. The choices we make in the coming days will help to define who we are as a State, and what…
A town “Arundel” formed in 1719. In 1821 it became Kennebunk Port, from which, in 1915 a new town emerged: “North Kennebunkport.” In 1957 it changed to Arundel. Kenneth Roberts’ historical novel “Arundel” recounts the early life of the area and influenced the reemergence of the name. See video and photos.
Arrowsic Island in the Kennebec River separates Georgetown from Phippsburg, which was settled in 1607. In 1625 Europeans moved to Arrowsic, five years after the Pilgrim landing. Two lighthouses have been established on Arrowsic’s Kennebec shore. See videos and photos.
rises in the northwestern corner of the state, enters New Hampshire at Errol, then crosses back in the Oxford County town of Gilead. It then heads north at Bethel to Hanover then Rumford and Mexico before turning south to Livermore Falls and the cities of Lewiston and Auburn, soon to join the Kennebec River in…
A web of dirt roads leads into the hinterland where several streams, the West Branch of the Union River, and a half dozen small ponds attract fishermen, hunters, and vacationers. Amherst was the site of an unsolved a homicide, in 1976. Video. Named for Amherst, New Hampshire, it is located on the east-west Maine Route 9, known as the Airline.
Head Tide village, poet Edwin Arlington Robinson’s birthplace, is a “small, picturesque river community with many … well-preserved 19th century buildings.” Video. Alna is home to the Wiscasset, Waterville and Farmington narrow gauge railway museum. The Sheepscot River runs through the town, the site of canoe trips from Whitefield to Wiscasset.
Bald Head Preserve, Arrowsic. A Bald eagle wintering area on 296 acres and two and a half miles of the Kennebec and Back Rivers. Access is across privately owned marsh or from the river. A trail leads to the picturesque Squirrel Point Light (now decommissioned) on the Kennebec River. Managed by the Nature Conservancy, access…
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…