1A1
MAINE
A GUIDE 'DOWN EAST'
AMERICAN GUIDE SERIE
MAINE
A GUIDE 'DOWN EAST'
Written by Workers of the Federal Writers' Project of the
Works Progress Administration for the State of Maine
SPONSORED BY THE MAINE DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION
Illustrated
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY - BOSTON
Vfe SUtertffte $re«« Cambrftge
COPYRIGHT, IQ37, BY EVERETT F. GREATON
EXECUTIVE SECRETARY, MAINE DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED INCLUDING THE RIGHT TO REPRODUCE
THIS BOOK OR PARTS THEREOF IN ANY FORM
CAMBRIDGE . MASSACHUSETTS
PRINTED IN THE U.S.A.
PREFACE
AS THE perspective broadens on the picture of the American scene, past
and present, being portrayed by the Federal Writers' Project of the
Works Progress Administration in the American Guide Series, the State
by State development of this vast panorama now brings into focus the
Nation's northeast corner. How strong a light Maine's contribution can
stand depends to a great extent upon one's point of view.
Whatever the point of view, it should be remembered that the presenta-
tion of the many diverse elements embodied in a State the size of Maine
in a single volume is necessarily of a general nature, under the rather
rigid requirements of a guidebook; therefore certain phases may not
seem to be treated in this book as thoroughly as they merit. An attempt
has been made, however, to capture the spirit of Maine life and to high-
light the Maine scene for the visitor, without being either romantic or
encyclopedic.
The Maine staff of the Writers' Project, like those of other States, has
had its own particular trials and tribulations in preparing a Guide. In
presenting facts about Maine, the staff's supreme effort at accuracy often
bogged down before several accepted authorities who were at variance
on a given point. Items accepted as fact were occasionally found to be
legendary. A single word at any moment might creep up and baffle the
most intrepid research worker. Verification and re-verification through
the turbulent days of production had members of the personnel in various
emotional states, from rank pessimism to apoplectic rage, with the State
Director prepared momentarily to emulate Rumpelstiltskm of the folk
tale.
Now, as the tumult and the shouting die, the things that stand out are
the united elements that brought the book to completion. Among these
were steadfast sincerity of purpose and seriousness of effort on the part
of staff members, which elements stood by and overcame many seemingly
insurmountable difficulties. Perhaps most important of all was the in-
terest and sympathy, within and without the State, of persons who gave
invaluable aid to the Project in many ways. Our gratitude and apprecia-
tion of their kindness are only exceeded by the regret that space forbids
personal acknowledgment in every instance here.
viii Preface
Of the many persons, including officials of various public and private
institutions, who have given valuable assistance, a word of especial ap-
preciation is due to Albert A. Abrahamson, associate professor of Econom-
ics at Bowdoin College, whose sympathetic support while he was
Maine Works Progress Administrator was a source of continual en-
couragement. Henry E. Dunnack and Mrs. Marion C. Fuller of the
State Library, the librarian of the Portland Library, and the director
of the Maine Historical Society at Portland were especially helpful in
matters of reference and in giving the Writers' Project access to their
collections. Josiah T. Tubby aided materially in connection with the
architectural detail. The Gannett Publishing Company and the Maine
Development Commission supplied many of the photographs used as
illustrative material. The wholehearted co-operation of Everett F.
Greaton, executive secretary of the Development Commission, has been
a major factor in the entire production of the Guide.
Thanks are also due the following for expert advice and assistance in
their special fields: H. L. Baldwin, of the Boston and Maine Railroad;
Alexander M. Bower, Director of the L. D. M. Sweat Museum, Portland;
Philip J. Brockway, Placement Director at the University of Maine;
Freeman F. Burr, State Geologist; Judge Benjamin F. Cleaves, Secretary
of Associated Industry; Harry B. Coe, of the Maine Publicity Bureau;
Cressey and Allen Music Company, Portland; William S. Crowell,
Maine W.P.A. Director of the Division of Operations, Portland; Mrs.
Fanny Hardy Eckstorm, Brewer; Judge Edward K. Gould, State Histo-
rian; Professor Orren C. Honnell, of Bowdoin College; Captain Alfred
E. Mulliken, of the State Planning Board; Dorothy Hay, of the Maine
W.P.A. Art Project; Arthur H. Norton, Curator of the Portland Society
of Natural History; Colonel Henry W. Owen, Bath; the late Professor
Edward H. Perkins, of Colby College; John Calvin Stevens, Portland;
George J. Stobie, State Fish and Game Commissioner; Professor William
J. Wilkinson, of Colby College.
This volume was prepared under the supervision of Joseph Gaer,
Editor-in-Chief of the New England Guides and Chief Field Supervisor
of the Federal Writers' Project.
DORRIS A. WESTALL, State Director
CONTENTS
PREFACE vii
By State Director, Federal Writers' Project
ON USING THE GUIDE xix
GENERAL INFORMATION xxi
CALENDAR OF EVENTS xxv
i. MAINE: THE GENERAL BACKGROUND
THE NATION'S NORTHEAST CORNER 3
State Name Soil
Geography and Water Resources
Topography Mineral Resources
Climate Flora
Geology Fauna
EARLIEST INHABITANTS: THE RED PAINT PEOPLE 20
THE ABNAKI INDIANS 24
HISTORY 28
The State Government 48
PINE, PAPER, AND POWER 50
THE MAINE FARM 63
FROM WATERWAYS TO AIRWAYS 68
RACIAL ELEMENTS 74
FOLKLORE AND FOLKWAYS 76
EDUCATION AND RELIGION 80
ARCHITECTURE 86
THE ARTS 94
HANDICRAFTS 108
Contents
II. SEAPORTS AND RIVER TOWNS
(City and Town Descriptions and City Tours)
Augusta 117
Bangor 129
Brunswick 139
Houlton 149
Lewiston- Auburn 155
Portland 163
Waterville 190
III. HIGH ROADS AND LOW ROADS (TOURS)
(Mile-by-Mile Description of the State's Highways)
TOUR i From New Hampshire Line (Portsmouth) to
Canadian Line (Clair, N.B.). US 1 201
Sec. a. Portsmouth to Brunswick 204
Sec. b. Brunswick to Belfast 215
Sec. c. Belfast to Ellsworth 226
Sec. d. Ellsworth to Calais 230
Sec. e. Calais to Fort Kent 240
lA From Junction with US 1 (Kittery) to Cape Ned-
dick. Unnumbered road and State 1A 249
iB From Junction with US 1 (Wells) to Biddeford.
State 9 253
iC From Saco to Dunstan. State 9 255
iD From Brunswick to Bailey Island. State 24 257
lE From Bath to Fort Popham. State 209 259
iF From Woolwich to Five Islands. State 127 261
iG From Junction with US 1 (Wiscasset) to Southport.
Local road and State 27 264
iH From Damariscotta to Pemaquid Point. State 129
and State 130 267
Contents xi
ij From Junction with US 1 (Thomaston) to Port
Clyde. State 131 271
iK From Stockton Springs to Ellsworth. State 3 273
iL From Junction with US 1 (West Gouldsboro) to
Junction with US 1 (Gouldsboro). State 186 275
iM From Whiting to Lubec (Treat's and Campobello
Islands). State 189 276
iN From Perry to Eastport. State 190 278
2 Mount Desert Island : From Ellsworth to Tremont.
State 3, State 198, and State 102 281
3 From Ellsworth to Orland. State 15 and State 175 286
4 From Houlton to New Hampshire Line (Shel-
burne). US 2 292
4A From Junction with US 2 (Rumford Center) to
South Arm. State 5 303
5 From Brewer to Junction with US 1 (Calais).
State 9, The Air Line 304
6 From Fort Kent to Mattawamkeag. State 11 308
7 From Medway to Greenville. State 157 and un-
numbered road 311
8 From West Enfield to Bingham. State 11, State
155, and State 16 315
8 A From Milo to Katahdin Iron Works. State 221 and
unnumbered road 319
9 From Waterville to Canadian Line (St. Zacharie,
P.Q.). State 11, State 7, and State 15 320
10 From Brunswick to Canadian Line (Quebec, P.Q.).
US 201 325
11 From New Hampshire Line (Dover) to Canadian
Boundary (Quebec, P.Q.). State 4 336
1 1 A From Rangeley to Haines Landing. State 16 348
12 From Wiscasset to Stratton. State 27 349
13 From Hampden to Naples. US 202 (State 9,
State 3) and State 11 353
14 From Portland to New Hampshire Line (Errol).
State 26 360
15 From Saco to Bethel. State 5 366
16 From Belfast to South China. State 3 371
xii Contents
17 From Augusta to Rockland. State 17 372
1 8 From Portland to New Hampshire Line (Center
Conway). US 302, The Roosevelt Trail 375
1 9 From Portland to New Hampshire Line (Freedom) .
State 25 382
ISLAND TOURS
1 Portland to the Islands of Casco Bay 386
A. To Orr's Island 387
B. To Gurnet 392
C. To Birch Island 392
2 Boothbay Harbor to Squirrel Island 395
3 Boothbay Harbor to Monhegan Island 396
4 Rockland to Vinalhaven Island 398
5 Rockland to Swan Island 399
6 Belfast to Islesboro Island 401
IV. SPORTS AND RECREATION
INTRODUCTION 405
FISHING IN INLAND WATERS 407
Denny s River Fishing Trip 410
Moosehead Lake Fishing Trip 411
SALT-WATER FISHING 412
Tuna Fishing off Ogunquit 413
HUNTING 414
Animals 414
Birds 416
Game Areas 417
CANOEING 418
Allagash River Canoe Trip 419
East Branch Canoe Trip 422
Dead River and Moosehead Waters Canoe Trip 424
Rangeley Lakes Canoe Trip 426
Other Selected Canoe Trips 426
Contents xiii
HIKING AND MOUNTAIN CLIMBING 427
Hunt Trail 429
Saddleback Mountain Trail 430
Squaw Mountain Trail 430
Mount Blue Trail 430
Other Selected Mountain Trails 431
RIDING 432
Saddle Trip out of Bangor 433
Saddle Trip out of Augusta 435
Other Selected Saddle Trails 436
YACHTING 437
WINTER SPORTS 438
CHRONOLOGY 443
SELECTED READING LIST 454
INDEX 459
ILLUSTRATIONS AND MAPS
GLIMPSES OF HISTORY
'Red Paint' (Indian) vault at the
Forks
Avanzato
Fort McClary, Kittery Point
Avanzato &° Hubbard
Fort Halifax, Winslow
Avanzato &• Hubbard
Old Oxford County Jail, Paris Hill
Avanzato &* Hubbard
Fort Knox, Prospect
Avanzato & Hubbard
Casco Castle, Freeport
Avanzato
INDUSTRY, COASTAL AND INLAND
between 20 and 21
Fort Edgecomb, North Edgecomb
Avanzato
Fort Popham, Popham Beach
Avanzato
First pile bridge in North America,
Sewall bridge at York
Maine Development Commission
Old covered bridge, Stillwater
Avanzato &• Hubbard
Old powder house at Wiscasset
Avanzato 6r Hubbard
between 50 and 51
The Falls, Veazie
Avanzato fir Hubbard
Hayfield near Palermo
H. G. Hawes
Air view of the State Pier, Portland
Portland Maine Pub. Co.
Shipbuilding, Thomaston
Avanzato
On the Portland waterfront
Avanzato
Fish weirs, Bucksport
Avanzato
Old hull, Boothbay Harbor
Avanzato
Grounded schooners in Boothbay
Harbor
Avanzato
OF ARCHITECTURAL INTEREST
From the Old Stone Jail, Paris Hill
Avanzato &* Hubbard
The hearth in the Means House,
Portland
Avanzato &• Pratt
Doorway, Major Reuben Colburn
House, Pittston
W. Lincoln Highton
A farm cottage near Bar Harbor
W. Lincoln Highton
Carved door case, Means House,
Portland
Avanzato 6* Pratt
Maine Seaboard Paper Company,
Bucksport
Avanzato
Logging
Maine Development Commission
Large-scale potato digging, Aroostook
County
Maine Development Commission
Blueberry pickers, Jonesboro
Avanzato
Packing lobster bait, Sebasco
Avanzato 6* Hubbard
Lobster pots
Maine Development Commission
between 96 and 97
St. John's Church, Brunswick
Avanzato
Nickels-Sortwell House, Wiscasset
W. Lincoln Highton
Ruggles House, Columbia Falls
Avanzato
Doorway of the Ruggles House
Avanzato
Stairway of the Black Mansion, Ells-
worth
Avanzato
'Wedding Cake' House, Kennebunk
Avanzato 6* Pratt
XVI
Illustrations and Maps
IN TOWN AND CITY
Wiscasset Courthouse
W. Lincoln Highton
Swans at Dealing's Oaks, Portland
Avanzato
Canal, Androscoggin Mills, Lewis-
ton
Avanzato &• Hubbard
Jed Prouty Tavern, Bucksport
Avanzato &• Hubbard
Androscoggin River at Rumford
Avanzato
East Machias, 1855, Photograph
of painting
Win/red C. Tracy
between 190 and 191
Heart of Bangor
Portland Maine Pub. Co.
Portland business area
Avanzato
Old cemetery at Waldoboro
Avanzato
Blaine House (Governor's Mansion)
Augusta
Avanzato
The Capitol at Augusta
Avanzato
CULTURAL LANDMARKS
Wadsworth-Longfellow House,
Portland
Portland Maine Pub. Co.
Longfellow's birthplace, Portland
Avanzato &• Hubbard
L. D. M. Sweat Museum, Portland
Avanzato &• Hubbard
Fryeburg Academy
Maxcy
Administration Building, Univer-
sity of Maine, Orono
Maxcy
Coburn Hall, Colby College, Water-
ville
Avanzato &• Hubbard
Rear wing of Bowdoin College Li-
brary, Brunswick
W. Lincoln Highton
between 252 and 253
Madame Nordica's Homestead, Farm-
ington
Avanzato
Emma Eames House, Bath
Avanzato &• Hubbard
Quillcote, home of Kate Douglas
Wiggin, Hollis
Avanzato &° Hubbard
Redington Museum, Waterville
Avanzato 6* Hubbard
Home of Jacob Abbott, Farmington
Avanzato &* Hubbard
Sarah Orne Jewett Memorial, Ber-
wick
Avanzato
OLD HOUSES AND OLD CHURCHES
between 330 and 331
Second Parish Unitarian Church,
Saco
Avanzato &• Pratt
Congregational Church, Kenne-
bunkport
Avanzato
Lady Pepperell Mansion at Kittery
Point
Portland Maine Pub. Co.
Church at Phippsburg
Avanzato
Mclntire Garrison House, York
Avanzato 6* Hubbard
Swinging sign of Burnham Tavern,
Machias
Avanzato
Burnham Tavern, Machias
Avanzato
Andrew Homestead, South Windham
Avanzato 6* Hubbard
First Parish Unitarian Church, Kenne-
bunk
W. Lincoln Highton
A white church near Surry
W. Lincoln Highton
Montpelier, Thomaston
W. Lincoln Highton
Illustrations and Maps
xvn
LANDSCAPE AND SEASCAPE
Screw Auger Falls, Graf ton
Maine Development Commission
Tranquillity
Maine Development Commission
Off for a canoe trip, Megunticook
Lake
Maine Development Commission
As shadows deepen
Maine Development Commission
Mount Desert Island as seen from
Sullivan
Avanzato
Parlin Pond, Somerset County
Avanzato
between 392 and 393
West Quoddy Head Light at sunset
Maxcy
Thunder Hole, Mount Desert Island
W. Lincoln Highton
Bar Harbor and Frenchman's Bay,
from Cadillac Mountain
W. Lincoln Highton
Riding the tide, Boothbay Harbor
W . Lincoln Highton
Portland Head Light
New England Council
Snow scene
Maine Development Commission
VACATIONLAND
Dreaming of a duck hunt
Maine Development Commission
On the bank of Sourdnahunk
Maxcy
Trotting race on the ice at Camden
Maine Development Commission
Winter scene, near Fryeburg
Maine Development Commission
Morning paddle on Moosehead,
Mount Kineo in the background
Maine Development Commission
Sails in the sun
Maine Development Commission
between 422 and 423
Almost in the net, Pleasant River,
Gray
Maxcy
Ice fishing, Sebago Lake
Avanzato
Autumn trail
Maine Development Commission
Hunting party at camp, Kokadjo
Maxcy
Camp site near Mount Katahdin
Maine Development Commission
Popham Beach
Avanzato
MAPS
Augusta
Bangor
Brunswick
Houlton
Lewiston and Auburn
Portland
WaterviUe
Portland to Rockland Section of Maine Coast
Key to Maine Tours
124-125
I34-I3S
143
iS3
160-161
174-175
iQ3
200
202-203
ON USING THE GUIDE
General Information on the State contains practical information for the
State as a whole; the introduction to each city and tour description also
contains specific information of a practical nature.
The Essay Section of the Guide is designed to give a reasonably com-
prehensive survey of the State's natural setting, history, and social,
economic, and cultural development. Limitations of space forbid elab-
orately detailed treatments of these subjects, but a classified bibliography
is included in the book. A great many persons, places, events, and so
forth, mentioned in the essays are treated at some length in the city and
tour descriptions; these are found by reference to the index. 'Maine:
A Guide Down East' is not only a practical travel book; it will also serve
as a valuable reference work.
The nineteen Tour Descriptions are written, with a few exceptions, to
follow the principal highways from south to north or from east to west.
This orientation will not, of course, always coincide with the direction in
which the tourist travels through the State. Since most visitors plan
their trips as loop tours, it is clearly impossible to accommodate a stand-
ard pattern to individual desires, and, for the sake of uniformity, some
more or less arbitrary procedure must be adopted. The descriptions are,
however, written and printed in such a style that they may be followed
in the reverse direction. In many cases the highway descriptions are
useful to travelers on railroads. For such travelers the Transportation
map on the back of the general State map will be convenient.
As a matter of convenience, lengthy Descriptions of Cities and Towns
are removed from the tour sections of the book and separately grouped
in alphabetical order. Maps indicate in numerical order the points of
interest to be visited.
Each tour description contains cross-references to other tours crossing
or branching from the route described; cross-references to all descriptions
of cities and towns given special treatment; and cross-references to re-
creational activities and island trips.
Readers can find the descriptions of important routes by examining
Index to Tours or the tour key map. As far as possible, each tour de-
scription follows a single main route; descriptions of minor routes branch-
xx On Using the Guide
ing from, or crossing, the main routes are in smaller type. The long route
descriptions are divided into sections at important junctions.
Cumulative mileage is used on main and side tours, the mileage being
counted from the beginning of each section or, on side tours, from the
junction with the main route. The mileage notations are at best relative,
since totals depend to some extent on the manner in which cars are
driven — whether they cut around other cars, round curves on the inside
or outside of the road, and so forth. Then, too, the totals will in the future
vary from those in this book because of road-building in which curves
will be eliminated and routes will be carried around cities and villages
formerly on the routes.
Inter-State routes are described from and to the State Lines; in the
Index to Tours and in the tour headings the names of the nearest out-of-
State cities of importance on the routes are listed in parentheses to enable
travelers readily to identify the routes.
Descriptions of points of interest in the larger towns and cities are
numbered and arranged in the order in which they can conveniently be
visited.
Points of interest in cities, towns, and villages have been indexed
separately rather than under the names of such communities, because
many persons know the name of a point of interest, but are doubtful as
to the name of the community in which it is situated.
The Sports and Recreation Section of the Guide gives brief topical
descriptions of the major recreational activities to be found in Maine.
Two or more detailed trips are given under each topic, supplemented
by a selected list. Condensed as it is, this section is a handy reference for
those interested in the types of sports this State has to offer. A special
Recreation map locates the activities treated in this section.
The Island Tours give the most convenient points of departure for a
sail with stops among a number of the coastal islands.
GENERAL INFORMATION
Railroads. Interstate: Boston & Maine (B. & M.), Maine Central, Bangor
& Aroostook (B.&A.), Canadian Pacific, Canadian National Rys. (Grand
Trunk). Intrastate: Belfast & Moosehead Lake, Bridgton & Harrison.
Highways. 128 State highways. Four Federal highways as follows: US 1,
Fort Kent to Florida; US 2, Woodstock, N.B., via Houlton; US 201,
Quebec, Canada; US 202, Wilmington, Del.; US 302, Montpelier, Vt., via
Conway, N.H. (See folding map.) State police patrol the highways.
Bus Lines. Intrastate: 218 lines connecting all principal cities and towns.
Interstate: Boston & Maine Transportation Co. (Portland and Boston),
Liberty Motor Tours, Inc. (Portland and Boston), Eastern Greyhound
Lines, Inc., of New England (Portland and Boston, Portland and St.
John, and St. Stephen, N.B., via Lewiston and Bangor), Maine & New
Hampshire Stages (Portland and Berlin, N.H., via Lewiston and Rum-
ford), Checker Cab Co. (Portland and Manchester, N.H., via Ports-
mouth, N.H., and Lawrence and Haverhill, Mass.), Vermont Transit
(Portland and Montreal, via Fryeburg), Coast to Coast Stages (Grey-
hound Lines, national coverage).
Air Lines. Interstate and intrastate: Boston & Maine Airways, Inc.
(airports at Bangor, Waterville, Augusta, Portland, and Boston); sum-
mer service between Bangor and Bar Harbor. Portland Municipal Air-
port for Portland Flying Service, charter service to all points in Maine
and scheduled summer service between Rangeley Lakes and Portland.
Northeast Airways, charter service and flying school.
Waterways. No regular interstate passenger service. Intrastate steamer
and motorboat service; inquire at coastal points. Boat service also
available on the larger lakes in the State.
Traffic Regulations. All passenger vehicles owned by non-residents and
properly registered in their home States may be operated on a reciprocal
basis for an unlimited period on the highways of the State.
Speed: On State highways motorists are required to drive at a careful
and prudent speed, not to exceed 25 miles per hour in residential or
built-up sections or 15 miles per hour when approaching within
50 feet and when crossing an intersection of ways, when the driver's
view is obstructed, and when passing a school during school recess
or at opening and closing hours. Speed limit varies in different cities
and towns.
Lights: Every vehicle, whether stationary or in motion, must have
a light attached to be visible from front and rear, and every vehicle
xxii General Information
having objects which project more than 5 feet from the rear must
have a light on the rear of such objects.
Accidents: Every person operating a motor vehicle in any manner
involved in an accident in which a person is killed or injured, or in
which it appears that $50 or more property damage has been done,
must report to local police and the Secretary of State.
Accommodations. The State is adequately provided with year-round
hotels in larger communities and summer hotels at resorts; numerous
tourist homes and overnight cabins and a few trailer camps along the
main highways; sporting camps at lakes. Infrequent gas stations and
accommodations in delimited areas only.
Climate. Variable, with temperatures ranging from the nineties in summer
to below zero in winter. Cool evenings may be expected in summer,
particularly along the coast. Clothing should be provided according to
season.
Recreational Areas. All forms of outdoor sport are found in Maine's
widely diversified recreational areas (see Sports and Recreation), with
accommodations as a whole good throughout the State.
Amateur sports enthusiasts should inquire as to conditions and facilities
as well as local laws, if any, for their particular sport in a specific locality.
For sea bathing, cove and inlet waters are comfortable, exposed points
cold. Life guards posted and warning signs set where there is dangerous
undertow. Fresh waters inland always warmer.
Occasional interstate and intrastate 'snow trains' operate during the
winter to sports resorts, destinations depending upon snow and ice condi-
tions in various sections.
Hunting and Fishing. Opportunities abound in most sections of the
State. License required for hunting and for fishing inland waters. Fish-
ing: non-resident, 3 days $1.65, 30 days $3.15, season $5.15; resident,
season $1.15. Hunting: non-resident, season, small game $5.15, big
game $15.15; resident, season $1.15, combination hunting and fishing
$2.15. No license required for salt-water fishing; boats and equipment
available at most coastal resorts. (For detailed information consult
Maine State Fish and Game Commission or local game warden.)
Fires: The forest fire hazard in Maine cannot be too strongly emphasized,
since nearly three-fourths of the State's entire area, or 15,000,000 acres,
is woodland. The State law on this subject is as follows: 'Non-residents
shall not kindle fires upon any unorganized township, while engaged in
camping, fishing, or hunting from May first to December first, without
being in charge of a registered guide, except at public camp sites main-
tained by the forestry department. No person shall kindle a fire on private
property within a township without the consent of the owner. No person
shall within a municipality or township set a bonfire or any kind of a fire
which is not enclosed with a metal or a non-inflammable material without
a written consent of the fire department.'
General Information xxiii
Wild Animals, Poisonous Plants. The only dangerous animals found in
Maine are bears, bobcats, moose, and occasionally lynxes and wolves,
which appear only in the northern part of the State in thickly wooded
areas; they seldom attack unless they are wounded or cornered. Poison-
ivy grows near stone walls, in pasture and woodland, and occasionally
along the seashore.
Information Bureaus. The Maine Publicity Bureau, Danforth and St.
John Sts., Portland, and branch offices at York Corner, Bangor House in
Bangor, Fryeburg, and Damariscotta; the Maine Development Commis-
sion, State House, Augusta, which is establishing (1937) other informa-
tion service units in various recreational centers in the State. Railroad
stations and hotels are equipped to give information on travel, resorts,
accommodations, recreational opportunities, and road conditions.
CALENDAR OF EVENTS
ANNUAL
Jan.
nfd*
Fryeburg
Winter Sports Carnival.
Jan.
nfd
Portland
Portland Automobile Exhibit (6
days).
Feb.
ist wk
Fort Fairfield
Winter Carnival (3 days).
Feb.
nfd
Rumford
Rumford Winter Carnival.
Feb.
nfd
Camden
Camden Winter Carnival.
Feb.
nfd
Bangor
Bangor-Caribou Ski Race.
March
ist wk
Presque Isle
Winter Carnival and Sportsmen's
Show (5 days).
April
iQ
Brunswick
Maine Open Handicap Golf Tourna-
ment.
May
nfd
East Eddington Bird-Dog Field Trials.
May
nfd
variable:
State Intercollegiate Track Meet.
Brunswick,
Lewiston,
Waterville, or
Orono
June
ist Sun.
f French ville
1st. Agatha
| Van Buren
Corpus Christi Procession.
1 Fort Kent .
June
ist part
Augusta
Boy Scout Camporee.
June
nfd
Old Orchard
Grand Circuit Horse Races (several
days).
July
30-31
South Berwick Dramatization of Gladys Hasty
Carroll's 'As the Earth Turns.'
July
last half
variable
Maine Resident Amateur Golf Cham-
pionship.
July
nfd
Boothbay Harbor Yacht Regatta.
July
July
nfd
nfd odd
variable
Portland
State Championship Trap Shoot.
Portland-Halifax Yacht Race.
years
July
nfd
Chebeague Island Casco Bay Regatta.
July
nfd
Kennebunkport Yacht Regatta.
Aug.
ist part
variable
Maine Summer Visitors* Day.
Aug.
latter part
Buxton
Dramatization of Kate Douglas
Wiggin's 'Old Peabody Pew.'
Aug.
latter part
Portland
Portland-Monhegan Island Yacht
Race.
Aug.
latter part
variable
Maine Open Amateur Golf Cham-
pionship.
*no fixed date.
XXVI
Calendar of Events
Aug. latter part
Etna
Spiritualist Camp Meeting.
Aug. nfd
variable
State of Maine Tennis Champion-
ship.
Aug. nfd
Bar Harbor
Maritime Tennis Tournament.
Aug. nfd
Bar Harbor
Floral Exhibit.
Aug. nfd
Wiscasset
Open House Day.
Aug. nfd
Old Orchard
Horse Racing (several days).
Aug. nfd
variable
State Championship Skeet Shoot.
Aug. nfd
variable
Three-Quarter Century Club.
Sept. i
Lewiston
Maine State Fair (6 days).
Sept. nfd
Damariscotta
Bird-Dog Field Trials.
Oct. nfd
Portland
Maine State Dog Show.
Nov. nfd
variable
Maine Pomological Seed Exhibit and
Flower Show.
Nov. nfd
Portland
Maine Poultry Show.
Spring
Yarmouth
Summer
r j
Bridgton
Fall
nfd
Waterville
Coon Hound Field Trials.
months ,
Winthrop
I Bowdoinham
i. MAINE: THE
GENERAL BACKGROUND
THE NATION S NORTHEAST
CORNER
STATE NAME
THE name of Maine, it is supposed by some historians, was bestowed as
a tribute to England's Queen Henrietta Marie, feudal ruler of the French
province of Meyne or Maine; some think the name was brought directly
from France by early French colonists; others hold that it was a term used
to distinguish the mainland from the coastal islands on which early fisher-
men dried their catch. The 'mainland' theory seems especially apt in
view of the facts that the serrated coastline of the State measures some
2500 miles, and that there are more than 400 offshore islands, ranging hi
area from noo to 16,000 acres, with a host of lesser ones. Islanders to
this day speak of l the main.' Variously spelled Main, Mayn, and Mayne,
the name was in use as early as 1622. Under the jurisdiction of Massa-
chusetts, the region was known as 'The Province of Maine'; and when it
was admitted to the Union in 1820, 'The State of Maine' became its of-
ficial title. The inclusion of the word ' State ' was probably inspired by the
resounding title of the mother State, 'The Commonwealth of Massa-
chusetts.'
GEOGRAPHY AND TOPOGRAPHY
Maine, the extreme northeastern State in the Union, is the only one ad-
joined by but a single sister State. Its comparatively isolated position
may be accountable for an aloofness sometimes said to be characteristic
of its people. The southern boundary of the State is the Atlantic Ocean;
the eastern boundary follows the St. Croix River to its source, thence due
north to the St. John River; the northern boundary extends roughly
from the St. John Grand Falls along the river to Crown Monument; the
western boundary extends from Crown Monument to the sea at the
mouth of the Piscataqua River near Kittery Point. The State is thus
Maine : The General Background
bordered only by the ocean, by Canada, and by New Hampshire. Early
charters denned none but the northern and southern boundaries, so that
Maine once theoretically extended, like other eastern colonies, to the
Pacific Ocean. Many bitter quarrels arose before the boundaries were
established by the Webster- Ashburton Treaty in 1842, when all disputed
territory on the Maine border was granted to England in return for con-
cessions in other matters.
Maine is much the largest of the New England States, its total area
greatly exceeding that of New Hampshire, Vermont, Rhode Island, and
Connecticut combined. Approximately one- tenth of its area of 33,040
square miles consists of water. Large sections of the State are still un-
populated and have been only partially explored.
The terrain might be best described as a broad plateau running from
the western boundary to the northeast across the Rangeley and Moose-
head Lake districts, gradually sloping eastward toward the Penobscot
River Basin and, northward to the St. John. Toward the southeast, the
plateau gradually inclines to sea level. Occasional mountains rise from
the plateau to relatively high elevations, particularly in the central and
western parts of the State. Spread over the land surface is a remarkable
system of eskers or kames, known variously as l horse-backs' or 'hog-
backs.' These are long ridges of gravel deposited by the receding glacier
of the Ice Age, extending from one mile to a hundred and fifty miles in
length. From these deposits come most of the State's road material, and
in many cases the roads follow their course.
Contrary to popular impression in other sections of the country, Maine
is a mountainous State. Cadillac Mountain, with an almost sheer rise of
1532 feet, has the highest elevation of any point on the Atlantic coast
north of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. Mount Katahdin, 5267 feet, is Maine's
highest peak; from its base on the shores of the Penobscot, about 800 feet
above sea level, it appears to be as high as some of the Rockies, which rise
from a plateau 5000 to 7000 feet above sea level. According to Maine
State Planning Board figures, Hamlin Peak on Katahdin, 4751 feet, is the
second highest mountain; 'Old Spec' in Graf ton Township, 4250 feet, and
Sugarloaf in Crockertown, 4237 feet, are the third and fourth highest
respectively; and there are five other mountains in the State more than
4000 feet and 97 more than 3000 feet in height. Most of these are more or
less conical in form, their sloping sides being heavily wooded and always
green. Outstanding mountains are Bigelow, Saddleback, Abraham,
Russell, Haystack, and Whitecap (in Franklin County). Often, as in the
case of Mount Kineo, the best known are not the highest mountains.
The Nation's Northeast Corner
Maine has well over 2200 lakes and ponds. Moosehead Lake, about
forty miles long and from two to ten miles wide, is one of the country's
largest bodies of fresh water lying wholly within the boundaries of a single
State. More than 5100 rivers and streams appear on the State map; of
these, four are navigable for considerable distances into the interior.
Augusta, on the Kennebec, and Bangor, on the Penobscot, are accessible
to seagoing vessels. Only six of Maine's sixteen counties are not open to
water traffic. The longest rivers are the St. John, 211 miles from its
source in St. John Pond to the point where it leaves the Maine boundary;
the St. Croix, 75 miles; the Penobscot, 350 miles; the Kennebec, 150 miles;
the Androscoggin, 175 miles; and the Saco, 104 miles. The streams of
Maine, marked by narrow and rapid currents, and fed by springs and the
melting snows of the forest regions, are perhaps the most important
natural resource of the State.
CLIMATE
Maine's climate is invigorating and healthful. The mean annual
temperature is 44° or 45° F. in the southern part and 39° in the extreme
northern part of the State. The summer heat is less than that of Massa-
chusetts, New York, Wisconsin, Iowa, and the Dakotas by about 32 per
cent; and the Maine winter, proverbial for harshness, is actually not so
severe as that experienced in many places of corresponding latitude.
The lowest temperatures on record range from about — 16° on the coast
to — 36° at Greenville in the Moosehead region. The longest periods of
extreme cold occur near Van Buren, where freezing temperature is re-
corded on an average of 208 days a year; whereas at Portland, the average
is only 132 days a year. Freezing temperatures at night are common
throughout the State in October and November, continuing to mid-April
or early May. The average temperature from June to October is 60° or
higher hi most parts of the State. July, the warmest month, has an
average temperature ranging from 60° at Eastport to 69° in the interior.
Daily maximum temperatures run as high as 80° in central sections. The
highest recorded temperature, 105°, occurred at Bridgton in July, 1911.
On the coast, and during the summer in particular, the temperature is
modified considerably by the sea winds. An Arctic current surging in
from the east, sometimes bearing icebergs, prevents the climate of this
region from being ameliorated by the Gulf Stream.
6 Maine: The General Background
Days of sunshine in Maine average close to sixty per cent for the year,
and monthly averages vary little during the change of seasons, though
frequently the winter has more sunny days than the summer. Fog is
common on the coast during the summer, especially in July and August,
but dense night fogs usually burn off during the day.
Maine's growing season ranges from about 150 to 170 days along the
coast, while thirty miles inland it is about thirty days shorter. The short-
est season is found near Farming ton, where the average is only 103 days.
Precipitation is well distributed over the State throughout the year,
with a range of from forty to forty-six inches annually. The average
annual snowfall varies from about seventy inches on the coast to about
one hundred inches in the northern part of the State. Near the coast the
snow is often completely melted in midwinter. Destructive storms are
rare in Maine — in nearly sixty years the State has had only six severe
blizzards and one hurricane. There are commonly from six to twelve
heavy rainfalls each year, usually accompanied by northeast winds. The
State is relatively free from serious floods and droughts; the 1936 flood
was exceptionally serious.
GEOLOGY
The bed-rock of Maine, with little exception, was formed during the
Pre-Cambrian and Paleozoic Eras. The Pre-Cambrian rocks occur
principally in the western and southern parts of the State, and consist for
the most part of sandstones, shales, and limestones greatly altered by
weathering and erosion. No fossils have been found in them. Where they
were compacted to a crystalline rock by the intrusion of molten granite,
valuable mineral deposits resulted, particularly pegmatite, coarse-
grained masses of feldspar and quartz crystallized under special condi-
tions. Where these deposits are quarried for feldspar, many gems and
rare minerals are found. The pegmatite area extends northwest across the
State from Popham, at the mouth of the Kennebec River, to the wilder-
ness of northern Oxford County. Famous mineral localities in this belt
are Topsham, Mount Apatite, Mount Mica, Paris, Buckfield, and Newry.
In Maine, the Paleozoic rocks differ from the Pre-Cambrian in being
less altered by metamorphism and in the fact that they contain fossils.
Covering the central and northern parts of the State, they represent most
>f the periods into which the Paleozoic era is divided. The first of these
The Nation's Northeast Corner
periods, the Cambrian, is represented by beds of quartzite and slate.
Cambrian fossils have been found only on the east branch of the Penob-
scot River. Ordovician beds have not been clearly distinguished from
earlier Cambrian and the later Silurian. Most sedimentary rocks in cen-
tral and northern Maine are Silurian, principally shales, slates, and impure
limestones. Silurian fossils have been found in central Maine, along the
coast at Eastport, and in Aroostook. Good exposures of these rocks are
common along the State highways of central and northern Maine.
Rock of the Devonian period is represented by a belt of sandstone, the
Moose River formation, extending from west of Moosehead Lake to
northern Aroostook. This is probably the most fossiliferous formation in
the State, including those glacial boulders containing ' clam shells ' which
attract attention in central and southern Maine. In the Devonian period
an earth movement took place that resulted in the intrusion of great
bodies of granite called ' batholiths ' ; and most of Maine's granite seems to
have come into position at this tune. Volcanoes left beds of lava and ash,
erupting first hi the Silurian period. Deposits are found along the coast
from Penobscot Bay to Eastport. Of these, Mount Kineo is the most
famous; others are East Kennebago, Big and Little Spencers, the Coburn
Hills in northeastern Aroostook, Haystack, and the Quoggy Joe Moun-
tains near Presque Isle.
The youngest Paleozoic rocks in Maine are the quartzite slates border-
ing the coast from Kittery to Casco Bay. The Paleozoic Era ended in the
Appalachian Revolution, when mountains once more rose across New
England.
The Mesozoic Era is almost without record in Maine. From studies
made elsewhere, it is believed that this part of New England was then an
upland undergoing erosion. The Cenozoic Era was also a time of erosion.
Weaker rocks were worn away, and the more resistant were left standing
as mountains on a plain that extended over the State. Later uplifts of the
land followed; hills and valleys were carved from the plain. The even
skyline formed by the merging of the hilltops represents today the level of
the old plain. Katahdin, the Blue Mountains in the western part of the
State, and the Mount Desert Mountains on the coast are examples of the
more resistant rock.
During the Ice Age that ended the Cenozoic Era, Maine was covered by
a continental glacier similar to those of Greenland and Antarctica today.
Moving southward, the glacier smoothed off the irregularities of the hills.
It left large deposits of gravel, sand, and clay; and these, damming the
pre-glacial valleys, brought about the formation of lakes and waterfalls.
Maine: The General Background
Rivers were thrown from their former courses to flow over bed-rock ridges
and through narrow gorges, creating today's resources of water-power.
During the thousands of years of the Ice Age, the weight of the glacier
depressed New England below its former level. As water from the melting
ice poured into the ocean, the latter's level rose, and it flooded the coastal
lowland up into the larger valleys. The receding flood left a layer of sand
over the clays along the coast, creating sand plains. In some places,
notably Freeport and Leeds, this sand, freed of vegetation and blown by
the wind, has formed so-called deserts.
Finally the land rose to about the present level and the sea retreated.
The coastline has not receded to its pre-glacial position; the lower valleys
are still flooded, and the highlands form the projecting headlands and
islands of the present Maine coast.
SOIL
It is believed that at the time of the first settlements, nearly the entire
land area of Maine was occupied by forests. More than three-fourths of
this area is still tree-covered; and of the cleared land, about one- third is
devoted to agricultural use. The number of acres under cultivation has
decreased considerably in the last fifty years, due chiefly to the competi-
tion arising from intensive specialization on various crops in other parts
of the country. The soil types are exceedingly varied, the most produc-
tive being the famous potato-growing district in Aroostook County, one
of the richest in the country.
Soil erosion presents a more serious problem than is commonly realized,
though the continuous vegetative cover and the rolling topography
generally prevailing in most parts of the State keep the spread of barren
lands to a minimum. The most significant damage from this cause may
be seen along the sloping banks of the St. John River and its tributaries,
where brush and grass were thoroughly removed in the cultivation of the
land and nothing was left to prevent the top-soil from being washed from
the hillsides during heavy rains. Much has been done in recent years, in
the way of proper scientific planting and reforestation in many parts of
Maine, toward controlling this problem. The same may also be said in
regard to the control and eradication of insect pests and plant diseases.
Despite adverse soil conditions, the comparatively short growing
The Nation's Northeast Corner
period, and competition from more productive areas, Maine has been in
the past and continues to be primarily an agricultural State. Its temperate
climate during the growing season, with a minimum of natural hazards,
and its well-distributed and unfailing rainfall, offset some of the disad-
vantages noted above.
WATER RESOURCES
Maine's coast is indented by many safe harbors and pierced by many
navigable rivers upon which the tidewater sometimes reaches as far as
sixty miles inland. The water-power of the rivers is the State's greatest
natural resource. The rainfall is sufficient to insure the maintenance of a
constant flow of water, and the sources of the rivers are high enough above
sea level so that there are many natural falls or favorable opportunities for
the development of power plants. At the present time, less than half the
potential power of the State has been developed. Conservative estimates
put the possible water-power production at i, 200,000 horse-power.
Approximately ninety-five per cent of the hydro-electric power pro-
duced in Maine is controlled by three companies, which by means of inter-
connecting lines form a super-power system nearly blanketing the State.
Numerous storage dams and steam generators enable these companies to
supply a nearly constant output of power, regardless of natural hazards.
The greater part of the industrial water-power is used by the paper manu-
facturing companies, while several power developments formerly used by
lumber and pulp mills are now idle. A comprehensive program of water-
shed forestation and damming for flood control is being carried on both by
the State and by private companies. There have been created on several
of the rivers in the State, mainly by raising and controlling the flow from
several of the larger lakes, fifty reservoirs with a capacity of more than
two hundred billion cubic feet. State and Federal commissions have made
studies of the most important rivers and lakes in regard to potential
power, drainage, and storage.
A new and unusual development of Maine's water-power is the pro-
jected dam at Passamaquoddy Bay, where the presence of unique coastal
pools and a twenty-foot average tidal fall make this one of the very few
sites in the world that are feasible for the development of tidal power.
io Maine: The General Background
MINERAL RESOURCES
In Maine are found ores of most metals, as well as useful non-metallic
minerals such as quartz, feldspar, mica, graphite, asbestos, and gem stones
such as tourmalines, beryl, amethyst, garnet, and topaz. At least one
mineral, beryllonite, has been found nowhere outside Maine, and this
State has yielded the finest emerald beryl ever found in the United States.
In mineral production, Maine stands about midway among the States, the
average annual yield being valued at about $6,000,000. One-third of the
State is still unexplored in respect to mineral resources, and only limited
areas have received adequate investigation.
Granite has always been one of the State's important products. In
1934 there were as many as ninety scattered quarries — not all, however,
being worked regularly. Their products range from rubble, concrete
aggregate, and paving stones, to great blocks from which may be cut
monolithic columns. Maine granites show great variation in color, grain,
and texture, and have been used in the construction of many buildings
and monuments throughout the country.
Limestone deposits are found in many parts of the State, and are used
particularly in the manufacture of cement; outstanding for this product
is the Penobscot Bay region. In Monson and Brown ville, slate quarrying
has been carried on for many years. Feldspar is mined in Oxford, An-
droscoggin, Cumberland, Sagadahoc, and Lincoln Counties. The raw
' spar ' is ground in mills at Topsham and West Paris, and shipped away for
use in the manufacture of porcelains, scouring powders, and soap. Great
reserves of it exist, many deposits being still unexplored. The rock known
as pegmatite, or 'giant granite,' from which commercial feldspar is ob-
tained, also yields mica, quartz, beryl, most gems, and many rare and
interesting minerals. The clays that form enormous deposits around
Passamaquoddy and Penobscot Bays and elsewhere are particularly rich
and promising sources of bauxite, the only ore of aluminum now in com-
mercial use. The existence of cheap power, which the completed tide-
harnessing project at Quoddy would supply, should make the develop-
ment of this important resource economically possible.
Of other metals, platinum and iridium are reported, although the
possibility of obtaining them for commercial use is not yet clear. Gold is
present hi small quantities in a number of places; in at least fifty localities,
placer or stream gold is plentiful enough to offer fair returns to the pro-
The Nation's Northeast Corner II
spector who is willing to pan persistently. Gold quartz of promising con-
tent has been found in sufficient quantity to warrant at least small-scale
mining. Silver is found in most of the lead and zinc localities, and in the
copper ores at Bluehill. Some pure silver has been mined at Sullivan and
elsewhere. That there are considerable bodies of lead and zinc of definite
value has been known since they were first mined in 1860. The most
successful copper mine is at Bluehill, last worked in 1917-18, where more
than two million pounds of copper have been obtained. Other valuable
copper deposits are known to exist in northern Franklin County. Iron ore
has been worked on a small scale for local use for a great many years,
notably at Clinton. At the Katahdin Iron Works, extensive operations
were carried on for a long time; but since the opening of the great deposits
in Michigan and Minnesota, small-scale iron operations have been im-
practicable. It is now thought that Maine bodies of iron ore may be
developed successfully in conjunction with some other metal, such as
molybdenum, for the production of alloys in demand by the steel industry.
Deposits of bog iron ore are numerous, and there are other types of
promising quality, particularly in Aroostook County. A large company
at the present time (1937) is engaged near Cooper in the production of
molybdenum.
Cassiterite, the usual ore of tin, has been found at a number of the
feldspar localities, and a definite attempt to mine it has been made at
Winslow. This is the only source of tin known to exist in the United
States. Antimony ore, pyrite, marcasite, and pyrrhotite (the three
latter being valuable sources for sulphite) are widely distributed through-
out the State, as are ores of manganese.
Deposits of diatomaceous earth occur at Bluehill, Beddington, Phillips,
Houlton, and generally throughout the lake country. This material, con-
sisting of the shells of microscopic plants, is nearly pure silica. It is a
plastic white powder deposited in bogs and ponds, and much in demand
for filtering, scouring, and wall insulation. The Phillips deposit is now
under operation.
The probability that coal or oil will ever be found in Maine in com-
mercial quantities is slight, but the State contains a large and practically
untapped fuel reserve in its deposits of peat. Bogs containing peat suit-
able for fuel purposes, from a few acres to several square miles in size, are
found all over the State. The bogs also provide a moss that has consider-
able commercial importance to florists and nurserymen.
Asbestos of commercial grade is known to exist in large quantities in
Maine, particularly in the Spencer Lake region, near Eustis on the Arnold
Trail, and in northern Penobscot County.
12 Maine: The General Background
FLORA
Maine's flora falls into two classifications: Canadian in the cooler
sections, and Transition in the warmer. Isolated areas of one type of
flora are sometimes found well within the confines of the other.
Alpine flora occurs on the upper reaches of Mount Katahdin and other
high peaks. A blue-leaf birch is known to occur in these regions; and
mountain white birch and mountain alder are found on Katahdin.
Among the more hardy plants in Alpine areas are Lapland diapensia,
Alpine bearberry, Greenland starwort, lance-leaved painted-cup, Alpine
trailing azalea, Alpine holy-grass, narrow-leaved Labrador tea, blue
spear-grass, Lapland rose-bay, and fir club-moss.
The Transition flora grows below Cape Elizabeth on the coast, in all of
York County, and in the southern sections of counties west of the
Penobscot River, a great wooded area of pine and oak. The Canadian
flora is found along the coast north of Scarboro, and inland above an
imaginary line running from Umbagog Lake in the Rangeley section to
Mars Hill in lower Aroostook County.
The white pine, sometimes called the 'masting pine' because in
Colonial times the larger trees were reserved for masts for the Royal
Navy, is displayed on the State seal and gives Maine its name of 'the
Pine Tree State.' These pines are known to reach a height of two hundred
and forty feet, and a diameter of six feet at the butt. Once abundant in
groves throughout the State, they now exist for the most part only in
second growth.
Hemlock, its bark valuable for tanning, is plentiful. Balsam fir, some-
times grown commercially for the Christmas-tree trade, runs wild all over
the State; the wood, imparting no flavor, is commonly used in making
butter-tubs. Red oak occurs in all parts of Maine except the extreme
north. The burr oak is common in the central part of Maine. White or
paper birch is prevalent throughout all but southern Maine, often appear-
ing in nearly pure stands of considerable area. The yellow birch is the
largest native birch, though often not so tall as the white.
There is an abundance of sugar or rock maple. Mountain maple is seen
all over Maine; and box elder (also a maple), planted as an ornamental
tree in southern sections, grows wild in Aroostook County. Tupelo, or
black gum, is not found north of Waterville.
Pitch pine is the principal tree appearing on large tracts of the Bruns-
The Nation's Northeast Corner 13
wick district. On the shore of Bauneg Beg Lake in North Berwick there
is a large stand of pitch pine, many of the old trees of great size. Coast
white cedar is found only in York County, as is butternut, an introduced
tree and the only species of walnut growing in Maine. Shagbark is found
occasionally in southern sections and as far east as Woolwich, and the
nuts are sold in market.
Maine's oldest and most valuable trees are the white oaks, some of
them well over five hundred years old. The bark is used for tanning.
Black or yellow oak is confined to the southerly coastal regions, and the
swamp white oak and the chestnut oak are found locally in southern
Maine. Chestnuts are not common, most of them having been destroyed
by the chestnut-bark disease. The slippery elm, so named because of its
mucilaginous inner bark, and the sassafras are little known. The syca-
more or buttonwood is found along streams in southern Maine. Poison
sumach is found as a shrub in the Transition area.
Trees common throughout the State are tamarack, locally called by its
Indian name of hackmatack; red spruce, most abundant of Maine's
conifers, growing as high as eighty feet, and valued as the principal wood
used for paper pulp (it also supplies spruce gum, which is gathered from
September to June) ; white spruce, called ' skunk spruce ' by lumbermen
because of the odor of its foliage; white cedar or arborvitae, growing in
dense stands on swampy ground; and black willow, the largest and most
conspicuous American willow.
The rapid-growing aspen poplar, used for book-paper pulp, is abundant,
being often found in nearly pure stands. The large-tooth aspen and the
balsam poplar are common throughout the State. Ironwood, or horn-
beam, is widely distributed, though not abundant. Common beech is
plentiful.
The white or American elm, one of Maine's largest and most graceful
trees, is common throughout this State, as it is through all of New England.
It is generally planted near houses, many persons believing that it diverts
lightning. Fully as beautiful is the mountain ash. Wild cherry, found in
every section, is of little value except as cover for burned-over areas.
But the wild black cherry, widely distributed though not abundant,
provides one of the State's most valuable furniture woods. The red plum
is occasionally grafted and often used as an ornamental tree. Striped
maple or moosewood is a lovely tree found all over Maine. The silver
maple grows near the coast, its sap being used to make an inferior maple
syrup. Red maple is the most abundant, growing in swamp lands. The
basswood, a species of linden, is attractive for its flowers, which are
14 Maine: The General Background
popular with honey bees. The black ash and white ash, the latter a
valuable timber tree, are prominent all over the State.
A rare shrub called the prostrate savin or trailing yew is found on
Monhegan Island, and other islands east of Casco Bay; on Mount Desert
Island it is called the Bar Harbor juniper.
Among the common shrubs of Maine are the speckled alder, in swamp
and pasture lands; witch hazel, bordering most forest areas; several
nearly indistinguishable varieties of shad-bush, whose white sweet-
scented flowers are the first harbingers of spring and whose wood is used
in making fishing rods; the hawthorn or thorn apple; the chokecherry,
found along farm fence-rows; and the staghorn sumach.
Trees introduced into Maine with marked success include the Norway
spruce, the Colorado or blue spruce, and three poplars — the white
poplar, the cottonwood or Carolina poplar, and the Lombardy poplar.
The European beech, the copper beech, and the English elm have been
introduced largely as ornamental trees, as has the European mountain
ash or rowan tree, superior to the native mountain ash in brilliancy of
coloring, its bright red berries remaining well into the winter. The black
locust and the honey locust were brought into the southern part of Maine,
and the latter is now common in the vicinity of Paris and elsewhere. The
horse-chestnut was introduced from Asia by way of southern Europe.
In Washington and Hancock Counties low-bush blueberries have
developed considerable commercial importance. Mountain cranberries
grow abundantly in the Mount Desert region, having long since given
their name to the Cranberry Isles, and the large bog cranberry is widely
distributed in marshlands over the State. Most flowers and blossoming
shrubs common to the north temperate zone can be found, generally more
brilliantly colored along the shore than in the interior. Among the more
widely distributed species of the Mount Desert region are American wood
anemone, New England aster (introduced), seaside aster, swamp aster,
wild bergamot, American bittersweet, black-eyed Susan, bluet, tall
meadow-cup, clover, sweet clover, white ox-eye daisy, and dandelion.
Others are blueflag, Canada goldenrod, salt marsh goldenrod, fragrant
goldenrod, goldthread, blue-eyed grass, harebell, orange hawkweed, false
heather, hepatica, and Indian pipe.
Familiar are Jack-in-the-pulpit, Joe-pye, seaside knotgrass, sea
lavender, and wild lily-of-the-valley or Canada mayflower. The most
common wayside lilies are the Canada lily and American turk's cap
(introduced). Mayflower, the trailing arbutus, ushers in the spring. Of
the many orchids native to Maine, the best known are arethusa, common
The Nation's Northeast Corner 15
and yellow lady-slippers, rose pogonia, and the small purple and white
orchids.
Devil's paintbrush grows in profusion, spreading through the fields to
the grief of the farmer and the joy of the passer-by. Other bright flowers
are the scarlet pimpernel, the sea or marsh pink, the swamp pink, pitcher-
plant, and pokeweed (rare). Maine's two rhododendrons are not common,
but the well-known rhodora, immortalized by Emerson, is no less beauti-
ful. Best known of the wild roses are the swamp rose, meadow rose, and
wild brier rose. Purple trillium and painted trillium, yellow violet,
common purple violet, blue marsh violet, and sweet white violet, the
giant sunflower (escaped from gardens), eglantine or sweetbrier, wood-
bine, and yellow wood-sorrel are all commonly found.1
FAUNA
In wide areas still untouched by urban civilization, Maine is today rich
in many of the species of birds, mammals, and fish that attracted the early
explorers. On the other hand, man's continual slaughter of wild life has
caused extinction of the great auk, the passenger pigeon, the heath hen,
and the Eskimo curlew, and has driven the timber wolf, the panther, the
wild turkey, and the swan out of the State. Northern white-tailed deer,
first noticed in numbers about 1900, have increased in the State. Some
believe that the migration of the caribou, not seen south of the Canadian
border for nearly thirty years, is due to the close cropping of forest
vegetation by the deer. The Maine State Planning Board reports that
even with an annual kill of more than sixteen thousand, deer are more
plentiful now than they were a hundred years ago. American elk, com-
monly called moose from the Indian musu, are found in all the northern
counties. Since they have been protected by law, they have even been
seen along the coast, particularly in the marshy woodlands of Waldo
County. Black or cinnamon bear, sometimes of large size, are numerous
along the beech ridges of northern Aroostook. Bay lynx or bobcat are
known in every county, especially in Aroostook. But panther and
catamount are no more ; and the gray wolf, once known all over Maine, was
last seen in 1930 in Bluehill. The Canada lynx, the so-called loup-cervier,
is not uncommon in the Magalloway region.
1 The Portland Society of Natural History, 22 Elm St., has on exhibition in its Herbarium
well-authenticated specimens of practically all plants known to occur in Maine. The State
Park in Augusta also has a fine collection of plants, shrubs, and trees of the State.
1 6 Maine: The General Background
Except in the extreme southwestern part, Canadian beaver are increas-
ing throughout the State. There are more than two thousand of them in
the Penobscot east country alone. It is now considered that the damage
done by beavers to streams and woods is more than offset by the value of
their dammed-up pools in aiding fire-fighters. Muskrat, American otter,
American mink, fisher, and marten (known as American sable) are all to
be found in Maine. The Maine weasel is the only animal to which the
State has given its name. Raccoon are increasing. Skunk are common,
as are red foxes in all their color variations — cross, silver, and black.
The hare (commonly called snowshoe rabbit), gray rabbit, confined
principally to York and Cumberland Counties, northern red squirrel,
northern gray squirrel, and chipmunk are plentiful. Woodchucks
abound; but hedgehogs, generally known as American porcupine, have
been nearly exterminated since a bounty was placed on them. The com-
mon shrew and the mole or short-tailed shrew are known generally, and
a rare species of shrew, Sorex thompsoni, has been found in Brunswick,
Norway, and Waterville. Maine has the brown bat, the little brown bat,
hoary bat, and silver-haired bat; as well as the wood mouse, field mouse,
and house mouse. In the Alpine areas are found the chickaree, north-
ern flying squirrel, Canada porcupine, Labrador jumping mouse, and
Canadian white-footed mouse.
Pickering's tree frog sounds the first note of spring; there are also the
bullfrog, yellow-throated green frog, marsh or pickerel frog, woodfrog,
common or leopard frog, and tree frog — the latter often erroneously
called tree toad. Maine has several varieties of turtle — the snapping
turtle, mud turtle or painted terrapin, yellow-spotted or speckled
tortoise, wood tortoise, and box tortoise — the latter very rare this far
north. According to Dr. Ditmars, of the New York Zoological Park, there
are no poisonous snakes in Maine, but there are, of course, the small
garter snake, striped snake, ribbon snake, green snake, water snake, and
an occasional milk adder.
Seals abound along the coast above Casco Bay, and there is a bounty
on them in the Passamaquoddy Bay region. Finback whales are increas-
ing along the lower Maine coast; in 1936 as many as twenty or thirty at a
time were seen off Wells and Kennebunk early in March. Maine has a
wide variety of game fish (see Sports and Recreation). There is an abun-
dance of lobster and clams along the coast, the small white Scarboro clam
being particularly succulent. Shore or rock crabs, scallops, shrimps, and
mussels are all plentiful.
Of the three hundred and twenty-one known species of birds within the
The Nation's Northeast Corner 17
State, twenty-six are permanent residents. In Maine's Canadian areas
are the Acadian chickadee and the eastern snow bunting, while Bicknell's
thrush is known to breed on the upper reaches of the mountains. From
Labrador to the Everglades, the nests of only twenty northern bald-
headed eagles have ever been discovered, and of these two are at George-
town and one at Newcastle; they are occupied each year. There are
known to be at least twenty-five giant eagles in the hills near Cherryfield.
A great golden eagle was reported as seen on Eagle Cliff at Carrying
Place near Bingham in 1933, and others have been seen in the past at
Penobscot. The Canada ruffed grouse, erroneously called partridge, is
Maine's most highly prized game bird. The Fish and Game Commissioner
annually liberates thousands of ring-necked pheasants along the coastal
range from North Berwick to Cherryfield, and this species is increasing
rapidly. The common mallard or wild duck and the common black duck
breed here, and are the most popular game birds among the water-
fowl.
The more common birds of Maine's Canadian fauna are the brown
creeper, American golden-eye, eastern goshawk, rusty grackle, Holboell's
grebe, Canada jay (known otherwise as moosebird and whisky jay), slate-
colored junco, eastern golden-crowned kinglet, common loon, red-
breasted nuthatch, old-squaw, snowy owl, spruce partridge, northern
raven, red-poll, red-backed sandpiper, white-winged scoter, pine siskin,
Acadian sharp-tailed sparrow, Lincoln's sparrow, white-throated sparrow,
olive-backed thrush, water thrush, black-poll warbler, myrtle warbler,
yellow palm warbler, eastern winter wren, and lesser yellow-legs.
A partial list of the birds of Maine's Transition fauna includes the
eastern least bittern (rare), red- winged blackbird, eastern bluebird,
bobolink, eastern bob-white, black-capped chickadee, American crossbill,
eastern crow, yellow-billed cuckoo (very rare), eastern mourning dove,
alder flycatcher, olive-sided flycatcher, bronzed grackle, ruffed grouse,
bluejay, eastern belted kingfisher, eastern meadowlark, white-breasted
nuthatch, Baltimore oriole, orchard oriole (very rare), barred or hoot owl,
screech owl, short-eared owl, saw-whet owl, domestic pigeon, eastern or
American robin, spotted sandpiper, eastern field sparrow (uncommon),
Savannah sparrow, sharp-tailed sparrow, starling, bank swallow, barn
swallow, cliff swallow, tree swallow, scarlet tanager, brown thrasher or
song thrush, wood thrush (rare), and hermit thrush, towhee, Philadelphia
vireo, black- throated blue warbler, black and yellow or magnolia warbler,
whippoorwill, northern downy woodpecker, northern hairy woodpecker,
northern pileated woodpecker (uncommon), and eastern house wren.
1 8 Maine: The General Background
The domestic pigeon, the pheasant, the English sparrow, and the starling
have been introduced into the State.
The islands off the Maine coast constitute the great nursery of the
North Atlantic sea birds. Green Island, six or seven miles out from Cliff
Island in Casco Bay, is a favorite breeding place for gulls. Of one hundred
and eleven offshore islands visited in 1931, seventy-seven had nesting
colonies of American herring gulls, which are so common in Washington
County as to be an annoyance to blueberry growers. In 1934, herring
gulls decimated a colony of double-crested cormorants on a Penobscot
Bay island, and have wiped out other colonies. Great numbers of them
breed inland on Gull Island in Moosehead Lake, and many others on
Rangeley waters. The black guillemot was found breeding on twenty-
four islands. The American merganser stays close to fresh water, and is a
coast resident in winter only. The red-breasted merganser or sea robin,
common in coastal areas of Canadian fauna, is found inland in summer.
Leach's petrel is the only representative of its order known to breed along
the Maine coast. The northern raven is common along the upper coast,
but is rarely seen inland. The great black-backed gulls are just returning
to Maine after an absence of many years. Double-crested cormorants
breed regularly on Penobscot Bay islands.
American eider ducks, the largest of Maine sea ducks, now breed here
and are seen frequently near the outer islands in January. Canada goose,
commonly called wild goose, was once known to breed as far south as
Mere Point, instead of entirely in northern Quebec, and the Arctic as at
present. Merrymeeting Bay is one of the most important way stations on
the coast for them in the spring. From early March until the middle of
May, they gather there in great numbers.
Terns are often blamed for the mischief done by herring gulls, but this
is a mistake since they eat live gamey food only. The common tern
breeds on most of Maine's grassy islands. On Upper Sugar Loaf Island,
not far from Popham Beach, there are colonies of common tern and
roseate tern, the latter now increasing from a distinct rarity. Puffins, also
called sea parrots, are likewise increasing; the best place south of the
Gulf of St. Lawrence to see these interesting birds is on Machias Seal
Island, where there is a colony of several hundred. On the same island
are many razor-billed auks, which apparently do not breed there. Al-
though the island belongs to the United States, the light there is operated
by the Canadian Government, and permission to visit the island must be
obtained from the Canadian Department of Marine, at St. John, New
Brunswick,
The Nation's Northeast Corner 19
The laughing gull is rare, but there is a colony of this species in Penob-
scot Bay. The common loon breeds in inland ponds. The great blue
herons are increasing rapidly on the coast; one of their large breeding
grounds, Bartlett's Island near Bar Harbor, is protected by the Federal
Government. Black-crowned night herons are also more frequently seen
than formerly. And the osprey is no longer uncommon on the Maine
coast.1
1 The Portland Society of Natural History, 22 Elm St., Portland, maintains an exhibition
room with a complete collection of representative birds of the State. Information and sug-
gestions about bird colonies may be obtained from the director.
EARLIEST INHABITANTS:
THE RED PAINT PEOPLE
SCATTERED all along the Maine coast and through southern New
England are great shell-heaps, said to have been accumulated from one
thousand to five thousand years ago. Allowing a century for a certain
number of inches of mold upon the mounds, archeologists have been able
in some degree to estimate their great age. They were made, it is sup-
posed, by the Indians who in summer migrated to the coast and reaped
mighty harvests from the sea. The heaps are so large that it must have
required centuries of clam-feasts for their accumulation. They are val-
uable because of the many interesting relics found buried in them.
But these are not the earliest archeological remains. Throughout the
central and eastern part of the State, along the coast and in stream valleys,
Maine inhabitants have been discovering since the time of the first settlers
the graves of a prehistoric people who had either become extinct or had
evolved a new civilization by the time the shell-heaps began to take form.
While these graves occur most thickly in Maine, the area in which they
are found extends throughout New England and into Canada. Because
the shell-heaps contain remains of mollusks now found only in southern
waters and the surface of the land along the shore seems to have suffered
some change, we know that this early people existed in a time when geolo-
gic evolution was still going on and the climate of New England was much
warmer than it is now. That this people antedated those who made the
shell-heaps is ascertained by the difference in the quality and workman-
ship of the weapons found in the shell-heaps and in the graves.
Very little actually is known about these earliest inhabitants. They are
called the Red Paint People because each of the discovered graves con-
tains a quantity (varying from less than two quarts to a bushel) of a
brilliant red ocher (powdered hematite) . Sometimes, though rarely, this
pigment is shaded to yellow or brown, the yellow coloration often found
in the graves having been created by iron corrosion. The fact of ' ocher
burial ' is not particularly distinctive, however, because it is a character-
istic of certain early peoples the world over. Paleolithic graves in France
and Australia show evidences of ocher; later races in New England
GLIMPSES OF HISTORY
ARCHEOLOGICAL discoveries casting greater light on our
earliest inhabitants are still being made. Tombs such as that
pictured here add new facts to old history, help round out the
mysterious story of Maine's paleolithic people, the so-called
'Red Paint' Indians.
Visible monuments to the early struggles of the pioneers to
establish themselves on the first frontiers of America are the
old forts with their stockades and blockhouses, many of
which remain standing today. Scattered along the coastline
for protection of harbors and port towns there are many more
substantial, but long since abandoned, fortifications dating
back to the Civil War and the War of 1812. Good examples
of these are Fort Knox and Fort Popham, pictured here.
More useful and more beautiful landmarks appear in many of
the State's old bridges, for they record development and pro-
gress in times of peace. The Old Covered Bridge at Stillwater
is of a type fast disappearing from the New England scene.
Casco Castle is another significant landmark, all that is left of
a great amusement resort which knew considerable popularity
in the heyday of the streetcar.
'RED PAINT' (INDIAN) VAULT AT THE FORKS
FORT Me CLARY, KITTERY POINT
FORT HALIFAX, WINSLOW
OLD OXFORD COUNTY JAIL, PARIS HILL
FORT KNOX, PROSPECT
CASCO CASTLE, FREEPORT
FORT EDGECOMB, NORTH EDGECOMB
FORT POPHAM, POPHAM BEACH
FIRST PILE BRIDGE IN NORTH AMERICA, SEW ALL BRIDGE AT YORK
OLD COVERED BRIDGE, STILL WATER
OLD POWDER HOUSE AT WISCASSET
Earliest Inhabitants: The Red Paint People 21
occasionally painted their bodies with it, and sometimes it is found in their
graves. The now extinct Beothuks of Newfoundland had a particular
predilection for red ocher, smearing not only their bodies with it but their
huts, their canoes, and all their possessions; and for this they were called
Red Indians by early explorers. The Beothuks were a comparatively
modern race, however, and there are no evidences of paleolithic man in
this section of the New World. Maine's Red Paint People, apparently
very early in the development of neolithic culture, may be regarded then
as a cultural unit. Many of their stone artifacts are unlike those of the In-
dians who later occupied the same territory; certain of their implements,
indeed, were made of different materials from any used by later Stone
Age people. The similarity of their culture, as manifested by the stone
implements, to that of the Eskimo has led some writers to suggest that
they were not red Indians at all; others, influenced by their common use
of ocher, see in them early relatives to the Beothuks of Newfoundland.
At any rate, they were a somewhat widely scattered and highly
developed people. Although not agriculturalists like later Indians who
occupied the same territory, they had developed a high degree of crafts-
manship. They used fire-making tools of a sort superior to those of the
later Indians; their implements imply skill in woodworking, and they
made boats, possibly log dug-outs, in which they seem to have traveled
considerable distances.
Since the time of the earliest white settlements, red ocher graves have
been found. Early New Englanders regarded them with extreme suspicion ;
to find one was considered an evil omen. Hardy adventurers, however, un-
earthing the paint, put it to good advantage when they saw that it gave a
satisfactory finish to their furniture and other woodwork. At first the
ocher deposits, always accompanied as they were by strange stone
weapons, were not imagined to be associated with burials. Only more
recently have bone dust and even tiny fragments of undecayed human
bone been discovered in them. A startling find was turned up not long
ago when city employees of Waterville, hi excavating a public road, un-
covered two skeletons preserved in red ocher; when the air struck them,
they visibly turned to dust, all but a few fragments that are now preserved
in Portland's Museum of Natural History.
In the late nineteenth century, Dr. Augustus C. Hamlin of Bangor
interested archeologists at Harvard University's Peabody Museum in
investigating the Maine Red Paint cemeteries. The first extensive ex-
ploration was carried on by the Peabody Museum, and later work was
done by expeditions from Phillips Academy of Andover, Massachusetts.
22 Maine : The General Background
Some of the best collections of Red Paint artifacts are at the Peabody
Museum and at Phillips Andover Academy — the largest at the latter.
The findings in about thirty Red Paint cemeteries have been recorded; the
best reference is C. C. Willoughby's 'Antiquities of the New England
Indians' (Peabody Museum Publications, 1935). Of course, many other
cemeteries have been found of which there is no record, the relics having
been dug out and lost or scattered. All the recorded cemeteries in Maine
are near water navigable for small boats. All but two are on stream banks
or near the coast; the two exceptions, although on high ground, lie beside
what may once have been the course of a stream now deflected in another
direction. The recorded cemeteries are as follows: on Penobscot waters,
one each in Rowland, Eddington, Hampden, Milford, and Swanville; two
each in Bucksport, Bradley, Old Town, and Passadumkeag; five in
Orland. On the Kennebec, one each at Kineo, Oakland, Waterville, and
Winslow. Three have been found on the Georges River in the townships of
Warren and Union; and two in Ellsworth on the Union River. One was
discovered at Pemaquid Pond in Bristol, one in Bluehill on Bluehill Bay,
and one at Sullivan Falls on Frenchman's Bay. These are among the
oldest archeological remains of North America, and are therefore of great
importance.
Most of the graves contain knives and spear-points, but not arrow-
heads — apparently the bow and arrow were not known to these people.
Red Paint or, more properly, pre-Algonquian, implements consist mainly
of adze blades, pear-shaped sinkers, fire-making sets, chipped-flint knives,
long slender lance-heads and projectile points, sharpening stones, a few
slate pendants in the form of a whale's tail, and several perforated slate
ceremonials commonly called 'banners tones.' These types are found to a
rather less extent throughout New England and portions of the adjacent
territory. Instruments are found in varying numbers and of uneven
workmanship, though of a fairly consistent high-grade quality. Some of
them are covered with what seem to be inscriptions or designs, which no
doubt are meant to tell some story. In at least one case, inscriptions were
made on a thin tablet intended for no other use.
But notwithstanding the discoveries made, no one has yet been able
to say where these people came from, how long they were here, or whence
and why they departed. Of them we really know nothing — what they
looked like, how they lived, even how they talked. The sources of certain
types of minerals and rocks which they used have never been discovered.
Their uses of certain specialized artifacts are unknown to us. No one has
ever found the sites of any of their villages. A theory which would ac-
Earliest Inhabitants: The Red Paint People 23
count for their disappearance may be that they inhabited regions of the
coast now sunk below the sea, and that they themselves or their villages
were borne away in a tidal wave. Certain geological discoveries in regard
to the sinking of the Maine coastal level seem to bear out this hypothesis.
Furthermore, some archeologists believe that many of the cemeteries are
not on their original sites, having apparently been hastily moved en masse,
as if it were that the sacred objects contained in the graves had to be
carried to higher ground to escape the ravages of floods. This explanation
does not, however, account for the disappearance of those pre-Algonquian
people who lived further inland in what are now other states than Maine.
The supposition that they were an early branch of the Beothuks of New-
foundland, whom they seem to resemble in many ways, is not proved.
Some scientists continue to believe that the Red Paint People were driven
into the North, and are now represented there by the Eskimos, many of
whose ceremonial instruments closely resemble artifacts which have been
unearthed in Maine.
There are collections of Red Paint artifacts hi the State Museum at
Augusta, the Bangor Historical Society exhibit at the Bangor Public
Library, the Maine Historical Society at Portland, Dr. J. Howard Wil-
son's Museum at Castine, the Knox County Historical Society at Thomas-
ton, and the Robert Abbe Memorial Museum at Bar Harbor. Many
other extensive and interesting collections are in the possession of indivi-
dual persons or families throughout the State.
THE ABNAKI INDIANS
OF THE many tribes of Indians that inhabited Maine at the time of the
white man's coming in the early seventeenth century, only two remain,
the Penobscots and the Passamaquoddies. They are all that is left of the
Abnaki or Wabenaki, 'people of the dawn,' a once powerful nation of
more than twenty tribes inhabiting parts of Canada, Maine, New Hamp-
shire, and northern Massachusetts. The Passamaquoddies and the In-
dians of the St. John River are descendants of the ancient Etchimins, a
seafaring people who were originally a branch of the Abnaki. However
much they differ in customs and in dialect, both of these tribes derive
their language and principal characteristics from a common Algonquian
stock. They are the least disintegrated racially of all the present-day de-
scendants of New England's aborigines; many families among them have a
heritage unmixed with white or African blood. But their tribal distinc-
tions have long since become blurred by inter-association with the rem-
nants of other vanishing tribes, and by the effacing of many of their tradi-
tions under the stress of modern industrial life. Also, to please the tourist
trade, they have been tempted into adopting manners and costumes
entirely foreign to them.
The Penobscots live mainly on a reservation at Indian or Panawamske
Island in Old Town; the Passamaquoddies or Pestumokadyik ('people
who spear pollock') have reservations at Pleasant Point near Eastport,
and at Peter Dana Point near Princeton. There are probably not many
more than one thousand Indians of fairly unadulterated stock in Maine
today, the majority of whom live at Old Town; but that is a considerably
larger number than was estimated to be living in the State one hundred
years ago.
The Indians of Maine have always been a peaceful and friendly
people, living chiefly by agricultural activities. It was they who kept the
early settlers of Massachusetts alive by sending presents of food to the
settlements. They were ultimately aroused to violent action only by the
prolonged aggression of the settlers and by being forced to take sides in the
English-French struggles. And when they did rise up, whole tribes were
remorselessly exterminated. It is a significant fact that the custom of tak-
ing scalps was not known among them until instituted by English
The Abnaki Indians 25
officers. Today they live harmoniously among themselves and with their
white neighbors, and in general maintain high standards of conduct.
The Indian villages are autonomous in government, each electing its
own officers. The tribes may send representatives to the State legislature,
although the people are not citizens. Most of them are deeply religious,
the majority being communicants of the Roman Catholic Church. They
have their own convents and schools, the latter supported largely by the
State. Each summer the Old Town Indians present an historical pageant.
They commonly dress in conventional costume and speak English, own
their homes and radios, drive automobiles, and indeed are indistinguish-
able from thek white neighbors. They are, however, taught to speak their
native language at an early age, and much is being done among them to
preserve their native traditions and arts.
For most of them, no great effort is required to make a living, since each
family has an inherited income from funds held in trust for them. In 1786,
a treaty confirmed to the Indians certain lands as well as liberal gifts.
These lands were sold at various times to Massachusetts and to Maine
for considerable sums, to be held for the Indians and their descendants.
In 1818, Massachusetts agreed to pay the Penobscots the following: one
six-pounder cannon, one swivel, fifty good knives, two hundred yards of
calico, two drums, four rifles, one box of pipes, three hundred yards of
ribbon; and in October of each year, 'as long as the Penobscots shall re-
main a nation,' to give them five hundred bushels of corn, fifteen barrels of
wheat, seven barrels of clear pork, one hogshead of molasses, one hundred
yards of double- width broadcloth (red one year and blue the next) , fifty
good blankets, one hundred pounds of gunpowder, six boxes of chocolate,
one hundred and fifty pounds of tobacco, and fifty dollars in silver — or
their equivalents. Since for many years certain families did not draw
upon the sums due them, among the Indians today there must be persons
of considerable wealth. The average Indian takes up his income in trade
at the agency store. The Penobscot tribe receives further compensation
from corporations which make use of the Indian shore on the river above
Old Town; the tribe owns all of the one hundred and forty-six islands
above Old Town, with a total area of forty-five hundred acres. The In-
dians work as river-drivers and as guides to hunting and fishing parties, or
they make baskets which they sell to tourists.
The Penobscots are sometimes erroneously called Tarantines, a name
for an earlier tribe or group of tribes. The Puritans called the Abnaki
'Tarrateens.' Among the Penobscots today live descendants of Baron de
Castin, who married the daughter of Chief Madockowando 'of the
26 Maine : The General Background
Tarantines,' but the latter was an Etchimin and not a Penobscot. It may
be that the Pentagoets of Castine, the remnants of the so-called Tarantines
of de Castin, have moved to Old Town and joined with the Penobscots.
There was once a clan or totem system among the tribes, but it is now
largely obliterated. The Bear Clan, one of the largest groups, still has its
representatives among both Passamaquoddies and Penobscots, who say
the clan originated with a lost child who was brought up by a mother bear.
Joseph Polis, the Penobscot Indian who served as Thoreau's guide in the
Maine woods, used a drawing of a bear on his canoe as a personal emblem.
Old Governor Neptune, the Penobscot descendant of a long line of chiefs
and governors, used the sign of the snake, signifying mental prowess.
The office of chief or governor (president, sachem, or sagamore) was
formerly held for life, but in 1862 it became annually elective. Even so,
the same man often held the position through life, and from him it might
pass to his son — as in the Attean family. Dissension at the elections gave
rise to the ' Old Party ' and ' New Party,' which now take turns in electing
officers each year. One of the most famous governors was Joseph Orono,
for whom the town of Orono was named — a blue-eyed Indian believed to
be a natural son of the Baron de Castin. He is said to have saved Maine
for the Union by rallying his men to the aid of the whites in the wars with
the Mohawks. He died in 1801, at the reputed age of one hundred and
thirteen. Another Indian equally revered was the saintly Aspinquid, one
of John Eliot's converts who did much toward spreading Christianity and
peace among the New England tribes. It was the Abnaki, indeed, who
of the North American Indians first embraced Christianity. In the past,
Saint Aspinquid's grave-marker could be found, high on Mount Agamen-
ticus; it bore this inscription:
Present Useful: Absent Wanted:
Lived Desired: Died Lamented.
The Indians no longer practice the old crafts of making fish-nets, spears,
bows and arrows, wampum, carved pipes, and pottery; and such things as
canoes, snowshoes, and moccasins, formerly produced by them, are now
more efficiently turned out in large factories. But the Penobscots still
excel in basket-making. The Passamaquoddies also make baskets, but are
more expert as fishermen and hunters. Baskets are usually made from the
flexible wood of the brown ash, although basswood and sweetgrass are also
used. With the Penobscot women, sewing is a fine art; but weaving seems
always to have been unknown to them. Lovely designs are made by
threading dyed quills upon cloth or leather. Some striking examples of
Indian carving and painting are occasionally seen.
The Abnaki Indians 27
Before their movements were restricted by white settlers, the Indians
used to wander with the seasons, according to the location of food sup-
plies. In the spring they went to the rivers for alewives, shad, and salmon;
on the banks they planted corn, squash, beans, and other vegetables. In
June they went to the sea for porpoise and seal in order to get oil and skins,
and for the eggs and nestlings of sea birds; they dried clams and lobsters,
and stored them for winter use. In September they returned to the river
valleys to harvest their crops, and in October they went into the big
woods to hunt. Before Christmas they held their annual thanksgiving
feast for not less than two weeks. Our national Thanksgiving Day is a
direct imitation of the Indian festival, even to the kinds of food served —
turkey, cranberries, Indian pudding. When snow came they went into
the deep woods hunting for moose and setting traps. Before the ice broke
up in March or April they had made their spring catch of otter and beaver.
When the ice broke and the river was clear they were ready for the catch-
ing of muskrat; they could start out in their canoes to fish and to go to the
lower valleys for the planting.
Throughout Maine, the scene has actually changed but little since the
time of the Indians' supremacy. Today, in the great woods or by the
lonely shore, one can see them in the mind's eye, a people historically
great neither in numbers nor in deeds, but industrious, loyal, and generous.
HISTORY
THE ancient Norse sagas tell of the voyages of Eric the Red and those
of his son, Leif the Lucky, and how Eric, banished from Norway in A.D.
981, sailed westward and came to a fabulous 'green' land across the sea.
Eric got no farther than Greenland; but Leif, in A.D. 1000, reached the
mainland, the coast of which he followed southward to a place he called
Vinland, from the abundance of grapes he found there. This, it is believed,
was Mount Hope Bay in Rhode Island. In 1003, 1006, 1007, and ion,
it is believed, other Norse navigators reached the shores of what is now
called New England. These early rovers must have been the first Euro-
peans to explore the coast of that region, and, therefore, they would have
been the first to sail along the coast of Maine.
Nearly five hundred years passed before white men again came to the
New World. In 1496, the Cabots — John and his sons, Lewis, Sebastian,
and Sancius — were named in letters patent granted to them by King
Henry VII of England ' to discover and occupy isles or countries of the
heathen or infidels before unknown to Christians, accounting to the king
for a fifth part of the profit upon their return to the port of Bristol.' In
1497-99, the Cabots made a number of voyages, the reports of which,
excepting the later testimony of Sebastian (which has been challenged by
authorities of the period), are very meager. However, the records es-
tablished beyond question that the Cabots did reach and explore the
Atlantic coastline of the North American continent. One old Bristol
record reads: 'In the year 1497, June 24, on St. John's Day, was New-
foundland found by Bristol men, in a ship called the "Matthew." ;
Again, one entry from the privy purse expenses of Henry VII reads:
' £10 to hym that found the new isle.' A map, drawn by Sebastian Cabot,
of the Atlantic coastline from 60° to 40° N. lat., is preserved. It is obvious,
therefore, that the Cabot expeditions explored southward along the Maine
coast, and if the reports of Sebastian Cabot's conversation with Butringa-
rius, the Pope's legate, be true, he went as far as the Carolinas. At all
events, it was upon the Cabot discoveries that England in the seventeenth
century based its claim to North America.
But England did not follow up the Cabot discoveries immediately, and
for many years the land was left open to the subsequent exploration of the
History 29
French. Giovanni da Verrazzano, an Italian navigator in the service of
France, reached the Maine coast in 1524. He was followed a year later
by the Spaniard, Gomez. But these two, like other early explorers, were
looking for the gold and rich tropical lands of the Indies, and therefore
took no interest in what they found here. About 1527, Jean Allefonsce,
a French master pilot, explored and described the cape and river of
Norumbega (probably the Penobscot). Thevet, a French geographer,
on a return voyage from Brazil to France in 1556, followed the North
American coast from Florida to Newfoundland. But perhaps the first
white men actually to tread Maine soil for any distance were three English
sailors, survivors in 1568 of an unsuccessful expedition to Mexico led by
the freebooter, Sir John Hawkins. Put ashore from their ship in the Gulf
of Mexico, they made their way north and east, eventually reaching
Maine. Traveling up the coast to the St. John River, they encountered
a French trading vessel, on which they returned to Europe. One of these
men, David Ingram, wrote a highly colored account of his adventures,
in which he tells of visiting the fabulous city of Norumbega.
In 1580, Captain John Walker, sailing in the employ of Sir Humphrey
Gilbert, dropped anchor in Penobscot Bay. In 1602, Bartholomew Gos-
nold, in command of the English vessel 'Concord,' reached Maine's
southern shores. In 1603, Captain Martin Pring, with the vessels ' Speed-
well ' and ' Discoverer,' entered Penobscot Bay, and thence sailed south-
ward.
After considerable French exploration in America, Pierre du Guast,
the Sieur de Monts, accompanied by Samuel de Champlain and the Baron
de Poutrincourt, in 1604 established a settlement on an island at the
mouth of the river that Champlain called the St. Croix. In the fall of that
year, Champlain set forth to explore the coast westward, going by the
great island to which he gave the name of Mount Desert (' Isle des Monts
Deserts'), up the Penobscot River to the site of present-day Bangor, and
then up the Kennebec the following summer. In 1606, de Monts and
Champlain sailed down the coast as far as Cape Cod, looking for a more
satisfactory site for colonization than the St. Croix island. They found
nothing, however, that pleased them more than a place across the Bay of
Fundy which they had ceded to de Poutrincourt and called Port Royal.
De Monts accordingly moved his colony there and returned to France.
In 1605, Captain George Waymouth visited Monhegan and explored
the coast. He secured valuable information about the country and as-
sistance for future colonization by kidnaping five Indians, whom he took
back to England. To this crime, subsequent Indian hostility to white men
30 Maine: The General Background
on the Maine coast may be attributed. In 1606, James I granted a charter
to the Plymouth Company for the lands lying between the 4ist and 45th
parallels; and in 1607, the Popham Colony, called St. George, was set up
on Sagadahoc Peninsula at the mouth of the Kennebec, where the village
of Popham now stands. Although unsuccessful, this was the beginning of
British colonization in New England. Before very long, many English
settlers had established themselves along these rugged shores. The first
Dutch came to Maine in 1609, when Henry Hudson, commissioned by the
Netherlands to search for a northwest passage to the Indies, hove to in
Casco Bay, to repair his storm-battered vessel, the 'Half -Moon.' The
Maine Indians received him kindly, but Hudson requited their hospitality
by robbing them of much of their supplies. So fierce was their resentment
that Hudson was forced to put from shore. He sailed southward and
eventually came into New York waters, ascending the North (Hudson)
River until he was sure it was not an 'arm of the sea.'
Soon the French were sending missionaries to the new world. In 1611,
Father Pierre Biard founded an Indian Mission on the Penobscot, ancestor
of the present Indian church at Old town. In 1613, a Jesuit colony was
established on Mount Desert Island, only to be dispersed shortly by the
crew of an English vessel commanded by Captain Samuel Argall, who
had come from Virginia ostensibly for a supply of fish. At the mission on
Mount Desert, Fathers Biard and Masse had established the first mon-
astery east of California in what is now the United States. In spite of
active English hostility, the French continued to set up scattered settle-
ments, notably on the Penobscot and St. Croix Rivers and at Machias.
But these settlements did not prosper. Most of the immigrants of this
period were unenterprising and ignorant, or they were French gentlemen
in search of gold or glory and with no desire to build homes in a new world.
The chief interest in America on the part of the French was always the
opportunity for trade in furs with the savages.
Captain John Smith arrived at Monhegan from England in 1614. Ex-
ploring the coast from the Penobscot to Cape Cod, he made a map of the
territory, which he called New England. On November 3, 1620, a new
charter, known as the 'Great Patent/ was granted to the Plymouth
Company under a changed corporate name, 'The Council for Plymouth,'
otherwise called 'The Council for New England.' It made the company
'absolute owners of a domain containing more than a million square
miles,' between 40° and 48° N. lat., which was to be called New England.
From this company the Pilgrims derived their patent to the Plymouth
Colony.
History 31
The Pilgrims, arriving in America in 1620, reported a thriving fishing
and trading post at Pemaquid. There were probably trading settlements
at both Pemaquid and Monhegan from the beginning of the century, but
Father Biard wrote that the Indians had driven the English out of
Pemaquid in 1608-09. In 1622, the Council for New England gave to
Sir Ferdinando Gorges and Captain John Mason the land between the
Merrimac and the Kennebec, which, the indenture stated, ' they intend
to call The Province of Maine.' Permanent settlements were established
— Monhegan in 1622, Saco in 1623, and York (as Agamenticus) about
1624. All the early settlements were easily accessible to shipping, and
they grew rapidly.
In 1629, Mason and Gorges divided their province between them, with
the Piscataqua River as middle boundary. Mason's land was called New
Hampshire, Gorges's New Somersetshire. Mason died in London in 1635,
and Gorges, who had become governor-general of all New England in the
same year, when the Plymouth (England) Council surrendered its patent,
was in 1639 granted from King Charles I a charter to the territory between
the Piscataqua and Kennebec Rivers, extending one hundred and twenty
miles north and south. The charter specified that the tract should * forever
be called the Province and Countie of Maine and not by any other name
whatsoever.' The political status of the 'Province' was that of a palati-
nate, of which Gorges was lord palatine, a vassal enjoying royal privileges.
Thus Maine was for a time under purely feudal tenure. Gorges appointed
a council of seven colonists to administer the province and act as court.
This body superseded the judicial court established March 28, 1636, by
William Gorges, Sir Ferdinando's nephew, for a short time governor of
New Somersetshire. In 1640, under Thomas Gorges, Sir Ferdinando's
son, sent over to Maine as his deputy, the first recorded body representa-
tive of the people in a permanent Maine settlement met at Saco, in a court
having both legislative and judicial functions for the 1400 whites west of
the Penobscot River.
In 1630, the Plymouth Council, among other dispensations of New
England lands, granted a large tract of territory in Maine to John Beau-
champ of London and Thomas Leverett, a Boston merchant. This grant,
comprising about a million acres, was called the Muscongus Patent.
Eighty-nine years later, Samuel Waldo was given half the grant 'for
services rendered.' Eventually he bought the other half, and the grant
became known as the Waldo Patent. In 1753, Waldo imported a party of
immigrants from Germany, who founded a large and prosperous settle-
ment, the present Waldoboro. The initials 'N.W.P.,' occasionally found
in modern deeds and titles, signify 'North of Waldo Patent.'
32 Maine: The General Background
French trading continued in the land east of the Penobscot, and the
English trading posts at Machias and Penobscot were seized by the
French in 1634 and 1635. But the region from Penobscot to Port Royal
was finally subdued in 1654 by the English under Major Sedgwick; and
in 1635 the whole of the Acadian province was confirmed to the English,
who held it for thirteen years. Nevertheless, French missionary activities
among the Indians were continued in Maine, chiefly by the Jesuits, but
also by the Franciscans and Dominicans. In 1646, Father Gabriel Druil-
lettes, accompanied by Indian converts, entered the Norridgewock terri-
tory — the first white man to travel down the Kennebec to the ocean from
the north. The trail he blazed was followed by Fathers Aubry and Loyard,
the Bigots, and Father Rasle, who in turn succeeded him at his post, the
most important seat of missionary work in Maine.
In the meantime, the settlement originally called Agamenticus was
endowed with a city charter in 1642 under the name of Gorgeana. In
1652, it was reorganized as a town, and its name changed to York. The
first town in 'Maine was Kittery, organized in 1647. From the beginning,
each settlement ordered its own affairs, local government being far more
important than central. The courts were informal, deriving their author-
ity from the general consent of the colonists.
In 1643, the four New England Colonies had formed an alliance for
mutual defense, excluding therefrom the Gorges settlements. After the
death of Gorges in 1647, the inhabitants of Kittery, Gorgeana (later
York), Wells, Cape Porpoise (now Kennebunkport), Saco, Casco (now
Portland), and Scarborough formed themselves into a body politic,
experimenting with self-rule ; but, soon realizing the importance of a strong
and settled government, they became freemen of Massachusetts in 1652
on liberal terms. They sent representatives to the Massachusetts General
Court (1653), suffered no requirement of church membership or tithe,
and paid only town and county taxes (the southern section of the Province
of Maine became in 1658 the separate and autonomous County of York-
shire). By this time the democratic form of government based on the
town meeting was already assured and strong throughout New England.
Upon the restoration of Charles II to the English throne in 1660,
Ferdinando Gorges, a grandson of Sir Ferdinando, claimed Maine as his
property. Four years later, a royal order bade Massachusetts restore
the Province to him. The investigating commissioners set up a govern-
ment in the Province, but they were shortly recalled; and in 1668, Massa-
chusetts assumed control. A clear title was finally secured when the
Gorges rights were sold to an agent for Massachusetts, May 6, 1677.
History 33
The territory (known variously as Sagadahoc and New Castle) from
Pemaquid to the St. Croix was granted to the Duke of York in 1664,
together with the New Netherland. As the County of Cornwall it retained
a slight connection with New York; in 1674, both Colonies were united
under the rule of Sir Edmund Andros. Yet a supplementary article added
to the Treaty of Breda, by which in 1667 Charles II ceded Nova Scotia
to France, surrendered the whole of Acadia to France and especially
mentioned ' Pentogoet ' or Penobscot. On this basis, France laid claim to
all of the Province of Maine east of the Penobscot. The Baron de St.
Castin soon established himself in this region, and for more than thirty
years protected French (and his own) interests and traded with both
Indians and English. In 1673, the Dutch captured and held the French
fortifications at Penobscot, the Dutch West Indies Company in 1676
appointing a governor for the conquered territory; but they were shortly
driven out by the English. In 1688, Governor Andros seized Penobscot
again, and sacked the house of Baron de Castin. This event marked the
beginning of the rapid decline of French influence in Maine. The Gover-
nor of Canada, it is true, continued in large measure to control the Indians
through the agency of the Jesuit missionaries, of whom Father Sebastian
Rasle came to be the best known. The latter's interest in the temporal
welfare of his Indian flock led to his death at the hands of the English
in 1724, during the sack of Norridgewock, where he had taught since
1691.
After 1730, the Indians had no regular priests; and when in 1763
France finally surrendered Canada, the Catholic missions were badly
hurt, for, while the English Government guaranteed religious freedom, it
was taking quiet steps to rid Maine and Canada of the Jesuit influence.
The last mission in Maine had disappeared by the time of the Revolu-
tionary War. After the work of Father Cheverus and Father Romagne
(1797-1818), however, the Roman Catholic Church gained strength in
Maine, and has not ceased to prosper since.
The French were consistently successful in their dealings with most of
the eastern Indians. The Iroquois nation, always hostile to them, was an
important exception, but that federation had little influence in Maine.
The French sought trade rather than settlement, and unlike the English
they made no attempt to dispossess the natives of their ancestral lands;
while the French Catholic missionaries worked continually with great
self-sacrifice and altruism in behalf of the Indians, many of whom became
Christian converts. The natives naturally responded to the better treat-
ment the French offered them.
34 Maine : The General Background
In 1672, a new survey of the northern boundary of Massachusetts had
extended the Colony beyond the Kennebec to Penobscot Bay, and after
two years this region was organized as the County of Devonshire. At this
time there were nearly six thousand inhabitants between the Piscataqua
and the Penobscot, and at least one hundred and fifty families east of the
Kennebec.
In 1675, King Philip's War burst upon the startled colonists. It was
seventy years from the time that Waymouth kidnaped his Indians before
active warfare resulted from the almost continual aggression and treaty-
breaking on the part of the whites. Yet in the following eighty-five years
of sudden savage raids and skirmishes there were few inhuman bar-
barities aside from the custom of scalping which was practiced by both
sides. Most of the Maine Indians had become Christians, and were
influenced by the Church.
Saco was attacked on September 18, 1675. Two days later, Scarborough
was burned and the inhabitants of Casco driven out or cut down, the
survivors taking refuge on the outer islands of Casco Bay. The settle-
ments at Arrowsic and Pemaquid were burned, and during the next
summer the Indians even penetrated to Jewell Island, the farthest out-
post of the bay, where the beleaguered colonists had barricaded them-
selves. The burning and sacking continued ruthlessly, until a commission
from the Massachusetts Government negotiated peace with the Indians
of the Androscoggin and the Kennebec at Casco on April 12, 1678.
When peace was attained, Massachusetts provided a government for
the Province, the Council in 1680 appointing Thomas Danforth 'Presi-
dent of Maine ' to serve for one year and councilors to serve until removed;
Maine towns were annually to elect a House of Deputies. After the
Massachusetts charter was revoked in 1685, the Colonies were governed
directly by the Crown until 1688, when New England, together with New
York and New Jersey, came under the single administration of Andros.
James II in 1686 appointed Joseph Dudley royal deputy; later in the
same year, Dudley was superseded by Andros. In April, 1688, Andros
attacked Penobscot and sacked the stronghold of Baron de Castin, thus
precipitating the French and Indian conflict with the English of Maine
and Massachusetts that is known as King William's War. The first out-
break occurred in August, 1688, when Indians attacked the North Yar-
mouth settlement. The fighting continued sporadically throughout the
following winter; but the Maine colonists, aroused by the unwise measures
taken by Governor Andros against the Indians and chafing under his
arrogant rule, joined with the people of Massachusetts in taking independ-
History 35
ent control of the government, news having reached New England of the
landing of William of Orange in England and of the flight of King James.
Massachusetts appointed Simon Bradstreet as its Governor, and Maine
restored Danforth as Provincial President on April 18, 1689.
The French and their Indian allies actively continued the war with the
English. The garrison at Pemaquid surrendered on August 2, 1689. In
1690, Newichawannock (now Salmon Falls) was destroyed, and Fort
Loyal at Falmouth (formerly Casco) was razed by Baron de Castin with
five hundred French and Indians from Canada, who took many of the
inhabitants, most of them women and children, back to Quebec as pris-
oners. Sir William Phips in 1690 carried the war to the French in Nova
Scotia, captured Port Royal, and took possession of the entire coast to
Penobscot. But a campaign against Quebec failed; and the capture by
the French of Fort William Henry at Pemaquid, ' the most expensive and
the strongest fortification that had ever been built by the English on
American soil,' still further increased French prestige with the Maine
Indians. By the autumn of 1691, only four towns, Wells, York, Kittery,
and Appledore, remained inhabited, Falmouth and other leading settle-
ments having been almost totally destroyed. The fighting continued
intermittently until 1697; then, under the Treaty of Ryswick, the French
claimed all of eastern Sagadahoc as part of Nova Scotia.
Massachusetts' second charter, that of 1691, conferred fewer powers
than had been granted by the old charter. The first royal governor was
Sir William Phips, a native of Maine and perhaps the first of America's
prominent self-made men. Until this time, Maine had been constantly
beset by political changes and internal revolutions, owing to the succes-
sion of claimants and the zeal of the competitors for its land. The districts
east of the Kennebec had suffered particularly in vicissitudes of ownership
and government. With each part separated from and giving no aid to
the others, the Province offered few inducements to settlers. The terri-
tory remained a sort of buffer province, subject to continual attack from
Indians and French. But under the administration of Phips, the conten-
tion of royalist and republican partisans for proprietorship and govern-
ment ceased. Town government in Maine now took the same form as that
in the rest of New England, the county continuing to be useful as an inter-
mediate organization for judicial purposes. Each county had a court
consisting of a resident magistrate or a commissioner and four associ-
ates chosen by the freemen of the county and approved by the General
Court.
During the contest over acceptance of the Massachusetts charter in
36 Maine: The General Background
1691, there had originated the political parties of Republicans and Loyal-
ists. Though they eventually assumed new names, their general policies
continued to the Revolution, the Republicans or * liberty men' adhering
to the democratic principles in the old charter, and the Loyalists or
'prerogative men' professing to be more loyal subjects of the King and
accordingly enjoying more of his favor.
For a long time the Province of Maine had been poor and weak, suffer-
ing greatly in the wars with the French and Indians. Obedience to the
laws of Massachusetts was rendered unwillingly until the resettlement of
the Colonies after King Philip's War, and the Province was early a resort
for those with but small regard for creed or church. The settlers continued
to aggravate the ill-will of the Indians; and the latter, greatly reduced in
numbers by continual epidemics dating from the first coming of the white
men, now began to see that they must fight for their very existence as well
as for their lands. The colonists generally failed to discriminate between
members of different tribes; an Indian was an Indian, and a good Indian
was a dead one. The innocent were constantly being killed. Many were
sold into slavery for the crimes of others, their women ravished, their
homes destroyed. Queen Anne's War, beginning in Maine in 1703 with
attacks on Casco Bay colonies and lasting to 1713, caused great damage,
but it broke forever the main force of Indian strength and importance.
Although English advance into the interior of Maine was slow, since
the French claimed all land east of the Penobscot, by 1722 it had made
considerable headway. The British were sometimes aided by Indians of
the forest lands, who joined them to fight their hereditary enemies of the
coast and the east. In 1729, David D unbar was granted royal sanction
to settle and govern the 'Province of Sagadahoc.' His arbitrary acts,
however, resulted in his removal from office in 1733, Massachusetts
thereupon resuming jurisdiction.
In 1739, the King in council fixed the line between Maine and New
Hampshire to 'pass through the entrance of Piscataqua Harbor and the
middle of the river to the farthermost head of Salmon Falls River, thence
north 2°; west, true course, 120 miles.' York and Falmouth (Portland)
were now the principal towns in Maine, the former the political cen-
ter, the latter the commercial center. Economic prosperity was grow-
ing; by 1743 there were 12,000 people in the Province. The Reverend
George Whitefield, the famous Calvinist preacher, came to Maine with his
wife in 1741 and again in 1744, where he preached at York, Wells, and
Biddeford.
War between England and France broke out again in 1744, bringing
History 37
the fifth Indian war to Maine, with attacks on Fort St. George and Dam-
ariscotta in the summer of 1745. A Massachusetts army aided by an
English fleet won the most conspicuous success of the war, the capture of
Louisburg at Cape Breton in 1745. Edward Tyng of Falmouth com-
manded the squadron co-operating with the English fleet, while William
Pepperell of Kittery, for years New England's most important landowner,
headed the land forces. Maine, with but one-fourteenth of the total
population of the Bay Colony, was providing one-third of its troops.
Nearly one- third of Maine's citizen soldiers participated in the siege of
Louisburg, the 'Gibraltar of the West,' the capture of which resulted in
Pepperell's being made a baronet.
Newcastle, the first of the towns in the territory of Sagadahoc and
the twelfth town in Maine, was incorporated in June, 1753. In 1755, the
Acadians of Nova Scotia, refusing to take the. oath of allegiance to an
English sovereign, were exiled and dispersed among the American Colo-
nies. Many of them settled in Maine along the St. John River.
With the capture of Quebec by the British in 1759 and the subsequent
surrender of all Canada, peace was finally secured with France and with
the Indians, and Indian warfare in Maine ceased forever.
Possession of the Penobscot country was taken in July, 1759, when Fort
Pownal was built and garrisoned. Peace was formally made with the
remnants of the Indian tribes in the vicinity of Fort Pownal on April 29,
1760. The creation, on June 19, 1760, of two new counties — Cumber-
land, embracing that part of Maine between the Saco and the Androscog-
gin, and Lincoln, whose jurisdiction extended over that part east of the
Androscoggin — was evidence that Maine was rapidly increasing in
population. Pittston, the fortieth and last town established by the Gen-
eral Court under the royal charter, was incorporated on February 4,
1779.
The first indication of resistance in Maine to the taxes laid on the
American Colonies by Parliament was the seizure of a quantity of tax
stamps in Falmouth by a mob in 1765. In 1774, the people of Falmouth
in town meeting declared that no power had a right to tax them without
their consent or that of their representatives. Nine towns in Cumberland
County sent delegates to a county convention held at Falmouth in
September, 1774. The delegates advised 'a firm and persevering opposi-
tion to every design, dark or open, framed to abridge our English liberties.'
Sheriff William Tyng declared his intention to obey the law of the Prov-
ince, but not that of Parliament.
In the Revolution that followed, Maine suffered more than any other
38 Maine : The General Background
part of New England. The services of the Indians were enlisted on both
sides, and bounties were paid for white scalps. In 1775, Falmouth was
almost completely destroyed by an English fleet, and the country east of
the Penobscot was constantly subjected to harassing raids by enemy war-
ships after the British occupation of the Castine Peninsula in 1779. Com-
munication with Boston was difficult, and at times impossible. Food was
scarce, and illicit trade with Nova Scotia subsequently sprang up. Many
of Maine's citizens were ready to accept neutrality or even submit to the
enemy.
But the majority of the colonists were of fighting stock — pioneers,
hunters, and trappers, veterans of Indian wars and foreign sea battles.
In the first naval engagement of the war, the citizenry of Machias, with
no cannon, few small arms, and little powder, attacked a British armed
cutter, the 'Margaretta,' and forced it to surrender. Had England been
able to withdraw her troops and ships engaged in the hopeless task of
subjugating Maine, and to use them in an offensive against the Con-
tinentals in Massachusetts and Connecticut, the outcome of the war
might well have been different. As it was, Maine not only staved off
attack but served as a highway for the invasion of Canadian provinces —
a highway which Benedict Arnold used in September, 1775, on his ill-
starred march through the wilderness to the Chaudiere and on to Quebec.
Maine bled itself white in providing soldiers for the Continental army;
more than one thousand of them were at Valley Forge.
In 1775, the Continental Congress divided Massachusetts into three
admiralty districts, of which the northerly, made up of York, Cumber-
land, and Lincoln Counties, was to be known as the District of Maine.
At the declaration of peace in 1783, the St. Croix River became the
eastern boundary of this District, and the Indian tribes became wards of
the State, no longer possessing any control over the land. Immigration
increased, and towns were rapidly incorporated. The first town estab-
lished by the new government was Bath, incorporated in 1781. In 1784,
a land office was opened at the seat of government, and State lands on the
navigable rivers in the District of Maine were sold to soldiers and immi-
grants at one dollar an acre. In 1786, more than a million acres of land
between the Penobscot and the St. Croix Rivers were disposed of by
lottery, the largest purchaser being William Bingham of Philadelphia.
In 1793, a new political alignment resulted from a split in the old parties
over the French Revolution and basic principles of government. The
Federalists opposed democracy, desiring the rule of the few and conserva-
tive rich; the Republicans (or Democrats), adhering to democracy and
History 39
the town meeting method of government, consisted of the poorer and more
radical elements. The District of Maine was a Federalist stronghold until
1805, when the party had become greatly diminished. The land policy
of Massachusetts was highly unsatisfactory, tracts already settled by
pioneers having been sold or granted to wealthy men or companies. Some
owners expelled the squatters; some would neither sell nor lease; in other
cases the ownership of the land remained in dispute and no one could give
a clear title. Feeling that the Massachusetts legislature favored the
absentee landlords, a majority of voters in the District went Republican
during a general democratic movement in 1805.
The growth of population in Maine after the Revolution was rapid —
from 96,540 in 1790 to 151,719 in 1800, and 228,705 in 1810. Hancock and
Washington Counties in 1789 and Kennebec in 1799 were formed from
Lincoln County; Oxford was assembled from parts of York and Cumber-
land in 1805, and Somerset formed from Kennebec in 1809. During this
period many towns were incorporated, including Portland in 1786, built
on the site of Falmouth, which had been destroyed in 1775; Bangor in
1791; Augusta in 1797. Plantations were organized as governmental
units for taxing groups outside the regular incorporated areas.
The Embargo Law of 1807, forbidding commercial intercourse between
the United States and foreign countries, checked the rising tide of Re-
publicanism. Various methods were used to evade the law, and Eastport
became notorious as a center for goods smuggled across the Canadian
line. When in 1812 the United States declared war on Great Britain, a
strong anti-war sentiment existed in Maine, yet the Embargo Laws had
so hurt the shipbuilding and fishing industries that there were many
enlistments for military service from among Maine's unemployed.
The attempt on England's part to cripple or destroy American com-
merce without striking a decisive blow at Maine would have been hope-
less, and British men-of-war soon appeared along the coast. But they
found it no less difficult to prevent her shipyards from launching vessels
and to paralyze her commerce than it had been to break the spirit of her
patriots during the Revolution. Since the District of Maine, according to
American interpretation of the Treaty of 1783, so separated the British
provinces that there was no direct trade route between Halifax and Que-
bec, the English sailed down and occupied the land as far as the Penobscot,
made Castine a port of entry, and proclaimed a provincial government
between the Penobscot and New Brunswick. But the peace treaty of
1814 left the boundaries between the United States and Canada as they
had been before the war. Ownership of the islands in Passamaquoddy
40 Maine : The General Background
Bay was settled in 1817 by a joint commission, the United States receiving
Moose, Dudley, and Frederick Islands. Foreign occupation ended in 1815,
when the last British troops left Maine soil. In 1817, President Monroe
visited Maine and inspected her fortifications, but never since have forti-
fications been considered necessary on the Canadian border. It seemed,
too, at this time that the United States had little need of warships; the
United States vessel 'Alabama,' of eighty-four guns, which was laid down
at Kittery, was left unfinished on the stocks in 1818.
At the close of the Revolutionary War, the question of separation of
Maine from Massachusetts came up repeatedly. Maine's first newspaper,
The Falmouth Gazette, was devoted to the separation cause. The interests
of Maine and Massachusetts were widely divergent; the seat of govern-
ment was distant, and the expense of justice great; trade regulations were
unjust to Maine; many residents in unorganized districts were denied
representation in the legislature; the tax system was unbalanced; the
District was separated from Massachusetts by New Hampshire; there
was a different viewpoint toward national politics, and a desire on the
part of Maine to avoid the burden of the State debt. But public opinion
was not ready for separation; and the adoption of the United States
Constitution in 1787 turned people's thoughts in another direction.
Furthermore, the Massachusetts legislature quickly passed acts benefit-
ing Maine's residents. The War of 1812, however, and the Hartford
Convention stimulated anew the separation movement. Massachusetts'
failure to aid in defending the District during the war had aroused great
bitterness, and the State was accused of partiality in educational matters.
A separate government would be cheaper. The old objection that state-
hood would place a heavy burden on the coastal trade was removed in
1819, when Congress passed a law permitting coasters to trade from the
St. Croix to Florida without entering and clearing. Party prejudice was
less active; the era of good feeling had arrived. Maine separated from
Massachusetts in 1819 (at which time she possessed 236 incorporated
towns), and was admitted as a State into the Union on March 15, 1820,
the seat of government being placed at Portland.
In Maine's early years, the conversion of forest trees into marketable
lumber and of woodlands into fields for cultivation was the chief end of
labor. Wampum, corn, fish, and other products were mediums of ex-
change, for real money was scarce. Fishing and the fur trade were the
principal early industries. As the fur trade suffered a gradual decline,
commerce with the West Indies increased. Lumber was exported there
in exchange for molasses, most of which was made into rum, then a popu-
History 41
lar beverage. Rum, lumber, fish, and furs were exchanged in southern
Colonies and abroad for the great number of commodities which Maine
did not produce. There was very little manufacturing until the embargo
of 1807, when necessity proved to be the father of industry. Maine has,
of course, continued to be a predominantly rural State; but even in the
early nineteenth century, farming was often combined with fishing,
lumbering, boat-building, and other occupations. The Betterment Act
finally ended the turmoil over land titles; since it required that the de-
feated litigants be reimbursed for all improvements, there were few law-
suits over property rights. Timber continued from earliest days to be
Maine's most important raw material. The first sawmill in the United
States was built at York in 1623; the first timberland grant of any im-
portance was the Muscongus Grant of 1630, later known as the Waldo
Patent; Brunswick, on the Androscoggin, was one of the earliest centers
for the lumber business. The forest regions of the Kennebec and the
Penobscot soon began to be exploited, but individual and private opera-
tions were not displaced by river driving and co-operative enterprise until
after the Revolution. With the rise of lumbering, shipbuilding became
an important industry. The first ship to be built in the New World was
launched at the Popham Colony in 1607-08, and by the middle of the
eighteenth century the industry was flourishing.
In the early days, travel in Maine was accomplished by boat or on foot.
Roads were only gradually developed, for horse-drawn vehicles were not
numerous until the Embargo stimulated the use of stagecoaches. There
was little traveling in those days; Maine's people, a sturdy middle class,
stayed at home and worked. When not attending to their crops, they
were shaving shingles to exchange for goods at the store, working on high-
ways or in the woods, fishing or trapping; the boys did the chores, and the
women spun and wove cloth and made the clothing. There were few
distinctions of rank or wealth. Settlers, both French and English, wished
to be allowed to live and work as they chose, to raise their large families
in peace.
There was little law or respect for law. Rum was the common beverage,
and spirits were consumed on all occasions; the tavern or public house and
the church were among the first buildings to be erected in every com-
munity. Maine's settlers were at first wholly liberal in their viewpoint,
tolerating and even welcoming newcomers of any creed. Under Gorges,
the Church of England was dominant; then, with an increased population,
Congregationalism and a Puritan movement spread over the land, im-
posing a rigorous New England code of limited suffrage (only freemen,
42 Maine : The General Background
that is, men of property, could vote), compulsory enlistment in the
militia, hidebound conventional morality, prosecution of heresy (Baptists,
Quakers, and Jews were to be persecuted and driven from the Colonies),
prohibition of games and dancing, and strict regulations for public
houses. But the people of Maine were not zealous in enforcing these laws,
holding that the keys of Church and State need not necessarily be com-
mitted exclusively to the hands of ministers and magistrates. In general,
a spirit of religious toleration prevailed, although the church continued
always to be the principal center of intellectual and social life. Resent-
ment against support of the church by public taxation resulted in the rise
of a variety of Protestant denominations, notably the Baptist and
Methodist. The State Constitution of 1820 provided that no public funds
raised by taxation could be used for denominational purposes.
Common schools and orthodox ministry went hand in hand, since the
Puritans considered a proper education next in importance to godliness.
The Bible was the first textbook. Since 1788, the State has followed a
policy of using land and timber wealth as a basis for school aid. Bowdoin
College was chartered in 1794, and Waterville (Colby) College in 1820.
Until 1820, Maine's public-school system was essentially that of Massa-
chusetts, and since then it has developed gradually along its original
lines.
With William King as its first Governor, Maine entered the Union as
an anti-Federalist State in 1820. With its agricultural and seafaring
population, it was naturally a democratic State. Its growth was rapid;
the population increased from 228,705 in 1810 to 501,793 in 1840. The
seat of government was removed from Portland to Augusta in 1832.
Penobscot County had been formed in 1816. Waldo County was estab-
lished in 1827, Androscoggin and Sagadahoc Counties in 1854, and Knox
County in 1860.
Meanwhile, the northeastern boundary remained unsettled and in
dispute. In 1831, Maine refused to accept the compromise solution offered
to Great Britain and the United States by the King of the Netherlands.
Repeated minor incidents led finally to the danger of open combat at
the boundary; and the State militia in 1839 marched two hundred miles
through wilderness and deep snow to repel a threatened attack from New
Brunswick. The mediation of General Winfield Scott prevented armed ,
conflict, however, in this ' Aroostook War.' He arranged for a truce and
joint occupation by both parties. In 1842, the Webster-Ashburton
Treaty settled the fifty-nine-year-old dispute, and lost for Maine about
5500 miles of claimed territory.
History 43
Of reform movements influencing the political scene, the least im-
portant but the first to take shape was anti-masonry. A temporary tri-
umph of this movement nearly brought about the total disappearance of
freemasonry in Maine. In 1831, 1832, and 1833, anti-masonic candi-
dates entered the elections for Governor. There was a revival of the
movement in the i84o's, but the anti-slavery agitation soon took its
place in the public mind.
Very few Negroes were kept as slaves in Maine even in Colonial days,
most of the early Negroes being paid servants. There is no record of any
slavery legislation in Maine, either as Province or as State. However,
an anti-slavery society was formed as early as 1833, and a year later a
State body was organized. Political fireworks were touched off as the
Abolitionists and their opponents began to appeal to public opinion.
Feeling against the Abolitionists was very strong in the coastal towns,
much of whose prosperity depended upon the Southern trade; but in the
interior of the State the anti-slavery movement, headed by the clergy,
was backed by most persons. Every county had an anti-slavery society,
and in 1841 an anti-slavery candidate entered the election for Governor.
Since the new movement worked largely through church groups, there
was violent protest from both Whigs and Democrats against its entry into
politics, since they felt that the Church should keep itself above partisan-
ship. The result was that, although the Whigs were more anti-slavery
than the Democrats, anti-slavery men made up a third party, called at
first the Liberty Party and later the Free-Soil Party. Between 1850 and
1855, party lines disintegrated over the prohibition and slavery questions.
In 1854, the Free-Soilers and the anti-slavery Whigs united to form the
Republican Party, which soon swept into power. The Kansas question
in all its ramifications proved disastrous to the Democrats. Their failure
to take a stand against the extension of slavery further diminished what
was left of the Whigs, and the Abolitionists increased rapidly in strength.
The Democrats declared that the prosperity of the State depended upon
commerce which would certainly suffer if the South were alienated by
a Republican triumph; they declared also that if Hannibal Hamlin, the
Republican candidate for Governor, were elected, the fishing bounties
would be withdrawn. Nevertheless, the Republicans acquired the seat of
power in 1856, and they held it continuously thereafter until 1879.
Hamlin, after serving a year as Governor, was elected to the U.S. Senate;
and in 1861, Vice-President.
Closely connected with the anti-slavery issue was the prohibition
movement. At the time of separation, almost everyone drank liquor,
44 Maine: The General Background
which was sold by the most respectable citizens; but soon regulations
against abuses were inaugurated. As early as 1815, a total abstinence
society had been formed in Portland, and in 1834, the first convention of
temperance societies was held and a State organization formed. A split
occurred on whether prohibition should be brought about by legal action
or moral influence, and a militant minority for legal action won. In 1846,
a law was passed forbidding the sale of spirits except for medicinal and
industrial purposes.
The law, however, did not prove effective, or at least it was not well
enforced, for illegal traffic in liquors at once made its appearance in all
parts of the State. A stricter law of 1851 offended many temperate
citizens, who felt that private rights were being invaded by the granting
of warrants to searching parties. A split in the Democratic Party over
this issue allowed a Whig Governor to be elected in 1853. The limited sale
of liquor for beverage use was allowed in an act passed in 1856 under
Democratic sponsorship, but this was attacked by the Republicans as
discriminating against the poor. Another prohibitory law was therefore
enacted in 1858.
In the 1850*5, the rise of the so-called American or ' Know-No thing '
Party was attended by anti-Catholic and anti-foreign agitation, directed
chiefly against the Irish. In 1853, the Roman Catholic See of Maine and
New Hampshire was constituted, with the Reverend Daniel Bacon as
Bishop. At this time there were only eight priests in the two States. A
hostile mob first desecrated and then burned the church at Bath. The
Reverend John Bapst, refusing to obey the town meeting's order to leave
Ellsworth, was tarred and feathered and ridden out of town on a rail.
Bath in 1855, and Bangor in 1856, refused to allow construction on new
Catholic church buildings; and the old Baptist church used by the Catho-
lics in Lewiston was burned during a riot there. At Bishop Bacon's
death in 1874, however, Catholics residing in Maine numbered over
80,000.
President Lincoln's first call for Civil War volunteers met with a quick
response in Maine; great public meetings were held, at which support of
the National Government was pledged. Yet the outbreak of the war
found Maine totally unprepared. The old musters had been abandoned as
burdensome and useless occasions for drunkenness and dissipation. The
enrolled and unarmed militia comprised about 60,000 men, and in addi-
tion there were a few volunteer companies. Nevertheless, Maine con-
tributed thirty-two infantry regiments, three of cavalry, and one heavy
artillery regiment, seven batteries of field artillery, seven sharpshooter
History 45
companies, thirty other companies of infantry, seven companies of coast
artillery, and six companies for coast fortifications. In all, 72,945 Maine
residents served in the military and naval forces of the Union; and of these,
7322 died in the service. The State's war expenditures were about $7,000,-
ooo ; while those of towns and individuals were more than $11,000,000.
Many towns, feeling they would be shamed if they could not fill their
quotas without a draft, bid wildly for recruits and accumulated large
debts thereby. The State's commerce suffered greatly from the activi-
ties of Confederate cruisers, and companies of home guards were formed
to protect the coastal districts from depredations. Two prominent gen-
erals of the Civil War were citizens of Maine — General O. O. Howard,
who distinguished himself at Gettysburg, and General Joshua L. Cham-
berlain, later president of Bowdoin College and Governor of Maine.
After the war, the prohibition question continued to be a factor in
State politics. The statutes forbidding the sale of intoxicating liquors
were extended in 1871 so as to apply to wine and cider. Since the farmers
were accustomed to make these lighter beverages from native fruits and
berries, the Democrats hoped to use the law to turn rural districts against
the Republicans. But the prohibition and total abstinence movement was
continually growing, and the Democrats failed once more. It is signifi-
cant, however, that the constitutional amendment passed in 1884 for-
bidding the manufacture of intoxicating liquors exempts cider from its
list:
The growing tide of emigration from the State assumed sufficiently
serious proportions in the late i86o's to arouse concern as to Maine's
future on the part of some of her leading citizens. Determined to make
a serious venture in home colonization, the State legislature commissioned
the Honorable William W. Thomas, Jr., a former United States Consul in
Sweden, to go to that country and bring back a party of settlers. Thomas
returned from Sweden in 1870 with fifty-one persons, who immediately
set about the development of a tract set aside for them by the State and
given the name of New Sweden. In less than a year, the population of the
district was doubled by other Swedes who came of their own accord to
join the group; and by the end of three years, the original population of
New Sweden had increased twelve-fold.
During the i87o's, many Maine cities and towns suffered financially
from an enthusiasm for internal improvements which had been sweeping
the nation since 1830. The result was a constitutional amendment
severely limiting the total debt which any municipality might incur.
A State organization of the national Greenback Party was formed, and
46 Maine : The General Background
nominated a candidate for Governor in 1876 and 1877. So quickly did
the new party win popular favor with its stand against the resumption of
specie payments and its plea for a cheap currency that the gubernatorial
campaign of 1878 was fought on this issue. The Greenbackers were
especially strong in the eastern counties, the majority of independent
Democrats and many Republicans being drawn into the party. By a great
oratorical display, many of the farmers were persuaded that they were
being abused and plundered by the moneyed interests; and with their
aid the Democrats, having temporarily formed an alliance with the Green-
backers, carried the State for the first time in many years.
The next year, 1879, there was no election by popular vote. Governor
Garcelon and his council, accused of manipulating election returns so
as to secure a fusion majority in the legislature, were declared in error by
the State Supreme Court, and the Republicans seized the legislature
chambers and chose a governor from their own ranks. Although its
candidate won the governorship in the next election, the fusion tide had
ebbed; and the State returned almost completely to the Republican fold.
Maine suffered greatly in the severe depression of the 1 890*3. The
Spanish War drew one infantry regiment, four batteries of field artillery,
and a signal corps, besides many individual enlistments in the regular
army and navy, from Maine; and volunteer naval reserve associations
were mustered for national service. A Republican victory in 1908 on the
prohibition issue resulted in strict enforcement; but in 1910 the Demo-
crats won for the first time in thirty-two years. Yet in 1911, a proposed
amendment to repeal the prohibitory laws was defeated, though only by
a very close margin. The adoption in 1911 of a direct primary law was
due mainly to a new progressive movement which also placed on the
statute books the initiative and referendum and a corrupt practices act;
no longer were 'ring' and 'anti-ring' to struggle for party control, nomi-
nating conventions and picking political plums. In 1911 also, much
valuable social welfare legislation was enacted.
Another Democratic victory came in 1914, when there was a division
in the Republican Party between regulars and progressives — a phe-
nomenon to occur again in 1932. A consolidation of Maine's leading
newspapers in 1921 left the State with virtually no Democratic press.
Political contests have become largely confined to the Republican pri-
maries.
Following the United States' entry into the World War, more than
35,000 Maine men joined the fighting services. A considerable, though
unknown number had already entered the war as members of Canadian
History 47
units. Nearly $116,000,000 in war loans and other contributions was
raised in the State. National Guard units were quickly recruited to full
strength, and the naval militia was mobilized. Sheriffs were authorized
to appoint special deputies; the Governor was empowered to take over
in the State's name any land desirable for military use; municipalities
were required to raise money to aid in the support of families of men in
military service, the State providing for reimbursement of all money
thus spent; and the organization of a Home Guard was provided for.
Maine's casualties in the war were 2094; 228 men were killed in action,
and the deaths from all sources numbered 1073.
Toward the end of the nineteenth century, a political awareness of the
importance of Maine's water-power resources had come into being. The
'power fight' started in 1909 with a law prohibiting the export of hydro-
electricity on the theory that, if kept within the State, the power would
attract industries which otherwise might settle elsewhere. An effort to
strengthen this law in 1917 divided the Republican Party into two oppos-
ing camps, a split which resulted in the fight for and against the direct
primary. In the 1 920*3, the ' Insull-ization ' of public utilities was con-
stantly attacked by politicians. The controversy finally ceased in 1929,
when by popular vote Maine decided to remain the only State in which
chartered companies are forbidden to export hydro-electric power.
Though they won the election of 1932, when Louis J. Brann became
Maine's first Democratic Governor in twenty years, and though they
were again successful in 1934, the Democrats have never gained greatly
in strength. The Republican Party returned to power in the 1936 elec-
tions. The great nation-wide financial collapse in 1929 affected Maine
disastrously, particularly in the rural districts. By a large majority vote
in 1934, the State repealed its historic prohibition amendment.
Today Maine is a conservative, but not necessarily a reactionary,
State. Her people are slow to change; they learned their political faith
in the Civil War, and have found no reason to abandon it. Few of her
citizens are millionaires, few are miserably poor. Although the number of
her people of native stock has remained virtually stationary for four
decades, she has contributed to the country at large many prominent
citizens who were born and raised here. Perhaps, indeed, one of Maine's
greatest glories lies in the number of her gifted sons and daughters who,
throughout the country's history, have left their home State to find
elsewhere greater opportunities for their native abilities.
48 Maine : The General Background
THE STATE GOVERNMENT
Maine's government has not changed materially since 1820. The origi-
nal constitution grants wide powers to the legislature, definitely curtails
those of the Governor by creation of a council of seven members which
must approve nearly all executive actions, and limits the terms of the
judiciary to seven years. The government is unusual in several respects.
The Governor is the only executive official elected by popular vote
(Maine has the shortest ballot of any State); organized plantations are
retained; and Maine Indians govern themselves as an incorporated re-
public, sending non- voting representatives to the State legislature.
Maine's 16 counties are important chiefly as judiciary units. They are
divided into 20 cities and 435 towns, 63 organized plantations, 40 second-
class plantations, 376 unorganized townships, and two government
reservations for Indians.
State elections are held biennially, on the second Monday in September
of even-number years. Since this is nearly two months earlier than other
election dates throughout the country, the result usually attracts nation-
wide attention, and Maine formerly was considered the nation's political
barometer. A plurality vote is necessary for election, although a majority
was formerly required. Maine has no lieutenant governor, the President
of the Senate succeeding to the governorship in case of vacancy. Maine,
like Massachusetts, has a strong Executive Council which severely limits
the powers of the Governor, who is nominated by direct primary and
elected for a two-year term. The Council, with all other State officials, is
elected biennially by a joint ballot of both houses of the legislature, and
its members are not necessarily of the same political party as the Gover-
nor. Under the Maine Administration Code of 1931, twenty-five depart-
ments and agencies were consolidated in five main departments, each
headed by a commissioner appointed by the Governor and confirmed by
the Council for a term of three years or more. These departments are:
Finance, Health and Welfare, Education, Audit, and Sea and Shore
Fisheries. The constitutional offices of Secretary of State, State Treas-
urer, and Attorney General were not affected by the Code. The system
of initiative and referendum, but not of recall, is in force.
The State's judiciary system consists of a supreme court of eight jus-
tices; superior courts, with jurisdiction only within the respective coun-
ties; probate and municipal courts; notaries and justices of the peace.
History 49
All members of the judiciary are appointed by the Governor and Council,
with the exception of the probate judges and the registers, who are elected
by popular vote in each county.
The central government, according to New England tradition, exer-
cises little power over local governmental units, and home rule is jealously
guarded by the municipalities. The town in New England (known else-
where as township) is the important political unit. Since no minimum
population requirement for the incorporation of cities exists in Maine,
many of the towns are larger than some of the cities. The government of
the town, through the medium of the town meeting, is the only existing
type of pure democracy. In recent years, owing largely to the efforts of
Dr. Orren C. Hormell, authority on municipal government at Bowdoin
College, about twenty of Maine's cities and towns (more than in all the
rest of New England) have adopted the council-manager form of govern-
ment. Elected on a non-partisan basis, the city or town council is the
general authority (except for an independent school committee), with a
specially trained executive as manager or administrative head.
In thinly settled and undeveloped areas, local districts have been
created as governing and taxing units, chief of which is the plantation,
Maine being the only State in which the organized plantation is an im-
portant element in the governmental system. All unorganized townships
are governed by the Maine Forestry District, which is divided into
twenty-eight sub-districts, each in charge of a chief warden; seventy-one
watchmen and sixty-five patrolmen are employed from May to Septem-
ber, and seventy-one lookout stations and ninety camps are maintained
within the district.
PINE, PAPER, AND POWER
THE story of industry in Maine antedates that of actual settlement by an
indeterminate number of years. One Maine industry in particular, the
fisheries, had its beginnings in that vague age of adventure and exploration
along the Atlantic seaboard prior to the seventeenth century. Searching
though they were for the wealth of the Indies, the early voyagers were not
unaware of the commercial possibilities of the fisheries.
Maine's fisheries supplied some of the State's earliest and most im-
portant exports, and greatly influenced its later commmercial develop-
ment. Almost without exception, the problems of fisheries and fishing
rights have entered into the State's international and interstate negotia-
tions during its history. Captain John Smith, who carefully noted the
variety of fish found here, established fisheries at Monhegan in 1614; and
eight years later, Governor Winslow of Plymouth reported that there
were thirty ships of different nationalities at Monhegan and Damaris-
cove, most of them engaged in taking on cargoes of fish. Even before the
Revolution, Maine was exporting thousands of tons of fish to Europe and
the West Indies; and between 1820 and 1826, the State produced approx-
imately one-fifth of the total fish tonnage of the United States. With
minor economic fluctuations, the fisheries consistently stimulated Maine
commerce throughout the nineteenth century. During the years from
1905 to 1930, Maine's coastal fisheries produced between 116,000,000 and
173,000,000 pounds of fish and shellfish annually. Seven per cent of the
State's population derives a livelihood from the fishing industries.
Maine has been, and still is, famous for the quality of its lobsters. In
1936, Knox County and its principal fishing port, Rockland, led the rest
of the State in the landing of lobsters, the retail value of which exceeded
$1,750,000. The Penobscot Bay scallop fisheries supply a widespread
market, and the 1936 sardine (herring) pack of nearly 2,000,000 cases
was the largest since 1929. Other commercially important Maine fish are
alewives, cod, cusk, haddock, hake, mackerel, halibut, pollock, crabs, and
clams. Portland is the State's chief fishing port, while other towns in
Cumberland, Knox, and Washington Counties hold important places in
the industry. Experiments are being made with shrimp fisheries in
INDUSTRY, COASTAL AND
INLAND
INDUSTRY in Maine follows closely the power and port
resources of the waters of the State. Maine has grown chiefly
around its harbors and along its rivers. About Maine waters
today are evident the signs of economic history: old industries
decaying and disappearing, seen especially in the picturesque
hulls tied up in most of the harbors, and new industries, such
as the manufacture of paper, rising up and prospering. Con-
tinuing from earliest days with little change in method and
product are the important businesses of harvesting the natural
resources in which the State is rich — fish and lobsters from
the sea, hay and potatoes grown on the inland farms, and
wood products and blueberries from the forests and the plains.
THE FALLS, VEAZIE
HAYF1ELD NEAR PALERMO
ggpl
AIR VIEW OF THE STATE PIER, PORTLAND
SHIPBUILDING, THOM ASTON
ON THE PORTLAND WATERFRONT
FISH WEIRS, BUCKSPORT
OLD HULL, BOOTHBAY HARBOR
GROUNDED SCHOONERS IN BOOTHBAY HARBOR
LJ
-t •faun *
M-fcl
...
MAINE SEABOARD PAPER COMPANY, BUCKSPORT
£&T:
LOGGING
+*s
m i-<
LARGE-SCALE POTATO DIGGING, AROOSTOOK COUNTY
BLUEBERRY PICKERS, JONESBORO
PACKING LOBSTER BAIT, SEBASCO
LOBSTER POTS
Pine, Paper, and Power 51
Maine waters. Important work in fish propagation and conservation is
conducted in the State's Sea and Shore Fisheries Department.
The State's fisheries reached their production peak in 1902, when
242,390,000 pounds were landed. Since then, the industry has been
gradually declining in Maine, though increasing in other North Atlantic
States. The Maine fisheries were especially injured by the decline of the
salted fish business several years ago, and Maine fishermen have been
slow to develop new methods of handling and merchandising fish pro-
ducts. Although situated near the chief fishing banks of the North
Atlantic, the State's fisheries are at a disadvantage in the matter of trans-
portation costs; while the prevalent tariff rates, in combination with
improved methods of packaging and refrigeration utilized by competitor
States and Canada, still further increase their difficulties. The years of
scarcity for certain kinds of fish have left their mark on the industry; a
few seasons when there is a dearth of herring, for example, bring disaster
to the State's sardine-packing plants. River dams and the pollution of
waters by manufacturing plants have affected the supply of such mi-
gratory fish as the Atlantic salmon and alewives, which seek fresh water
for spawning purposes. The supply of lobsters, scallops, and clams has
been seriously depleted by reckless harvesting methods and natural causes.
Although the State's fisheries production has declined to but little more
than 90,000,000 pounds annually, the industry shows signs of recovering
some of its lost ground. The modernization of fishing equipment and
packaging, and the introduction of filleting, have been beneficial. A
recently enacted measure bars non-resident fishermen from Maine waters
for seven months each year; this is designed to protect the State's fisheries
from the encroachments of many out-of-State fishermen who have
hitherto reaped large harvests during the height of the season. Fishermen
and canning factories rest their hopes for capacity production, and the
allied industries (glue, oil, fish meal, and pearl essence) their plans for
expansion, largely on the possibility of increase in the nation's fish con-
sumption and greater attention paid to modern methods of handling,
packaging, and selling.
SHIPBUILDING
Maine shipbuilding, closely allied with fishing, lumbering, and some
other industries, has had a long and distinguished history. Since the State
relied chiefly on its shipping to maintain its commercial position through
52 Maine: The General Background
several centuries, it was inevitable that its people should early engage in
shipbuilding and should develop a high degree of skill in that work. The
'Virginia,' launched from the banks of the Kennebec by the Popham
colonists in 1608, was the first ship built by Englishmen on the North
American continent. Twenty-four years later, John Winter established a
shipyard on Richmond Island. Winter may well be considered the
pioneer in American shipbuilding for the export trade, since his vessels
engaged in carrying lumber, fish, oil, and other products to England.
Wherever warranted by a sufficiently large settlement along the coast and
rivers, shipbuilding became a necessary means of livelihood well before
the eighteenth century. Maine was 'sea-minded' for generations before
the 'Ranger,' a Kittery-built ship under the command of John Paul Jones,
received in 1778 the first formal salute given to the American flag by a
foreign fleet.
Contract shipbuilding hi Maine was inaugurated in 1762 by Captain
William S wanton of Bath, and has been identified with that city ever
since. Swanton and other shipbuilders received contracts from Spain,
France, and the West Indies. By 1790, ships were being built all along the
coast and up the principal rivers. The city of Hallowell, situated more
than thirty miles from the open sea, entered upon an era of shipbuilding
that lasted beyond the middle of the nineteenth century. Although ship-
building had been checked by the effect of embargoes, one-third of the
total tonnage in the United States in 1812 was Maine-built. For nearly
half a century after the War of 1812, the State led all others in the ship-
building industry. In the i83o's, Maine built more tonnage than any
other State; and from 1841 to 1857, the period when Bath became
America's leading shipbuilding city, this was its most important industry.
Of the four hundred and twenty-eight ships, barks, and brigs built in
America in 1848, Maine supplied more than half. In approximately fifty
coast towns, this was the chief industry, supporting about 200,000
persons.
Maine shipyards have turned out practically every kind of craft known
along the Atlantic seaboard, from fishing smacks and dredges to million-
dollar yachts, six-masters, submarines, and the most modern type of de-
stroyer. The expansion of certain industries, such as lumbering and lime
production, gave new impetus to shipbuilding. The demand for wood to
be burned in lime kilns led to the construction of such curious vessels as
the 'St. John wood-boats,' probably the most inexpensive type ever built
on this side of the Atlantic. Squat and broad, with no bowsprit or over-
hanging stern, and having a single deckhouse and an exposed rudder,
Pine, Paper, and Power 53
these craft used to skim into port with their decks piled so high with
lumber that they were often several inches awash. This kind of wood-
boat was so unusual that one was exhibited in Boston, complete with its
Yankee skipper.
Not all vessels were built in the ordered efficiency of the shipyards.
Many were constructed far inland in the midst of the timber supply.
One thirty-ton vessel (almost as large as Columbus's ' Pinta ') was built in
1830 on the north end of Megunticook Mountain in Camden, and then
hauled more than six miles over the ice of Megunticook Lake and River
to Penobscot Bay, there to be placed in the fishing and lime coasting-
trade. The lumber industry, too, was responsible for odd departures in
marine architecture. A raft constructed of squared timber in the form
of a ship's hull, and equipped with sails, set forth from the Kennebec in
1792. Its crew intended to cross the Atlantic, but abandoned their craft
off the Labrador coast. Two other rafts of the same design very nearly
completed the crossing, but foundered off England.
The increasing use of steel in ship construction after the Civil War
seriously crippled the industry in this State, although half the nation's
ships afloat in 1900 had been built hi Maine, and there was a tremendous
boom in the industry all along the coast during the World War. The
population of the six leading shipbuilding counties — Hancock, Knox,
Sagadahoc, Lincoln, Waldo, and Washington — was much smaller in
1910 than in 1870. Yet there are many persons along the coast who still
recall the time when Maine yards were working to capacity, and who can
remember the names of between three hundred and four hundred vessels
that were built, owned, or sailed from a single Maine port. The passing of
the wooden ship era, the falling off of maritime commerce, and Maine's
distance from cheap and adequate raw materials have contributed to the
industry's decline. In one year (1922) of the immediate post-war period,
when the country was overstocked with vessels, Bath failed to launch a
single ship, for the first time in one hundred and forty years.
Maine-built ships have won distinction of one sort or another for more
than three centuries. The clipper 'Red Jacket,' launched from a Rock-
land shipyard in 1854, made the crossing from New York to England in
thirteen days, one hour, and twenty-five minutes, establishing a record
that has never been broken by a sailing vessel. The six-masted freighter
'Wyoming,' built in the present century and the largest wooden ship
afloat in its time; the 'William P. Frye,' the first American ship sunk by
the Germans during the World War; the destroyer 'Lamson,' the fastest
ship of its type in the United States Navy in 1936 — these were all Bath-
54 Maine : The General Background
built vessels. Scores of other Maine ships, heavy with cargoes of lumber,
rum, wheat, slaves, molasses, or tea, have sailed the seven seas in their
day, and left their wreckage and nameboards from twoscore Maine
coastal towns upon the far shores of the world.
Several of the famous old Maine shipyards are experiencing a revival —
the caulking mallets are again busy, and the pungent odors of resin and tar
once more fill the air. An increasing interest in yachting has created a
demand for small and medium-sized pleasure-craft. There are few
second-hand boats on the market, and these command high prices. The
fishing industry requires new vessels, while Government and private
contracts for new shipping pour into Maine shipyards. The fitting
out of a four-masted schooner at Portland for the molasses trade, in
April, 1937, is strongly reminiscent of the nineteenth century, and in-
dicates that the day of the wooden ship is by no means over.
LUMBERING AND ALLIED INDUSTRIES
Furnishing the materials for shipbuilding and long the foundation of
Maine industry in general, lumbering has had a varied history in the Pine
Tree State. Despite the facts that the forests have been cut back from the
coast and that Maine contributed a large share of the nation's lumber for
decades, more than 15,000,000 acres of forest land still remain, and
improved conservation methods seem to assure an adequate supply of
timber in the future. The lumber industry has passed through three eco-
nomic phases of development: the phase of operations undertaken by in-
dividuals and partners, lasting until about 1820; the phase of co-operation,
lumbering associations, and the river-drives, between 1820 and 1880; and
the present mass-production phase, largely influenced by the growth of
the paper industry, with the bankers, promoters, and large corporations
in control. Lumbering and its allied industries remain leaders in the
State's industrial field.
Climate and topography, an extensive system of waterways, quantities
of raw material, and cheap transportation all played their part in the
development of Maine lumbering. Many of the State's industrial centers
and transportation systems were established to meet the needs of this
industry. Lumber and lumbering have also figured prominently in
Maine's history. Resentment against the policy of reserving the best
timber for the British Navy prior to the Revolution provoked ill-feeling,
Pine, Paper, and Power 55
aroused agitation, and resulted in open disputes in such towns as Bath
and Portland. Speculation in timber lands brought on the State's
financial panic in 1835, anticipating the nation-wide panic by two years,
and doing much to determine Maine's subsequent land policies. The
international controversy that resulted in the Aroostook War was
fundamentally a dispute regarding lumbering rights along the north-
eastern boundary.
The early explorers were impressed by both the size and the extent of
the Maine timberlands. Later, the Popham colonists reported that there
were 'fish in the season in great plenty all along the coast, mastidge for
ships; goodly oaks, and cedars with infinite other sorts of trees.' Lumber-
ing and sawmill operations were active at Berwick and York before 1640,
and the export of timber began almost immediately. Cutting trees for
shipbuilding and masts, particularly for the Royal Navy, became a dis-
tinct industry in itself. 'Mast ways,' or lanes carefully prepared and
cleared of obstructions to prevent injury to the forest giants, were cut
through the woods; and a special type of vessel, capable of carrying as
many as five hundred masts at a time, was constructed for their trans-
portation. Pine, which remained king of the forests and the lumber in-
dustry until it began to be replaced in importance by spruce after the
Civil War, was abundant and greatly in demand.
Early lumbering, like all other Colonial industries, was affected by a
population rendered unstable as a result of Indian warfare. By the
eighteenth century, however, the lumber and mast trade in northern
New England had gradually become centered about Portland and the
Saco River basin. In Colonial times, lumber was often used as currency,
and as late as 1840 shingles were used as a medium of exchange by the
Aroostook settlers. The industry spread from river to river, north and
northeast. Operations along the Androscoggin, which declined because of
the difficulty of the 'drive' in that region, caused Brunswick to become
the center of the industry by the first quarter of the nineteenth century.
Lumbermen moved on to the Kennebec and then to the Penobscot basin,
the latter becoming the State's greatest timber reservoir during those
decades when the industry was at its height. Concurrently with the
growth of the State, lumbering followed wherever settlements were made
along the smaller rivers that had outlets to the sea. If Maine was New
England's last frontier, the Maine pine lands were a special frontier in
themselves. Thoreau wrote in 1846 of Maine lumbering that 'It is a war
against the pines, the only real Aroostook or Penobscot war/
In the production value of lumber, Maine ranked second in the United
56 Maine: The General Background
States during the early nineteenth century. Her decline from this status
after 1840 was later accelerated by the exploitation of the forests of the
Lake States in the post-Civil War period. The actual value of timber rose
consistently, however, between 1840 and 1900, when Penobscot County
became pre-eminent in the industry. The peak year of lumber production
was not reached until 1909. Despite the fact that Maine lumber found
extensive markets in the West Indies, abroad, and on the West Coast
(California used 5,000,000 board feet from Bangor alone in 1849), Maine
imported lumber in considerable quantities during the middle period of
the nineteenth century. Timber, particularly for shipbuilding purposes,
was brought in from the South, New York, New Hampshire, Canada,
Michigan, and Ohio. At the same time, Maine lumbermen and river-
drivers were following the course of the lumber empires westward, attack-
ing the forests from the Atlantic to the Pacific, taking with them the skill,
songs, and legends learned on drives along the Penobscot, Kennebec,
Androscoggin, and other Maine waterways.
Although the demand from many of Maine's former lumber markets is
nearly non-existent today, the development of the pulp and other wood-
using industries towards the end of the nineteenth century created a net-
work of new enterprises entirely dependent upon the lumber industry.
Softwood lumbering on any great scale practically disappeared after 1910,
but new uses were found for spruce, fir, and hemlock. Tens of thousands
of board feet of long lumber and pulpwood were cut along the tributary
waters of the Kennebec alone in 1926-27. In 1935, in the Maine woods,
91,185,120 feet of lumber were cut, in addition to more than half a million
cords of pulp, firewood, and timber for other purposes. Although threat-
ened by adverse tariff rates, competition, a drop in the value of lumber,
and lack of an adequate market, the industry is nevertheless still vigorous.
Pulp and paper now hold the foremost place in Maine's list of manu-
factures. Pulp for commercial purposes was first produced in 1868 at
Topsham; and by 1914, Maine had assumed a national lead in this field.
Such towns as Winslow, Millinocket, Rumford, and Woodland owe their
growth almost wholly to the pulp industry. One Maine concern today is
the country's largest manufacturer of newsprint; while a plant at Bucks-
port, operated entirely by electricity, is capable of turning out 1280 feet
of newsprint, 18 feet wide, per minute.
The paper manufactories, reaching a production-value peak of $106,-
000,000 in 1926, were producing less than half of this volume in the
following six-year period. Chief among the causes of this decline were
European competition (as evidenced by the cargoes of Baltic baled pulp
Pine, Paper, and Power 57
shipped into the port of Portland), the free entry of newsprint and pulp
from Canada, and the Canadian mills' competitive advantage of low
property, wood, power, and labor costs. Yet Maine pulp and paper
manufactories still contribute more than half the tonnage carried by
Maine transportation systems, and continue to dominate the State's in-
dustries.
Of lesser importance commercially are numerous products allied with
the lumber and the pulp and paper industries. Planing mill and fiber
products, wooden boxes, toys, and novelties of Maine manufacture have
an annual value of several million dollars. Other allied industries include
the manufacture of such diverse items as toothpicks and the famous Old
Town canoes.
MISCELLANEOUS INDUSTRIES
The making of boots and shoes ranks second in Maine's manufacturing.
The first recorded shoe factory in the State began operating at West
Auburn in 1835. The center of the industry shortly became established at
Auburn, and other factories sprang up elsewhere within the next decade.
The industry has grown steadily, and even during the depression period
of 1929-33 the number of shoe factories increased from thirty-six to fifty.
Every kind of moccasin, boot, and shoe is made in Maine, the total pro-
duction now being nearly $40,000,000 annually. Factories are dis-
tributed throughout Androscoggin, York, Kennebec, and Cumberland
Counties, with the city of Auburn employing nearly one-half of the shoe
workers in the State. More than a century ago, Maine had two hundred
tanneries in active operation; but, owing to new methods of tanning, the
industry relapsed swiftly after reaching its production peak of $2,500,000
in 1879.
Maine's textile manufactures are comparative newcomers in the in-
dustrial field. When machinery began to be substituted for hand labor in
the textile industries, capital was attracted to the State because of its
water-power resources. Much of the national supply of wool in the early
nineteenth century was grown in New England, southern cotton had not
yet become important, and Maine had an easily accessible supply of raw
materials. Pioneer cotton mills were established in 1809-1 1 at Brunswick,
Wilton, and Gardiner, and by 1820 there were nine cotton and woolen
mills in the State.
For several decades, the manufacture of cotton-goods was among the
58 Maine: The General Background
most important of Maine's industries, in some years being exceeded in
production value only by the lumber industry. Many small woolen mills
were scattered throughout the State in the early nineteenth century, but
the expansion of this phase of the textile industry was not rapid. The
making of hand-loomed woolen goods was continued in many homes
until after the middle of the century, and in 1860 there were only twenty-
eight woolen mills in the State. By 1900 the number of textile mills had
increased to seventy-nine, a number which by 1935 had decreased to
forty-nine. In 1935 there were twelve cotton manufactories in Maine,
with a total annual production value of $25,000,000; several mills produce
between 30,000,000 and 40,000,000 yards of cloth a year.
As the textile industries have expanded, Maine mills have kept pace
with innovations in the types of materials produced. Maine cotton twill,
introduced into India by missionaries about fifty years ago, is still con-
sidered of superior quality for tropical wear. A Brunswick concern was a
pioneer in the manufacture of rayon goods. Many of the textile mills in
such centers as Augusta, Waterville, Lewiston, Biddeford-Saco, and San-
ford have become noted for their particular products — clothing fabrics,
sheets, blankets, bedspreads, and plush for automobile and railway car
upholstery. More than 23,000 workers now derive their living from the
textile industry, the annual production value of which is approximately
$60,000,000. As a whole, Maine textiles have shown a marked increase
in production and sales within the past two years.
The many other manufactories include one of the country's largest tex-
tile machinery factories, situated at Biddeford. More than a score of
Maine companies manufacture textile machinery, machine tools, and
related products, for sale all over the world. Nearly one hundred plants
are engaged in the canning of fruits, vegetables, and fish. A cement com-
pany at Thomaston, the only concern of its kind in New England, manu-
factures more than a quarter million tons of its product annually.
With a few exceptions, Maine's mineral resources have scarcely been
touched. Some twenty-four quarries, extracting granite, lime, slate, and
feldspar, are in operation today. The granite industry, which once made
famous the stone from such Maine quarries as those at Hallowell and
Vinalhaven, declined after the general adoption of other materials in
building and as a result of excessive transportation costs. However, more
than a dozen granite quarries are still in operation, and the quarries at
North Jay are among the country's largest producers of ornamental
granite. The lime industry, inaugurated at Thomaston in 1734, centered
about Rockland and adjacent Knox County towns. Rockland became the
Pine, Paper, and Power 59
nation's greatest lime-producing center during the nineteenth century,
but did not reach the height of its production until about 1900-01. The
city's lime markets were impaired principally because of the increasing
use of steel and domestic Portland cement in construction work, as well as
the tapping of hitherto unworked limestone deposits elsewhere. The in-
dustry is now reviving, devoting most of its activities to the manufacture
of lime for agricultural and chemical purposes. Maine's few feldspar
quarries produce approximately twenty-five per cent of all the feldspar
used in this country.
A highly important factor in the concentration and development of in-
dustries has been the exploitation of water-power on Maine rivers. From
the earliest days, when streams and tidal rivers were used to run grist and
corn mills, this natural resource has been increasingly put to use, until
today Maine ranks seventh among the States in developed water-power.
The developed and undeveloped energy is estimated at more than
1,200,000 horse-power. Maine is the only State whose laws prohibit the
distribution of its power resources outside of its boundaries. There are
now seventy-six public utility plants in the State, with seven companies
controlling ninety-three per cent of the total generated power.
COMMERCE
Maine commerce has followed closely every turn in the course of the
State's economic and industrial history ever since the 'Virginia' took a
cargo of Maine furs and sassafras root to England in 1608. The purchase
and barter of furs for export to Europe were mainly responsible for the
penetration of the Maine wilderness and the establishment of forts and
trading posts; the Massachusetts Bay Colony was keenly interested in the
Maine fur trade and fisheries. Early commerce consisted chiefly in the
export of such products as pipe staves (wood for the manufacture of oil
and wine casks), clapboards, fish, fish oil, and salt fish — trade that soon
gave way to the more important export of masts and timber. Another
commercial item, of no great note but certainly unusual, consisted of
scalps. During the period of the Indian wars, extending from the middle
of the seventeenth to the mid-eighteenth century, French and Indian
scalps frequently brought prices of from five to one hundred pounds.
There was, necessarily, a lull in commercial activity during the Revolu-
tion; but ninety-nine vessels cleared from Portland alone in the year 1787,
60 Maine: The General Background
all but ten of them bound for foreign ports. In the years between the end
of the Revolution and the War of 1812, comfortable fortunes were
amassed by local merchants; and this era of commercial prosperity is
reflected in the number of impressive mansions built along the coast,
especially during the first decade of the nineteenth century. Circum-
stances were ideal for the advancement of lucrative trade; there are few
coastlines with more numerous land-locked harbors suitable for the
fitting-out of vessels while safely protected from interference. It has been
noted that only the Dalmatian coast of the Adriatic and the gulfs of the
Grecian peninsula can compare with the Maine coast in this respect.
The embargo of 1807 and the War of 1812 brought commercial activity
very nearly to a standstill all along the coast, although more than one
Maine pocket was enriched by the proceeds from smuggling and privateer-
ing operations. As related to industry as a whole, it is noteworthy that
the War of 1812 stimulated the growth of glass, woolen, metal, cotton,
and other manufactories all over the State, as the citizens were deprived
of their maritime livelihood. The State had been predominantly com-
mercial up to this period, shipping on an average of 150,000 tons yearly,
and had been created a separate district for the more satisfactory ad-
ministration of maritime affairs more than thirty years previously. The
influx of foreign goods after the War of 1812 had a disastrous effect on
home industry, the demand for agricultural produce fell off, and Maine
lost 15,000 inhabitants as its farmers rushed West during the 'Ohio
Fever' of 1815-16.
By 1848, the number of vessels engaged in foreign commerce ran well
into the hundreds. The West Indian trade, which had engaged the atten-
tion of Maine merchants for decades, was flourishing, sustained principally
by the rapidly growing lumber industry. Cargoes of lumber were bringing
profits of three hundred and four hundred per cent, and more than half
the adult population of the coast towns was engaged in ocean navigation.
Ships whose keels had been laid in Maine shipyards, from Kittery to
Eastport, strained at their hawsers in ports all over the globe. Yankee
shipmasters, whose hands were often as accustomed to turning the pages
of a Bible as to wielding a belaying pin, brought back ships the holds of
which were redolent with the odor of West Indian molasses, rum, spices,
and China tea, or with the stench of a cargo of slaves. Among the
principal foreign and coastwise imports at this time were molasses, sugar,
salt, iron, flour, corn, and coal; while lumber, shocks, leather, agricultural
produce, and ice were a few of the chief exports. The ice exporting in-
dustry, which occupied an important industrial position between 1840 and
Pine, Paper, and Power 61
1890, is now practically non-existent in Maine, due to the ice-harvesting
of rivers elsewhere and to electrical refrigeration. Ice, shipped south as
ballast at a negligible cost, once brought profitable returns; during the
i88o's and iSpo's, the excellent reputation of Kennebec River ice was so
widespread that London ice companies spuriously flaunted the name
' Kennebec Ice ' on their carts.
Checked temporarily by the effects of the panic of 1857 and the Civil
War, Maine commerce appeared to increase steadily thereafter. In the
year 1872, the total value of imports and exports at Portland was $45,000,-
ooo ; while the same city's share of the 'in transit' and trans-shipment
trade of the United States for February of that year was more than
$5,000,000, or approximately five-sixths of the whole. In this same year,
also, the Bangor lumber export trade reached its record value of ship-
ments, nearly $4,000,000; while lime-producing Rockland was exporting
more than 1,000,000 casks of lime annually. Yet, however imperceptibly
at first, Maine shipping had begun to enter its decline. The causes were
varied, some of comparatively recent development, yet all contributing to
the falling away of Maine maritime commerce. A few of these factors
have been the introduction of steam power in navigation, heavy tonnage
and property taxes, pilotage fees, the use of steel, the competition of
British tramp steamers, the lack of demand for fishing vessels, and the
appearance of barges in coastwise trade. The industrial development of
the State at large demanded increasing amounts of raw materials, yet
maritime commerce reached its last high point during the World War.
For the period of 1928-33, the average annual foreign imports and exports
amounted to only 884,632 short tons, while domestic receipts and ship-
ments were a little more than 3,500,000 short tons.
Maine commerce today is divided into the three classes of coastwise,
intercoastal, and foreign traffic, the last-named being the one most
seriously undermined by present conditions. Coastwise bulk traffic con-
sists largely of coal, petroleum, pulp wood, sulphur, newsprint, and textile
raw materials; lighter coastwise traffic has been to a large extent replaced
by rail and highway transportation. A small amount of trade with the
West Coast has developed within the last few decades. Maine's participa-
tion in foreign commerce is but a fraction of its former extent, particularly
as regards export traffic. The State has little bulk cargo for the support of
foreign shipping; and the important export of Canadian grain, which
reached a maximum of 43,000,000 bushels shipped through Portland in
1915-16, has become a thing of the past due to the effects of Canadian,
British, and American tariff policies in diverting the trade elsewhere.
62 Maine: The General Background
Maine needs larger and more efficient distribution centers if it is to be
assured of a revival of its foreign trade. The present lack is one of the
reasons chiefly responsible for the fact that, in 1930, fifty-nine per cent of
Maine's manufactured products flowed through the port of New York,
nearly eleven per cent through Boston, and only thirty per cent through
the State's own ports.
It is evident that full advantage is not being taken of the possibilities of
Maine seaports for foreign trade. The State is further handicapped by not
being near the primary markets, and it is possible that both railroad and
highway freight systems could be better co-ordinated, especially in their
relation to maritime commerce. Maine is today primarily an importing
State. A revival of a profitable grain trade and coastwise shipping would
be of the greatest benefit to both imports and exports, and would prepare
the way for a restored commerce. Should the present commercial status
be remedied, authorities would no longer be obliged to admit that a
potential trade of $50,000,000 is being diverted from Portland, the
State's largest seaport.
THE MAINE FARM
THE first settlers came to Maine's rocky shores, not to wrest a livelihood
from the thin soil, but to exploit native resources of fish and lumber that
seemed to them inexhaustible. They naturally built their towns along the
coast and on the banks of navigable streams; but as the population in-
creased and the forests were cut back from the water, the cleared land was
taken up for farms. Constantly repulsed by Indians and ever at war with
the elements, the Maine settlers were of necessity self-sufficing.
Their first crop of any importance was one that had been the staple of
the aborigines — corn. It suited the requirements of the settlers; it could
be stored through the winter and used as food for animals and human-
kind alike. On the farms of Captain John Mason along the Piscataqua
and in Berwick, at the time of his death in 1635, there were several water-
powered corn-grinding mills, the first of their kind in New England, and
three hundred head of cattle. Since plenty of game was to be had from
the near-by forests, cattle were kept only for fresh supplies of milk, butter,
and cheese. Corn and cattle go together. Until the fertile bottom-lands of
the Ohio and Mississippi valleys were opened and transportation facilities
increased so that farmers in Maine were able to buy corn superior to their
own at a price below their own production costs, corn remained the chief
agricultural product of the State. When it ceased to be an important crop,
the production of beef and pork fell off proportionately.
As Maine's settlement grew, lumbering and fishing flourished, but the
home-making type of farm continued to spread through the territory.
Not until after Maine became a State in 1820, however, were there agricul-
tural exports of any importance. During the period of trade restrictions
caused by the Jefferson Embargo and the following War of 1812, shipping
and shipbuilding, until that time among the greatest of Maine's industries,
met with an effective set-back, and men turned more and more to the
handicrafts and to farming. The extensive use of horses in lumbering
operations brought about a demand for hay, and this became an im-
portant cash crop. By 1900, lumbering operations had given way to pulp
cutting, horses were replaced by machinery, and hay (though still an
important crop in relation to dairying) had declined in value.
64 Maine : The General Background
Sheep and cattle were driven overland to Massachusetts markets in the
early days. In 1820 more than 4000 cattle and 3000 sheep were thus
exported. In that year there were in the State more than 48,000 oxen,
17,800 horses, 95,000 cattle, and 66,500 swine. But even then, the num-
ber of horses was rapidly increasing because of the demand for them by
lumber operators and the growing popularity of Maine-bred race-horses.
During the period of the trade barriers, the shortage of wool brought
about what is now called the ' Merino fever.' As soon as the embargo was
lifted, farmers returned to the Downs breeds they had formerly favored.
The raising of mutton sheep and beef cattle increased until after 1870,
when competition from western producers brought about a decisive
change; between 1890 and 1900 the number of beef cattle in the State
decreased one hundred thousand head. Market competition and the need
for a crop giving higher cash returns shifted beef-raising to land of less
value per acre. Industrial centers of Maine and Massachusetts offered
ready markets for dairy products, and the change was made from beef to
dairy cattle. Sixty cheese factories were built, and the production of
farm butter increased; although the manufacture of these products never
achieved great importance and has been declining since 1900, the number
of dairy cattle has been constantly on the increase. Improved facilities for
refrigeration and transportation have made it possible for Maine farmers
to supply the larger cities of southern New England, as well as their own
industrial centers, with fresh milk and cream, and to fill the increasing
demands of summer residents within the State. Throughout all of
southern Maine, dairying is now a major industry.
Since 1820 a wide diversity of products has been cultivated, with vary-
ing degrees of success. Early attempts were made to grow wheat, oats,
barley, rye, apples, beans, peas, and other fruits and vegetables, even hops
and silk from silkworms. With the development of the West, the raising of
wheat ceased to be of importance in Maine, although it is still harvested in
Aroostook and the inland counties, where modern machinery can be used.
The growing of rye has practically ceased, but more than one hundred
thousand bushels of barley are raised annually. Now that potatoes have
become a very important crop, the production of oats has increased, be-
cause their cultivation fits into the rotation schedule in the potato areas;
some four million bushels are produced annually. Buckwheat, also
important in crop rotation, is grown to some extent.
After the opening of the West, Maine's agriculture underwent a period
of rapid change. Between 1850 and 1870, State leaders, in order to promote
farming, encouraged favorable legislation and the development of agricul-
The Maine Farm 65
tural societies. Bounties were put upon the cultivation of certain pro-
ducts, such as wheat. An exemption of five hundred dollars in the
valuation of farms was made against unpaid mortgages or incurred debts.
New land was put on the market in two hundred-acre plots at fifty cents
an acre, with the opportunity of working off the purchase price on town
roads over a specified period of years. Fairs and exhibits helped to
standardize varieties of products. Finally, with a change in farm enter-
prises and the new access to railroad transportation, agriculture became
stabilized and increased in importance.
Aroostook County, settled by defenders in the Aroostook War, rapidly
drew farmers from southern Maine. Because of the special fitness of soil
and climate, potatoes early became a crop of great importance. Starch
factories were built and formed the chief outlet for the crop ; but not until
the completion of the Aroostook railroad in 1894 did the county attain
national importance for its potato production. Maine now raises nearly
fifteen per cent of the United States potato crop, ranking first among the
States in number of bushels produced and sixth in number of acres under
cultivation. Storage opportunities, aided in part by the climate, make it
economically advisable for southern States to depend upon Maine
potatoes for seed stock. Government inspection, experimentation, and
control of disease and insect pests have increased production and im-
proved the quality of the crop. Maine potatoes today account for more
than half the cash value of the State's total agricultural output, and some
potatoes are raised in every county. The best producing area extends out
of Aroostook County south and west into Penobscot and Somerset
Counties. Here the land is especially adapted to potato-raising, facilities
for transportation are available, and the crop is of high quality.
Apples are a staple crop in Maine. The small varied orchard of the past
is rapidly disappearing as apple-raising becomes more specialized. The
Baldwin, Ben Davis, and Greening varieties, once favored, have given
way to the Mclntosh, Delicious, and Northern Spy. Great quantities of
these latter varieties are exported annually or made into cider. In 1933,
the State's production of apples exceeded a million and a half bushels, but
in the severe winter of 1933-34 many trees were killed and production
dropped nearly a million bushels in a single year.
With the comparative increase in land values, creating a need for crops
giving higher cash income per acre, cultivation of sweet corn, poultry-
raising, and roadside and market gardening have assumed considerable
importance. Sweet corn for canning or market is best grown in con-
junction with dairying, because of the value of its stalks for ensilage and
66 Maine : The General Background
because it gives an outlet for barn manure. Farmers co-operate with
canning factories toward producing a uniform and superior crop by using
hybrid seed from a single source. The amount of Maine canned corn is
increasing rapidly; in 1936, fifty thousand cases of twenty-four cans each
were placed on the market. The area producing the most sweet corn ex-
tends from west to east through the south-central part of the State, in-
cluding Oxford, Androscoggin, Kennebec, and Waldo Counties, and the
southern parts of Franklin, Somerset, and Penobscot Counties. This is
also the area from which comes the greater part of the milk exported to the
Boston market.
Poultry has always been raised in Maine, but until recent years only in
farm flocks of limited number and with egg production varying according
to season. With the demand for uniform eggs of good quality and the
development of rapid transportation, the raising of poultry has steadily
increased. In 1936, the production of poultry in Maine rose to 1,713,000,
and the egg production rose to more than 190 million.
Market or roadside gardening is a fairly recent development. As in-
dustrial towns grew, the demand for fresh vegetables increased, and near-
by farmers began to cater to the ready market. Increasing numbers of
summer residents also created a new and large demand for fresh farm and
dairy products. Automobile transportation benefited the farmers rel-
atively distant from cities, and roadside stands rapidly became profitable
marketing centers for fresh farm goods. Market gardening is an im-
portant enterprise in the coastal belt, where rocky land and high property
valuation prevent general large-scale farming.
With the growth of the canning industry, blueberries for canning and
shipping have increased in economic value. About eighty-five per cent of
the country's canned blueberries originate in Maine, and almost all of
those come from the so-called ' blueberry barrens ' of Washington County.
The canning industry has also brought an increase in the cultivation of
peas and beans.
The number of farms in Maine has been decreasing since 1880 — from
64,000 in that year to 39,000 in 1936. Although a considerable number of
farms have increased in size, the total number of acres under cultivation
has also decreased considerably. Tenant farming has never been popular
in Maine; the majority of persons in the rural sections own their property
outright, and take pride in handing it down intact from one generation to
the next. Despite the general transition away from the self-sufficient
farmer type, Maine continues to raise most of its own food supply. The
culture of bees and the raising of small fruits on most farms throughout
The Maine Farm 67
the State are among the survivals of a pioneer economy. The average
Maine farm, with its well-kept fields, large barns, and trim white house
surrounded by hardy orchard trees, attests to a hard-won and frugal
security less common, perhaps, in other rural sections of New England.
PROM WATERWAYS TO
AIRWAYS
TRANSPORTATION in Maine has always been conditioned by those
geographic and climatic features which have had such a lasting effect on
many varying phases of the State's life. Improvement in travel facilities
has not reduced the distances from point to point within the State, has not
altered the depth of snow or eliminated the effects of frost on the high-
ways. From forest trail and canoe to the airplane, every link in the
history of American transportation, with the exception of the stage-
coach, is being used in Maine today. Large areas of the northern wilder-
ness can be reached by no other means than those employed four cen-
turies ago, walking and canoe, or by the latest development in transporta-
tion, the airplane. Luxurious trains speed through miles of forest which
have not altered since the days when one was lucky to be able to drive
from Kittery to Portland in a four-wheeled vehicle. Long the chief means
of transportation for the settler, traveler, and merchant who gamed
access to the interior through the coastal towns or by way of the larger
rivers, water-borne traffic now retains only a small fraction of its former
importance.
The earliest recorded transportation system in Maine was that used by
the Indians, an unusually comprehensive network of routes which re-
quired no cost or labor for maintenance — the waterways. By rivers and
streams, alternating with ' carries ' from lake to lake or to other rivers, the
Maine tribes could thread their way over most of the State with a
minimum of effort. The waterways were of particular importance during
the autumn when inland tribes sought the more clement and favorable
living conditions along the coast, as the primitive Red Paint People
doubtless had done before them. Hunters and sportsmen today continue
to use many of the old Indian highways.
One of the longest trails (meaning by ' trail' a combination of waterways
and l carries ') was that between what is now Quebec and the mouth of the
Kennebec River. The journey was made from Quebec, up the Chaudiere
to Lake Megantic, the Chain of Ponds, Dead River, to the Kennebec and
down; this constitutes the Arnold Trail of today. Another trail followed
From Waterways to Airways 69
the same route to the Forks of the Kennebec, then it turned eastward
along the Kennebec by various ponds, Moosehead and Chesuncook
Lakes, and so on down to the Penobscot and Penobscot Bay. Another
series of waterways and 'carries' linked the Penobscot and Kennebec,
starting from the Sebasticook River at Winslow. Three well-defined
overland trails led from Rockland Harbor to Mill Stream, the Wessewes-
keag, and St. George's River. Indians from the Penobscot also came down
the St. George's to New Harbor, where they turned off over a 'carry' to
the Sheepscot waters. A main trail went up the Sheepscot to Eastern
River, the Kennebec and Androscoggin, and Merrymeeting Bay where,
near Brunswick, a three-mile ' carry ' gave access to Casco Bay. Again, a
route lay between Gardiner and the Sandy River district by way of
Cobbosseecontee Stream, Lake Maranacook, Greeley's Pond, Norcross
Pond, etc., into the Little Norridgewock. Among other well-known
Indian trails were the Abnaki, or Saco, from Saco to Fryeburg; the
Pequawket, from Portland to Fryeburg; the Ossippi into the White
Mountains; and the long Mohawk Trail, originating in Massachusetts,
crossing the New Hampshire line into Maine, and passing through Naples,
Farmington, Skowhegan, Bangor, and thence to Eastport and Calais.
Parts of many of these early Indian routes are now automobile highways.
The early settlers, as well as those who came later, availed themselves
of the same means of transportation used by the Indians. It goes without
saying that Maine history, the State's social and economic growth, would
have been something entirely different without its major waterways.
There would have been no development of the industrially prominent
river towns, and the lumber industry would have been negligible; the
settling of the rich Aroostook region, for example, would certainly have
been delayed had it not been for the St. John, Madawaska, and other
rivers in the northeastern region. Land transportation in Colonial Maine
was not a thing to be undertaken lightly. Indian trails and paths were
gradually supplemented by woods roads and 'mast ways,' the latter so
called because they were used for the transporting of wood — more
specifically, timber to be converted into masts. One of these 'mast ways'
ran between High Pine and Kittery, another between South Sanford and
Berwick.
During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries Maine towns were
often rebuked and fined for their failure to maintain roads. In 1653, the
Massachusetts commissioners could get no farther than Wells for want of
roads; and they ordered the inhabitants of Wells, Saco, and Cape Porpoise
to ' make sufficient roads within their towns from house to house, and clear
70 Maine : The General Background
and fit them for foot and cart travel, before the next county court under
penalty of 10 pounds for every town's defect in this particular,' and to
'lay out a sufficient highway for horse and foot between towns within
that time.'
Stagecoach lines of any extent did not come into existence until after
the Revolution. The first stagecoach began operating in 1787 between
Portland and Portsmouth, requiring three days for the journey. The
advertisement stated that 'Those ladies and gentlemen who choose the
expeditious, cheap and commodious way of stage traveling, will please to
lodge their names with Mr. Motley. Price for one person, passage the
whole way 20 shillings.' Five years later, an enterprising citizen made the
first attempt to carry passengers between Portland and Hallowell by way
of Wiscasset, making two trips weekly by sleigh in winter, and one trip a
week by coach in summer. In eastern Maine, transportation was much
slower in developing. For a long time there were no roads, and until 1800
no communication with interior towns was possible except by foot. As
late as 1801 it was easy to get lost in going from Belfast to Bangor by land,
and even in 1804 no one would attempt to bring a load of goods across
country from Augusta.
One of the early transportation concerns of the Maine inhabitants was
that of the postal service. Mail was entrusted to ships, or to men making
the journeys through the woods by foot or horse. A post route between
Portland and Boston was established in 1775, but the weekly service was
very irregular. In 1790 there was only one post road in Maine; this ran
along the coast southwest of Wiscasset and connected with the post road
to Boston. For some years afterwards there was no post service east of
Wiscasset. An arrangement had been made in 1788 whereby the mails
came to Portland from Boston three times a week. The first express
service between Portland and Boston was a tri-weekly schedule by water
which was maintained in 1839.
As the population increased, land transportation began to expand.
Stagecoaches between Boston and New York and Bangor operated in
relays as early as 1816. At about this period, and a little later, more than
fifteen stage lines were operating out of Hallowell alone. Lines increased
along the coast and up the major river valleys, and travel conditions
improved. By 1825, stages made the trip between Bangor and Portland in
thirty-six hours, the fare being $7.50. Two years later, almost daily stage-
coach service was possible between Portland and Dover, Portsmouth,
Kennebunk, Hallowell, Augusta, Brunswick, Wiscasset, Waldoboro,
Bath, Conway, Waterford, Paris, Alfred, Yarmouth, Gorham, and Saco.
From Waterways to Airways 71
It should be borne in mind that throughout the period of the stagecoach,
and even after the coming of the railroads, the most important means of
transportation for freight and passengers was by water.
Railroad transportation in Maine is distinguished in that one of the
first railroads hi New England began operating between Bangor and Old
Town in 1836. Another early road, running from Whitney ville to
Machiasport, was begun four years later; one of its primitive locomotives,
' The Lion,' is now in the Crosby Laboratory at the University of Maine.
The Moosehead Lake Railway, a two-mile narrow-gauge road at North-
east Carry, remained the crudest in the State until it was destroyed by the
fires of blueberry pickers in 1862. Locomotion was provided by draft
animals, the tracks were originally fif ty-and sixty-foot pine logs, and the
first wheels were merely wooden disks of pine. A charter had been issued
to the Portland, Saco and Portsmouth Railroad coincidentally with that
of the Bangor-Old Town line, but the former did not begin operating
until 1842.
Within the next half-century, there were thirty-one railroads, including
branch lines, in the State. Of the roads operating at that time which are
still in use, the Atlantic and St. Lawrence division of the Grand Trunk
Railway between Portland and Montreal was opened to travel in 1853.
The story of how Portland wrested from Boston the position as Atlantic
terminus for this road is one of the most curious in Maine's railroad
history. The Boston and Maine Railroad in Maine was completed in
1873, and the majority of the roads within the State began operating in
the quarter-century between 1850 and 1875. The Consolidated Maine
Central Railroad in 1881 comprised the Portland and Kennebec Railroad,
between Portland and Brunswick, Augusta, and Bath; the Somerset and
Kennebec Railroad, between Augusta and Skowhegan; the Androscoggin
and Kennebec Railroad, between Danville and Waterville, and the
extension between Danville and Cumberland; the Penobscot and Ken-
nebec Railroad, between Waterville and Bangor; the Androscoggin Rail-
road, between Brunswick and Leeds Junction and Lewis ton; and the
Leeds and Farmington Railroad, between Leeds Junction and Farmington.
Leased roads at the time were the Belfast and Moosehead Lake line
between Belfast and Burnham, and the Dexter and Newport Railroad.
The Boston and Maine Railroad provides train and bus service between
Boston and Portland, where connections are made with the Maine
Central Railroad and busses to all points in Maine with the exception of
Aroostook County, which is served by the trains and busses of the Bangor
and Aroostook Railroad. Service between Maine and Canada is furnished
72 Maine : The General Background
by the Grand Trunk Railway, a part of the transcontinental Canadian
National Railroads, and by the Canadian Pacific Railway.
Maine railroads now operate over more than two thousand miles of
track. Accelerated schedules and an increasing number of modern air-
conditioned coaches add to the convenience and comfort of the traveler.
The railroads are of especial advantage here during the winter months,
when highway travel is occasionally uncertain and hazardous. Special
trains are at the disposal of visitors to Maine's summer camps and resorts,
while ' snow trains ' and other winter accommodations have been added to
the system. Electric railways are on the decline, but nearly two hundred
miles of this type of transportation are still in operation.
Steamboat transportation antedated the railroad by more than a
decade, the steamboat ' Kennebec ' making a trip between Portland and
North Yarmouth in August, 1822. Two years later the 'Patent,' ' strong
and commodious and elegantly fitted up for passengers/ began running
between Portland and Boston. Steamboat lines gradually became more
numerous, and before very long steamers were touching at nearly all the
important coastal and river towns. Boats even steamed up the Kennebec
as far as Waterville, and competition became so keen that at one time the
fare between that city and Boston was only one dollar. One of the earliest
iron steamships in America, the 'Bangor,' was built in 1845 to run be-
tween Bangor and Boston. Trans-Atlantic transportation by steam first
affected Maine when boats began plying between Liverpool and Portland
in 1853. Water transportation to the latter port reached its height in the
fifties, with two hundred and forty-six sailing vessels and 12 steamships
calling at Portland regularly. Among the larger steamship lines, the
Portland Steam Packet Company, the Maine Steamship Company, the
International Steamship Company, the Kennebec Steam Navigation
Company, the Bath-Boothbay Steamship Company, and the Boston-
Bangor Steamship Company eventually became associated as the
Eastern Steamship Lines. Previous to the World War, the Allan, Leyland,
and White Star trans- Atlantic steamship lines operated out of Portland,
but this traffic has been discontinued.
The handicaps of climate and distance have been progressively over-
come, and today Maine is well served by modern and efficient means of
transportation. Much of the State which could not be reached by highway
a quarter of a century ago is now accessible. Generally speaking, there is a
concentration of roads in the southern half of the State, but more remote
sections are rapidly being opened to automobile traffic. Although the
majority of the roads are town-built or third class, the greater number of
From Waterways to Airways 73
the many highways improved within the last two decades have been
gravel-surfaced; and in addition, there are several hundred miles of con-
crete roadway. An extensive motor freight service is on the increase in
Maine, and more than a score of intrastate and interstate bus lines
provide highway transportation.
Water transportation to and from Maine has fallen off to an alarming
extent from its former estate. Freight cargoes are today but a small
fraction of those carried in the past, when imports and exports sometimes
amounted to tens of millions of tons annually. With the exception of a
few local steamship lines, passenger traffic by water completely died out
when the Eastern Steamship Lines completed their summer service be-
tween New York and Bar Harbor for good in 1936. Efforts are being
made to revive the decadent shipping industry, and to emphasize the
State's advantages in harbors and navigable rivers as well as its relative
proximity to European ports.
The most recent of all forms of transportation is represented in Maine
by the Boston and Maine and Central Vermont Airways, which provides
daily plane service to major points. There are eleven airports, three of
which are lighted with directional radio range beams. Other airports
and landing fields are being built. Five beacon towers on the Bangor-
Boston route are in process of construction (1937). By January, 1937, the
Works Progress Administration had supervised the painting of one hun-
dred and eight town markers, airport symbols, and meridian markers
throughout Maine. Maine's inland waterways — the same rivers, lakes,
and ponds which once served the Indians — are of particular value to
aviators and to those who wish to reach those sections of the State which
are practically inaccessible by other means of transportation. Efforts are
under way to make Portland the Atlantic terminus for a projected trans-
oceanic air service.
From Indian trails to airways, transportation in Maine has developed
along lines which parallel those of other States. The means used have
been identical with those all over the nation; only in particular aspects as
i nfluenced by its natural setting and climate has Maine differed.
RACIAL ELEMENTS
AT THE beginning of the nineteenth century, Maine's population was
representative of English, French, Scotch-Irish, Welsh, Irish, Dutch,
German, and Acadian French stock. Men from western England began
group settlement of the province as early as 1623 at Kittery, though there
had been scattered settlers in the territory before that year. This stock
combined with that of the Scotch-Irish, who followed soon after, to pro-
duce that shrewd, dry, somewhat dour type known as the Yankee — a
name which later came to be applied to all New Englanders of this same
general ancestry. These people weathered the protracted Indian wars,
and their settlements grew slowly but steadily along the coast. By 1662
there had begun, as well, a gradual infiltration of Quaker settlers, whose
frugal and peace-loving ways have helped to mold the Maine character.
In 1740, General Samuel Waldo imported forty families from Brunswick
and Saxony to settle in Waldoboro, supplementing a Moravian colony
established there a year earlier; and succeeding years brought more
Germans to this section of Maine. Many of them, however, later em-
igrated elsewhere. Dresden was settled by German Lutherans, accom-
panied by French and Dutch immigrants of the same faith.
Irish settlers were especially plentiful in York, Lincoln, and Cumber-
land Counties; it was they who gave Limerick its name, after the city in
the old country. In 1808, Irish Catholics were numerous enough in the
vicinity of Damariscotta to build a place of worship, now the oldest
Roman Catholic church building in New England.
The French, from their early but unsuccessful settlement of 1604, held
control of the land east of the Penobscot River until 1759, when they
relinquished all their claims in what is now Maine. At one time this
territory had been controlled by the New Amsterdam Dutch, who were
driven out only when the French returned in stronger force. Although
the French were not active colonists, many of the Huguenot settlers early
gained prominence in Maine. Today, especially in the coastal towns,
there still live members of the old French Protestant families who strive
proudly to keep their blood and their tongue as purely French as when
their ancestors first came here. These people are not to be confused with the
Canadian French, nor the latter with the Acadians who, refusing to swear
Racial Elements 75
allegiance to England or Canada, settled along the St. John River when
they were exiled from their homes in Nova Scotia. Many of these
people still preserve intact their language, religion, and customs.
In the middle decades of the nineteenth century, a flood of westward
emigration from Maine aroused fears for the future and led to a venture
in colonization. A group of Swedish settlers was imported in 1870, their
colony being known as New Sweden. Their enthusiasm brought more
settlers of the same nationality after them, and Stockholm shortly came
into being.
As a result of the fact that Maine has no schools for industrial training,
notwithstanding the National Government's offer to pay half the cost of
trade schools, there has been since 1869 until recent years a continual
importation of workmen from Scotland and England, and from the
French-speaking sections of Canada, for specialized labor in the State's
factories and mills.
Northern European peoples, particularly Finns, have joined the
Canadian French in the lumbering industry; and Norwegians, Swedes,
and Icelanders are engaged in the coastal regions in fishing, shipping, and
quarrying. The many Russians, Lithuanians, and Poles who live in
Maine have, like the Finns, settled most thickly in Knox County.
The growth of the cities has brought to the State a large number of
Jews, Italians, Greeks, and Syrians, most of whom live in Waterville and
Millinocket; and a scattering of other southern European nationalities,
along with some Albanians, Turks, and Orientals.
Maine's small Negro population, numbering about one thousand, is
chiefly resident in Bangor and Portland. Most of these Negroes are
descendants of the servants of wealthy landowners and shipping families
of post-Revolutionary days. They have, in some instances, intermarried
with Indians, who today slightly outnumber them; and to some extent
also with whites, particularly in certain more remote coastal sections.
The people of present-day Maine are predominantly of English-Scotch-
Irish ancestry, with a generous proportion of French, and in lesser degree
of German, blood. Most of the other nationalities represented are as yet
more or less unassimilated. The Canadian French, who constitute about
one-eighth of the State's total population, have lived in Maine since
earliest times, yet they still keep their racial individuality, attending
French churches and French schools. The census of 1930 gave the num-
ber of French-Canadians and Canadians living in Maine as more than
73,000.
FOLKLORE AND FOLKWAYS
BESIDES a considerable body of folklore peculiar to Maine, the State
also possesses a larger body of racially inherited lore, particularly that of
Great Britain and of France. The comparative isolation and independ-
ence of many a * down-East ' community have helped to preserve not only
old customs, beliefs, and legends, but even characteristics of speech that
hark back to Elizabethan or earlier days. The familiar use of the word
' butt'ry ' for 'pantry,' and of the old Anglo-Saxon word 'gore' as a unit of
land measurement, are obvious examples.
Maine is rich in an inherited knowledge of herbs and cure-alls, spells,
weather signs, and omens which has gradually become characteristic of
most rural sections through the country, and therefore does not require
treatment as a cultural feature peculiar to Maine or even to New Eng-
land. In sending forth pioneers to build up new territories to the west,
Maine and its neighboring States contributed as well a great treasury of
saws and sayings, songs and stories, which became a part of the common
heritage in far distant regions, and are now only Maine's or New Eng-
land's as the sociological or literary scholar may trace them back to their
original source. Nevertheless, there is still a good deal of folklore, much
of it as yet unrecorded, that is indigenous to the Pine Tree State.
There was a time in Maine when nearly everybody sang and composed
his own songs. And he who was especially gifted as singer or story-teller
was a person of consequence in his community, like the minstrel of an
older day. It was as if the unlettered populace unconsciously sought and
found in this way an esthetic relief from the harsh facts of their daily
existence. As a result, there gradually came into being many stories and
poems, some of them local and temporal, some universal and lasting.
They were a sort of communal product, just as were the ancient English
and Scottish ballads that are still recited or sung by many Maine folk;
and they originated wherever men came together, in logging camps in the
deep woods and in fo'c'sles on the sea. Verse or prose, they were passed
on and further embellished by denizens of the village store or by idlers on
the lee side of a wharf whittling shavings in the sun and passing plug or
jug from mouth to mouth. This material is a heritage not widely known
today, even in Maine itself.
Folklore and Folkways 77
Maine lore, particularly that of the lumberman, has been best recorded
in the books of Mrs. Fannie Hardy Eckstorm. Her 'Minstrelsy of
Maine,' a collection of folk-songs and ballads native to the State, pre-
serves much of this rich inheritance. No anthology of American balladry
or sea chanteys is without its share of Maine's songs and poems. Most of
the ballads are the recordings of actual or reputed happenings. A hitherto
unpublished example is 'The Mark Bachelder Tragedy,' which begins as
follows:
'Twas on December twenty-fifth,
A time not long ago;
An awful tragedy was played
In the town of Sebago.
It was at Leslie Kenison's
Upon a Christmas night ;
That then and there these persons met,
To drink, and dance, and fight.
And one Mark Bachelder was there,
The bully of the town;
And this man, Leslie Kenison,
Was bound to knock him down.
So Kenison did seize a stake,
And struck him on the head;
Inflicting wicked, cruel blows,
Until they thought him dead.
They dragged his lifeless form away,
And quickly put him in his sleigh;
Started his horse and sent him home,
There to freeze and die alone.
Detectives investigate the crime; Bachelder is buried by a grieving fam-
ily; and Kenison is sentenced to four years in prison. The convict's part-
ing words are familiar ones:
And now, young men and maidens all,
Take warning thus by me;
And e'er abide on virtue's side,
And shun bad company.
Other ballads there are of greater poetic excellence, no doubt, though
most, of them have now been collected and published. All have a strong
popular appeal. Many of the more exciting are concerned with local
78 Maine: The General Background
heroes, whose feats of strength or skill have become legendary — as, for
example, John Ross, the big boss of the Penobscot drive. But more often
the fabulous stories are told in prose form. And tall tales they are ! There
was the man who shot five bears with one bullet, the man who shot one
bear for each day in the year, the man who invented the slow bullet, and
the man who fashioned a curved rifle-barrel so efficient that when he shot
from his door he had to pull in his head to escape the bullet coming
around the house. ' These stories have survived to whet the imaginations
of contemporary narrators, such as that member of the famous Coffin
family who invented doughnuts that turned themselves over in the cook-
ing fat and jumped out when they were done.
There is, however, a characteristic sort of Yankee humor which
manifests itself more in understatement than in exaggeration. This
humor plays a prominent part in everyday life. In Maine great expanses
of water which elsewhere would be known as lakes are called ponds. A
housewife says: ' Don't know what I've got; I'll just scratch around and
see, but I'm afraid there's not a thing to eat in the house ' — and then
goes on to produce a meal of exceptional size and quality. Many of
Maine's own writers have capitalized on this sober-sided Yankee wit, and
none more successfully than he who was known as Artemus Ward.
What commonly passes for the Maine vernacular in print and on stage,
screen, and radio is a libel on the 'down-Easter's' manner of speaking.
In reality, there are as many Maine dialects as there are States in the
Union. A skilled listener acquainted with Maine speech should be able to
identify the community to which any Maine person speaking his home
dialect belongs. Variations in the vernacular between one community or
region and another do not lie in the use or misuse of words, but in changes
of inflection and timbre. Thus it is next to impossible accurately to
reproduce the Maine vernacular in printed words. The common speech
of Maine people of English-Scottish-Irish stock is probably as nearly
pure, in being free from corruptions and in retaining old forms intact, as
any of this country, with the possible exception of that of the Carolina
and Kentucky mountaineers. The peculiarities of Maine speech are its
nasal qualities, slurred enunciation, and dropped syllables, with a
hesitancy in delivery.
The Maine Yankee is not nearly so taciturn as a stranger might at first
consider him, but it is a rule that words are not to be wasted. Get him
talking, however, and he will tell you stories a-plenty. Less restricted to
Maine than woods yarns and the ballad, but none the less typical, are
tales of sea serpents, t ha'nted ' houses, ghosts, and witches. Every year
Folklore and Folkways 79
serious church-going people attest to the truth of such mysteries and
monsters, and an almost limitless volume of material could be gathered
about them. Although there was a time when Maine witches were given
their 'comeuppance,' therapeutic magic has been practiced throughout the
State to this day. Indian legends and pirate stories abound. Corners,
fields, and brooklets have their own peculiar names and histories. Here
occurred an Indian massacre; there a witch was tried and hanged; at this
crossroads a suicide is buried; no one lives in that house because footsteps
are heard there in the night. The shore is pock-marked with holes dug by
hunters of treasure, who usually toiled in vain; while those who chanced
to find the wealth in blackened pot or ancient chest are said to have lost it
again through the machinations of the Evil One, or to have come to some
grim and sudden end.
People in Maine have their own ways of doing things. And if those
ways are not always the most efficient, there is usually a reason for them.
While the reason may in many cases seem to rest only upon superstition
or even narrow-mindedness, it has generally a deeper and firmer founda-
tion. Any bit of folk-wisdom — a cure, a weather or planting sign — does
not spring into being spontaneously. It is knowledge gained from ex-
perience, tried and found true by generations; therefore it is to be trusted.
EDUCATION AND
RELIGION
EDUCATION
SUPERFICIALLY at least, the early history of education in Maine is for
the most part identical with that of education in Massachusetts. But the
settlers of Massachusetts showed a veneration for learning, and rapidly
developed an excellent school system; whereas the settlers of Maine, far
more widely scattered, long harassed by the Indian wars, and of less wealth
and more primitive interests, were largely indifferent to the value of
education and the need for its development. When school taxes became a
real burden to the communities, ' moving schools ' were organized which
traveled from town to town, spending only a few weeks in each place.
The situation was greatly improved after 1789, when Massachusetts
adopted a law requiring liberal instruction for all children and college or
university education for schoolmasters. After achieving statehood in
1820, Maine modeled her own school laws upon those of Massachusetts.
The first real school in Maine was the mission established on the
Kennebec in 1696 by Father Sebastian Rasle, whose valuable work among
the Indians suffered greatly from, and was finally ended by, the depreda-
tions of the English colonists. Other early Jesuit teachers were Father
Romagne at Passamaquoddy and Father Bapst at Indian Island.
In 1794, the Massachusetts General Court granted a charter to
Bowdoin College at Brunswick. Academies were founded at Hallowell
and Berwick in 1791, and by 1821 there were twenty-five academies in the
State. From this beginning, higher education in Maine has progressed
slowly but steadily. The free high school law of 1873 brought about the
opening of some one hundred and fifty high schools in the State. In 1863,
a bill was passed which established normal schools at Farmington and
Castine; and the Madawaska Training School was established in 1878 at
Fort Kent expressly for the preparation of teachers to instruct the French
settlers, exiled Acadians from Nova Scotia, in the St. John Valley. Today
there are six teachers' training schools in Maine, and more than sixty
Education and Religion 81
private schools and academies in good standing, including parochial,
Jewish, and Quaker schools and two Catholic academies for girls. The
Portland Hebrew School was founded in 1884. Oak Grove Seminary in
Vassalboro, a Friends' school for girls founded in 1849, is now nationally
famous.
The rural or district school, heralded in American song and story as the
cradle of the nation's greatness, has always been a problem in Maine.
Modern educators have exploded the myth of the little red schoolhouse;
and intelligent people no longer expect one teacher, too often inadequately
trained, to instruct from six to eight grades in all the required subjects
with any degree of success. It is increasingly difficult to find good
teachers willing to undertake such work, and the communities themselves
are often unable to support their schools adequately. And yet all over the
State today there are many such schools, little changed in the last fifty or
seventy-five years. In 1937, President K. C. M. Sills of Bowdoin College
charged that Maine's schools have been going steadily backward in the
past ten years. He said that between two hundred and three hundred
schools in the State operate on an annual budget of less than three hun-
dred and sixty dollars, and that a smaller proportion of the State income
is now spent on its schools than was spent one hundred years ago. There
is certainly need for educational pioneering here today, particularly in the
more thinly populated regions.
Maine has four old and important colleges. The University of Maine,
at Orono, was founded as an agricultural school in 1865, became co-educa-
tional in 1872, and was named the University of Maine in 1897. It main-
tains a faculty extension service, operating largely in rural areas. Bowdoin
College at Brunswick, incorporated in 1794, is one of the oldest and most
prominent of the country's smaller liberal arts colleges. Colby College, at
Waterville, was chartered in 1813 as the Maine Literary and Theological
Institute. From 1831 to 1842, as Waterville College, it was one of the first
institutions in the country to experiment with manual training; women
were admitted as students in 1871; and it acquired its present name in
1899. Bates College, at Lewiston, now non-sectarian, is an outgrowth of
the Maine State Seminary, founded in 1855 by Free Baptists. It became
a co-educational college in 1864. Considerably more than half of its
alumni have entered the teaching profession.
Among the State's miscellaneous educational institutions are the
Bangor Theological Seminary, established in 1814; Nasson College,
founded at Springvale in 1912 for the practical training of young women,
the first chartered college for women in the State; Westbrook Junior
82 Maine: The General Background
College for Women, in Portland, the only school of its kind in the State,
founded as an academy in 1831 and attaining junior college status in 1925;
and the Maine School for the Deaf, the School of Fine and Applied Art,
and the Peabody Law School, all at Portland.
RELIGION
The first Christian missionary to Maine was the Jesuit priest, Nicholas
Aubry or d'Aubri, who preached to the Indians at Dochet Island in 1604.
The first Protestant clergyman was the Reverend Richard Seymour,
minister at the unsuccessful Popham Colony of 1607. Early Jesuit
churches and schools were built in the wilderness by Gabriel Druillettes
(1646) and Father Rasle (1696), both unusual for their scholarship and
progressive ideas. Most of the Abnaki tribe were converted to Christian-
ity by these men, and Father Rasle wielded tremendous influence over the
Indians. Partly from fear of his power and partly from bigotry, he was
persecuted and eventually killed by the English. But between him and
his Protestant contemporary, John Eliot, there developed a mutual
tolerance and esteem. Eliot's Indian converts at that time were spread
widely through southern Maine. Most of the present-day Indians, how-
ever, retain a heritage of Jesuit teaching and are staunch Catholics.
Today, although the Congregational, Baptist, Methodist, and (in some
cities) Roman Catholic churches are strongest in Maine, nearly every
denomination in the country is represented here. There are, besides those
mentioned, Episcopalian, Free Baptist, Unitarian, Universalist, Advent
Christian, Friends, Seventh Day Adventist, Christian, Latter Day
Saints, Christian Science, Hebrew, Presbyterian, Greek Orthodox,
Lutheran, Evangelical, and ' Church of God ' churches in Maine. Many
unusual sects, some of them peculiar to Maine alone, still flourish through-
out the State, often in segregated colonies where they are free to worship
according to their particular tenets, unmolested by curious and more
conventional neighbors.
The Shakers, or members of the ' United Society of Believers in Christ's
Second Appearing,' organized some of the first religious colonies in Maine.
Their settlements at Alfred and New Gloucester, established in 1793, were
active for many years. The Alfred village was abandoned in 1925, and is
now owned and occupied by a Roman Catholic school for boys; but the
New Gloucester settlement, though greatly diminished, still continues.
Education and Religion 83
Shaker doctrines greatly resemble those of the Quakers, except that they
hold to complete celibacy. They recruit new members by adopting
orphans and making converts. They are famous for their piety and
industry, and are always valuable citizens.
Less commonly known are various religious societies which have sprung
up in Maine from time to time, sometimes gaining wide notice, but more
often subsiding quietly with the death or dispersal of their founders.
Maine life has a certain frontier quality favorable to revivalistic practices,
and a Puritan temper in its people seems to produce zeal and fanaticism.
Often a discontented or disqualified pastor of an organized church gathers
together a small flock of followers, usually good but ignorant country folk
eager for a faith they can comprehend and a leader they can see, and thus
a sect is born. Many such have in time achieved considerable power and
influence.
Among the oldest of the religious groups peculiar to Maine are the
Bullockites, a society of primitive Baptists, who still worship, though in-
frequently, in their more than century-old meeting house at Porter in
Oxford County. Less permanent were the Higginsites of Carmel. When
it became known that their leader, the Reverend Mr. Higgins, was
accustomed to drive the devil from children of the sect with whips, his
fellow citizens decorated him with tar and feathers and escorted him from
their town. Shortly thereafter the colony was discontinued. In Scarboro
in the early iSoo's there appeared a Scotch-Irish preacher named Cochran,
remarkable for an irresistible personality and a singularly sweet voice.
Under his leadership, Cochranism grew and flourished all through York
County and spread into New Hampshire. His followers gathered each
Sunday in the woods to join in simple rites of song and dance. This un-
usual method of worship in an age of bleak Puritanism achieved under-
standable popularity. York County churches were soon emptied, and
their preachers exhorted vacant pews in vain. But with increasing
strength, Cochranism more openly took on colors strangely resembling free
love. This the righteous were not long in suppressing. Cochran took
himself westward, but he was not easily forgotten.
Perhaps the most unusual organization of all, the Palestine Emigration
Association, came into being in 1866. Under the leadership of a dis-
credited Mormon minister named Adams, one hundred and fifty-six
crusaders — men, women, and children — set out for the Holy Land,
proposing c to commence the great work of restoration foretold by the old
prophets, patriarchs, and apostles as well as by our Lord himself.' The
expedition sailed from Jonesport, and actually arrived and founded a
84 Maine: The General Background
colony in Palestine near Jaffa, where they were beset by every sort of
hardship. The leader took to drink, and in little more than a year those of
the band who had survived came straggling back to their homes.
But this was not the only crusade from Maine to the Holy Land. The
Sandfordites, whose temple, Shiloh, in Durham, is now a famous land-
mark, once set out in three white ships to visit Jerusalem. They were
forced to return in great distress, however, when the Lord failed to send
them manna in lieu of the provisions they had not believed it necessary to
provide. Of all Maine's religious cults, this is the most important, since it
is of national scope. It nourished with most fervency at the turn of the last
century, as the 'Church of the Holy Ghost and Us,' under the Reverend
Mr. Sandford, an evangelist with convincing powers. He was later jailed
and convicted for exploiting his flock, many members of which were found
to be existing in extreme misery and want. Nevertheless, the church is
today of considerable strength, despite its rigorous and primitive doc-
trines.
Other and less conspicuous manifestations are the Free Thinkers of
Fort Fairneld; 'A Wayside People of the Triune God,' established at
Litchfield in 1900; the Reverend F. W. O'Brien's i Forward Movement'
and People's Church, founded at Bath in 1898; and the more recent
Holiness Church at Kingfield, formed by a group of literal believers
organized to oppose the liberal trends of modern times.
Aside from religious groups interesting mainly because of their oddity,
Maine can boast of several unusual and highly valuable organizations.
The first 'radio parish' in the United States was formed at Portland in
1926, broadcasting over Station WCSH, with the Reverend H. O. Hough
as pastor. The broadcasts are designed primarily for persons who have no
opportunity to attend regular church services. They are now supported
by nine denominations, and enjoy great popularity. The Young People's
Society of Christian Endeavor was originated at Williston Church in
Portland by the Reverend Francis E. Clark in 1881. The Society's
membership now numbers several millions, and Williston Church is today
a shrine for Christian Endeavorers from all parts of the world. A State
Interdenominational Commission, organized in the middle of last century,
came into prominence under President William DeWitt Hyde of Bowdoin
College. It has been copied in seventeen other States.
The Bible Society of Maine was established at Portland in 1809. It dis-
tributes annually thousands of copies of the Bible, printed in the fifty
different languages that are spoken in the State. Another important
organization is the Female Samaritan Association of Portland, founded in
Education and Religion 85
1828, and maintaining since an unbroken record of splendid philanthropic
work throughout the State. A more modern type of social service is that
provided by the International Institute of the Y.W.C.A. of Biddeford
and Saco, in educating the foreign-born in domestic and practical arts.
The Seacoast Mission, an independent philanthropic enterprise sup-
ported by individual contributions, has its headquarters at Bar Harbor,
and by means of its boat ' Sunbeam' it brings religious, educational,
hospital, and recreational facilities to the inhabitants (particularly the
children) of the islands and lonely outposts of the Maine coast. Its work
at Christmas time is especially praiseworthy.
ARCHITECTURE
MAINE architecture has reflected the conservative, substantial, and
practical characteristics of Maine people from the time the first roof
was raised in the State to the present day. Climatic conditions and
the abundance of superior-quality wood, sole basis of construction
until about the nineteenth century, led to the evolution of architectural
types in Maine common to the New England States as a whole. Maine
architecture of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries (and, to a
considerable degree, that of today, since many of the architectural tradi-
tions of those centuries have been upheld) was highly satisfactory from
an esthetic as well as a practical point of view. Eminently suited to its
time and its place, the State's architecture expressed a people and a way
of living, it 'belonged' to its particular background and landscape. Even
though their designs were derived elsewhere, were adaptations of existing
forms, the better architectural examples were more than imitations; they
had a definite indigenous quality peculiar to themselves. A sane and
humanized relation to the environment characterized the development
of Maine's architecture from period to period.
It is assumed that the earliest Maine dwellings were huts of branches,
rushes, turf, and thatch, often built into a hillside, such as were found
farther south in the early seventeenth century. Such dwellings were
familiar to England in that period, due largely to the scarcity of wood for
building purposes. Contrary to popular belief, the log house or cabin,
which is still found here occasionally, was not native to Maine or New
England. The type was unknown in England, and was presumably in-
troduced to America towards the middle of the seventeenth century.
English half-timbered methods of construction were employed in Maine,
but proved unsatisfactory due to extremes in temperature and excessive
snows and rains.
In respect to the two major standards of structural beauty and prac-
ticality, early Maine architecture admirably fulfilled both requirements.
As elsewhere in New England, native architecture, particularly that be-
tween 1760 and 1820, influenced later architecture throughout the coun-
try, although it had little effect upon any other than domestic design.
Architectural types prevailing in the State until well into the nineteenth
Architecture 87
century fall into several divisions : defensive garrisons, farm houses, manor
houses, meeting-houses, public buildings, schools, and jails. Considering
the long period of intermittent French and Indian warfare, extending
from 1675 to 1763, it is remarkable that there are any existing buildings
which were erected prior to 1765. The need for protection produced
such defensive buildings as the Mclntire Garrison House (1660-90) at
York, the Fort Western blockhouses (1754; restored), and Fort Halifax
(1754) at Winslow, in which simplicity, strength of design, and defensive
requirements were stressed. The Maine garrison house or blockhouse was,
in effect, an adaptation of English and medieval fortifications, as evi-
denced by such a feature as the overhang, which made it possible to
protect the walls beneath by firing upon the enemy from the projection
of the second story. Of all the architectural types in Maine, this was the
slowest to change; little or no alteration in form occurred in defensive
buildings between the Mclntire Garrison House and Fort Edgecomb
(1808).
Because of the rarity of existing buildings erected before 1730, it is
difficult to trace the early architectural development in Maine, although
it doubtless corresponded to that of Massachusetts and Connecticut.
The ordinary farm house remained unchanged in design during the last
three-quarters of the eighteenth century, whereas the meeting-house
underwent clearly defined changes between 1760 and 1820. The plan of
the typical Maine house was patterned after that farther south, the type
which prevailed throughout the State during most of the eighteenth
century having been evolved from an earlier design which consisted of
one, two, or three rooms with a central chimney, and a half -story in the roof
above. The characteristic eighteenth-century house was a rectangular
structure, with a central entrance hall, a huge central chimney (usually
seven or eight feet square) built behind the stairs, two spacious rooms on
either side of the hall, a central kitchen at the rear of the chimney, and
two small rooms filling out the rear corners of the rectangle. On the
second floor there were usually two large rooms at the front of the house,
called ' chambers,' and two small corner ' bedrooms ' at the rear of the first
floor. A rough 'lean- to' was often added afterward at the rear of the
house. No exact architectural balance was sought, and it was customary
for nearly all houses to be built with the front facing the southern, or
warmer and more protected, side.
The framework of the early Maine house consisted of sills, plates, girts,
and 'summers' or girders, and was constructed with the utmost care.
Timbers were hewn, while all pieces of the framework were broad-axed
88 Maine: The General Background
or adzed until nearly as smooth as if they had been planed. Boards, studs,
and light joints were sawed; joints between braces, girts, and posts were
mortised and tenoned. Roofs were commonly gabled, with the ridge
parallel to the road. Roof boarding covered the roof framework, and
at an early date, before the use of shingles, roofs were occasionally
thatched with river sedge. Ridgepoles were a later development, a ridge
purlin, or horizontal member, being used on the early buildings to support
the common rafters. With the exception of those on defensive buildings,
there is no very early example in Maine of the overhang.
The exteriors of eighteenth-century houses were covered with clap-
boards, with or without sheathing. No outside cornices existed in the
earlier architecture, although subsequently there were cornices of moder-
ate projection with a bed mold. These gradually became elaborate, bed
molds becoming profusely ornamented; and in the early nineteenth cen-
tury, cornices were used across gabled ends, and the rake molds became as
heavy as horizontal cornices. Early small and narrow casement windows
were replaced by double-hung windows, three lights (panes) wide by five
or six high, and later by still wider twelve-light windows. Much of the
glass used was imported. Shutters were built either in one leaf, covering
the entire window with a track on the window stool, or in two parts.
Entrances were merely frontispieces, built without a projecting hood or
canopy over the door, and were of three types: flat entablature (the
horizontal member over the entrance), pediment and broken pediment
(the triangular ornamental space over the doorway), and scrolled pedi-
ment. Sidelights are usually associated with nineteenth-century con-
struction, while the use of the broken frieze (that section of the en-
tablature lying between architrave and cornice) and of the architrave (the
lowest division of an entablature) above fluted pilasters is an odd de-
parture from classic precedent. Circular heads of doorways were com-
mon, while elliptical heads occurred after iSoo. Front doors were broad
and low, and simple molded entablatures with pilasters formed the usual
design.
The interior woodwork of front rooms in the eighteenth- and early
nineteenth-century houses centered about the fireplace, the fireplace
wall usually being paneled. Two broad panels appeared over the fireplace
itself, and an elaborate bolection molding surrounded the fireplace open-
ing. In more formal houses, the moldings and horizontal panels were
flanked by narrow fluted pilasters. The remaining parts of the fireplace
wall were completed with vertical panels to the doorway, and a small
horizontal panel above it. Wood cornices gave height and scale to the
Architecture 89
low-studded rooms, and nearly always there were dadoes the height of the
window sills. Staircase newels were from two and a half to three inches
square, and skirt moldings were cut to elaborate and interesting forms.
Hand-rail moldings were often mitered to form the top of newels, and the
handrails themselves were small and delicately wrought. The bead and
bevel molding was the one most frequently used, serving as panel mold
for interior doors, shutters, wainscot, dadoes, paneling, cupboards, and
outside doors. A large cove, or concave, molding was characteristic of
outside caps of windows; while some form of cyma recta, a molding of
reverse curve at the top of the cornice, was commonly the dominant ceil-
ing molding.
Cellars in early Maine buildings, if built at all, were usually under only
part of the house, and they were used chiefly for the storage of food.
Cellar walls were either finished with mortar of a poor quality or left
unfinished. Chimneys were of under-burned brick laid in puddled clay,
great care being taken in the construction of the brickwork. It is notable,
however, that the woodwork of many old houses is in much better condi-
tion than the masonry, because of the inferior brick and mortar that had
to be used. Fireplaces were large, their hearths finished with tiles seven
or eight inches square. Bricks were not uniform in size and in all Colonial
work were hand-made — as in the McLellan House (1770-74) at Gorham.
Flemish bond was the common design for good brickwork, being used
especially in the construction of important facades.
In the Colonial period, and later, iron was scarce in Maine and in great
demand. Hardware was hand-wrought, and frequently showed much
delicacy and refinement of design, as well as a fine sense of scale. Hand-
wrought nails were of two types: a thin pointed nail for finishing work,
and a larger and stronger nail for heavier construction. In sharp con-
trast to the many neatly painted white homes of today were the red-
painted or unpainted houses of an earlier period. The paint first used on
the exteriors was usually of a dark red color, called Indian red, in which
red ocher was commonly mixed with fish oil. Although one or two rooms
might be painted, only the well-to-do could afford this practice until well
along in the eighteenth century. Records indicate the possible use of
hangings or tapestries in the homes of the wealthy.
The characteristics of the typical Maine house before the period of the
Greek Revival have been outlined. The more pretentious manor houses,
of which the earliest recorded example in Maine is the William Pepperell
House (1682) at Kittery Point, were somewhat similar in general archi-
tectural plan, but were larger and more elaborate. Other examples of this
90 Maine : The General Background
type are the Sarah Orne Jewett House (1774) at South Berwick, and the
Lady Pepperell House (1760) and Cutts House (1783) at Kittery Point.
Many of these manor houses represented precisely what the term implies:
they were the 'big houses' in the English, almost feudal, sense of the
word, the centers of prosperity and culture. Indeed, several of the pre-
Revolutionary landowners, such as Dr. Sylvester Gardiner of Gardiner,
were to all intents and purposes 'lords of the manor,' operating their
estates under a feudal system of tenancy.
Even before the close of the eighteenth century, Maine had a con-
siderable number of fine mansions, scattered all along the coast and on
the major waterways; and after 1800, houses of great pretentiousness
were not rare, as shipmasters and merchants became increasingly wealthy.
Many Maine houses were built in the first decade of the nineteenth cen-
tury, an important period in residential building in all eastern American
cities. Houses at Wiscasset, which was then at the height of its prosperity,
represented the 'apogee of the Georgian style as the culmination of
colonial and early national architecture.' Visitors to Maine often express
surprise at the many fine old houses which now stand in isolated sections
of the coast. The explanation is that at the time of their erection Maine
was still a predominantly maritime State — all wealth came from the
sea. Hence, successful Maine men commonly built their beautiful homes
with their doorstep on the shore and the sea for their front yard. When
industrial interests turned inland and transportation developed along
highways and railroads, many mansions became isolated because of their
location on remote peninsulas all along the coast.
The mansions of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries are
characterized by larger scale, higher ceilings, and more elaborate detail.
It is possible that much of the molding and other interior detail of modest
houses was copied and simplified from the more pretentious buildings.
Maine carpenters and carvers, deriving their designs for moldings,
cornices, entablatures, portals, and facades from English patternbooks,
nevertheless brought their own particular skill and originality to bear on
their work. Adapting English Georgian architecture to their own ends,
the architects used their materials intelligently, retaining a delicacy and
refinement of treatment even after the style became ornate and heavy in
England. Simplicity without crudeness was sought; and architectural
charm was the result.
Cornices on the more elaborate early nineteenth-century houses show
far more detail, windows are larger and have more complex moldings,
and the entrance motives of the larger homes are outstanding features of
Architecture 91
the buildings. Although the work was usually executed by local artisans,
the designs were far richer than those of the more modest buildings, and
the influence of the Renaissance in England is obvious. Exceptionally
fine interior work is found in the mansions built between 1790 and 1820.
The elliptical arch for door heads and recesses was adopted, the Palladian
window appeared, as did side lights in connection with entrance doorways,
as well as porches and free columns. More generous lighting, space, and
circulation were provided. Frequently, however, the demands of economy
produced the architectural restraint which is a salient element of the best
in Colonial-Georgian design, such as is found in the William Nickels
House (1807-08) and the Abiel Wood House (begun 1812) at Wiscasset.
It is regrettable that more houses representative of the period under
consideration, as well as those of a few decades earlier, are not extant.
Fire, such as that which destroyed so many mansions in Portland in 1775
and again in 1866, is responsible for this lack, while numbers of otherwise
excellent examples have been marred by remodeling and alterations.
The Alna Mee ting-House (1789) is probably the most satisfactory ex-
ample of another architectural type found in Maine. Simply but sturdily
constructed, with windows on all four sides, the building rests securely on
a dry foundation of large squared slabs of granite over a rubble wall. As
on most of the old meeting-houses, the outside finish is plain; cornices are
unimportant, rake molds are flat, and windows are finished with simple
architraves. Galleries run around three sides of the interior, which is
dominated by a splendid two-story pulpit. Great skiU of design and
beauty of workmanship went into the old pulpits, which often resembled
the Alna pulpit in height, and had a canopy and a high and elaborate
enclosure for the preacher. The box pews in the Alna galleries are set at
varying levels, several seats being hinged so that the worshipers might
more comfortably stand to sing. Whether the pews are of box form or
more nearly like the present-day arrangement, board dadoes about three
and a half feet high are common features of the early meeting-houses.
Old stone buildings in Maine are rare. The Old York Gaol (1653) and
the old Oxford County Jail at Paris Hill are interesting examples of this
comparatively rare type of structure. Occasionally small stone buildings
which were originally used for schools are found in remote districts, but
they are not at all common. The Wiscasset Courthouse (1824) is a fine
example of brick work. Its entrance, an elliptical niche with half-el-
lipsoidal dome, is unique as an exhibit of bricklaying.
It is unfortunate that the names of the architects responsible for the
designing of seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth century Maine
92 Maine: The General Background
houses, in particular the mansions and manor houses, were not preserved.
Records too often report only that Captain this, Colonel that, or General
someone else ' built his house ' in such and such a year — as if the gentle-
men referred to went to work themselves with axe, saw, and adze and
created their homes. Mention has been made of the fact that domestic
woodworkers took many of their designs from English sources. Similarly,
the designs for general architectural plans as well as for details were
borrowed from English books and from the work of English architects.
The best carpenters of the Colonial period, and later, were carpenter-
architects, cabinet-makers, and often skilled woodcarvers. It should be
remembered that many Maine carpenters were also shipbuilders, ships'
carpenters, and carvers of figureheads — men to whom a fine appreciation
of line and form became almost instinctive. It has been pertinently
stated that no better education relating to beauty of lines can be obtained
than in the designing of ships.
Wealthy Maine landowners often had their homes designed by archi-
tects from Massachusetts and other States; and the work of such archi-
tects as S. P. Cockerell, Robert Mitchell, Thomas Major, James Hoban,
and Stephen Hallett may well have affected the design of some Maine
mansions constructed between the i76o's and i83o's. The influence of
Charles Bulfinch, designer of the State Capitol at Augusta, and of Samuel
Mclntire, the Salem architect-carpenter, was doubtless felt in the State's
architecture. Several Bangor houses have been accredited to Bulfinch,
but the claim is no more authenticated than the assertion that Sir Chris-
topher Wren designed a few Maine churches and mansions. A number of
Portland homes, such as the Sweat, Shepley, and Churchill mansions,
are attributed to the distinguished Boston architect, Alexander Parris.
Aaron Sherman of Duxbury, Massachusetts, designed and built the
Ruggles House (1819) at Columbia Falls, one of the State's more elaborate
examples of the Colonial tradition as embodied in nineteenth-century
architecture. Although only a carpenter by trade, Sherman designed
several other noteworthy buildings in Columbia Falls and Machias.
Maine felt the influence of the beginnings of the Classic Revival in the
mid-eighteenth century, and shared hi the Greek Revival, extending
roughly from 1820 to 1850. In this Hellenic movement, not only were
features of Greek architecture adopted, but Maine towns were given
Greek names such as Milo, Troy, and Athens. Variations on the Greek
temple-home began to appear, although the Colonial traditions were
carried through. Houses were built with end rather than side facing the
street; Greek colonnades, columns, entablatures, bold and heavy mold-
Architecture 93
ings, and extensive variations on Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian designs
were used. Somewhat later, a Gothic influence began to appear in the
architecture of college buildings, churches, and public buildings. The
Georgian and the Gothic were frequently combined, as in the beautiful
First Congregational Church at Kennebunkport. Although Maine
architecture variously adapted and interpreted the influences of the
Neo-Classic, Gothic, and Romanesque revivals which swept the country,
it assimilated nothing new from its immediate environment.
Following the decline of the Greek Revival, there is little to distinguish
Maine architecture from that of the rest of the country. Examples of the
later nineteenth-century architecture, when design ran wild and buildings
abounded in profuse and meaningless detail, are to be found in the State's
larger cities, particularly Portland. The Georgian and Greek Revival
traditions were not altogether abandoned, however; no passing phase
could alter the fundamental soundness and simplicity of these traditions.
Maine followed the general architectural trends of the twentieth
century toward a readaptation of the classical forms and the increasing
use of iron, steel, and stone in construction. Although a number of public
and private buildings in Maine reflect the latest developments in modern
architecture, there have been few experiments with ultra-modern design,
and the majority of homes follow the usual traditions. A few radical
departures in house-building have been carried out in some of the larger
cities, such as Portland, and the Waldo Theater (1936) at Waldoboro is
but one of several fine examples in the State of contemporary architecture
applied to special fields. The architecture of the Maine farmhouse, with
its usual series of sheds, workrooms, and storage-rooms joining barn and
dwelling for purposes of warmth and convenience, remains basically un-
changed. That Maine people on the whole are not unmindful of their
architectural traditions is indicated by the care and appreciation be-
stowed upon their more select old houses, as in Wiscasset, Alfred, and
Belfast, and by such valuable work as the reproduction of the beautiful
mansion, 'Montpelier,' in Thomaston.
THE ARTS
THE New England tradition of active practice and patronage of the arts
— something more than a general appreciation of esthetic values — is
still alive in Maine. A relatively large number of writers and artists were
born in the State or have done much of their work here, and each year
many more are attracted to its green hills and bright harbors. Some come
each summer to find rest, or to seek inspiration and material for their
work; some make their permanent homes here, to enjoy peaceful activity
among beautiful surroundings the year round.
Maine has lost some of her traditional vehicles of culture, while new
developments and facilities have turned her people away from communal
activity in the arts. But these losses are not without their compensations.
New media, the radio and the cinema, offer larger opportunities for the
enjoyment and appreciation of artistic expression. And even today the
old-fashioned community ' sing ' has not been displaced entirely. Fiddles
still zip and whine in village ballrooms. Little groups in schools, granges,
4~H Clubs, and churches still gather in the evenings for orchestra practice
or to rehearse ' the Play.' Each year new talent is revealed by the State-
wide contest hi high school dramatics that culminates at Bowdoin
College in the spring. Occasionally the product of solitary, perhaps un-
encouraged, labor with chisel, brush, or pen is brought to light, and a new
and original contribution to the art of Maine is recognized and acclaimed.
LITERATURE
Maine's literary heritage is an old and enduring one, rich in names the
mention of which anywhere in this country evokes instant recognition.
As early as 1800, books were being published in the Province by a 'lady
novelist' who achieved national reputation under the pen names, 'A
Lady of Maine' and 'A Lady of Massachusetts.' The work of Madam
Wood (the name by which she later came to be known) was published in
Baltimore and in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, as well as in Portland.
She was one of America's first popular novelists. Born Sally Sayward
The Arts 95
Barrel at York in 1759, she was in the course of her long life a resident of
York, Wiscasset, and Portland, was twice married, and had three children,
whom she helped to support by the proceeds of her writing. She died in
1854, when she was more than ninety-five years old. In most of her
romances, the better known of which were 'Julia,' ' Amelia/ 'Dorval,' and
'Tales of the Night/ her aim was to develop an American style and to use
American scenes and characters, an unusual literary ambition in a period
when all genteel Americans aped in manner of life and thought the
prevailing modes of England and the Continent. 'Why,' wrote Madam
Wood, 'we should not aim at independence, with respect to our mental
enjoyments, as well as for our more substantial gratifications, I know not.
Why must the amusements of our leisure hours cross the Atlantic? and
introduce foreign fashions and foreign manners, to a people, certainly
capable of producing their own.' In an introduction to one of her novels
she declared: 'The following pages are wholly American; the characters
are those of our own country. The author has endeavored to catch the
manners of her native land; and it is hoped no one will find, upon perusal,
a lesson, or even a sentence, that authorize vice or sanction immorality.'
It is said of Madam Wood that, after reading some of Scott's novels, she
became so dissatisfied with her own work that she gathered as many of her
books and manuscripts as she could and destroyed them.
Perhaps the earliest fiction to be written and published in Maine was an
anonymous work, printed at Hallowell in 1797, called 'Female Friend-
ship, or the Innocent Sufferer: a Moral Novel.' The earliest volume of
Maine verse, 'The Amaranth,' by Eliza S. True, was advertised as 'Cal-
culated to Amuse the Mind of Youth without Corrupting their Morals.'
'The Village,' a didactic and stilted poem obviously influenced by Pope
and Goldsmith, appeared in 1816 from the pen of Enoch Lincoln. It
reveals little of the ability that made its author, in 1827, the sixth governor
of his State at the age of thirty- three, or of the qualities that gave him
wide personal influence throughout his mature life.
Seba Smith (1792-1868), who founded Maine's first daily newspaper,
The Courier ', at Portland in 1829, early became known as a humorist and
as a satirist of the down-East Yankee type later more shrewdly por-
trayed to a far wider audience by Charles Farrar Browne (1834-67). The
latter, internationally known as ' Artemus Ward,' died in England before
he had reached the full height of his literary power, and is buried at
Waterford in Oxford County, where he was born.
Nathaniel Willis (1780-1870), first editor of Maine's earliest Democrat-
Republican newspaper, The Eastern Argus, founded The Youth's Com-
96 Maine : The General Background
panion in 1827, a periodical characterized in its day as 'the most im-
portant single educational agency in America.' The Companion, though
published in Boston for most of the hundred years of its existence, was
always a vehicle for Maine writers; its most popular spinner of tales was
the scientist G. A. Stephens (1844-1931) of Norway Lake, who estimated
that he had written more than three thousand stories for the magazine; its
first subscriber was a little girl in Maine; and the majority of its suc-
cessive editors were men from Maine, among them Arthur G. Staples, a
well-known journalist.
Two of Willis's children achieved prominence that overshadowed their
father's. Nathaniel Parker Willis (1806-67) was a poet, journalist, and
critic of great contemporary influence, though he is little read today. His
sister, Sara Payson (Willis) Parton, better known as 'Fanny Fern' (1811-
72), a popular novelist and essayist, is best described as a pleader of
special causes, most frequently that of women's rights. The influence of
her liberal mind, particularly on the everyday life of New York at that
time, was of more lasting importance than any of her literary works.
Another Maine literary figure distinguished among his contemporaries
was MacDonald Clarke, 'the mad poet,' born at Bath in 1798. He went
to New York as a young man and joined the 'Bohemian' circle in which
the younger Willis and his sister moved. His work, now almost wholly
forgotten, enjoyed some esteem in its time. Brilliant and eccentric, he
lived in continual poverty, befriended by the more successful of his fellows,
notably Willis. He died in 1842 in the asylum on Blackwell's Island,
drowned in his cell by the flow of water from an open faucet. Shortly
before his death, it is recorded, he was heard to say: 'Four things I am
sure there will be in Heaven — music, little children, flowers, and fresh
air.'
There could be no greater contrast to Clarke's melancholy life than the
happy and extraordinarily industrious career of Jacob Abbott (1803-79),
perhaps the best known of his remarkable family and the author of some
two hundred books for young people, the most popular of which were
published as the ' Rollo Series.' His brother, John S. C. Abbott (1805-77),
was famous as a teacher and historian. A small museum in the tower of
Hubbard Hall, the library at Bowdoin College, houses a collection of
material pertaining to the Abbott family, including manuscripts of some of
the books of Jacob Abbott, doubtless Maine's most prolific writer.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was the first writer of outstanding
distinction to be associated with Maine. Born at Portland in 1807, he was
educated there and at Bowdoin College, where he subsequently taught
OF ARCHITECTURAL INTEREST
DOMESTIC architecture in Maine developed simply from
the early Colonial structures of New England to evolve, in
the late eighteenth century, into two general types. An ex-
ample of the most prevalent of these is the story-and-a-half
farm cottage pictured here; combining simplicity, economy,
and sturdiness, it is a style well adapted to the Maine scene.
On the other hand, the homes of the merchant and ship-
owning class achieved varying degrees of refinement and
architectural grace, culminating in such elegance as that of
the Nickels-Sortwell House and occasionally in such frivolity
as the decorations of the so-called ' Wedding Cake' House.
Architectural detail usually combined simplicity and strength,
as in the hardware shown in the Old Jail at Paris Hill, but it
could be very elaborate, as in the carved woodwork of the
Means House. Native craftsmen of the State, their names
now forgotten, often left enduring monuments to their skill
and ingenuity, as the delicate work on the facade of the
Ruggles House or the gracious sweeping stairway of the
Black Mansion.
An example of twentieth-century building is St. John's Church
in Brunswick, in which a modern interpretation of conven-
tional ecclesiastical Gothic has been successfully worked out
in native stone.
FROM THE OLD STONE JAIL, PARIS HILL
THE HEARTH IN THE MEANS HOUSE, PORTLANE
DOORWAY, MAJOR REUBEN COLBURN HOUSE, PITTSTON
FARM COTTAGE NEAR BAR HARBOR
CARVED DOOR CASE, MEANS HOUSE, PORTLAND
ST. JOHN S CHURCH, BRUNSWICK
NICKELS-SORTWELL HOUSE, W1SCASSET
m
i
5
B
RUGGLES HOUSE, COLUMBIA FALLS
DOORWAY OF THE RUGGLES HOUSE
il.
STAIRWAY OF THE BLACK MANSION, ELLSWORTH
>
LV SSSSS»i
lllllll'lfff .V- ;S
WEDDING CAKE HOUSE, KENNEBUNK
The Arts 97
and was librarian for six years (1829-35), before leaving to become
professor of modern languages at Harvard (1836-54). Although the
poetry that brought him highest acclaim was written after he left the
State, Maine may call Longfellow her own. The life and scenery of this
region doubtless would have been more strongly reflected in his work if
literary convention had not led him constantly to classic mythology and
to European models and themes. Nevertheless, in 'My Lost Youth' and
other of his most popular poems, much of his early experience of the coast
and country life in his native State is described feelingly. At Portland, his
birthplace near the harbor and the Wadsworth-Longfellow House, with
its lovely garden, are shrines visited by his admirers from all over the
world. The Longfellow Room in the Bowdoin College Library contains a
valuable collection of the poet's books and manuscripts.
Nathaniel Hawthorne, Longfellow's classmate and friend, at whose
suggestion 'Evangeline' was written, is less specifically a Maine figure.
Born in Salem, Massachusetts, Hawthorne spent most of his youth at
Raymond on Sebago Lake, entering Bowdoin College in 1821. His first
novel, 'Fanshawe,' anonymously issued from a Brunswick printing shop
in 1828, is a romance of Bowdoin and Brunswick. Since Hawthorne him-
self subsequently withdrew this novel from the booksellers and had most
of the copies destroyed, it is now a very rare and valuable collector's item.
Henry David Thoreau made several excursions into Maine, and some
of his impressions are recorded in 'The Maine Woods,' posthumously
published from his manuscript journals in 1864. Thoreau's treatment of
nature, though often poetic in style, is marked by a scientific exactness
quite opposed to the emotional and sentimental approach of many of his
fellow naturalists. Joe Polis, an Old Town Indian guide, may have had
some influence on Thoreau's philosophy. Doubtless reflecting his interest
in the Maine wilderness were the last words which Thoreau uttered as he
lay dying of consumption in 1862; they were 'moose' and 'Indian.'
John Greenleaf Whittier, though he never lived in Maine and visited
the State only occasionally, used considerable Maine material in his poems.
One of his most successful ballads, 'The Dead Ship of Harpswell,' em-
bodies a famous legend of Casco Bay; and the heroine of the poem, ' Maud
Muller,' was a young girl whom Whittier had met in York.
Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote 'Uncle Tom's Cabin' while living in
Brunswick, and during the period of her Maine residence she also gath-
ered material from the near-by salt-water country for her romance, ' The
Pearl of Orr's Island.'
The novelist and editor, William Dean Howells, for many ye^* one of
98 Maine: The General Background
America's most prominent literary figures, owned summer homes at
Kittery Point and York Harbor, and some of his novels show the influence
of the Maine environment.
The first important book about Maine written by a native of the State
was Sarah Orne Jewett's 'Country of the Pointed Firs,' a landmark in the
so-called local-color movement in American literature. Miss Jewett
(1849-1909) was born in South Berwick, the daughter of a country
physician. Her delicate vignettes of rural New England life, beginning
with 'Deephaven,' her first book, have come to be recognized as of lasting
importance.
Kate Douglas Wiggin (1856-1923), author of 'Rebecca of Sunnybrook
Farm,' l The Birds' Christmas Carol,' and other stories that are likely to
hold a permanent place in the affections of young readers, was also a
Maine writer. Born in Philadelphia of Maine parents, she spent her child-
hood and most of her later summers in the State, finally making her
permanent abode here (at 'Quillcote,' in Hollis). Mrs. Riggs' private
library, which she bequeathed to Bowdoin, is housed as a unit in the
College Library.
Today in Maine, Laura E. Richards (born 1850), particularly remem-
bered for her 'Captain January,' continues in spite of advanced years to
write fiction and poetry for children, much of it with a Maine background.
Among Maine writers of the nineteenth century who were of importance
in their time is Elijah Kellogg (1813-1901), the gentle preacher of Harps-
well and friend to boys. He was known particularly for his * Elm Island
Series,' concerned with heroes of the Maine coast and its islands, and the
'Whispering Pines Series,' stories of Bowdoin College. Elizabeth Akers
Allen (1832-1911), wife of the sculptor Benjamin Paul Akers, a Portland
newspaperwoman and verse writer, is remembered chiefly for her poem
entitled 'Rock Me to Sleep.'
Under the pen-name of 'Sophie May,' Rebecca Sophia Clarke (1833-
1906) attained wide popularity as the author of the 'Little Prudy' and
'Dotty Dimple' series, and other books for young readers. Arlo Bates
(1850-1918), born in Maine and a graduate of Bowdoin College, gained
distinction as a teacher and man of letters in Boston; Henry Johnson
(1855-1918), Bowdoin professor and poet, translated Dante's Dimna
Commedia andWfo Nuova; Harriet Prescott Spofford (1835-1921), novelist
and short-story writer, was a valued contributor to The Atlantic Monthly;
Nathan Haskell Dole (1852-1935), poet and translator, described his
native State in 'Maine of the Sea and Pines.' The famous humorist Edgar
Wilson Nye (1850-96), known to readers and lecture audiences every-
The Arts 99
where as 'Bill' Nye, was born at Shirley, in Piscataquis County, but left
the State at the age of two when his parents moved to the Middle West.
John Kendrick Bangs (1862-1922), although not a native of Maine,
retired to Ogunquit from New York hi middle life, his reputation as a
humorous writer and lecturer already secure. Henry Milner Rideout
(1877-1927), novelist and teacher, utilized the general background of his
Maine boyhood and youth in at least two of his books — ' Beached Keels '
and ' Admiral's Light.' The stories and verses of Holman F. Day (1865-
1935) portray the Maine Yankee with keen insight and a rare sense of
humor.
Edwin Arlington Robinson (1869-1935), recognized as one of America's
foremost poets, was for many years Maine's outstanding writer. Born at
Head Tide in Alna and brought up in Gardiner, he wrote his earlier poems
in and of Maine. Gardiner is believed by some to be the ' Tilbury Town '
of this poetry, in which he immortalized many persons he had known in
his early youth. Robinson left Maine as a young man and returned only
rarely. After his early characterizations in ' The Children of the Night '
and 'Captain Craig/ the Maine element is not a major one in his poetry;
but his style, with its subdued cadences and terse, often crabbed, turns of
speech, was shaped to a great extent by the Yankee environment of his
youth. In his way a profoundly 'literary' poet, Robinson yet had the
strength that comes from a closeness to the land and an awareness of the
simple people whose roots are in the soil and whose language and customs
preserve the full flavor of the race. Though not always original in form or
message, Robinson's poetry speaks in a special voice, and reveals a dry
but vivid personality. It was the reserved, cynical, but intensely human
Yankee in Robinson that gave life to his poetic creations.
Edna St. Vincent MiUay, one of America's favorite modern poets, was
born in Rockland and now spends part of each year on one of the most
romantic spots of the Maine coast, Ragged Island in Casco Bay — the
'Elm Island' of Elijah Kellogg's stories. Her poetry, though seldom
treating of Maine subject-matter in particular, is redolent of the sea and
often descriptive of the rugged shore and hardy people who live along it.
Chiefly influenced by the metaphysical and cavalier poets of England,
Miss Millay has less of the New Englander's tense cadences of speech,
wry humor, and salty expression.
Robert P. Tristram Coffin, on the other hand, is a Maine poet whose
subject-matter is drawn almost entirely from his native State —
This is my country, bitter as the sea,
Pungent with the fir and bayberry.
loo Maine: The General Background
A Brunswick man, teacher at Bowdoin, and 1936 Pulitzer Prize winner,
Mr. Coffin hymns the virtues of the self-sufficient life of the Maine small
farmer and fisherman. More successful in his verse, perhaps, than in his
novels, he clings to the bedrock and gnarled beauty of his own small field.
Like him, but in a less poetic and personal way, Mary Ellen Chase of
Bluehill also writes of the former Maine coastal life in all its independent
and picturesque aspects. Both of them are retrospective, dealing with a
world that is past — Miss Chase with the shipbuilding and shipowning
aristocracy, Mr. Coffin with the yeomanry of farm and fishing grounds.
Like them in depicting changing or past scenes are their fellow novelists,
Gladys Hasty Carroll, author of 'As the Earth Turns,' Rachel Field,
Elizabeth Hopestill Carter, and Gerald Brace. Miss Field, a Chicagoan
converted to Maine, has also written a number of lyrics. Other con-
temporary Maine poets are Wilbert Snow of Spruce Head; Harold Vinal
of Vinalhaven, editor of Voices, a prominent American poetry journal; and
Harold Trowbridge Pulsifer of East Harpswell, former editor of The Out-
look and citizen-by-adoption of Maine.
Other writers who must be mentioned are Ben Ames Williams, whose
tales of the woods and inland country have won considerable popularity
(his village of Fraternity, familiar to readers of his stories in the Saturday
Evening Post, is in actuality the town of Searsmont, Maine); Kenneth
Roberts, whose ' Arundel' and subsequent novels of the sea and the York
County region, noted for their accuracy as to fact and locale, are in the
best tradition of American historical romance; Margaret Deland and
Booth Tarkington, both summer residents of long standing whose novels
often reflect the Maine background; and Lincoln Colcord, who writes with
knowledge and understanding about the sea.
No account of Maine's contribution to literature would be complete
without some mention of Thomas Bird Mosher (1852-1923) of Portland,
a man who devoted several decades of his life to the publication of belles-
lettres in choice editions, gaining a unique position both for the remarkable
taste which he evidenced in the selection of material and for the dis-
tinctively beautiful form which he gave to that material. Many of the
prefaces in his book publications and in The Bibelot, which he issued as
a monthly periodical for twenty years, were written by him and indicate
literary ability of a rare sort.
The Arts 101
ART
The art of Maine's early days found its expression in the crafts, most
notably in woodcarving. Since shipbuilding was one of the State's first
great industries, there was ample opportunity for the native artist to work
on mastheads, bowsprits, figureheads, and the like. Some striking
examples of such work have been preserved in museums in various parts
of New England and in private collections in Maine. The largest of these
latter is that of the Sewall family at Small Point, and another belongs to
Booth Tarkington in Kennebunkport. Countless examples of beautiful
woodwork exist today in Maine's old houses. It must be remembered,
however, that much of this work was frankly derivative from earlier
creative developments in southern New England. Until recent years,
the work of Maine artisans in stone, glass, and metals has been at best
rather primitive. There were only two recorded silver-working establish-
ments in the State before 1830, and no glass works of any importance until
after 1863, when the famous Portland glass began to be made. A collec-
tion of Portland glass is on exhibition at the Maine Historical Society in
Portland.
Pioneer and Colonial life in Maine, rendered harsh by continual
struggle with the elements and uncertain by constant Indian warfare, left
little time for such esthetic development as Boston and Philadelphia early
enjoyed. Most of Maine's great houses were not built until the nine-
teenth century; and their furnishings, though usually objects of taste and
beauty, were commonly brought from other countries by seafaring mem-
bers of the families. Tombstone designs and work in iron and other metals
were dignified enough. So were the early paintings, often appealing be-
cause of their simplicity, but invariably crude; their value today is chiefly
historical. Weaving and rug-making, quilting and embroidering, and
other household arts, however, showed a high degree of skill in technique
and design.
Any account of the painters and sculptors who have lived and worked
in Maine must be limited to those who were closely associated with the
State, whether or not they were native to it. Although there has never
been a Maine school or movement in painting, the State, particularly its
varied coast, has for years attracted a great number of summer artists.
Certain noted artists, too, have been residents of the State the year round,
spending part or all of their lives here.
IO2 Maine: The General Background
In Colonial times, both Joseph Badger (1708-65) and Joseph Black-
burn (fi. 1753-63), among the first painters of the New World, made
many portraits of Maine persons. Badger was originally a coach and
house painter who, although never attaining great eminence for his por-
traits, was for a time foremost in his profession in Boston. Copley is
believed by some to have studied with him. Some of his portraits, dis-
tinguished by a certain charm in spite of their stilted mannerisms, still
hang in the ancestral homes of Maine's old families. Little is known about
the artist Blackburn except that he traveled extensively and lived at
different times in Boston, Portsmouth, and possibly elsewhere in New
England. It is conjectured that he was an Englishman working in this
country under an assumed name. His painting, though not strikingly
original, is superior to Badger's. It does not, however, equal the work of
Robert Feke (about 1705-50), a native of Rhode Island, some of the very
best examples of which are the Bowdoin portraits, probably executed in
Boston and now in the possession of Bowdoin College. Feke was especially
successful in reproducing the color and texture of fine fabrics.
For several years after the passing of the Boston group of Colonial
artists that included Smibert, Copley, and Gilbert Stuart (who is known
to have done some portraits in Maine), there seems to have been little
painting of any distinction in the State. But later, Portland had an artist
of her own in Charles O. Cole (1817-58), who achieved local fame with his
portraits of prominent citizens. Today, examples of his work and of
Badger's may be seen among the old portraits in the collection of the
Maine Historical Society. The Walker Art Gallery at Bowdoin College
has a remarkable collection of Badger, Blackburn, Feke, and Stuart
portraits.
Winslow Homer, called ' the most powerful representative of open-air
painting in America' and ' the most thoroughly American' of our painters,
is unquestionably the foremost figure among Maine artists. Born in
Boston in 1836 of Maine parents, Homer finally settled in this State in
1884, in the studio at Prout's Neck which he built himself. Here he lived
until his death in 1910. During this period he became more and more
absorbed in the battle of land and sea, in 'man's unbreakable courage
against the overwhelming powers of nature.' Though a realist and always
the illustrator, adept in catching the drama of his scene, Homer was
primarily interested in color — whether the lush brilliance of Florida and
the Bahamas, where he sometimes spent his winters, or the harsh bright-
ness alternating with the cold grays of the Maine seacoast.
The nineteenth century witnessed the birth and early development in
The Arts 103
Maine of several prominent American artists, most of whom eventually
left the State to complete their training and their work. Some of these
men were Eastman Johnson (1824-1906), portrait and genre painter; J.
Foxcroft Cole (1837-92), landscape painter; Frederic Porter Vinton
(1845-1911), portrait painter; Ben Foster (1852-1926), landscape painter
and art critic; and Joseph Cummings Chase (born 1878), portrait painter.
Maine also produced in the nineteenth century two sculptors of note,
Benjamin Paul Akers (1825-61) and Franklin Simmons (1839-1913).
Akers was the son of a wood- turner of Saccarappa. A dreamy youth,
known to his schoolmates as 'Saint Paul,' his aspirations were literary
rather than artistic. Some of his early essays were published in The
Atlantic Monthly. In 1849 ne turned to sculpture as a profession and went
to Boston to study. Some months later he opened a studio in Portland,
where one of his commissions was for a portrait bust of Longfellow. Later
he went to Rome, receiving in Europe the recognition of his talents to
which he long aspired. His 'Dead Pearl-Diver,' produced in Rome and
described in Hawthorne's 'The Marble Faim,' is probably his most
famous piece of work. This idealized marble figure is today in Portland's
Sweat Museum. Akers's meticulously finished work reflects the classicist
taste of his period.
Franklin Simmons was in his youth an itinerant artist, wandering the
Maine countryside. Later he made his way to Washington, and finally to
Italy, where he lived until his death. He eventually attained considerable
prominence, and in 1898 was knighted by the King of Italy. His seated
portrait statue of Longfellow and his Civil War monument, ' The Republic,'
have prominent places in Portland. His 'Penelope,' an idealized marble
figure now in the Portland Museum as part of the Franklin Simmons
Memorial Collection, is considered his best work. Simmons was possessed
of tireless energy, and executed more than one hundred busts and
monuments.
Since Winslow Homer, many leading American artists have spent their
summers in Maine, but few have made the State their home and drawn as
heavily upon its scenes for material as he did. At the present time the
colorful artist, Waldo Peirce, resides at Bangor; and Stephen Etnier, of a
younger generation, lives and works on his island near Popham. Robert
Henri spent many summers in Maine, as did Emil Carlsen, whose marine
paintings depict some of the variety of the Maine coast.
Two outstanding artists who have found inspiration in the Maine scene
are Rockwell Kent and John Marin, each of whom uses a highly special-
ized medium of expression. Kent found the Maine coast, with its broad
IO4 Maine: The General Background
planes of sea and its background of jagged rock and pointed trees, an
admirable setting for his idealized portraits, which seem to be made with
the flat sweep of a chisel. The cold brightness and angular beauty of
Maine seem to have affected him as they did Winslow Homer, but in
Kent's work they are given more formalized expression.
Marin, a New York modern, has painted many aspects of the Maine
coast. Since his work is marked by a suppression of detail and all unim-
portant passages, he has been able to find here scenery of the simplicity
and strength which his method seems to demand. Although his work is
sometimes baffling, it is probable that future critics may look to it for the
sharp quality of the northern seascape and landscape which in this part of
the country is peculiarly Maine's. Stephen Etnier seems to combine some-
thing of the spirit of both Kent and Marin, with a human quality added;
in spite of his prevailing gray mood, he may finally succeed them as an
interpreter of Maine and the sea.
Many other artists in Maine are doing interesting and valuable work,
much of which may be seen at exhibitions held from time to time in the
State by art societies and other groups. Summer studios of leading
painters are scattered along the coast, each forming the nucleus for a
colony of artists, pupils, and admiring followers. Among those who have
such studios are John P. Benson and Russell Cheney, at Kittery; Charles
H. Woodbury, at Ogunquit; Mildred Burrage, at Kennebunkport;
Alexander Bower, on Cape Elizabeth; Edward W. Redfield, at Boothbay
Harbor; Jay H. Connaway, at Monhegan; and Carol Tyson, on Mount
Desert. Many of the colonies maintain summer art schools, such as that
at Boothbay Harbor. Two of America's best known contemporary
sculptors have studios in Maine — Robert Laurent at Ogunquit, and
William Zorach at Georgetown, where the late Gaston Lachaise also
worked in the summer.
There are two permanent museums of importance in Maine: the
Walker Art Gallery at Bowdoin College and the L. D. M. Sweat Memorial
in Portland, the latter a Georgian mansion of architectural and historical
importance with an adjoining art gallery containing examples of the work
of nineteenth-century painters and of many Maine artists. The Portland
Society of Art, owner of the Sweat Museum, also conducts a School of
Fine and Applied Art, the only school of its kind in the State. The Walker
Gallery contains notable collections of American colonial portraits
and of classical and modern art.
The most important private art collection in the State is that of Booth
Tarkington at Kennebunkport, consisting principally of paintings by
prominent English artists of the eighteenth century.
The Arts 105
THE THEATER
Although the last stronghold of the 'legitimate* stage as a continuous
cultural influence passed out of existence in Maine when the time-
honored Jefferson Theater in Portland was demolished, the increasingly
popular summer playhouses scattered through the State are more than
making up for its loss, and the amateur work of high schools and other
groups keeps the spirit alive in communities inaccessible to the presenta-
tions of professional players. Lakewood, near Skowhegan, established in
1901, was the pioneer among summer theater colonies. This and the
Ogunquit Playhouse at Ogunquit bring each year to Maine talented
actors,, producers, designers, technicians, and playwrights, who participate
in experimental dramatic productions that often later achieve Broadway
success. The work of the summer theaters, always interesting, is nation-
ally important, for they are becoming more and more the training schools
for both stage and screen. Other dramatic groups are the Mount Desert
Island Players, formerly the Surry Players; the Garrick Players at
Kennebunkport, organized in 1933; and the Theater-in- the- Woods at
Boothbay Harbor, opened in 1934. There are many lesser groups, not so
professional as these, but no less eager and hard-working.
Two native daughters of Maine who have achieved prominence on the
American and English stage are Maxine Elliott (Jessie Dermot) and her
sister Gertrude, now Lady Forbes-Robertson. Both were born in Rock-
land.
MUSIC
From the day when the seaman's child had chanteys for lullabies and
the woodsman's babe was sung to sleep with rollicking ballads, music
has played an important part in the cultural life of Maine people. The
State is rich in a heritage of balladry, folk-songs, and dance music equaled
only by that of some of the southern States. Through several generations,
songs of English, Scottish, and particularly Irish origin have been pre-
served — sometimes within a single family. Today scholars and musicians
are rinding in Maine an almost untapped source of old folk-music and
poetry. For example, within only eleven days of actual field work in
September, 1928, within a small area of eastern Maine, one collector took
io6 Maine: The General Background
down 199 valuable old airs, most of which are reproduced in Barry, Ecks-
trom, and Smith's 'British Ballads from Maine' (New Haven, 1929).
Churches have always fostered and encouraged singing, and today the
most active congregations are often the ones that lift up their voices with
greatest fervor. Indeed, Maine's chief cultural activity lay for years in the
field of music. One would expect this in a State which has produced such
great musical artists as Emma Eames, Lillian Nordica, and Annie Louise
Gary. John Knowles Paine, one of America's earliest composers, was a
Maine man.
Today nearly every town and city has one or more musical clubs,
among which Portland's Rossini Club is outstanding, comprising as it
does many gifted and highly trained performers. Periodical concerts and
annual festivals are held in most cities, with Bangor, assisted by the
facilities of the near-by University of Maine at Orono, usually taking the
lead. For nearly a third of a century, the Maine Music Festivals were the
most important events on the calendar for every music lover in the State.
The world's great artists were brought here, and Maine's own chorus of
carefully chosen singers from all parts of the State was especially trained
for the occasion. The concerts, beginning at Portland, were repeated in
all the other large cities. But the death of William R. Chapman, the
motivating spirit behind the festivals, marked their end within the last
decade. Today it is encouraging that the possibility of their revival in the
near future is under active discussion.
Musical activity has changed considerably in the past twenty years,
and has come to take a subordinate place in the cultural life of the State.
The Maine State Opera Company, organized in 1933, lasted but one sea-
son. Music in the colleges, though diligently cultivated, has not the
popularity it once knew. The colleges, however, as well as outstanding
civic groups, bring to the principal Maine cities each year musical artists
of national or world prominence.
A significant cultural movement is under way in the recently developed
summer music camps. In most summer camps, opportunities are pro-
vided for the study of music; but not until the Eastern Music Camp was
opened in 1931, on Lake Messalonskee in Sidney, did Maine have a
summer school devoted exclusively to music. This ambitious experiment,
offering an eight-weeks program of musical education, has received
deserved acclaim. Twice a week it presents excellent concerts, under such
eminent guest conductors as Walter Damrosch and Howard Hanson.
Music camps have also been established at Castine, Vinalhaven, and
other places through the State.
The Arts 107
There are several important summer colonies of musicians, for the
most part along the coast and usually centering around some single
prominent artist. At Kneisel Hall in Bluehill, weekly concerts of chamber
music are the result of classes carried on by the children of the late
Franz Kneisel. Camden has been called the summer harp center of
America, and there is much musical activity at Bar Harbor during the
season.
Interesting work is being done in the C.C.C. camps and in W.P.A.
groups with band and orchestral music, providing through government
agencies the facilities for musical training which many could not other-
wise obtain. But perhaps the most favorable portent for music in Maine
is the enthusiasm for playing and singing that is evident in the public
schools. This is fostered by a high school band and orchestra contest
staged throughout New England. The State's training schools are send-
ing out to the public schools teachers who have been given a thorough
groundwork of musical knowledge, which many of them supplement with
a playing knowledge of several instruments.
HANDICRAFTS
CRAFTS in early Maine were very similar to those in Massachu-
setts. The things people made with their hands were necessities, but
that they were necessities did not prevent them from being beautiful also;
often, indeed, the discipline of necessity made for beauty. The objects pro-
duced have some of the chief characteristics of their creators — simplicity,
sturdiness, practicability, spiced with unpredictable quirks of Yankee
ingenuity. The outside influences upon Maine craftsmanship, though
slight, included English, greatly simplified; French through Canada, in
floral motifs for rugs and embroidery; and Oriental, from objects brought
home by ships in the China trade. There are stenciled trays that bear
two Oriental figures with parakeets on their hands, surrounded by familiar
New England flower and leaf motifs. The articles women made for their
homes with needle, loom, and hook are full of artistry, and represent a
large proportion of the early craftwork of Maine.
The old New England art of making hooked rugs originated in Maine
and Nova Scotia. The earliest and best rugs represent truly native
craftsmanship, for the designs were original and the material was of
wool from home-raised sheep, carded and spun at home, and dyed with
home-made colors. Designs were inspired by familiar objects. The most
beautiful were floral and wreath patterns, probably partly French in
origin, free and intricate in design, with large cabbage roses, small
harebells, daisies, goldenrod, and other native flowers surrounded and
entwined by large scroll-like leaf motifs, on a white or nearly white
ground. The finest of these reveal as much esthetic sense, beauty of de-
sign, and mastery of craft as a piece of glazed terra cotta or a stained-
glass window. Pictorial rugs were common, though not so fine; a cat
curled on a hearth, landscapes quite lacking in perspective, marine pat-
terns with ships, compasses, shells, and anchors — these are a few of the
subjects used. There were also many geometric patterns.
The very earliest rugs were made on hand-loomed linen, but this was
soon superseded by burlap or sacking. The design was sketched on the
background material in free-hand. When stamped patterns were put
on the market in the nineteenth century, much of the beauty of design
disappeared. Many early rugs were hooked, not only of wool yarns and
Handicrafts 109
woven materials, but contained also bits of calico and cotton. Character-
istic of Maine and Nova Scotia was the practice of creating an effect of
relief either by hooking parts of the design higher than the rest or by
contrasting clipped and undipped areas.
Colors for rugs, and for clothing and embroidery as well, were ingen-
iously concocted from a variety of materials. Extract could be purchased
for black and indigo for blue; but browns and dull greens came from
white maple, butternut, sumac, and hemlock bark, and from sweet
fern; and yellow from onion peelings and urine. Until housewives could
buy vermilion, reds were extremely difficult to create. Beet root made a
rich magenta, but had no permanency, and the same was true of various
berries. All colors were set with copperas and lye, the latter being ob-
tained by pouring boiling water over wood ashes.
After the early nineteenth century, the art of making hooked rugs
almost vanished. The few that were made were cheap in material, coarse
in technique, and of stamped design. However, popular interest in an-
tiques has brought about a revival of this old craft, and many women are
again making rugs. They are not creating original designs, however, but
are trying to copy the old. Few of these copies equal the beauty of the
old patterns, and the sincerity of creative craftsmanship is missing.
Braided rugs are even earlier than hooked rugs in the country as a
whole, but are not particularly native to Maine. They are now being
made by hand extremely well at the Old Sparhawk Mills in South Port-
land, where local artisans design the rugs, dye the materials to match
any given color scheme, and sew the rugs exactly as they were originally
made. In the Williamsburg, Virginia, restoration these rugs were used
throughout.
Weaving in the early days was a universal craft, scarcely less impor-
tant than cooking. Cottons, linens, woolens, and other fabrics such as
'linsey-woolsey' or 'luster' (a glazed linen and wool material) were
made by every housewife. There has been a recent revival of weaving
at Limerick, Maine, where the women used yarn from the Limerick Yarn
Mills for hand-loom weaving of excellent yard goods, scarves, curtains,
etc., which they sold through a central shop. However, the closing of the
mills in 1932, and their subsequent reopening under new management to
make different types of yarn, brought this very worthy enterprise to an
end; although some of the women continue to weave there.
Quilts were made in Maine, as in the rest of New England. Many of
the best ones were not of patchwork, but derived their beauty from
intricate quilting and lovely materials. One of the finest old quilts in
no Maine: The General Background
Maine, belonging to Mrs. Charles Crosby of Waterville, is made of indigo-
blue linsey-woolsey backed with a light-weight yellow homespun blanket,
and quilted in an extraordinarily fine and beautiful pattern of the familiar
New England pineapple, feather, and shell motifs.
Crewel embroideries were also done in Maine in the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries. Yarns of home-produced wool, spun and dyed at
home, were sewed into bold and decorative leaf and flower patterns on
homespun cotton petticoats, bedspreads, and hangings. Colors were pre-
pared as for hooked rugs, with often many gradations of one hue as the
wool was removed from the dye pot a little at a time. The motifs of
flowers arranged on long twisting stems were similar to those which ap-
pear on rugs and quilts. But the patterns often showed much originality
and inventiveness in the use of bird, animal, monogram, basket, and
ribbon motifs. The finest crewel embroideries in Maine are the bed-
spread and hangings made between 1745 and 1750 by Mrs. Mary Bulman
of York and now in the 'Old Gaol Museum' at York. The Redington
Museum at Waterville has a very fine spread of the same period.
Innumerable lesser related crafts practiced in early Maine included the
making of dolls, embroidered pictures, plain samplers, mourning samplers
in black and white, needlepoint work, etc.
Of the decorative crafts associated with the shipbuilding industry,
the most interesting in the great middle nineteenth century period of
sail was woodcarving. Although carving for the decoration of ships
had been done in Europe for hundreds of years, the figureheads, trail-
boards, mast-sheaths, etc., carved in Maine, New Hampshire, and
Massachusetts represent an artistic development as genuine, native, and
inventive as any craft at any time. Colonel C. A. L. Sampson of Bath
was probably the most famous of the Maine carvers, and his decorations
for hundreds of ships built in that town went far around the world. At his
death in 1881 his business was bought by William Southworth, who had
conducted a carver's shop in Newcastle and had learned the trade from
Edward S. Griffin of Portland. Other Maine carvers were Seavey of Ban-
gor, Harvey Counce of Thomas ton, and Woodbury Potter of Bath. Each
of these men maintained a shop with apprentices, near the shipyards.
Southworth carved more than five hundred figureheads, spending about
eighteen days to a figure and receiving from two hundred and fifty to
four hundred dollars for each. The material used was pumpkin pine,
common on the Maine coast at that tune; and the subjects were usually
life-sized females, although Indians, military figures, and even birds and
animals were fairly common. They were brightly painted. Sampson's
Handicrafts 1 1 1
famous 'Belle of Bath,' 'Belle of Oregon,' 'Western Belle,' and others
were gleaming gold and white. Although many of the figures seem gener-
ous in proportion, they have extraordinary realism and grace. Sampson
frequently portrayed his figures in stylish dress blown swirling backward
in the wind, with head erect and one arm extended, creating on the whole
an effect of life, strength, and beauty. Although the figureheads were the
most spectacular, many smaller decorative pieces were carved to adorn
the ships. Nearly always the stern bore a carving in relief partially or
entirely surrounding the name of the vessel; these commonly depicted
cornucopiae of fruit, eagles with spread wings, crossed flags, portrait
heads, and even landscapes embellished with gold or white scroll-like
leaf forms. Many a pilot house was topped with an eagle or a rooster.
Billet-heads of curling acanthus leaves, lovely in design, were sometimes
used instead of figureheads.
In all of these pieces the carving is bold and direct. The tools used
were few and simple. One can accurately judge the size and curve of the
chisels from the long, even grooves in leaves and drapery. The use of
tools and material to best advantage, with no attempt to camouflage
either, is evidence of the sincere craftsmanship that went into their
making.
The use of carved decoration spread beyond the adornment of ships
and crept into the homes and public buildings of coastal towns. Weath-
ervanes, architectural details, insignia for public buildings, chests and
other furniture, reveal the hand of the ship carver. Edbury Hatch of
Newcastle, apprentice to Southworth, adorned his house with carved
leaves, flowers, animals' heads, snakes, and the Maine seal; and for a
Japanese print of a dog treeing a cat he carved a frame in which chubby
New England cats and dogs in high relief chase one another.
There are very few skilled carvers in the State at the present time.
Lloyd Thomas, a young resident of Camden, decorates chests with full-
rigged ships and other nautical motifs much in the manner of the old-
time carvers. Colby Williams of Wiscasset carves miniature oxen, drawing
wagons and sledges, which are of fine craftsmanship. Karl Von Rydings-
vard of Portland is a talented carver who not only works in the New
England tradition but does chests and screens of Gothic or Elizabethan
style.
The making of ship models became an important art in nineteenth-
century Maine. So-called half models, beautifully finished and mounted
on a flat background, were made for every new vessel, and are now fre-
quently used for decorative purposes. Ship models, from one inch to
112 Maine: The General Background
four feet in length, fully rigged, have been made ever since ships were
built, usually by the builders or sailors of the ships thus reproduced.
They reveal much delicate and patient craftsmanship. Two of the men
still making ship models are Frederic W. Snow of Kennebunkport and
Mr. Candage of South Bluehill, the latter a former old sailor.
Early Maine cabinet work, while similar in general to that in the rest
of New England, was cruder and more provincial. Much of the furniture
was adorned with stenciled leaf, fruit, and flower motifs, and occasionally
a landscape — often against a black background. Bronze powders of
various shades were applied through the stencil, with little cloth bags or
powder puffs, to tacky paint. Intricacy of cutting, delicacy of shading,
and the gradual building up of a pattern from a number of stencils are
characteristic of the best work. Trays and boxes were also stenciled in
bronzes, and floors and walls were sometimes stenciled with colored paint.
Stevens Plains, now a part of Portland, was the center of activity for
a number of metal workers in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth
centuries. Zachariah Stevens, born in 1778, was the founder of a tin
industry which in the early iSoo's employed thirty or forty men in that
locality. This early tinware consists of charming little chest-like boxes,
trays of various shapes, tea caddies, etc. It is painted (most frequently
in black though sometimes in yellow or white) and decorated in Japan
colors with small leaves and bright red, green, and yellow flowers. Tin-
smiths traveled through the countryside selling their wares, at the same
time buying up at a low price much old pewter to melt for tin.
Pewterers were also working in this region at the same time. Allen
and Freeman Porter established the trade; they were succeeded by Rufus
Dunham, who worked in Stevens Plains until 1882 and maintained a shop
employing from twenty-five to thirty artisans. The making of pewter as
such came to an end very soon after 1845, when Britannia ware became
popular. Much fine old pewter was undoubtedly melted to go into the
new and inferior metal.
Metal craftsmanship in Maine at the present time is in general confined
to the making of jewelry. This art is taught at the School of Fine Arts
in Portland and at many of the summer camps, and is practiced with
skill and artistry by a few persons — chiefly Miss Madeline Burrage of
Kennebunkport and Mr. Ernest Gookin of Ogunquit.
Decorative hand-wrought iron is made by Ernest Wright of Camden,
and by Charles Westcott, Jr., a blacksmith of Bluehill, who works from
designs by Mrs. Lucie Barbour. Mr. Weston of Bremen carries on the
traditions of his father and grandfather in the making of wrought iron;
Handicrafts 113
he has many of his grandfather's designs for brackets, latches, chandeliers,
etc.
Ceramics were of no importance in the history of the crafts in Maine
until the twentieth century. Because of the exceptionally fine quality
of the clay available there, the Bluehill region has become a center for
this craft.
The only systematic effort now being made to foster handicrafts in
Maine is by the Extension Service of the United States Department of
Agriculture. There are many, however, who hope that the plan for a
Maine Crafts Guild will eventually receive sufficient private and State
support to make such an organization possible.
II. SEAPORTS AND
RIVER TOWNS
AUGUSTA
City: Alt. 120, pop. 17,198, sett. 1629, incorp. town 1797, county seat 1799, city
1849, State Capital 1832.
Railroad Station: 34$ Water St., for M.C. R.R.
Bus Stations: Hotel North, 264 Water St., for M.C. Transportation Co., Grey
Lines, and Augusta-Belfast Stages.
Airport: Winthrop St., 0.5 m. west of business district, for B. & M. Airways.
Accommodations: Two hotels.
Swimming: Togus Pond, Threecornered Pond, Lake Cobbosseecontee.
Information Service: Augusta Chamber of Commerce, City Bldg., Cony St.,
E. end Kennebec Bridge; Maine Development Commission, State House,
State St.
Annual Events: Maine National Guard Muster, 2 weeks, July; Annual Boy
Scout Carnival, on or near Feb. 22.
AUGUSTA, State capital and Kennebec County seat, rises in a series of
terraces and sharp inclines east and west of the bisecting Kennebec River.
It is at the head of river navigation; although forty-five miles from open
sea, there is an approximate tide range of four feet. The city differs from
most Maine communities occupying both sides of a river in that it has
not developed into two separate municipalities, or twin cities. The ma-
jority of its industrial and business establishments, as well as an extensive
residential area, are on the west side of the river. Yet business, indus-
tries, and residences are so segregated that the casual visitor seldom
realizes that the city is more than a pleasant residential community
grouped about the center of the State's political activity.
The social groups common to an industrial city of the size and type of
Augusta are augmented by a wide variety of county, State, and Federal
employees. The predominating racial groups are of English and French-
Canadian descent. The latter, making up approximately 15 per cent of
the city's population, is largely concentrated in the northwestern section.
More than half of the population own their own homes, and, although
there are a few tenement areas, there are no slums or highly congested
residential sections. On the other hand, like many Maine cities, Augusta
suffers from lack of adequate modern apartment and lodging-house
facilities.
The Augusta city government is of the mayor-council type (two-year
term), but distinguished from the usual municipal administration in that
the mayor directly controls all the fields of government. He appoints
the heads of departments without confirmation by the city council and
1 1 8 Seaports and River Towns
does not require the council's permission to remove the appointees from
office.
The Kennebec has flowed through all Augusta's history and shaped
the course of its development. To the Indian, the Manitou Kennebec
('river-god') was not only a highway and a source of food; at times it
was an angry god that crushed canoes and swallowed its victims or swept
away entire villages when in flood. To the early traders the river gave
ingress to the treasures of the Kennebec Valley, furs and fish; later it
carried wealth for the men of Augusta in the form of lumber, brought
prosperity in trade through river traffic, turned the city's mills, and pro-
vided a lucrative harvest in ice from its frozen surface. Today, long after
the Indians and traders, the ships and the ice harvest have departed,
the river continues to supply the city with wealth in another form -
water-power. And still, too, it strikes out at man's bridges, dams, and
buildings when in flood.
The Indians called Augusta Cushnoc (also Koussinock and Cusinock).
The name has been given several interpretations: one, that the site was
so called because 'the tide runs no farther up the Kennebec'; another,
that it meant 'the consecrated place/ since the Indians held annual
meetings here and seemed to consider it in a sense hallowed.
Sacred or not, Cushnoc was of value to the Plymouth Colony of Massa-
chusetts. Trade on the Kennebec was begun immediately after the grant
of the Kennebec Patent in 1628-29. In 1628 the Plymouth men estab-
lished a trading post on the approximate site of Fort Western, 'ye most
convenient place for trade.' John Rowland, the 'lustie yonge man'
who was washed overboard during the 'Mayflower' crossing and nearly
lost, was the first agent in command of the Cushnoc post. In 1634 he
shared this office with John Alden, immortalized by Longfellow's 'The
Courtship of Miles Standish.' Alden was falsely accused of murder be-
cause of two deaths in that year arising from a dispute with a rival com-
pany over the trading rights at Cushnoc. Miles Standish made frequent
trips to the post, and Governor William Bradford is said to have visited it.
Captain Thomas Willett, later Governor of New York, was a successor of
Howland and Alden, and another notable commander of the post (1647-
53) was John Winslow, brother of Governor Edward Winslow of Massa-
chusetts; Winslow was an intimate friend of Father Gabriel Druillettes,
the Jesuit missionary, making him welcome at the post on several occa-
sions.
Fur trading was highly profitable to the Pilgrims, so much so that it is
said that their debts to the Merchant Adventurers of London for the
expenses of the 'Mayflower' expedition were paid with furs brought from
the Kennebec. After more than thirty-two years of trading, amicable
relations with the Indians were severed by the Indian wars, and English
occupation at Cushnoc was abandoned for more than three-quarters of
a century. However, industry and the white man's civilization had gained
their first foothold in Cushnoc, and the Plymouth patent was the foun-
dation of future land titles.
Augusta 119
During the middle of the eighteenth century the 'Proprietors of the
Kennebec Purchase' sought to bring settlers into the region. In 1754,
Fort Western was erected on the east bank of the river. Named for
Thomas Western of Sussex, England, a friend of Governor William
Shirley, the fort was one of three built on the Kennebec in 1754: Fort
Halifax, the northernmost, about sixty-five miles from the mouth of the
Kennebec, near the present town of Winslow; Fort Western, about forty-
five miles from the river's mouth; and Fort Shirley, on the site of the
present town of Dresden. Captain James Howard, the first and only
commander of Fort Western, was Augusta's first permanent settler and
a strong influence in the early development of the city.
The defeat of Montcalm at Quebec in 1759 made the Kennebec safe for
pioneers, and the fort was dismantled (except the garrison building, the
only one extant in Maine built prior to the Revolution) without ever
having been attacked. The Benedict Arnold expedition gathered here
for a week in September, 1775, before starting on the first leg of its
Quebec journey.
A few miles south of the fort a settlement, called Hallowell, had been
made in 1762. At the time of its incorporation into a town, in 1771,
Fort Western was included. The two settlements became known as the
Fort and the Hook, the latter name taken from Bombahook Stream at
Hallowell. At this time the western side of the Fort settlement began to
outstrip the eastern, aided by the industrial advantage of a sawmill at
Bond Brook. Lumber was an important source of wealth, and in many
instances pine boards took the place of currency. In 1780 the town voted
to pay each of its Continental soldiers 2500 feet of pine boards plus the
other bounty granted.
On the whole, however, the settlement at the Hook advanced more
rapidly in wealth and population than the Fort, and rivalry gradually
arose. In 1796, the Hook's leadership was threatened by Fort inhabitants
who sought construction of a bridge to replace the ferry that ran from
the foot of Winthrop St. to the Fort landing. To the chagrin of the Hook
people, the first bridge over the Kennebec was completed at Augusta
that same year. The resultant jealousy between the settlements necessi-
tated a division. Hallowell retained its present name, and the Fort be-
came Harrington, after Lord Harrington, when it was incorporated as a
separate town, February 20, 1797. The name, however, was not agree-
able, probably because the Hallowell wits corrupted it to 'Herring-
town,' and on June 9 of the same year it was changed to Augusta. Ac-
counts of the origin of the name differ, but one interpretation is that the
town was called Augusta in honor of Pamela Augusta Dearborn, a daugh-
ter of General Henry Dearborn, the prominent Revolutionary soldier
who was elected Representative to the Continental Congress from the
Kennebec District in 1783. Two years after its incorporation Augusta
became shire town of Kennebec County.
After the turn of the century, Augusta entered upon a new era of develop-
ment, although Hallowell was the social and commercial metropolis of
I2O Seaports and River Towns
the region. The settlers' struggle for possession of the land against the
claims of the proprietors came to a sharp focus in Augusta. In 1809,
Paul Chadwick, one of a party of surveyors sent out to establish a land
claim in Malta (Windsor), was murdered by squatters disguised, in
Boston Tea-Party style, as Indians. Seven of the squatters were put in
the Augusta jail. Shortly after, about seventy men descended upon the
town in an attempt to release the Malta prisoners, and the community
was thrown into a state of turmoil. Several companies of soldiers were
called out from near-by towns to guard the courthouse, jail, and the
homes of some of the land proprietors, and a cannon was placed on the
west side in a position to sweep the bridge. There was continual rioting,
and it was deemed necessary to keep the guard for six weeks, until after
the prisoners' trial. Fortunately for the general peace, they were found
not guilty. 'The Malta War,' as it was called, was one of the most serious
disputes between settlers and landowners in Maine; it cost the Common-
wealth of Massachusetts over $11,000 for supplies and military services
rendered.
River traffic on the Kennebec had already entered upon an era that was to
see a whole fleet of schooners plying weekly between Augusta and Boston
by 1840. Freight from deep-water vessels was often transferred to long
boats at Augusta and thence towed up-river through the rapids by oxen,
which were driven through the shoals when there was not enough room to
permit their passage along shore. Augusta had its share of the more than
five hundred vessels built between Winslow and Gardiner, thousands of
tons of shipping were owned in the city and neighboring communities,
and it was not rare to see a score or so of vessels berthed at Augusta
wharves. Although the arrival of the first train in Augusta in 1851, an-
nounced by 'wild screams such as locomotives are rarely permitted to
utter,' predestined the decline of the river trade, schooners and tug-drawn
barges conducted a profitable export business into the present century,
exchanging cargoes of ice or lumber for produce and coal. Steamboat
travel to Bath and Boston was inaugurated in 1826, and six years later a
line ran up-river to Waterville.
The establishment of a United States Arsenal at Augusta in 1828 and the
founding of the State Hospital eleven years later, two events contributing
to the town's prestige, supplemented the even more important occasion
of 1832, when Augusta became the State capital.
By 1849 the population of Augusta had increased (8225 in 1850) so that
the town was authorized to adopt a city form of government. At no
period had wealth been so great or indications of prosperity more marked.
A cotton factory and sawmills at the dam, constructed in 1837, were in
full operation, while the tonnage of ocean and river traffic was increasing.
However, various checks, such as the gold rush of '49 and the Civil War,
interfered with the city's development. Steamboat traffic, like that of
the sailing vessels, fell off in time because of railroad competition and the
lack of patronage. In 1865 a devastating fire razed nearly ah1 of the busi-
ness district.
Augusta 121
Various distinguished men visited the city during its mid-nineteenth
century period of growth. General Winfield Scott made Augusta his
headquarters for three weeks in 1839 while negotiating the settlement of
the northeastern boundary dispute at the conclusion of 'the Aroostook
War.' General U. S. Grant stopped in the city on several occasions, and
in 1867, General Phil Sheridan visited Augusta as a guest of the State.
A local account of the visit runs : ' General Phil Sheridan rides into Au-
gusta. School children sing "Sheridan's Ride" from elevated steps
Phil rides off in closed carriage after singing, and wasn't seen again
Mothers checked up on their daughters to see if they had gone for a ride
with Sheridan, but none were missing. This was known as Sheridan's
Second Ride, but no poem was ever written about it that we know of
today.'
Six Augusta citizens have become Governors of Maine. A native son,
Melville W. Fuller (1833-1910), became Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme
Court (1888-1910), writing 829 decisions during his twenty-two years of
office.
Lumber and the paper industry, textile mills, publishing houses, and the
shoe industry figure largely in the history of Augusta's economic develop-
ment. Forty-two industries employ nearly two thousand men and women,
exclusive of hundreds of others in governmental and commercial employ.
Augusta is the trading center for more than 75,000 city and suburban
residents. The presence of the State and county departments has had
much to do with Augusta's progress; were it not for these, it is question-
able whether the city would be much more than a small industrial town.
But as the capital of the State of Maine it has the characteristics of a
secure, political-industrial metropolis.
TOUR 1— 2.7 m.
E. from E. end of the Kennebec Bridge on Cony St.; R. on Bowman St.
i. Fort Western (open daily in summer 9-5; adm. 10f£ and 25^), Bowman
St., and the land it occupies are probably as replete with historic associa-
tions as any place along the Kennebec River. On the site of the Plymouth
trading post, established a few years after the landing of the Pilgrims
in America, a fort was erected in 1754 as a protection against the Indians.
The fort consisted of two blockhouses, a building for storerooms, bar-
racks, officers' quarters, and parade grounds, the whole enclosed by a
palisade. The original garrison house has been restored and furnished
with Colonial antiques, and reproductions of the original blockhouses and
palisades have been built by William Howard Gannett, a descendant of
the fort's first commander. One room, chiefly devoted to collections from
the Southwest, is dedicated to W. Herbert Dunton, native Augusta artist
and illustrator.
122 Seaports and River Towns
2. A Boulder and Tablet south of Fort Western commemorate the passage
of the Benedict Arnold expedition in September, 1775. The tablet was
placed by the Second Company, Governor's Foot Guard, of New Haven,
Connecticut, to record the services of its members participating in the
Quebec campaign.
Retrace to Cony St.; R. on Cony St.; L. from Cony St. on Willow St.
3. The Kennebec Journal Offices, 20 Willow St. The Journal, Augusta's
daily paper, is one of the few newspapers in the country with more than
one hundred years of continuous publication to its credit. It has been
claimed that the Journal was the first of the American press to advocate
Abraham Lincoln for the Presidency. James G. Elaine, Maine's only
Presidential candidate, was closely associated with the paper, having
been its editor prior to his active participation in politics.
Retrace to Cony St.; L. on Cony St.; R. from Cony St. on Arsenal St.
4. Augusta Lumber Company Mill (open), 108 Arsenal St., is one of the
remaining few of the 160 sawmills once situated on the Kennebec River.
The mill, established in 1861, employs about 100 men in addition to 300
to 500 in the woods during the logging season.
5. The State Hospital, end of Arsenal St., established in 1896 as the
Maine Insane Hospital, occupies the buildings of a former National
Arsenal. In 1828, work was begun on the arsenal's main building 'for
the safekeeping of arms and munitions of the United States for the north-
ern and eastern frontier.' Later 15 buildings were erected, eight from
blocks of undressed granite. The 4o-acre lot was enclosed by an 8-foot
fence set in a granite foundation, and a heavy granite wall and wharf
were built on the river bank. The arsenal proper, a three-story building,
100 feet by 30 feet, had storage space for several thousand boxes of
muskets and barrels of powder. Ammunition was prepared here during
the Mexican War, and, during the Civil War, the arsenal buildings were
closely guarded against burning by rebel agents. From the Civil War
until the close of the century, when the supply of powder ran out and no
further appropriations were made, sunrise and sunset salutes were fired
from the arsenal. Among the commanders stationed here were General
O. O. Howard and Lieutenant Anderson, hero of Fort Sumter. The
State Hospital acquired the use of the buildings in 1897, and the Govern-
ment later deeded the property to the State. Besides the hospital build-
ings, there is a 4oo-acre farm connected with the institution. Three hun-
dred employees care for and supervise approximately 1500 patients.
Retrace to Cony St.; R. on Cony St.
6. The Reuel Williams House (open by permission of owner}, SW. cor.
Stone and Cony Sts., was erected during the first decade of the i9th
century. It is a dignified building of the early Federal type, architecturally
plain except for its fine doorways and Palladian windows. Noteworthy
among the 13 large rooms is the Octagon Room, bearing its original wall-
paper depicting scenes in the Hawaiian Islands, which was hand-painted
in Paris in 1806. The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York has
Augusta 123
several panels of these scenes, as has a Philadelphia museum, but the
Williams House contains the entire series in perfect condition. The paper,
as well as a carpet that was hand- woven in Paris, was purchased in France
by James Bowdoin, patron of Bowdoin College, and presented to Mr.
Williams. The house contains many pieces of antique furniture, portraits,
and a bust of Reuel Williams by Paul Akers. Williams (1783-1862) was
one of Augusta's leading citizens and a prominent figure in State affairs.
In 1847, President Polk and James Buchanan, then Secretary of State,
were his guests while visiting Augusta.
7. Cony High School, SE. cor. Stone and Cony Sts., had its origin in the
Cony Female Academy, founded in 1818 to provide 'instruction gratis
to ... a number of orphans or other females under 16 years of age.' The
present wedge-shaped high-school building was dedicated in 1930 and is
thoroughly modern in equipment and curricula; about 850 students are
enrolled.
Retrace Cony St. to Kennebec Bridge.
8. Cushnoc, a small island about a quarter of a mile north of the bridge,
is visible only at low water. Navigation past Old Coon, as the early settlers
called it, was difficult and dangerous, and many boats were sunk attempt-
ing the passage. About 1820 an effort was made to drag the island from its
bed. One hundred yoke of oxen were procured, mill chains were fastened
around the island and linked with the team, and the oxen headed up-
stream along the river bank. The first terrific pull succeeded only in
throwing the hindmost yoke of oxen into the river. Subsequent attempts
throughout the day effected no more than broken chains and crescendos
of curses that rivaled the combined ox-power in volume. The island is
still there.
9. Kennebec Dam, just north of the bridge, was first built in 1837. The
structure, which was partially destroyed four times, was entirely rebuilt
in 1870. The drainage waters from an area of more than 5000 square miles
pour over the 22-foot face of the dam, supplying the city with 7150 horse-
power.
AUGUSTA. POINTS OF INTEREST
1. Fort Western n. Hazzard Shoe Company
2. Boulder and Tablet 12. Macomber Playground
3. Kennebec Journal 13. Blaine House
4. Augusta Lumber Company 14. State House
5. State Hospital 15. State Park
6. Reuel Williams House 16. Jacataqua Oak
7. Cony High School 17. Kennebec County Jail
8. Cushnoc 18. Lithgow Library
9. Kennebec Dam 19. South Congregational Church
10. Edwards Manufacturing Com- 20. Camp Keyes
pany 21. Ganeston Park
126 Seaports and River Towns
TOUR 2 — 5.5 m.
W. from Kennebec Bridge on Bridge St.; R. from Bridge St. on Water St.
10. Edwards Manufacturing Company Mill (visitors' permits at office}, cor.
Canal and Water Sts., is Augusta's largest industry. Established in 1845
by the Kennebec Lock and Canal Company, it was rated (1934) the
sixth largest cotton mill in Maine. The company employs about 1200
workers and produces cotton cloth used chiefly in New England and the
Midwest. The plant is modern and has attractive grounds kept in excel-
lent condition. Bxhibits from the mills are shown annually at the Eastern
States' Exposition, Springfield, Massachusetts.
Retrace Water St. to junction of Water, Gage, Grove, and Green Streets;
left on Gage St.
11. R. P. Hazzard Shoe Company's Factory (open), 61 Gage St., where
approximately 575 skilled workers are employed in the manufacture of
shoes, represents an industry which has attained a prominent industrial
position in Augusta as well as in neighboring districts during the last few
decades. Production at the Hazzard plant is about 4500 pairs of shoes
daily.
R. from Gage St. on Child St.
12. Macomber Playground (R), Child St. between Valley and Center Sts.,
is a children's playground maintained by the city. The idea of a 'chil-
dren's court,' wherein the children act as policemen, lawyers, and jury,
was instituted here in 1930. The plan was at once successful, and it has
been adopted by playgrounds throughout the country.
L. from Child St. on State St.
13. The Blaine House, or Executive Mansion (open weekdays, except Sat.,
2-4), NW. cor. Capitol and State Sts., is a spacious two-story residence
of Classic Revival design, surrounded by landscaped grounds. Built
shortly after 1830, the building was purchased by James G. Blaine, 'the
plumed knight' of State and national politics, in 1862. This was the
Augusta home of Elaine's family during his political career, and was the
scene of numerous social and political gatherings. Here Blaine received
news of his nomination for the Presidency, and of his ' rum, Romanism,
and rebellion' defeat in 1876. Three of his children and three grand-
children were born here. In 1919, his daughter, Mrs. Harriet Blaine
Beale, presented the house to the State as a memorial to her son, killed
during the St. Mihiel drive in September, 1918; it was to be used as the
official residence of the chief executive.
Remodeled under the direction of the architect, John Calvin Stevens,
the old house retains its original design. The study is preserved as it was
in Elaine's time. The silver service in the State dining-room was recov-
ered from the cruiser 'Maine' ten years after its sinking in Havana
Harbor.
Augusta 127
14. The State House (open daily 8-5), SW. cor. State and Capitol Sts.,
provides offices for various State departments, the executive chambers,
the House of Representatives and Senate chambers, the Maine State
Library, and the State Museum. Built of Hallowell granite, the central
section of the building embodies the strong architectural characteristics
of its designer, Charles Bulfinch, and somewhat resembles another work
of his, the Massachusetts State House. Rising upon a knoll above the
surrounding city, the four-storied building has a 3oo-foot front with
colonnaded portico in the center portion, and two 75-foot wings facing
east. The cornerstone was laid in 1829, and the original structure com-
pleted three years later. In 1911, it was enlarged according to designs by
G. Henri Desmond, necessitating the demolition of almost all the old
building save the front and rear walls. At this time the grounds were
graded, additions made to the wings, and a dome added, surmounted by
a statue, representing Augusta, the city, designed by W. Clark Noble of
Gardiner, and made of copper plated with gold.
A Museum on the first floor contains specimens of animals, birds, military
relics, an aquarium, and scores of historic curios. The Hall of Flags on
the second floor houses Maine's battle flags. The Maine State Library on
the second floor has over 200,000 volumes of general reference, literature
(but no contemporary fiction), legislative reference, genealogy, docu-
ments, a legal library of 60,000 books, and volumes about Maine and an
ever-increasing collection of the works of Maine authors. Scattered
about the building are many portraits of Maine governors and other
eminent personages.
15. State Park, a 2o-acre tract between Capitol and Union Sts., stretching
from State St. before the capitol to the banks of the river, offers pleasant
vistas and walks over more than a mile of paths. Thousands of trees and
shrubs, rustic seats and benches, an artificial pond, and other landscaping
effects make the park one of the most attractive spots in Augusta. There
is also an arboretum, and the park presents one of the few places in the
State where students in dendrology or horticulture can find a large variety
of plants for study purposes. Landscape architects and the Forestry
Department are using the park to determine what plants will thrive in
this locality. Historically the park is of interest because of its Civil War
associations. Maine regiments were encamped here during the war, and
for at least two winters the soldiers weathered the rigors of the climate
before setting out into the heat of southern campaigns, some even in
Texas. At the end of a long lane of trees is a marble shaft marking the
grave of Enoch Lincoln, Maine's sixth Governor. During his administra-
tion the capital was removed from Portland to Augusta and work begun
on the new building. Lincoln's 2ooo-line poem, 'The Village,' having its
setting in Fryeburg and written while he was a lawyer there, was the first
book of poetry published in Maine.
Retrace State St. to Green St.; L. on Green St.
1 6. The Jacataqua Oak, an immense old tree standing at 81 Green St.,
is associated with one of the most romantic of the legends of the Kennebec.
128 Seaports and River Towns
Jacataqua, an Indian princess, who had been taken from her Abnaki
tribal home on Swan Island, was being held at Fort Western when the
Arnold expedition arrived there in 1775. Of mixed French and Indian
blood, the girl had been educated at a convent in Quebec and was un-
usually intelligent and attractive. Aaron Burr, later Vice-President of
the United States, but at that time only a youth of 19 accompanying the
expedition, became enamored of Jacataqua, and the Jacataqua Oak is
supposed to have been the scene of their love-making. Burr and the
princess are accredited with having killed the bear which was the main
course of the feast at the fort prior to the departure of the expedition.
The story of Jacataqua is told by Kenneth Roberts in the historical
novel, 'Arundel.'
Retrace Green St. to State St.; L. on State St.
17. Kennebec County Jail, SE. cor. State and Court Sts., was the scene
of a lurid event in Augusta's history. Joseph Sager of Gardiner, accused
and convicted of having poisoned his wife, was condemned to be hanged
in January, 1835. A gallows was erected at the southwest corner of the
jail, and Sager was brought to the scaffold still protesting his innocence,
while the minister in attendance read a manuscript ' partly by narrative
and partly by exhortation' that the murderer had prepared. Between
8000 and 12,000 persons attended the execution, there was much jeering
and throwing of stones, and ' liquor flowed freely and was disposed of by
the barrel.' The trap that was sprung under Sager and a whipping-post
used in earlier days are in the basement of the courthouse near-by.
1 8. Lithgow Library and Reading Room (open weekdays 10-9), NW. cor.
Winthrop and State Sts., is a solidly designed structure of Maine granite,
architecturally of the Romanesque-Renaissance order, built in 1895
after designs by Joseph Neal and Alfred Hopkins. The library occupies
the site of one of Augusta's early hotels, the Cushnoc House. In its book
room six stained-glass transom windows, designed by Charles Willoughby
of Augusta, later a curator at the Peabody Museum of Archeology and
Ethnology, Cambridge, treat historic subjects important in the annals of
the city. In addition to nearly 18,000 volumes, the library houses the
collection of the Kennebec Natural History and Antiquarian Society,
an organization now inactive. The collection, unclassified and un-
catalogued, contains scores of items pertinent to Augusta and New
England history.
19. South Congregational Church, 62 State St., is the oldest of Augusta's
ii churches, although the present structure, built of granite in Gothic
design, was not erected until 1866. The parish dates to 1771, the first
building being completed in Market Square 1 1 years later. In 1836 Roman
Catholics established a church on the east side. Their present church,
St. Mary's, on Western Avenue, was built in 1927; a stately granite
structure of a modified Norman-Gothic design, it is considered the most
beautiful of Augusta's churches. The growth of the French population,
with increased lumbering and mill employment, assumed such propor-
tions that a second Catholic church was necessary. St. Augustine's,
Bangor 129
corner of Washington St. and Northern Ave., erected in 1915, is an im-
pressive structure dominating the northern section of the city and plainly
visible from the South Congregational Church.
Retrace State St. to Winthrop St.; R. on Winthrop St.
20. Camp Keyes is at the summit of Winthrop St., on a flat, almost tree-
less, plateau nearly a square mile in area. The 43d Division of the Na-
tional Guard meets here every fifth year for its encampment and muster.
Here are the local military headquarters and the training school for
recruits to the Maine State police force. Up the eastern slope of the hill
and extending onto the plateau are several of the city's cemeteries, while
the four runways and the hangar of the Augusta airport are adjacent to
the infantry barracks and other buildings. A revolving beacon sweeps
the sky nightly. Some of the best views of the city and valley, as well as of
the surrounding country, can be had from this hilltop.
S. through Camp Keyes Drive to Western Ave.; L. on Western Ave.
21. Ganeston Park (open: no motoring), rear of the W. H. Gannett resi-
dence, 114 Western Ave., is the largest of Augusta's several parks. It
was created several years ago when William Howard Gannett set aside
475 acres of wooded land for the use of the public. There are oppor-
tunities here for hiking, horseback riding, picnicking, and winter sports.
Ganeston Park was made a State Game Preserve and Bird Sanctuary by
the legislature in 1930.
Points of Interest in Environs:
Veterans' Administration Facility, Togus, 4.6 m. (see Tour 17);
Lake Cobbosseecontee, 6.8 m. (see Tour 13); Belgrade Lakes, 18.1 m.
(see Tour 12).
BANGOR
City: Alt. 100, pop. 28,749, sett. 1769, incorp. town 1791, city 1834.
Railroad Station: Union Station, Exchange and Washington Sts., for M.C. and
B. & A. R.R.S.
Bus Stations: Union Station, for M.C. Transportation Co., Bangor House,
174 Main St., for Grey Line and Quaker Stages.
Airport: Bangor Airport, 3 m. NW. on Cooper Rd., for B. & M. Airways.
Accommodations: Three hotels.
Fishing: Bangor Salmon Pool, May - June.
Swimming: Bull's Eye Pool, 1.5 m. north on Valley Ave., Pushaw Pond, 4 m.
\iorth on Essex St.
130 Seaports and River Towns
BANGOR, the third largest city in Maine and the county seat of Penob-
scot County, sprawls upon the hills along the west bank of the Penobscot
River. Twenty-three miles from deep-sea anchorage and at the head of
tidewater, the city faces in another direction the hundreds of miles of
historic and playground areas that lie to the south along Penobscot Bay
and eastward. Kenduskeag Stream enters the city from a northerly direc-
tion, running through the central and business districts from which other
hills rise sharply to residential Bangor.
Were it not for its advantageous geographical position, Bangor might well
be a city of ghosts: the ghosts of hordes of lusty caulk-booted river-
drivers, of merchants, mariners, and mill hands of a dozen nationalities,
who once swarmed about the present vital city. The lumber industry,
largely responsible for Bangor's growth, is now restricted to pulp-wood
operations at Brewer across the river, while the days when scores of ves-
sels filled the Penobscot at Bangor are long departed. Today, the city is
predominantly commercial. In addition, it is a focal point for thousands
of tourists who pour through the city each year over highways which were
once well-beaten Indian trails along the Penobscot.
The first authentic record of the site of present-day Bangor occurs in
Samuel de Champlain's journals. Champlain, cruising out of St. Croix
in September, 1604, piloted his sixteen- ton vessel up the Penobscot until,
as he writes, ' we came to a little river [the Kenduskeag] in the vicinity of
which we had to anchor. [We] could not have proceeded more than half
a league on account of waterfall [Treats Falls] which descends a slope of
some seven to eight feet.' The explorer landed 'to see the country,' went
hunting, and found the locality 'most pleasant and agreeable.' He was
much impressed by the oaks which originally covered the site of Bangor,
and from which the present Oak and Grove Streets derive their names.
The place was an important Indian rendezvous, and Champlain conferred
here with the Etchimin Indian chief, Bessabez. Champlain's tactful and
courteous conduct at this time was largely responsible for the amicable
French-Indian relationships which lasted as long as the French had con-
trol of Acadia.
Bangor's early history, begun by the settlement of Jacob Buswell of Salis-
bury, Massachusetts, in 1769, was the usual one of a slowly growing pio-
neer community whose chief revenues were derived from the exportation
of fish, furs, and lumber. The settlement was known as Kenduskeag
Plantation until 1787, and as Sunbury from 1787 to 1791. In 1779, the
Revolutionary expedition against Castine under the command of Commo-
dore Richard Saltonstall and General Solomon Lovell was routed by a
British fleet commanded by Sir George Collier. Retreating to Kenduskeag
Plantation, the Americans destroyed their own fleet of nine ships and fled
westward through the forest. With them went the settlers, except those
who were unable to leave and who later were obliged to take an oath of
allegiance to the British Crown. Twelve years later, the community had
recovered sufficiently to petition for incorporation. The Reverend Seth
Noble, Bangor's first installed pastor, was sent to Boston to obtain the
Bangor 131
incorporation from the General Court. It is said that, while the clergy-
man was attending to the town's registration, he was humming the old
hymn tune known as ' Bangor.' When the clerk, filling out the necessary
papers, asked Noble the name of the community, the pastor misunder-
stood the question and replied with the name of the hymn, and thus the
latter name was written into the incorporation papers.
By the turn of the century, Bangor was beginning to enjoy a brisk export
trade in lumber. But embargoes, and the War of 1812, with British ships
lying off-shore and threatening the very life of the Penobscot Bay settle-
ments, made financial gain possible only by privateering or the running of
contraband. In September, 1814, a British fleet and army descended
upon the defenseless town and forced its unconditional surrender. Con-
siderable plundering and pillaging followed notwithstanding the town's
petition that life and property be spared and the giving of a bond to as-
sure the delivery of certain vessels, then under construction, to the British
at Castine. Four years later, the most important news on the first day of
the year was an announcement in The Eastern Argus that 'Mr. Holmes
had a new suit of clothes before he went to Congress.'
Between 1830 and 1834, the early boom in lumber and allied industries
resulted in an increase in Bangor 's population from 2808 to 8000. The
forests were cut back and away from the Penobscot, up the river to the
East Branch and West Branch — that great woods country which pro-
duced men and legends as integrally a part of Maine as its pine trees.
Bangor's rise to 'eminence coincided with the 'pine period' between 1820
and 1860, when real lumbermen rather scorned the lowly spruce. After
the Civil War, as the supply of pine became depleted, spruce began to
come into its own as a forest product, until today the cut of spruce con-
siderably exceeds that of the other species. Millions of logs were tumbled
down the Penobscot to be converted into lumber, clapboards, laths,
shingles, and staves in the Bangor mills. In the i85o's, Bangor was prob-
ably the leading lumber port of the world, while in the sixties and seven-
ties it was second only to Chicago in the extent of its lumber shipments.
In the peak year of 1872, nearly 250,000,000 board feet, valued at $3,233,-
958.53, were handled here.
For approximately fifty years in the middle of the nineteenth century, a
section of the city which compared with San Francisco's Barbary Coast in
its palmy days flourished in the vicinity of Washington, Hancock, and
Exchange Streets. This part of Bangor was known as the 'Devil's Half-
Acre.' Here were the taverns and grogshops, the lodging-houses and
brothels, which catered to the teeming life of the busy seaport. In the
spring, when hundreds of lumbermen and rivermen thronged into Bangor
fresh from the log-drives with a winter's wages and the accumulation of a
winter's thirsts and hungers, the population of the Half-Acre swelled.
After months of hard and dangerous labor, the men of the North Woods
were ready for relaxation; and there was nothing half-hearted in the way
they went about it. Today, there is no trace of this riotous quarter, where
salt-water shellbacks and tall-timber-men swapped tales, drinks, and blows.
132 Seaports and River Towns
The pulse of Bangor quickened during the exciting days of 1834-36
when land speculation was at its height in Maine. Land which sold for
only a few cents an acre in the morning might command a price of as
many dollars in the afternoon; townships and lots were sold over and
over again 'sight unseen.' Brokers' offices were established in Bangor, a
courier line was set up to Boston, and the city overflowed with specu-
lators, gamblers, and the human flotsam and jetsam which is always at-
tracted by the prospect of 'easy money.' One company, after advertising
extensively in New England and New York papers, held a land auction
at which 'champagne from the original bottles [was poured] into huge
wash tubs from which each man helped himself at his own sweet will.'
The Baltimore Niks' Register of June, 1835, contained this item: 'It is
rumored that one evening last week, two paupers escaped from the Bangor
almshouse, and though they were caught early the next morning, yet in
the meantime, before they were secured, they had made $1800 each by
speculating in timber lands.' The bubble burst when people stopped long
enough to look at the lands they had purchased; and the web of dishonest
surveyors' reports, deception, and swindling fell to pieces.
Essential to the lumber industry were the ships, many of them Bangor-
built and Bangor-owned, which sailed with pine boards and brought back
molasses, sugar, and rum from the West Indies. From April until late
November, the harbor was crowded with vessels of all rigs and sizes, rang-
ing from bay coasters to full-rigged ships. Records show that as many as
seven hundred vessels of from four hundred to four thousand tons have
been anchored in the harbor at one time. A brisk trade was developed
with the United Kingdom and the Continent, while many coasters carried
cargoes to all ports along the western Atlantic seaboard. The harvesting
and shipping of Penobscot River ice in the vicinity of Bangor flourished
between 1840 and 1890.
Beginning with the construction of the 'Red Bridge' in 1791, scores of
vessels were launched at Bangor, to carry that name all over the globe.
The ' Thinks-I-to-Myself ' was one of the Bangor vessels captured by the
British during the War of 1812; it was later reported as a privateer under
British colors. The 'Gold Hunter,' Bangor-built, was the first to carry a
band of adventurers around the Horn to California in the gold rush of '49.
The age of steam navigation was inaugurated at Bangor with the arrival
of the steamboat 'Bangor' from Boston, in May, 1824. This wooden side-
wheeler was later engaged in conveying pilgrims from Alexandria, Egypt,
to Mecca — but not until its white coat had been painted black to satisfy
the Mohammedans, who refused to embark on a vessel that flaunted their
mourning color. Still later, the 'Bangor' was used as a royal yacht by the
Sultan of Turkey. Another ship of the same name, one of the first Ameri-
can steamboats with an iron propeller, was built in 1845 to run between
Bangor and Boston.
Many of Bangor's twenty-eight churches are architecturally important,
and a survey made in 1935 revealed some eighty residences dating from
more than a century ago. Charles Bulfinch, distinguished Boston archi-
Bangor 133
tect who assisted in designing the National Capitol, surveyed a hundred-
acre lot in Bangor about 1830 and laid out the streets lying south of State
Street. Some of the older streets, particularly Broadway, Essex, Ham-
mond, Ohio, and State, contain many fine old houses of Federal design.
These were built mainly by the early gentry, prominent landowners and
merchants. In addition, there are many later homes of varied design,
stately structures built by * lumber barons ' of the city's boom days, from
1840 to 1880. Growth and civic improvement have gone on undeterred
by several public disasters, such as the $3,000,000 fire which swept
through the business district in 1911.
Henry D. Thoreau, describing Bangor as it was in 1846, wrote: 'There
stands the city of Bangor, fifty miles up the Penobscot, at the head of
navigation for vessels of the larger class, the principal lumber depot on
this continent, with a population of twelve thousand, like a star on the
edge of the night, still hewing at the forest of which it is built, already
overflowing with the luxuries and refinements of Europe, and sending its
vessels to Spain, to England, and to the West Indies for its groceries —
and yet only a few axe-men have gone "up-river," into the howling
wilderness which feeds it.'
From its nineteenth-century background of ' luxuries and refinements '
in the heyday of Maine lumbering, Bangor, unlike many towns with a
similar background, has forged ahead to become one of the State's most
important cities.
TOUR — 1.8 m.
N. from Hammond St. on Central St.
Norumbega Parkway, crossing Kenduskeag Stream to Central St., is of
historic interest because of the associations of its name with Bangor.
' Norumbega,' the old Spanish word meaning 'the country of the Nor-
wegians, or Northmen ' (also interpreted as Penobscot Indian, signifying
' still- water-between-f alls'), was once applied to Penobscot Bay and
vicinity. Norumbega Parkway, a garden spot in the midst of the city,
was developed in 1933, financed by a bequest from Luther M. Peirce.
The park's high, vine-covered walls overlook pleasant, landscaped walks.
BANGOR. POINTS OF INTEREST
1. Old City Hall 8. Peirce Memorial
2. Joseph Garland House 9. Bangor Historical Society and Pub.,
3. Bangor Theological Seminary lie Library
4. Hannibal Hamlin House 10. Samuel Veazie House
5. Symphony House n. Boutelle House
6. Bangor House 12. Grotto Cascade Park
7. Memorial and Davenport Park 13. Bangor Salmon Pool
BANGOR
SCALE OF YARDS
-1937-
136 Seaports and River Towns
Kenduskeag Mall, a continuation of the parkway, lies between Central
and State Sts. The name ' Kenduskeag ' (also ' Condeskeag ' and ' Kades-
quit') signified 'eel-catching place,' from the Indian days when the stream
abounded in that fish. The name was applied to Bangor until its incor-
poration in 1791. A bronze plaque and a boulder commemorate the land-
ing of Samuel de Champlain, who is believed to have come ashore some-
where near this spot in 1604. Near the boulder are two cannon, one a
relic of the Spanish-American War, and the other a piece recovered from
one of the American ships sunk off Bangor during the Saltonstall retreat
in 1779. In the center of the Mall rises a well-executed bronze statue of
Hannibal Hamlin, Vice-President under Lincoln. The work of Charles E.
Tefft, it was paid for by public contributions and unveiled in 1927.
Retrace to Hammond St.; R. from Hammond St. on Court St.
1. Old City Hall, Court St., was one of the buildings occupied by the
British troops during their invasion in 1814. Built in 1812, the hall was
designed for religious purposes as well as for the administration of town
and county affairs. The town's early legal proceedings were carried on
here. The old building, though, missed Bangor's first lawsuit when Jacob
Buswell in 1790 brought suit against one David Wall, ' Yoeman,' for call-
ing him 'an old damned, gray-headed bugar of Hell,' and for calling
'the Rev. Seth Noble a damned rascall.'
2. The Joseph D. Garland House (private), 117 Court St., was built in
1830 after designs accredited to Richard Upjohn. The structure bears out
the better features of the traditional Greek Revival architecture. Built of
red brick, it stands on high ground amid giant elms, its pillared porticoes,
front and rear, commanding prospects up and down the Kenduskeag
Valley.
L. from Court St. on Boynton and Hudson Sts.; L. from Hudson St. on
Union St.
3. The Bangor Theological Seminary (open), NW. corner Union and Ham-
mond Sts., the oldest institution in Bangor and the only one of its kind in
Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont, was incorporated as the 'Maine
Charity School' in 1804. In the rigorous days of its past, when the stu-
dents got their water from a well on the campus and used stoves and oil
lamps, they could save ten cents a week on board by not drinking tea or
coffee.
R. from Union St. on Hammond St.; L. from Hammond St. on Fifth St.
4. The Hannibal Hamlin House (visitors by permission), NE. corner
Fifth St., is associated with one of Maine's most distinguished citizens.
Hannibal Hamlin moved from his native town of Paris Hill to Hampden
where he resided for twenty years, building an extensive law practice.
From 1862 to 1864, he was Vice-President of the United States under
Lincoln, served as United States Senator from 1869 to 1881, and as Minis-
ter to Spain from 1881 to 1883. While Vice-President, Hamlin came to
Bangor and purchased the Fifth Street house which was later left to the
Theological Seminary by his son.
Bangor 137
R. from Fifth St. on Hammond St.; R. on Union St.
5. Symphony House (private), 166 Union St., combines architectural and
historic interest. Presumably designed by Richard Upjohn, it was built
by one of Bangor's pioneer lumbermen, Isaac Farrar, in 1833-36. Con-
structed of red brick brought from England, it is architecturally of
modified English Renaissance design. The slate for the roof was imported
from Bangor, Wales, and a circular room is finished throughout with solid
mahogany brought from San Domingo. The house was occupied at
various times by Owen Davis, the playwright, and Gene Sawyer, author
of the 'Nick Carter' series. It is now owned by the Bangor Symphony
Orchestra.
6. Bangor House, SE. corner of Main and Union Sts., survives from
stagecoach, schooner, and steamboat days. The original hotel, retained
in the present building's annex, was built about a century ago. The old<
house had a huge kitchen fireplace where meats and fowl were spitted
over the open blaze, and a large dance-hall built over the dining-room.
Presidents Grant, Arthur, Harrison, and Theodore Roosevelt, as well as
Stephen A. Douglas and Daniel Webster, were distinguished guests.
In 1882, Oscar Wilde, on his American tour, made his only stop in Maine
at the Bangor House, en route to New Brunswick. He spoke before an
audience in a hall appropriately decorated with sunflowers, and was con-
siderably booed and hissed by the vulgarly curious. It is recorded that
no respectable young lady, no matter what her claims to being one of the
intelligentsia, was permitted to attend the gathering.
R. from Union St. on Main St.
7. 'Remember the Maine!' Memorial is in Davenport Park, NW. corner
Main and Cedar Sts. A granite, wedge-shaped monument, surmounted
by a bronze shaft bearing an American eagle, it was erected by the city
in 1922. On the monument are the original shield and scroll recovered
from the battleship 'Maine,' blown up in Havana Harbor in 1898.
OTHER POINTS OF INTEREST
8. Peirce Memorial, Harlow St. opposite Franklin St., is a bronze statue
of three river-drivers, equipped with peavies and cant-hooks, breaking
a log-jam. It commemorates Bangor's lumber industry. The memorial,
the work of Charles E. Tefft of Brewer, was presented to Bangor by
Luther M. Peirce.
9. Bangor Historical Society, 145 Harlow St., has its rooms in the Bangor
Public Library (open 9-9, weekdays), one of the largest and best endowed
of the State's libraries. The society's collection of historic objects in-
cludes relics of the Colonial and Revolutionary periods, the Civil War,
Indians, the prehistoric Red Paint People. There are also collections of
portraits, prints, and paintings, and antique furniture, and Chinese and
East Indian art objects.
138 Seaports and River Towns
10. The Samuel Veazie House, NE. corner Broadway and York St.
(Jerrard Apartment House), was built in the i83o's by one of Bangor's
foremost citizens and lumber barons, General Samuel Veazie (1787-
1869), who rose from the rank of ensign to general in the War of 1812.
He moved to Bangor in 1832, and about 1850 purchased the Bangor, Old
Town, and Milford Railroad (originally the Bangor and Piscataquis
Canal and Railroad Company), one of the first railroads in New England.
At the time of his death, Veazie owned all the fifty- two lumber mills be-
tween Bangor and Old Town.
11. The Boutelle House (private), 157 Broadway, was built in 1834 by
the Smith Brothers, constructors of the Bangor, Old Town, and Milford
Railroad. The design is attributed to Charles Bulfinch. The four Doric
columns of the front support an entablature consisting of an ornamental
architrave frieze, with carved wreaths and a cornice. An attractive balus-
trade surrounds the porch roof. Doric pilasters form the framework of
the recessed doorway, as well as that of the leaded side-lights, and support
a carved entablature in place of the conventional leaded-glass fan. Dur-
ing stirring political campaigns of the last century, distinguished speakersr
such as James G. Blaine, William McKinley, Senators Eugene Hale, and
William P. Frye, reviewed torchlight parades from the balcony.
12. Grotto Cascade Park, State St. at Summit Ave., is the newest of
Bangor's city parks. An artificial 45-foot cascade terminates in an arti-
ficial pool and fountain, bordered by flowers and rocks. Colored lights,
submerged in the fountain, combine with the electrically regulated spray
to give the effects of sunset, moonlight, twilight, and other color illusions.
The park's development was the first Government work relief project in
the city.
13. Bangor Salmon Pool, right from State St. opposite the Bangor Water-
works, is known for its excellent fishing and for a custom, connected
therewith, of presenting the season's first salmon to the President of
the United States: the pool is the only one of its kind in the country
within a city's limits. The days are over when shad, alewives, salmon,
and sturgeon were, with furs, major stocks in trade for the early settlers,
yet the gamey 10 to 30 pound Atlantic sea salmon still fight their way
up over the falls each May and June to spawn.
Points of Interest in Environs:
University of Maine, Orono, 8 m. (Tour 4) ; Indian Reservation, Old
Town, 13.2 m. (Tour 4) ; Dorothea Dix Memorial Park, Fort Knox,
Black Mansion (Tour 1, sec. c); Acadia National Park, Cadillac
Mountain, Mount Desert, Bar Harbor (Tour 2).
BRUNSWICK
Town: Alt. 65, pop. 7604, sett. 1628, incorp. town 1738.
Railroad Station: Maine St., for M.C. R.R.
Bus Stations: 150 Maine St.. for M.C. Transportation Co.; 148 Maine St., for
Grey Line and Quaker Stages.
Accommodations: Three hotels.
Swimming: Mere Point, Harpswell, Gurnet, Orr's Island, and Bailey Island.
Annual Events: Bowdoin College for intercollegiate sports; Maine Open Handi-
cap Golf Tournament, April 19.
BRUNSWICK is a community where commerce, industry, and educa-
tion flourish in well-balanced proportions. Famous as the seat of Bowdoin
College, it is locally better known as the trading center for a large spread
of coastal villages and summer resort regions to the east and south of
the town. The township extends between the Androscoggin River and
Merry meeting Bay on the one hand and the northern reaches of Casco
Bay on the other, the town proper growing out fanwise from the mill
district at the falls of the Androscoggin where the population is heaviest.
The terrain is a comparatively flat expanse on a broad, sandy coastal
plain. Brunswick's growth has been according to plan; its streets are
well laid out, most of them still unpaved, running at right angles to
Maine, Bath, Harpswell, and Pleasant Streets. Maine Street, 198 feet
wide, is second only to that street of Keene, New Hampshire, which is
the widest main street in New England.
Early in its history the town was a lumbering center, leading the State
in lumber export in 1820. The opening of a cotton mill in 1809, said to
have been the first in the State, was the beginning of Brunswick's in-
dustrial development. When in 1843 Aaron Dennison began making
paper boxes at the rear of his father's house at 8 Everett Street, he laid
the foundation for the now internationally known Dennison Manu-
facturing Company, which in 1894 was removed to Roxbury, Massa-
chusetts, and now has large factories in Framingham, Massachusetts, and
elsewhere in this country. Incidentally Dennison, having perfected a
method for making the works of watches by machinery, established the
Boston WTatch Company, now the Waltham Watch Company of Wal-
tham, Massachusetts. The major industries in Brunswick today are a
textile mill and paper and box manufactories.
With the growth of the pulp and textile mills in Brunswick the popula-
tion has increased steadily since 1880. At present between 50 and 60
per cent of the people are of French-Canadian stock, chiefly of native
parentage.
Brunswick was named in 1717 for the city and one-time duchy of
140 Seaports and River Towns
Brunswick, Germany, but, being a region long associated with Indian
history, it was already replete with Indian names. At least three tribes,
the Pejepscots, the Canibas, and the Anasagunticooks, had inhabited the
territory. Tradition has it that the shores of Merrymeeting Bay, being
accessible by water and rich in fish and game, were frequently used by
Maine Indians as gathering-places for feasting and tribal ceremonies.
The bay, a rendezvous for thousands of migrating ducks and Canada
geese (see The Nation's Northeast Corner), was called Quabacook (Ind.:
'duck- water-place'), and is still one of the chief duck-hunting resorts on
the Atlantic coast.
The Indians called the region, near the falls of the Androscoggin, Ahmelah-
cogneturcook ('place of much fish, fowl, and beasts'). And so it was to
Thomas Purchase, the first known trader (about 1624-28) with the power-
ful Canibas and Anasagunticooks. He was so successful in curing and
exporting salmon and sturgeon at the falls that an English company sta-
tioned an agent near this commercially strategic point. In 1688, a dozen
years after the first settlement that had grown up around the post had
been abandoned during the Indian wars, Governor Andros established
Fort Andros at Pejepscot, as the place was then known. Two years later,
both the fort and the new settlement were destroyed by Indians. In
1699, a treaty with the Indians was ratified, and after a group of eight
men, known as the Pejepscot Proprietors, had purchased and plotted
most of what is now Brunswick (1714-15), Fort George was erected near
the site of Fort Andros in 1715. Yet seven years afterward, during Love-
well's War, the town was again destroyed by Indians. But in a few
years the settlement had begun to develop uninterruptedly, and Fort
George was dismantled in 1737.
Even before the Indian wars were over, Brunswick had begun to plan
its municipal and economic development. In 1717, its citizens voted to
construct a road twelve rods wide, extending from the south bastion of
Fort George to the head of Maquoit Bay. Maine Street between Cabot
Mills and the beginning of the Mall retains the original proportions. The
first dam across the Androscoggin, highly important in Brunswick's
industrial growth, was built in 1753, and has been many times replaced.
A canal, which can still be seen, was built about 1797 from Merrymeeting
Bay to the New Meadows River to facilitate lumber transportation. But
since both ends of the canal were of the same level and there was no
current, the logs refused to move in either direction and the lumbermen
were forced to abandon the undertaking. Through the early part of the
nineteenth century, ships were built in Brunswick, on the river and on
Harpswell, Middle, and Maquoit Bays, but no trace remains of either
the shipbuilding or lumbering industries today.
Brunswick has been the birthplace of many noted people, perhaps the
best known of whom were John S. C. Abbott (1805-77), historian, and
George Palmer Putnam (1814-72), founder of the publishing house of
G. P. Putnam's Sons. A man who left his mark upon the local scene was
Samuel Melcher, 3d (1775-1862), a son of one of the town's first families,
Brunswick 141
who with no formal artistic training became a master builder and de-
signed houses and churches of great beauty. Some of Maine's loveliest
churches were done by Melcher, most outstanding being the old church
in Wiscasset (see Tour 1, sec. b). Samuel Melcher, though a very old man
at the time, supervised the delicate woodcarving in the Bowdoin College
Chapel and, always willing to learn, even late in life he used to walk to
Boston to observe the trends in architecture developing there and in
towns along the way. In a small sphere he was a great artist.
Bowdoin College has, of course, greatly influenced Brunswick's position
as a cultural center. The college was founded in 1794, but because of
financial difficulties it was not actually in session until 1802. Seeking
the patronage of a family both wealthy and sympathetic to education
and the arts, the founders wisely hit upon the name of James Bowdoin,
Governor of Massachusetts, for their new college. John Hancock, Gov-
ernor after Bowdoin's death and his bitter personal and political enemy,
so the story goes, delayed the starting of the college some two or three
years by declining to sign a document to incorporate an institution with
a name so odious to him and to his political adherents, and not until
after his death in 1 793 was the college granted official status. Governor
Samuel Adams signed the bill on Midsummer's Day, 1794.
The Honorable James Bowdoin, the Governor's son, fulfilled the hopes of
the founders by giving generously of land and money to the college, be-
queathing it as well his collection of Dutch and Italian masters, many of
them gathered while he was United States Minister to Spain and France.
This, the first private collection of European art to be made by an Ameri-
can and brought to this country, is in the Walker Art Building. It re-
veals the excellent taste and discrimination of its owner, who was one
of the first of a series of New England gentlemen of culture who combined
the life of refinement with a commercial and political success. Governor
Bowdoin, himself powerful, wealthy, and aristocratic, was the grandson
of a penniless refugee from religious persecution, Pierre Baudouin, who
landed at Casco in 1687. The Governor, who Anglicized the family
name, was the first president of the American Academy of Arts and
Sciences, a friend of Washington and Franklin, and a figure of political
prominence during the Revolution.
Although Bowdoin College is not large, it has a history, interesting as it
is varied, of nearly one hundred and fifty years, during which it has grown
rich with tradition and has enjoyed high scholastic standards and attain-
ments, many of its professors having achieved international reputation.
In proportion to its size, the number of prominent statesmen, scholars,
authors, scientists, financiers, and business men who have been graduated
from Bowdoin is impressive. A few leaders most closely identified with the
college are: Nathaniel Hawthorne and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow;
Rear Admiral Robert E. Peary, discoverer of the North Pole, and Com-
mander Donald B. MacMillan, Arctic explorer; Thomas B. Reed, Speaker
of the House of Representatives, and Senator William P. Frye; William
Pitt Fessenden, Secretary of the Treasury under Lincoln, Hannibal
142 Seaports and River Towns
Hamlin, fifteenth Vice-President, and Franklin Pierce, fourteenth Presi-
dent of the United States.
There has always been gathered about Bowdoin a circle of intellectual
and literary people which, though small, has definitely made its influence
felt all through Maine for a century and more. The college brings nu-
merous lecturers, well-known speakers, and musical organizations to
Brunswick each year. Series of public lectures on various subjects in
special fields, given by ten or more authorities, are sponsored by the
college every two years. These Institutes, as they are called, have in-
cluded lecture series on modern history, modern literature, the fine arts,
the social sciences, the natural sciences, politics and economics, and
philosophy.
TOUR 1 — 3.5 m.
W. from Maine St. on Pleasant St.; R. from Pleasant St. on Union St.
i. The Oilman Mansion (1799) (private, open by special permission:
small fee), cor. Union and Oak Sts., a 24-room white Colonial structure,
rises imposingly among the fountain elms of its small park. Once the
Great House of the town, with a long view down the river, its wide lawns
sloping to Maine Street and along the Androscoggin, it is now hemmed in
by the tenement homes of mill workers. Samuel Melcher 3d, native
craftsman and master builder, began construction of the mansion in 1798
(at that time he was working also on Massachusetts Hall, Bowdoin's first
building) for Captain John Dunlap, whose great-grandchildren live in it
today. To be shown this house is to be led through the pages of a family
history, for here are ancestral portraits — some by Badger (see The Arts) ;
McKeen family relics — for the Gilmans are also directly descendent
BRUNSWICK. POINTS OF INTEREST
1. Gilman Mansion 15. Massachusetts Hall
2. Site of Fort Andros 16. Winthrop Hall
3. Falls of the Androscoggin 17. Maine Hall
4. Site of Fort George 18. King Chapel
5. Emmons House 19. Appleton Hall
6. Governor Dunlap House 20. Hyde Hall
7. Pejepscot Historical Museum 21. Hubbard Hall
8. Harriet Beecher Stowe House 22. Walker Art Gallery
9. Chandler House 23. Searles Science Building
10. Hawthorne House 24. Sargent Gymnasium
11. President's House 25. Dudley Coe Infirmary
12. Bowdoin Pines 26. Moulton Union
Bowdoin College: 27. First Parish Church
13. Seth Adams Hall 28. Chamberlain House
14. Memorial Hall
BRUNSWICK
144 Seaports and River Towns
from Joseph McKeen, the first president of Bowdoin College; period
costumes; antique dolls and toys; old books and documents; and valuable
furniture. Its exterior, which had a balustraded roof and arched dormer
windows, was doubtless more impressive before the mansion was re-
modeled by David Dunlap in 1841, but much of the original interior is
retained, including nine of the old open fireplaces. A charming hall
stairway with mahogany banisters ascends to the third floor in a sweep-
ing curve. The fine white paneling of the principal rooms was cut from
Brunswick pine boards. The full 5o-foot length of the house is occupied
by two identical rooms opening into each other so that they make a great
formal drawing-room. The gilded wallpaper and crystal chandeliers in
these /parlors' were imported from France. Many people important in
Maine's history have lived in this house or were entertained here: David
Dunlap, who represented the District of Maine in the Massachusetts
legislature from 1810 to 1817; Robert Dunlap, Governor of Maine, 1834-
38, and member of Congress; and Congressman Charles J. Oilman, father
of the present owners. At the S. side of the mansion, between its long ell
and Oak Street, is the more than century-old garden, worth seeing at any
time during the summer.
R. from Union St. on Oilman Ave.; L. from Oilman Ave. on Maine St.
2. A tablet in the corner of the Cabot Manufacturing Company's Mill-
yard, by the river bank, marks the Site of Fort Andros (1688-90), Bruns-
wick's first fort. The Cabot Company, largest of Brunswick's industries
and a pioneer in the production of rayon goods, is the successor of the
Brunswick Manufacturing Company, incorporated in 1809 and believed
to have been the first to operate a cotton mill in Maine. It, too, occupied
this site.
3. The Falls of the Androscoggin are best viewed from the Brunswick-
Topsham bridge, named in honor of Frank J. Wood, whose efforts made
its building possible. In spring when the river is in flood the spray of the
falls washes the roadway of the bridge and their thunder reverberates
through the whole river section of the town. Topsham, a quiet residential
village directly across the river in Sagadahoc County, seems like a con-
tinuation of Brunswick.
Retrace on Maine St.; L. on Mason St.
4. The Site of Fort George, 1715-37, is marked by a tablet (L), cor. Mason
and Maine Sts.
R. from Mason St. on Federal St.
Federal Street, lined with very old elms, is Brunswick's chief residential
street. On it, the oldest and most beautiful houses of the town preserve
an atmosphere of dignity and serenity. Even those which have been
modernized, along with those neglected, retain beautiful doorways and
other characteristic features of Colonial design.
5. The Emmons House (1814) (private), 25 Federal St., a white Colonial
structure with, at one time, considerable charm, now greatly altered,
was for many years the home of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (see
Brunswick 145
PORTLAND) when he was Bowdoin's first professor of modern lan-
guages. Here he is said to have written his novel, 'Outre Mer.'
6. The Governor Dunlap House (private), 27 Federal St., formerly an ele-
gant mansion, is now an apartment house. For many years the three-
story wooden structure was the home of one of Brunswick's oldest and
most outstanding families (see above, Oilman House), a recent descendant
of which, Major-General Robert Dunlap of the U.S. Marine Corps, lost
his life in 1931 at Tours, France, while attempting heroically to save a
peasant woman from a landslide. A collection of the medals awarded to
him may be seen at Hubbard Hall, Bowdoin College (see below}.
R. front Federal St. on School St.
7. The Pejepscot Historical Museum (1825) (open weekdays, July and
August, 3-5), 12 School St., formerly a church, was acquired by the
Pejepscot Historical Society in 1891. The simple little weather-stained
museum houses a fine collection of historical material; domestic, foreign,
Indian, and military relics; currency exhibits; period costumes, trinkets,
and portraits.
Retrace to Federal St.; R. on Federal St.
8. Harriet Beecher Stowe House (1806) (open: gift shop in rear), 63 Federal
St., was the home of Mrs. Stowe while writing 'Uncle Tom's Cabin' and
other works. While living under its high-pitched roof, she wrote to her
husband : ' Our air-tight stoves warm all but the floor, heat your head and
keep your feet freezing '
9. The Chandler House (1806) (private), 75 Federal St., like the Oilman
and Governor Dunlap Houses, was constructed by Samuel Melcher and
has a history of elegance and fine living. Built for Parker Cleaveland
(see below], it is architecturally the most distinguished of Brunswick's
houses. Its sagging balustrades and weathered walls retain their original
iSth-century delicacy in spite of the ravages of time and weather. The
five tall chimneys leaning precariously over the ancient roof are mute
evidence of the many fires which were once needed to heat the beauti-
fully paneled rooms within. The small panes of the windows still occa-
sionally reflect the glow from the open hearths, and the Colonial antiques
cherished from generation to generation furnish, still intact, the gracious
interior.
10. In the House (private) at 76 Federal St., Nathaniel Hawthorne had
a room for part of his student days. Since it was almost directly across
the street from the residence of Professor Cleaveland, young Nat could
watch visitors come and go from the front door opposite his window, and,
the story goes, it was also possible for him to see the Cleaveland's at-
tractive servant girl who always answered the door. Hawthorne, a shy
youth, never tried to know the girl, but would sit for hours at his window
waiting for her to appear in the doorway across the street.
11. The President's House (private) 85 Federal St., home of Kenneth
C. M. Sills, President of Bowdoin College, is an excellent example of a
146 Seaports and River Towns
modified Mediterranean type of architecture popular with retired sea
captains of a century ago. These substantial houses peculiar to Maine's
seacoast towns have an appearance of dignity, and often contain excel-
lent examples of woodcarving or of fine glasswork, as that in the side-
lights of the entrance door here. Square structures of board siding or of
brick, characterized by solidity rather than grace, they are generally
two-and-a-half or three-storied, the top floor windows, small and oblong,
peeping out from under the heavy eaves of the hip roof which is in-
variably surmounted by an ornate cupola.
R. from Federal St. on Bath St.
12. The Bowdoin Pines, occupying a small area east of the college
campus, overshadow Bath St. (L), the main highway. These trees, tall,
erect, and carefully preserved, have grown up with the college and share
in its history.
L. from Bath St. on Harpswell St.; enter Bowdoin Campus at Harpswell St.
Bowdoin College is most impressive when viewed from the inside of its
compact quadrangular campus, which may be approached from any of
several memorial gateways. (Guides provided at college office, Massachu-
setts Hall; all buildings open at discretion of college authorities.)
13. Seth Adams Hall (i 860-61), across Harpswell St. from the campus
on the triangular field known as ' the Delta,' is a classroom building which
formerly housed the Maine School of Medicine (1821-1921), and its top
floor is still occupied by a collection of medical exhibits.
14. Memorial Hall (1868) (NW. end of campus, near Bath St.), an archi-
tectural ' white elephant ' built of local granite in the so-called ' General
Grant Gothic' style, contains classrooms and an auditorium. Erected
as a memorial to the Bowdoin men participating in the Civil War, it
contains, among other important paintings, the best known portrait
of Nathaniel Hawthorne.
15. Massachusetts Hall (1802) (left from Memorial Hall) houses the ad-
ministrative offices of the college. In this square Colonial structure of
painted red brick, the first building of the college to be constructed, lived
President Joseph McKeen and his family, his faculty of two, and Bow-
doin's first class of eight boys. Many years later it was rebuilt, the second
and third stories forming a hall for faculty meetings and for the exhibition
of the Cleaveland Cabinet, a valuable and extensive collection of geo-
logical specimens made by Professor Parker Cleaveland of Bowdoin,
one of America's first geologists. In 1936 the interior of the building was
restored more nearly to its original form, and the Cleaveland Cabinet
was removed to the science building. Two interesting features of Massa-
chusetts Hall are the graceful curved stairway opposite the front entrance,
and in the office of the president, the open fireplace, complete with black
caldrons and swinging cranes, which has been left as it was when the room
was the college kitchen.
1 6 and 17. Winthrop Hall (1822) (R), named after Governor Winthrop
of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and Maine Hall (1808), where Haw-
Brunswick 147
thorne roomed, are dormitories. Longfellow's room, 27 North Winthrop,
is marked with a marble tablet on the outside wall.
1 8. King Chapel (1845-55), a twin-spired structure of rough granite
designed by Richard Upjohn, is considered a fine example of modified
Romanesque style, unusual for the time when it was built. It represents
a departure from New England's architectural conventions in that it is
modeled on the plan of an English school chapel. It contains, besides the
large organ presented by the late Cyrus H. K. Curtis, music rooms, and
class and conference rooms.
19 and 20. Appleton Hall (1843), named for Bowdoin's second president,
and Hyde Hall (1917), named for the seventh president, are also dormi-
tories.
21. Hubbard Hall (1902-03) (R), the college library (open daily 8.30-
10.30 during college term; daily except Sundays, lO^t, during vacation;
library privileges available to the public) was designed by Henry Vaughan
of Boston. It is constructed in the collegiate Gothic tradition of brick,
granite, and limestone, with a high battlemented tower which dominates
the south side of the campus. At both ends of the facade are projecting
bays whose balustrades and gables relieve the long lines of the steeply
pitched slate roof, while oriel windows give charm and light to the four
large rooms in the wings. The college library includes the private library
of the Hon. James Bowdoin, one of the largest and most complete Long-
fellow collections, the exhaustive Isaac W. Dyer collection of Carlyliana,
the Guild German Dialect Collection, the Huguenot Collection of Ameri-
can-French writings, an extensive library of Mainiana, valuable sets of
19th-century periodicals, and an important Arctic exhibit. In the second
floor hall are hung the portraits of Bowdoin's presidents. An art room
contains a creditable collection of books and pictures for study of the
fine arts.
22. The Walker Art Gallery (1894) (R) (open daily 10-12, 2-4; 2-4
Sundays and holidays} has been called one of the best small museums of
the country. Designed by Charles F. McKim in a style derivative of the
Romanesque and built of brick, limestone, and granite, the building
was one of the first and most suitable of its kind, serving as a model for
other museums. Niches containing busts of Greek characters adorn the
facade. In the interior, four tympana under the arches of the central
dome, each 26 feet wide, contain murals symbolizing the artistic achieve-
ments of Athens, Rome, Florence, and Venice, executed by John LaFarge,
Elihu Vedder, Abbott Thayer, and Kenyon Cox respectively. The James
Bowdoin collection of drawings and paintings contains rare sketches by
artists as diverse as Rembrandt, Breughel, and Tintoretto, as well as
many important American Colonial portraits by Badger, Feke, Gilbert
Stuart, and Copley (see Maine and the Arts). Stuart is said to have jour-
neyed to Maine four times to make copies of the famous original of his
portrait of Thomas Jefferson. The Warren collection of Classical anti-
quities is particularly valuable, containing rare and even unique objects
of special interest to archeologists. Also important are the carved As-
148 Seaports and River Towns
Syrian tablets, the Coffin collection of etchings, and many noted paint-
ings, including a well-known portrait of Longfellow, and several Winslow
Homers. Exhibitions of the work of contemporary artists are held in the
Museum from time to time.
23. The Searles Science Building (R) houses a small museum of botanical
and zoological specimens.
Cross campus R. to driveway.
24. The Sargent Gymnasium, erected in honor of Dudley Allen Sargent,
pioneer in physical training and the circus strong man who became
Bowdoin's first athletic director, has been in recent years supplemented
by a cage with an indoor track and a swimming pool, the latter given
by Cyrus Curtis.
25 and 26. The Dudley Coe Infirmary (L) and the Moulton Union, con-
taining cafeteria, lounge, recreation rooms, and offices, complete the
campus buildings.
East of the campus behind Sargent Gymnasium and across Harpswell
St. is Whittier Field, with its memorial grandstand, where the major
athletic events of the college take place; and south on the campus drive-
way behind Moulton Union, down Coffin St. and beyond Longfellow Ave.,
is Pickard Field, where the practice grounds, tennis courts, and the
newly constructed Pickard Field House (1937) are situated.
Return to Bath St.
27. The First Parish Congregational Church, across from Bowdoin College
at the junction of Harpswell, Maine, and Bath Sts., is known as 'the
College Church' and 'the Church on the Hill.' Designed by Richard
Upjohn, architect for Trinity Church, New York City, and erected in
1846 on the site of a previous structure designed and built by Samuel
Melcher, it is a good example of the Victorian Gothic. It is constructed
entirely of wood. A tall spire which originally surmounted the steeple
was several times struck by lightning and finally destroyed; it has never
been replaced. Dr. Calvin E. Stowe, husband of Harriet Beecher Stowe,
was professor of religion at the college and preached in the church. One
Sunday while sitting in her pew, which is now marked by a commemora-
tive Plaque, Mrs. Stowe had a vision of the death of Uncle Tom which
inspired that scene in her book. From the pulpit of this church Long-
fellow delivered the poem, '0 Morituri, Te Salutamus,' written for the
5oth anniversary of the graduation of his class at Bowdoin (1825). Bow-
doin's commencement exercises are always held here.
28. The Chamberlain House (private), cor. Maine and Potter Sts., nearly
opposite the First Parish Church, was built in 1808. When first made a
teacher at Bowdoin, Longfellow set up housekeeping in this house, to
which he brought his bride. At that time it was a cottage, consisting
only of the present second and third stories. Later, when General Joshua
Chamberlain (1828-1914) came to live there, these were brought forward
and jacked up so that the floor below might be built under them. Thus
the building was transformed from a poet's cottage in a field to a gen-
Houlton 149
eral's mansion on a busy street. Chamberlain, a Bowdoin graduate, was
a professor at the college when he obtained leave of absence to serve in
the Civil War. He participated in 24 engagements and was wounded
six times. He received the Congressional Medal of Honor for his defense
of Little Round Top at Gettysburg, and left the service with the rank of
Major-General of Volunteers. The General became President of Bowdoin,
was elected Governor of Maine in 1866, and, as Major-General of the
State Militia, kept peace during the riotous winter of 1878-79 when the
Democrats and Greenbackers combined to gain control of the State
Legislature (see History).
OTHER POINTS OF INTEREST
29. Mere Point, 7 m., south on Maine St., is one of several coastal re-
sorts near Brunswick. A Memorial Boulder and Tablet, 0.1 m. right from
main road beyond entrance to Mere Point Colony, commemorates the
round-the-world flight of U.S. Army pilots in 1924. The bronze tablet
was erected in 1925 in a field near the point where the American aviators
first landed in the United States. A record of the flight, which started
in Seattle, Wash., but was never fully completed, is inscribed on the
tablet, placed here under the auspices of Percival P. Baxter, at that time
Governor of Maine.
At the tip of Mere Point the waters of Maquoit and Middle Bays merge
into the wider reaches of Casco Bay with a breath-taking prospect of many
wooded islands and distant hazy shores. Birch Island (see Island Tours)
is at the left of Mere Point in Middle Bay.
30. The Old Colonial Houses of Topsham, 0.5 m. north along State 24
right from Maine Street across Frank J. Wood Bridge, combine beauty
and utility in their architectural designs. Many of these houses, whose
owners could look down on the river from their windows to see their
ships anchored in the calm waters below The Falls, have been little
changed since they were built during the prosperous shipping days in the
early nineteenth century. Some of the loveliest of these dwellings were
designed and built by Samuel Melcher, 3d.
31. Merrymeeting Bay, famous duck-hunting ground, 4 m. north on
State 24 (see Tour 10) (see Sports and Recreation).
HOULTON
Town: Alt. 340; pop. 6865; sett. 1805, incorp. 1831.
Railroad Stations: W. end of Florence Ave. for B. & A. R.R.; NW. of Main and
Military Sts. intersection for Canadian Pacific Ry.
Bus Stations: Feeley Drug Co., Market St., for Grey Lines.
Airport: 2 m. E. on US 2,
150 Seaports and River Towns
U.S. and Canadian Customs & Immigration Stations: 2.5 m. E. on US 2.
Accommodations: Three hotels.
Hunting and Fishing: Guides available.
Swimming: Nickerson Lake, 5 m. SW. on State 166; Carry Lake, 7 m.N. on US 1.
Annual Events: Houlton Fish and Game Club field day, September.
ATTRACTIVE and tree-shaded, Houlton combines the qualities of the
old-fashioned country town with those of a modern city. The seat of
Aroostook County, one of the richest potato-raising regions in the
United States, and focal point of the northernmost part of Maine that is
actively developing its assets as a recreation area, Houlton has become a
large commercial center. Yet, in spite of the heavy traffic of motor trucks
and automobiles over its smooth pavement, Market Square, the spacious
heart of the town's business district, retains an atmosphere reminiscent of
creaking wagon wheels and patient horses tethered to sidewalk hitching
posts. And the residential sections, sweeping upward and away from the
Meduxnekeag River through the center of the town, have a leisurely,
almost rural air somehow paradoxical to their broad streets and well-kept
appearance that would do credit to a modern suburb. It is doubtless the
lack of crowding and the many fine old elms — as old, some of them, as
Houlton itself — that preserve so well the dignified atmosphere of a New
England town.
Houlton lies in a shallow natural bowl between wooded ridges. To the
east the terrain rolls upward to the town line where, adjoining the high-
way, the frontier between the United States and Canada has the usual
custom houses and markers, and is fortified only by a few bushes and a
dilapidated fence. At the west end of the town the fertile land is traversed
in a general north and south direction by a large esker or 'horse-back/
which is considered one of the world's outstanding examples of this type
of glacial formation. An esker is a ridge of gravel created between the
walls of a crack or groove in the glacier and left standing as the ice receded.
Besides being a trading center for most of Aroostook, Houlton is the
shipping point for potatoes produced in the surrounding farm regions.
Although early in its history it was known as a lumbering town, most of
the operations were actually carried on along the rivers to the north,
especially on the Allagash, the Aroostook, the Meduxnekeag (Ind.
1 where people go out'), and the St. John.
Lumbering operations near Houlton began in a small way. The first
settlers made a business of turning out limited quantities of shingles and
boards, which they rafted to Woodstock and Fredericton. A sawmill was
erected in 1810 by Aaron Putnam, one of the fathers of the settlement,
when Houlton's first dam was built across a small creek. Early lumber
drives were worked under severe handicaps, the greatest of which was the
necessity of trucking the rafts around Jackson Falls. Since potato farms
quickly supplanted the wooded districts of Aroostook, the lumber in-
dustry, never as extensive as in Penobscot and Somerset Counties, soon
ceased to be of primary importance.
Houlton 151
When, in 1799, the citizens of New Salem, Massachusetts, petitioned the
legislature of the Commonwealth for money with which to found an
academy, they were granted, as was customary, a piece of land in the
wilderness of Maine, to sell it if and as they could. This grant is now the
south half of Houlton; the northern part is a section of the Williams
College grant, presented at about the same time to the Williamstown,
Massachusetts, institution. A group of New Salem men purchased the
academy land. Of the original thirteen, however, only three — Joseph
Houlton, from whom the town eventually took its name, and Aaron and
Joseph Putnam — ever actually saw the land. These men established
their settlement in 1805. They found that ingress to their new home was
not only arduous but dangerous, for beyond Old Town the District of
Maine was largely unexplored forest, dense, and trackless. The journey
to the site of Houlton had to be accomplished by way of a complicated
system of waterways and carries from the Penobscot, or up the St. John
River to Woodstock and thence through the woods. Development of the
land was slow. The newcomers had to struggle for their existence as if on
a distant frontier, for supplies were brought in to them only after infinite
labor, and the growing season was very short. A cow was a luxury, and
every piece of mill machinery was worth its weight in gold.
In 1822, William H. Cary of New Salem came to Houlton, where he built
the spacious house on the hill above the present Canadian Pacific Station.
He, with his son, Shepard Cary, founded Gary's Mills, a combination of
foundry, carding, and grist mills, thus establishing the town's first industry
of importance. Members of this family contributed to the political, social,
and economic development of their town and State.
A road built in 1827 connecting Houlton with Baskahegan greatly
facilitated transportation, and Houlton finally ceased to feel itself set
apart from the world when in 1828 it was the garrison for seven companies
of United States Infantry. The National Government purchased twenty-
five acres of land; the Hancock Barracks were constructed and a parade
ground was laid out, and Houlton found itself the northeasternmost
military station in the United States. A new era of prosperity began. The
presence of the post stimulated local trade, gave the people a market for
their produce and labor, and attracted more settlers to the town. Finally,
in 1832, the construction of the military road (now Maine 166) between
Houlton and Bangor was completed.
With the outbreak of the so-called Aroostook War (1839) that climaxed
the old border controversy, Houlton jumped into national prominence.
Twelve companies of Maine militia were sent in, and through the bitter
cold of the long whiter they subsisted on hardtack and salt pork and what
little food the overburdened inhabitants could spare them. Major R. M.
Kirby, in charge of the army post, refused to take any part in the ' war ' for
fear of placing the United States Government in a compromising position.
The dispute was finally settled, and the national boundary established.
Eight years later, the Government withdrew its troops and the post was
abandoned.
152 Seaports and River Towns
Houlton thereupon entered upon an economic slump from which it began
to recover in 1862 when the New Brunswick Railway (now the Canadian
Pacific) was built from St. Andrews, New Brunswick, to a point on the
Woodstock turnpike only five miles from town. By 1870 the branch had
been extended into the town so that communication with the seaboard by
way of New Brunswick was opened. The following year the European and
North American Railway (now the Maine Central) was completed from
Bangor to Vanceboro, thereby giving Houlton rail connections by a
circuitous route with the cities to the south. Up to this time Houlton had
to market its products in New Brunswick, and now not only the town it-
self but the whole of Aroostook County was able to capitalize on its
agricultural resources. In 1894 the Bangor and Aroostook Railroad
reached Houlton; within a few years it had extended its line through the
northern territory as far as Fort Kent. By this linking of Houlton and the
surrounding country with the great national markets, a new prosperity
was brought to the people of Aroostook; they expanded their farming
operations, the population began to increase rapidly, and Houlton was
prominent in the development of the country.
The railroads remain of first importance to the continued economic
success of this region, for the difficulties of highway transportation are
considerable. In spite of the efficiency of modern snow-removal equip-
ment and the improved conditions of the roadways, drifting snow often
renders motor traffic completely helpless; heavy trucking over the un-
surfaced roads of the country is possible only during a short period of the
year. Houlton therefore remains chiefly important as a railroad shipping
center.
TOUR 1— 4.5 m.
N. from Market Sq. on North St. across Meduxnekeag River Bridge.
i. The Black Hawk Tavern (L), 22 North St., built in 1813 and now a
tourist home, was erected by Samuel Wormwood for Aaron Putnam, one
of the first settlers, and is the oldest house in Houlton. Constructed of
wood cut and sawed on the site of the building, the house was walled up
with brick on the outside in an attempt to make it bullet-proof. In the
course of alterations the original roof was replaced by one of much
steeper pitch and all but one of the stone fireplaces that were formerly
used to heat each room are closed up. The first county court was held in
the northeast room of the second floor; — the corner that was occupied
by the judge's bench is still marked by a four-foot wainscoting. The first
county jail was a dungeon in the basement of the building; there was no
provision made for ventilation, and the rings in the wall to which prisoners
were chained are still visible.
Retrace North St. to Market Sq. R. on Bangor St.; R. from Bangor St. on
Florence St.
1
HOULTON. POINTS OF INTEREST
1. Black Hawk Tavern
2. Potato Warehouses
3. Houlton Grange
4 Peabody House
5. Ricker Classical Institute
6. Garrison Hill
7. Gary's Mills
8. Transatlantic Radiophone Station
154 Seaports and River Towns
2. Potato Warehouses, in the Bangor and Aroostook railroad yards, provide
storage for thousands of barrels of potatoes. In these modern, well-
equipped buildings potatoes are graded and sorted in preparation for
shipping to all parts of the world. The annual shipment is nearly 2,000,-
ooo bushels.
L. from Florence St. on Potato Row to Bangor St.; L. from Bangor St. to
Grange St.
3. Houlton Grange, with a store at Green and Grange Sts., is second in
size to Webster Grange, Rochester, New York, the largest in the world.
The Houlton Grange originated a system of mutual fire insurance among
its members, a practice widely adopted because of low rates and proved
success. The extensive operations of the Houlton Grange also include a
flour mill and warehouses.
L. from Grange St. on Green St.; R. from Green St. on Court St.
4. The Peabody House (private), 98 Court St., built by Amos Pearce
about 1826, is the oldest Houlton residence the original exterior of which
remains unchanged. A feature that distinguishes it from its neighbors
is the absence of eaves. In its front hall under the narrow, winding stair a
smokehouse, complete with hooks, stepladder, and other meat-curing
equipment, is intact. The town's original post office occupied the room to
the right of the hall. Many of the original fireplaces are retained, and the
rooms are furnished with antique furniture, old dishes, candlesticks, etc.,
belonging to the Peabody family, the present owners.
Retrace Court St. to Military St.; R. on Military St.
5. Richer Classical Institute (1847) (open during school year), Military and
High Sts., is the oldest secondary institution in Aroostook County. A
privately endowed co-educational preparatory school and junior college,
it is affiliated with Colby College and the Maine Baptist Convention.
OTHER POINTS OF INTEREST
6. Garrison Hill, a 583-foot elevation i mile east of the town on Military
St., is the site of the Hancock Barracks (1828-47). Although all traces
have disappeared of the military post's barracks and other buildings, the
former parade grounds provide an excellent vantage point for a panoramic
view of the town and surrounding country.
7. Gary's Mills, 2 miles west of Houlton on State 166 (Bangor St.), is a
small settlement founded by Shepard Cary, the son of one of the early
prominent citizens of the town. Cary was largely instrumental in opening
much of the Aroostook timberland, since he actively engaged in develop-
ing large-scale operations on the Allagash and St. John Rivers. Besides
conducting numerous local business enterprises, he was highly influential
in county and State affairs, serving term after term in the Maine House
and Senate, and as Congressman in 1844. The Houlton library is named
in his honor.
8. The Transatlantic Radiophone Receiving Station, 3 m. (see Tour 4).
LEWISTON-AUBURN
Cities: Lewiston, alt. 196, pop. 34,948, sett. 1770, inc. city 1861; Auburn, alt.
210, pop. 18,571, sett. 1786, inc. shire town 1854, city 1869.
Railroad Stations: Bates St., Lewiston, and Main St., Auburn, for M.C. R.R.;
Lincoln St., Lewiston, for Canadian National Rys.
Bus Stations: 204 Main St., Lewiston, and 240 Court St., Auburn, for M.C.
Transportation Co., Blue Line, and Maine-New Hampshire Stages; 169 Main
St., Lewiston, and Elm House, Auburn, for Affiliated Greyhound Lines.
Airport: 5 m. SW. on State 121 and Hotel Rd.
Accommodations: Eight hotels.
Swimming: Taylor Pond, Auburn; Sabattus Lake, Lewiston.
Annual Events: Maine State Fair, ist week in Sept.; numerous winter sports
events.
LEWISTON and AUBURN, known as the 'Twin Cities/ face each
other across the Androscoggin River at Lewiston Falls. Divided by the
river, each city is a distinct municipality, yet the two are closely inter-
woven socially and industrially. Both are justified in claiming to be the
industrial heart of Maine. Lewiston, the second largest city in the State
and primarily a textile city, is also the seat of Bates College, while
Auburn, Maine's fourth largest city, is an important shoe manufacturing
center and the Androscoggin County seat. Both cities were the objects
of nation-wide attention during the shoe strike in the spring of 1937, in-
volving, as it did, a test of the National Labor Relations Act.
The general traffic bridges and two railroad bridges join Lewiston, on the
east bank, with Auburn on the west. Strong as the bridges have been in
binding Lewiston and Auburn together, there have been occasions when
they have, in a sense, separated rather than joined the two cities. Many
residents of one city work in the other, and during the strike of 1937, the
bridges became barriers guarded by militia and police who sought to
prevent strikers of one city from entering the other. Again, the bridges
have often been the scene of pitched battles, usually induced by high-
school rivalry, between the youth of the two cities. Relationships between
the two cities were severed during the flood of March, 1936, which ripped
out South Bridge and made North Bridge impassable.
Auburn conveys the impression of being more of a residential city than
Lewiston. Auburn residences seem more remote from the industrial areas.
New Auburn, that section of the city lying south of the Little Andros-
coggin and largely inhabited by workers in the cities' mills, is a com-
paratively new development, almost a distinct village in itself. This
section of the city lost 250 buildings through fire in 1933, and was entirely
isolated for two and a half days during the floods in March, 1936. Ten-
156 Seaports and River Towns
ement districts are concentrated near the great textile mills in Lewiston;
one such district near the riverfront, is known as Little Canada because of
its predominating French-Canadian population.
Lewiston may well be called a bi-lingual city, since practically every
business finds it necessary to employ at least one French-speaking person.
The present population of Lewiston is between 65 and 70 per cent
French- American origin, while Auburn has only 25 per cent of this
nationality, largely concentrated in New Auburn. This large French-
speaking population supplies most of the workers for the textile mills and
shoe factories. Lewiston has a charter form of government, with mayor
and seven aldermen. In recent years these municipal officers have
usually been of French-Canadian origin. The city's parochial school
system is almost as extensive as the public school system.
Lewiston is a strongly Democratic city in a Republican State. In 1932,
Louis Jefferson Brann, a resident of Lewiston, was elected Governor of
Maine on the Democratic ticket. Auburn, on the other hand, is conserva-
tive Republican. In the 1936 presidential election, when Maine was one
of the two States in the nation to vote Republican, an Auburn native,
Wallace H. White, Republican, defeated Governor Brann for election to
the U.S. Senate.
The two cities' combined industrial establishments number more than
one hundred and employ in the neighborhood of 14,000 persons. Auburn,
with nearly a score of shoe manufactories, leads in this industry that com-
mands more manufacturing establishments than any other in Maine.
Lewiston, a textile center manufacturing cotton, woolen and rayon goods,
also has several shoe factories.
The Twin Cities, situated in a rich agricultural district, are the trading
center for thousands of people, and are important distributing points for
the State's industrial and commercial life, agriculture and dairy pro-
duction.
The original patentees of the present site of Lewiston and Auburn re-
ceived what became Bakerstown Township in New Hampshire in 1736,
but not until 1768, owing to technical difficulties of location, were the
agents of the proprietors granted the tract of land along the Androscoggin.
Terms of the grant were that fifty families in as many houses should
settle upon the claim before 1774, 'the houses to be 16' X 20' with a
seven foot stud and the name of the town, Lewistown.' It is doubtful if
the specifications were complied with, since the early growth of the two
cities was unusually slow and the first Lewiston settler, Paul Hildreth of
Dracut, Massachusetts, did not build his log cabin within the present city
limits until 1770. The 'Plantation of Lewiston and Gore' ('gore/ a
triangular piece of land left when surveyors' calculations do not result in
an even division of land into townships) was incorporated in 1795.
Auburn grew up even more slowly. The mid-nineteenth century was
almost at hand before the town separated from Minot, 1842; its present
land area of about sixty-five square miles was attained hi 1867, when
Lewiston- Auburn 157
Auburn, already shire town, annexed Danville. Auburn's name sup-
posedly was taken from the Auburn of Oliver Goldsmith's poem 'The
Deserted Village.'
The first woolen mill in Lewiston had begun operations in 1819, preceding
the first cotton manufactory by twenty-five years. Exploitation of the
water-power of the Androscoggin River began with the formation of the
Androscoggin Falls, Dam Locks, and Canal Company in 1836. This
enterprise was reorganized six years later as the Lewiston Water-Power
Company — for the purpose of employing available water-power for
textile manufacture. In the fifties the remarkable water-power advantages
of this location attracted Boston business men engaged in similar in-
dustries. Other companies were established here within the succeeding
thirty years. They purchased much land in this region, took over all the
chartered rights and privileges of the existing power companies, con-
structed a system of canals for distribution of water-power, and in time
built the several large textile mills that form the industrial background of
Lewiston. These mills, granted unusually generous charter rights for the
purchase of power, own almost exclusively the power rights on this
section of the river through control of the Union Water-Power Company.
Auburn lays claim to being the home of the shoe industry in Maine be-
cause it was still a part of Minot when the Minot Shoe Company was
incorporated in 1835, in what is now West Auburn. Shoe manufacturing
in the present city limits was begun a year later by two brothers, Martin
and Moses Crafts, and within a few years the city had definitely assumed
its position as a leader in the industry. Early shoe manufacturing was
crudely conducted and the products were coarse, heavy articles. Work
was cut out in a small room or shop by the manufacturer himself, some-
times aided by a cutter or two, and then sent to dwellings in the commu-
nity where the men and women finished the shoes. All work was done by
hand until about 1850 when the first labor-saving machine was intro-
duced. Fifteen years later, shoe manufacturing was a $1,000,000 in-
dustry, and the factory system was generally adopted by 1870 when the
city's twenty-one factories produced more than 2,000,000 pairs of shoes
annually. In 1917, one Auburn factory was making 75 per cent of the
world's entire supply of white canvas shoes. Under normal conditions, the
shoe factories now produce between 60,000 and 70,000 pairs of shoes and
moccasins daily, and have a total weekly payroll of more than $100,000.
Including the shoe factories, there are about fifty industrial plants in
Auburn with an annual production value of more than $22,000,000.
Secluded from the city's busy industrial life, yet having its influences
upon Lewiston's social and civic activities, Bates College was incorpo-
rated as the Maine State Seminary in 1856. Originally the Parsonfield
Academy, Parsonfield, the college was founded by Free Baptists under a
charter providing that it should be free from denominational control, yet
that education and religion should be inseparably connected. The loca-
tion of the college was disputed by other towns, but Lewiston's central
location and subscriptions by local business men towards the building
158 Seaports and River Towns
fund won the distinction. A college course was instituted in 1863 and the
seminary's name was changed in honor of Benjamin E. Bates of Boston,
who gave $200,000 to the college. Bates was one of the first New England
colleges to become co-educational, and in 1907 it became one of the
associated colleges in the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of
Teaching. Bates initiated international debating and has won victories
from some of the largest colleges in this country and abroad. Out of
approximately 6000 alumni (1936), nearly half have entered the teaching
profession; Bates is first among New England colleges in the number of its
graduates who are principals of New England secondary schools.
POINTS OF INTEREST
LEWISTON
Tour 1 — 5.4 m.
Union Square, a broadening of the main thoroughfare from below the
junction of Main and Sabattus Sts. to Lisbon St., is the commercial
heart of Lewiston, and the natural distribution center for the bulk of high-
way transportation in and out of the Twin Cities. Streets radiating from
the square lead to the business and industrial sections of the city. In the
days of horse-drawn vehicles, Union Square was Haymarket Square, a
busy mart for farmers with their hay, grain, and farm produce from out-
lying agricultural districts.
S. from Union Sq.; L. on Canal St.
1. The Canal (R), supplying several of the large mills with power, waa
begun in 1845 by the Lewiston Water-Power Company and completed in
1863-64. Running from the river above the dam the canal, 62 feet wide
and less than a mile long, seems like a quiet stream flowing through the
heart of the city.
2. The Buildings of the Bates Manufacturing Company (permit at office]
(R), Canal St., largest local textile mill, are across the canal. The mill
manufactures cotton and rayon goods exclusively. Since the recent
introduction of machinery for the making of candlewick spreads the mill
has specialized in their manufacture.
3. Boarding Blocks (private) (L), Canal St., opp. the Bates Mill, are re-
minders of an earlier industrial period. These three-story, brick structures
were built by the company for its employees, following a practice common
among industrial establishments in the last century. Country girls, eager
to get work in the mills though it meant working long hours for small
pay, came to the city and created a demand for suitable lodging facilities.
Mill owners erected these * boarding blocks,' dividing them into tenements
for groups of 15 or 20 girls, and let them to 'boarding mistresses.' Girls
paid $2 a week for board and room and, under the maternal eye of the
Lewiston-Auburn 159
boarding mistresses, the blocks were conducted as strictly as a girls'
school. The blocks, occupied by millworkers' families, are the property of
the mill.
4. The Androscoggin Mill (permit at office), manufacturing cotton and
rayon, is (R) at the junction of Lisbon and Canal Sts.
5. The Lewiston Bleachery and Dye Works (permit at office) (L), Canal and
Lisbon Sts., carries on the bleaching and dyeing processes for the Pep-
perell and Lady Pepperell products (see Tour 1, sec. a).
L. from Canal St. on Lisbon St.; R. from Lisbon St. on Ash St.
6. St. Pierre et St. Paul, Roman Catholic Church, NW. cor. Ash and
Bartlett Sts., is one of the most imposing buildings in the two cities.
Designed by T. J. O'Connell, Boston, the church was erected over a
period of years, 1906-36, to administer to the largest French parish in
Lewiston, under the Society of Dominican Fathers. Of modified French
Gothic design, the principal facade with its two pinnacled towers suggests
the i^th-century ecclesiastical architecture of Provence. The mass of the
building is constructed of Maine granite. The pews and interior wood-
work are of oak. The floors are tiled and the walls of the sanctuary and
rectory are adorned with traceried panels. There is a choir gallery and
organ over the narthex. The church auditorium with the transept gal-
leries seats 2100. The cost of the completed building was approximately
$1,000,000.
L. from Ash St. on Bartlett St.; R. from Bartlett St. on College St.
7. Bates College (open), Campus Ave., College, and contiguous streets,
housed in 26 buildings, spreads over 75 level acres away from the center of
the city. The lawns, gardens, elms, and maples of the campus form an
appropriate setting for the ivy-clad buildings.
A path from the corner of College St. and Campus Ave. leads to the
attractive English Gothic Chapel, while other paths from the rear of
Cheney House and Rand Hall, women's dormitories, across College St.
lead to the summit of Mt. David, commanding panoramas of Bates,
Lewiston-Auburn, and the White Mountains more than 50 miles to the
west.
Hathorn Hall, College St. (R) is the oldest campus building. Erected in
1855, it contains the Bates Little Theater and several recitation rooms.
LEWISTON-AUBURN. POINTS OF INTEREST
1. The Canal 7. Bates CoUege
2. Bates Manufacturing Company 8. Lewiston Armory
3. Boarding Blocks 9. Lewiston Falls and Dam
4. Androscoggin Mill 10. Laurel Hill
5. Lewiston Bleachery and Dye n. Androscoggin County Court House
Works 12. Goff Hill
6. St. Pierre et St. Paul
1 62 Seaports and River Towns
Carnegie Science Building, rear of Hathorn Hall, was made possible t>y a
Carnegie endowment in 1908. Devoted to the departments of biology,
physics, and geology, the building also houses the Stanton Museum, be-
queathed to the college by Prof. Jonathan Young Stanton, one of the early
instructors. The museum contains a valuable ornithological exhibit, in-
cluding many rare and now extinct specimens collected in the United
States and abroad. A collection of shells and an herbarium are also note-
worthy.
Cor am Library, Campus Ave. opp. Nichols St., contains more than
68,000 volumes, besides thousands of pamphlets, documents, and the
1800 volume Isaac L. Rice French Library. The classic columns of the
library form an appropriate background for a Greek play presented each
Commencement.
The athletic field was named for Alonzo Garcelon, prominent Lewiston
citizen and Governor of Maine in 1879.
R. from Campus Ave. on Central Ave.
8. Lewiston Armory, Central Ave. and Vale St., constructed of light brick
with limestone trim, somewhat resembles a fortress with its massive walls
and corner turrets. The auditorium seating 6000 is one of the largest in
the State. The building is used by the State for military drills, as well as
for conventions and assemblies in the city. Troops were quartered in it
for nearly a month in the spring of 1937, when 450 National Guardsmen
were called out after street fighting during the shoe strike.
R. from Central Ave. on Sabattus St.; R. from Union Sq. on Main St.
9. Lewiston Falls and Dam, best viewed from North Bridge, are particu-
larly spectacular during the spring freshets. Known at various times as
Lewis Falls, Twenty-Mile Falls, and Harris Falls, an Indian legend is
associated with the first naming. An Indian named Lewis, motivated by
too much strong drink, embarked in his canoe above the falls. Losing
control of himself, the canoe, and the situation, he stood in the boat as the
water was about to engulf him and shouted that the falls should hence-
forth be known as Lewis Falls. The granite Dam, increasing the 40-foot
natural fall of the river by more than 10 feet, was built in 1845, diverting
the water into the canal which was begun in the same year. Another dam,
a crude affair of timber, had been built in 1808.
AUBURN
Tour 2 — 2.2 m.
S. from Court St. on Main St.
10. Laurel Hill, Main, Laurel Sts., Laurel Ave., near the confluence of
the Little Androscoggin and Androscoggin Rivers, was once the site of an
Indian village and burial ground. It is claimed that the village on Laurel
Hill was one of the strongholds of the Anasagunticooks, the Androscoggin
Indian tribe, and that in 1690 the village and Indian fortifications were
Portland 163
attacked by a force of more than 60 English under the command of Maj.
Benjamin Church.
Retrace to Court St.; L. on Court St.
11. Androscoggin County Courthouse, cor. Court and Turner Sts., was the
center of legal controversies in March, April, May, and June, 1937, during
the shoe strikes. Four of the 19 Lewiston- Auburn shoe manufacturers
appeared at a hearing conducted by the National Labor Relations Board
to answer complaints by the Committee for Industrial Organization,
charging them with unfair labor practices under the Wagner Act. The
rooms of the Androscoggin Historical Society (apply Clerk of Courts, 2d
floor), in the courthouse, contain many items of interest, such as Indian
implements and articles pertaining to local history. A Mural, 'Law, the
Defender of Civilization,' by Harry Cochrane of Monmouth, is in the
courtroom.
W. on Court St.
12. From Go/ Hill, one of Auburn's fine residential sections, views
of the two cities, the Lewiston Falls and the river, and the surround-
ing countryside can be obtained.
Points of Interest in Environs:
Deer Rips Dam, 3 m. ; Gulf Island Dam, 4.4 m. ; Mount Apatite, 3 m. ;
Lake Auburn, 4 m.\ Auburn Fish Hatchery, 6 m. (see Tour 11)
PORTLAND
City: Alt. 50, pop. 70,810, sett. 1633, incorp. town 1786, State Capital 1820-31,
city 1832.
Railroad Stations: Union Station, 222 St. John St., for B. & M. and M.C. R.R.s;
Grand Trunk Station, cor. Fore and India Sts., for Canadian National Rys.
Bus Stations: 159 High St., for B. & M. and M. C. Transportation Co.s,
Checker Cab (Manchester, N.H.), Maine-New Hampshire Stages, Vermont
Transit Lines, Portland-Conway, N.H. Stages; 600 Congress St., for Affiliated
Greyhound Lines; 593 Congress St., for Liberty Motor Tours.
Airports: Portland City Airport, Westbrook St., for B. & M. Airways, Inc.;
266 St. John St., for B. & M. -Central Vermont Airways.
Ferry Service: Casco Bay Lines, Custom House Wharf; Peaks Island Transpor-
tation Co., Portland Pier.
Accommodations: Sixteen hotels.
Information Service: Maine Publicity Bureau, cor. St. John and Danforth Sts.
Swimming: East End Bathing Beach, Eastern Promenade.
Fishing: Casco Bay, salt water.
Yachting: Portland Yacht Club, Merchant's Wharf.
164 Seaports and River Towns
PORTLAND, Maine's largest city and Cumberland County seat, holds
the economic and commercial key to a vast territory extending north and
east to the Canadian boundaries. At its feet lies Casco Bay with its '365
islands ' — one for every day in the year — a miniature New England
Aegean. Portland itself was once almost an island, and even now access
to the city without passing over water is possible only from the northwest.
The metropolitan area, clustered on an arm of land shaped like a saddle, is
almost entirely surrounded by the waters of Casco Bay, Back Cove, and
Fore River. Lying between the two elevations, crowned by the Eastern
and Western Promenades at opposite ends of the city, the central section
of the city extends along a sagging ridge in a general east-and-west
direction. Tall elms and other trees line the streets and shade the city's
twenty-six parks. Portland owes much of its attractiveness to these trees
that in summer hide its architectural deficiencies and make up for some of
the ill effects of overcrowding.
Because of its geographical position in the State, Portland is a shipping
port and railroad terminus as well as the Gloucester of Maine. Large
ships from European and South American countries and the Orient, and
smaller coasting vessels, meet in its harbor. Three railroads enter the city.
Maine's highway travel, almost without exception, touches Portland
before spreading fanwise to other sections of the State. During the tourist
season the city is the hub for a vast resort region, and by air and water,
rail and highway, vacationists pour into the city, and then by a dozen
divergent routes make their way to summer homes and playgrounds to
the north and east. At the city's very back lies Maine's most highly con-
centrated summer resort country. And because Portland is the chief city
of Cumberland County, one of the most densely populated sections of
Maine, it is also of considerable political, as well as commercial, strength.
Its history has little to distinguish it from that of any average large
American city except perhaps the unusual amount of travail and suffering
that have gone to building it to a position of security. It has risen and
fallen again, not once, but three times. The Indians devastated it; as a
prelude to the Revolution the British burned it; and in 1866, the ' great
fire' again left it a city of embers. Its first years were marked by the
struggles over conflicting claims for the land on which it grew — between
England and France, between s^quatters and landlords, between individual
citizens and great corporations. Then, in the nineteenth century it
achieved great importance and wealth. That, too, is all of the past.
Portland today lives on in a kind of somnolence that belies its past great-
ness and its present real activity and vitality.
The first recorded settlement on the site of Portland was made by
Christopher Levett, 'the King's Woodward of the County of Somerset-
shire in New England.' Levett built a stone house on Hog Island or
House Island (historians have not agreed on the site) where he and his
company spent the winter of 1623-24. In the spring he returned to Eng-
land, apparently with the intention of arousing interest in forming the
city of York at a place he called Quack, near Casco, presumably the place
Portland 165
where Portland stands. He left his house garrisoned with ten men. There
is no indication that he ever returned, and no one can say what happened
to the company left occupying the stone house.
The next settler to occupy the site for any length of time was an un-
scrupulous trader named Walter Bagnall, called 'Great Walt' because
of his size. As early as 1628 Bagnall was living on the Spurwink River, not
far from Richmond's Island, in a hut with a solitary companion known
only as John P. Walt exchanged firewater and worthless trinkets with
the Indians for valuable furs, and is alleged to have netted a profit of more
than £400 (a considerable sum at that time) in less than three years,
before he was killed in 1631 by the Indian chief Squidraset and other dis-
satisfied customers who had already begun to chafe under the ' beneficent '
practices of traders of his type.
About this time George Cleeve and his family established themselves on
the land now occupied by the city proper, which was known successively
thereafter as Machigonne, Indigreat, Elbow, the Neck, Casco, and Fal-
mouth; the name Portland, of English origin, was first given to Portland
Head on Cape Elizabeth and to the sound between the Head and Cush-
ing's Island. In 1630 a body of religious fanatics called the Husbandmen
was granted a patent of land at Sagadahoc, that came to be known a?
'the patent of the Plough/ after their ship the 'Plough.' They arrived ii?
1631, but dissatisfied with the location given them, scattered to other
Colonies. Cleeve, ambitious and unscrupulous, ingratiated himself with
Sir Ferdinando Gorges, proprietor of Maine (then called New Somerset-
shire) from 1635, and was appointed Deputy Governor of the Province.
He was ousted from that office when it was shown he had acquired it by
making false accusations against Gorges's previous deputies. Still
determined to control the region, Cleeve proceeded to England, where he
found a patron in a Colonel Rigby, who purchased the patent of the
Plough, named the estate the Province of Lygonia, and put Cleeve in
charge as deputy president. Cleeve returned and summoned his first
court in Casco, 1643-44, where he proclaimed his authority over the land
'from Sackadehock to Cape Porpus, being about thirteen leagues in
'length.'
There ensued a tedious quarrel between Gorges's agents and Cleeve over
the proprietorship of the Colonies of the Casco Bay region ; it was taken to
courts first in Boston and then in England. Finally Rigby 's claims were
upheld, and for a while Cleeve enjoyed virtual dictatorship of the
Province of Lygonia. Rigby died in 1650 and Massachusetts assumed
control of the whole region in 1652. Cleeve kept up an empty show of
authority until 1658, when all the inhabitants of the Maine Colonies sub-
mitted to the government of Massachusetts. Ruined by his protracted
litigations, he died in poverty.
All through this period and for some time to come the Casco region con-
tinued as the center of unhappy warfare between ' selfish promoters and
contentious claimants.' 'No one,' wrote an early historian, ' could be sure
of reaping the rewards of his labors and industry.'
1 66 Seaports and River Towns
Nevertheless, by 1675, Falmouth (as it was then called) had attained a
certain real prosperity. There was a meeting-house on The Neck and
more than four hundred settled inhabitants were within a short radius.
But in that year Indian wars broke out, and in 1676 several attacks were
made on the town itself. In a final ruthless assault that summer the
Indians advanced on The Neck, killing and burning as they came, as far as
the easterly foot of High Street, where the colonists made their stand.
Many of the inhabitants finally took to their boats, some of them escaping
to Salem, Massachusetts, where they were admitted as citizens. Others
retreated to Jewell Island, far out in the bay, and there threw up bulwarks
against attack. An early historian wrote: 'The doom of Falmouth was
pronounced at once ... it was crushed by a single blow.3
No permanent settlement was effected after this until 1716, when Samuel
Moody received permission from the Massachusetts Government to take
up land at Falmouth. At his own expense he built a fort and persuaded
others to join him there. Three garrisons were established in the township,
but Falmouth was never again molested by the Indians or by the French.
The town entered upon a harmonious development that continued un-
checked for more than fifty years. It acquired outstanding commercial
importance, exporting lumber, fish, and furs in exchange for sugar and
molasses from English, French, and Spanish ports of the West Indies and
the Caribbean. Shipbuilding grew apace with commerce, and the export
of masts for the British navy and merchant marine was a lucrative busi-
ness. It was reported in 1765 that ' the ships loading here are a wonderful
benefit; they take off vast quantities of timber; masts, car-raters, boards,
etc ' By 1770 Falmouth was as prosperous as any of the Colonial
cities; her citizens were sturdy, independent, and comparatively well-to-
do.
Forebodings of the impending war were felt as strongly here as anywhere :
strong resentment of the Stamp Act was manifest; and when Boston was
closed by the Port Bill, Falmouth sent liberal supplies to the Massachu-
setts city. In May, 1775, a Tory sea captain, attempting to outfit a vessel
for shipping masts, was restrained by a local committee which asserted
that masts for the British navy were in the nature of military supplies and
therefore could not legally be exported. The captain appealed to Captain
Henry Mowatt of the British sloop-of-war 'Canceau,' which shortly
thereafter dropped anchor in Falmouth Harbor. Falmouth, strongly
Whig, became the scene of anti-British demonstrations; revolutionary
sentiments were expressed everywhere. Companies of Militiamen,
responding to the call from the Continental Congress, were assembled
about town. In the midst of the excitement, Captain Mowatt, who was
strolling about Munjoy Hill with his surgeon, was seized by a company
of Colonials who maintained that he was spying on their activities. The
British officer was released on parole, after giving his word to return when
requested.
He did return, though not upon request. October 16, 1775, four British
naval vessels and a store ship hove to off Portland. Mowatt, in command
Portland 167
of this small fleet, sent word to the people of Falmouth 'to remove all
human specie from the town' within two hours. Frantic parleys and
efforts to arrive at terms of surrender were of no avail. It must be said for
Mowatt, however, that he would have spared the city had the inhabitants
agreed to surrender all large and small arms in their possession. But this
ignominy the people courageously spurned. Accordingly, at 9.30 on the
morning of October 18, Mowatt's ships opened fire on Falmouth. Dis-
charge after discharge of bombs, grapeshot, and cannon balls rained upon
the defenseless town. Since most of the buildings were upon the level land
between India and Center Streets, they were within easy range. The
bombardment continued throughout the day, and at night parties were
landed to apply torches to whatever structures had escaped the shots. Four
hundred and fourteen buildings, including a new courthouse, the town
house, and the customs house, with many barns and warehouses, went up
in the general conflagration. Nearly two thousand persons were left
homeless, although none were killed and only one was wounded. Some
members of the British landing parties were believed to have been shot
down by the citizenry.
One prominent building that escaped the flames~was the Widow Grele's
tavern, a story-and-a-half structure in the heart of the city. The doughty
widow refused to leave her house; whenever flames burst forth around it,
she rushed out and extinguished them with pails of water. Since most of
the public buildings had been leveled to the ground, in the days that
followed one of the rooms of the widow's tavern was used for court
sessions. Here county court was held for the duration of the Revolution-
ary War, and until 1787, when a new courthouse was built. The Widow
Grele's tavern was a Portland landmark even into the present century.
A month after the Mowatt bombardment a visitor reported ' no lodging,
eating, or housekeeping in Falmouth.' The British came and went, but
they found little about the ruined wharves and buildings to make occupa-
tion desirable. The town, though, was never abandoned because it was still
a central point for the assembling of military recruits, and in 1777 there
were upwards of seven hundred people living here under conditions of
extreme hardship.
Cheerless predictions as to Falmouth's future after bombardment, the
Revolution, and the period of post-war stagnation proved groundless.
The town, which took the name of Portland on July 4, 1786, was once
more the scene of great commercial activity. Business began to expand
in volume and variety, forts were constructed, bridges were built con-
necting the city with the surrounding country, and Maine's first banking
house, the Portland bank, was established with a capital of $100,000. The
Falmouth Gazette, Maine's first newspaper, appeared in 1785. Commerce
with England, even more profitable than before, was restored, and the
French Revolution gave new impetus to American shipping. In 1800,
Portland's population was 3704, an unusually large number when it is
considered that 97 per cent of the Nation's total population at this time
was rural. When, in 1803, Commodore Edward Preble subdued the Bar-
1 68 Seaports and River Towns
bary Coast pirates, making shipping safe in the Mediterranean, Portland,
the commodore's home, basked in the acclaim that the world accorded
him. The rise of Napoleon in France and the subsequent European
conflicts furnished valuable markets for Yankee enterprise, and Portland
especially profited in the subsequent shipbuilding boom.
The newfound prosperity experienced sudden decline in 1807 with the
two-year Jeffersonian Embargo. The Portland waterfront was deserted;
ships literally rotted at their moorings; hundreds of citizens lined up each
day in Market Square to be fed from public soup kettles. From 1807 to
1809, the city experienced a depression more profound than any during its
subsequent history.
Recovery came suddenly. The War of 1812 provided new stimuli for
commerce and industry, and shipyards again hummed with activity.
Fortunes were made overnight in privateering. The whole town assumed
a new aspect of liveliness and enterprise. The war had a further beneficial
effect in substituting land trade where traffic by sea was sometimes
hindered or halted altogether. As men turned from the sea, land was
cleared farther and farther inland, and new industries came into being.
Portland became the metropolis for the new State developing at its back.
It was to be expected that the year after Federalist Massachusetts voted
the separation of Democratic-Republican Maine, Portland would be
selected as capital for the new State. It held this position until 1831.
The city's progress through the nineteenth century was rapid. Chartered
as a city in 1832, it continued to expand as the development of steam-
driven vessels and trains increased transportation facilities. The first
steamboat to ply Casco waters was a ferry, the 'Kennebec,' nicknamed
the 'Groundhog,' which made her maiden trip across the harbor in 1822.
Since the craft lacked both sail and oars, the passengers sometimes had to
turn the paddlewheel themselves by treading on its blades when the faulty
engines balked against the tide. The first railroad line, from Portland to
Portsmouth, was opened in 1842. Other railroad and steamboat lines
were soon established, and in 1853 the 'Sarah Sands,' first trans-Atlantic
steamer to dock at this port, made a safe crossing from Liverpool.
To the Civil War, Portland contributed one-fifth of its total population,
at that time 25,000. Maine was strongly pro-abolition, and Portland was
a center of considerable agitation. During the war a young Confederate
naval officer conceived a plan for entering Portland Harbor ; his goal was
the destruction of two gunboats lying there and the capture of a steamer
in which to continue his already extensive depredations on the sea. Dis-
guising his men as fishermen, he had no trouble bringing his small vessel
past the forts and anchoring it near the wharves. That night he boarded
and took the revenue cutter 'Caleb Gushing' and sailed her out of the
harbor. The following morning the collector of customs and the mayor
with a crew of volunteers manned the Boston steamer 'Forest City,'
another crew took the New York boat 'Chesapeake,' and set out in
pursuit, eventually overtaking the 'Gushing.' The Southerners aboard
her, failing to find any ammunition, set her afire and were taken as pris-
oners from the lifeboats.
Portland 169
The war over, Portland resumed its accustomed activity. Then, on the
afternoon of July 4, 1866, there occurred what was probably the greatest
of Portland's series of catastrophes. A great fire almost wiped out the city.
Starting in a boatshop on Commercial Street near the foot of High Street,
and fanned by a strong southerly wind, it swept diagonally across the
Neck to Back Cove and up Munjoy Hill. Except for a line of buildings on
Commercial Street and another on Oxford Street, the whole lower and
most densely settled area of Portland was brought to the ground during
the fifteen hours the fire raged. Only by blowing up buildings in the path
of the flames, and by the most strenuous efforts on the part of fire fighters
was the rest of the city saved. Longfellow, viewing the city some weeks
after the conflagration, wrote to a friend : ' I have been in Portland since
the fire. Desolation, desolation, desolation! It reminds me of Pompeii '
Most of the public buildings, all the banks, half the city's churches and
manufacturing establishments, and hundreds of dwellings were razed by
the flames. The financial loss amounted to millions. Yet, despite the
extent of the disaster, not a life was lost. Colonies of tents sprang up to
shelter the homeless, and contributions of money, provisions, clothing, and
building materials poured in from all parts of the country. Thieving and
extortion were more than balanced by countless deeds of heroism and acts
of generosity.
Rebuilding commenced immediately, with many improvements. Narrow
streets were widened and crooked ones straightened; much of the conges-
tion caused by poor planning was changed. Once more Portland bound
up its wounds and settled down to serious business, and shipping and
industry were soon vying with each other in the renewed commercial
expansion. Unlike that of some cities that have grown around one in-
dustrial enterprise, Portland's business complexion has changed with the
times. It reflected the rise and fall of such major industries as lumbering
and wooden shipbuilding; it was marked by the changes in the industrial
life of the United States as a whole; and recently it has clearly indicated
Maine's decline as an industrial State and its rise as a vacation and resort
region.
During, and shortly after, the World War period, Portland experienced
great prosperity. Nearly all the grain from Canada was exported through
this port, and the city had facilities for handling large import and export
cargoes which other cities in the State could not accommodate. In
consequence, commerce was thriving, and there was no lack of employ-
ment along the water front. At the same time real estate was booming,
and much of suburban Portland as it is today was built.
As Portland achieved a solid worldly footing, its citizens turned toward
cultural and intellectual interests. At one time it enjoyed a reputation as
a theatrical city, with thriving stock companies of its own. Dramatic
performances had their beginning as early as 1 794 with a performance of a
comedy, 'The Lyar,' and a farce, the ' Modern Antiques, or the Merry
Mourners,' while the 'Learned Pig' was sung between the pieces 'with
much success.' In 1796, Portland theater-goers had the pleasure of hear-
170 Seaports and River Towns
ing nine-year-old Elizabeth Arnold sing at an evening performance in
which her mother played the lead; she it was who later bore the child
named Edgar Allan Poe. Portland's theatrical days were in their greatest
glory in the iSgo's. At that time the famous Jefferson Theater was
opened (September, 1897) with 'Half a King,' starring Francis Wilson;
and Joseph Jefferson, for whom the playhouse was named, was guest of
honor. In the course of its brilliant career, it is said, the boards of the
Jefferson were trod by every American actor of note except David War-
field. Today the site of the theater is occupied by an automobile service
station. All present-day Portland can boast theatrically is an active
Little Theater movement.
Music, too, has felt the pressure of changing tastes. At one time the
Maine Music Festivals were held here, gathering together choirs, choral
societies, and bands from all over the State and bringing the world's
greatest musicians and singers to Maine. For nearly forty years the fes-
tivals were the chief events of the Maine season. At the 1897 festival
Madame Lillian Nordica (see Tour 11) scored distinct triumphs, and
again in 1912, when she made her last appearance before a Maine audience
responding to encore after encore with 'Home, Sweet Home.' Portland
still has its musicians, as frequent concerts and recitals testify, and there
are many organizations providing opportunities not only for those who
play and sing, but also for those who like good music.
Present-day Portland socially is an average American city, its com-
mercial and industrial aspects redeemed somewhat by its heritage of New
England culture. Its population is predominantly of Anglo-Saxon stock,
with small Americanized groups of Irish, Jewish, Italian, and Scandina-
vian people. There is no rigid segregation, and the only pronounced
foreign quarter that may be called such is that of the Italians. Portland
has more than sixty churches and religious meeting-places, accommodat-
ing a wide variety of denominations. A complete parochial school system,
a convent, and one of the two monasteries in Maine are operated by the
Roman Catholic Church. The first radio parish in America was estab-
lished over Portland's broadcasting station. The city's public schools
lead all others of the State, and private institutions include a Hebrew
school, a junior college for women, a girls' preparatory school, a Roman
Catholic academy for girls, several business colleges, and specialized
schools for the study of law and other subjects. State schools for deaf-
mutes and for the blind are maintained here.
Portland's shipping, always of first importance since Colonial times, de-
clined abruptly following the World War, but tonnage figures show it to
be on an upward trend. The chief products shipped into Portland by
water are pulpwood, baled pulp, coal, petroleum products, small amounts
of sulphur and China clay, and package freight. Outgoing cargoes consist
mainly of Solka, a local wood-pulp product that is sent to Japan j fjsh,
potatoes, finished paper, newsprint, and package freight. Portland,
nearer the North Atlantic fishing grounds than either Boston or Glouces-
ter, leads Maine in the fishing industry. Always a commercial rather than
Portland 171
an industrial center, the city has attracted the branches of many national
companies, is the distributing point for chain-store units throughout the
State, and is the home of numerous large wholesale concerns. Its trading
population almost equals that of its own citizens. Its position as a head-
quarters and point of departure for the tourist and sportsman frequently
comes near trebling its population at the height of the summer season.
Portland is very much alive. Here one may feel the social, economic, and
political pulse of the State of Maine. Here are modern businesses on up-
to-date streets in close proximity to fascinating old shops and alleys with
the dust of another century upon them. Today's business and yesterday's
history, new enterprise and old romance, are combined in this city which
Longfellow in his old age remembered wistfully as 'the beautiful town
that is seated by the sea.'
TOUR 1 — 2.2m.
NE. from Monument Sq. on Congress St.
Monument Square, the busy junction of Congress, Middle, Federal,
Elm, Center, and Preble Sts., was for generations Portland's forum, the
center of the city's commercial, social, and political activity. A block-
house built at this point in 1 746 for defense against the Indians, and gar-
risoned with provincial troops, was abandoned two years later and sold to
the county. A few years later a jail and jail-keeper's house were built ad-
joining the blockhouse. Since the jailer received only £15 annually for
his services, he kept a tavern, called the Freemason's Arms. A loyalist
sea captain, captured in 1780 while recovering iron from the wreck of
SaltonstalTs fleet (see BANGOR) wrote of the Falmouth Jail that he 'had
neither bed, blankets, or anything to lay on but the oak plank floor, with
the heads of spikes an inch high and so thick together that I could not
lay down clear of them.' Small wonder that he broke jail and escaped
after his first few weeks of imprisonment. The blockhouse jail was re-
moved in 1797.
Up to the 2oth century, Market Square, as it was then called, was the
scene of all popular gatherings in the city, surrounded as it was by stores,
hotels, public halls, and places of amusement. The central building,
Military Hall (1825-88), was both 'town house' and market place.
Military companies had their armories in the building and town meetings
were held there. More than one riot took place in the square before the
hall — one of them in 1856 when, during the mayoralty of the prohibi-
tionist Neal Dow, a man was shot during the attempt of an anti-liquor-
law mob to seize the city-owned liquors stored in the building. On holi-
days the square was always the focus of the city's life, and in the evenings
crowds gathered about the peddlers and showmen who displayed their
wares by*£he light of flaming torches,
1 72 Seaports and River Towns
1. The lofty Monument by Franklin Simmons, in the center of the square,
was completed and dedicated in 1891, a memorial to the Portland men
who participated in the Civil War.
2. On Congress St. (R) is the Building of the Edwards and Walker Hard-
ware Company, a typical Maine concern, which was started 61 years ago as
a general trading center and is still (1937) under the management of its
founder. Priding itself on its conservatism, it is the largest house of its
kind in Maine if not in New England. The Edwards and Walker Building
was in stagecoach days the United States Hotel, and until the Civil War
was Portland's premier hostelry; its outward appearance has not greatly
changed since its heyday.
L. from Congress St. on Elm St.
3. The Portland Society of Natural History Museum (open weekdays, 2-4),
24 Elm St., maintains a library of 5000 volumes dealing with natural
history, geographical surveys, scientific treatises, abstracts, bulletins, and
magazines. Museum exhibits, marked for inspection, include Indian
relics, mounted North American fauna, shells, minerals, wood samples,
paper, plant life, clothing, and household instruments. There is a fairly
exhaustive exhibit of Maine specimens.
Retrace to Congress St.; L. on Congress St.
4. The First Parish (Unitarian) Church (1825), 425 Congress St., is
second successor to the original Falmouth meeting-house that stood at the
corner of Middle and India Sts., and served the Community from 1718
to 1746 as a place of worship, and for a time as courthouse. Parson Smith,
first regularly ordained minister in Maine east of Wells, recorded in 1747:
' I prayed with the Court in the afternoon. Justice came drunk.' Smith,
succeeding a series of itinerant ministers of whom one was the Rev.
George Burroughs, who preached here in the i67o's and was hanged for
witchcraft in Salem in 1692, attended to the theological, and also the
medical, needs of his parishioners for 70 years. The church became
Unitarian in 1809 and attained its greatest prominence under the Rev.
Ichabod Nichols, who was called to the parish at that time. 'Old Jerusa-
lem,' the second structure, occupied the present site from 1746 to 1825,
when it was replaced by the stone church as it now stands. The former
church was for years a Portland landmark, and the young Longfellow
wrote a poem protesting its destruction. 'Old Jerusalem' withstood the
Mowatt bombardment, although a cannonball, now embedded in the
ceiling of the present church, with a chandelier suspended from it,
penetrated one of its sides.
5. The Portland City Hall and Municipal Auditorium, 380 Congress St.,
occupies a plot of ground associated with city, county, and State govern-
ment for more than 1 50 years. The first structure on this site was a two-
story frame courthouse (1782-1816) whose cupola was surmounted by
the carved weathercock now adorning the First National Bank Building.
Gallows, stocks, and pillory had a prominent place in the first floor hall of
the courthouse, and the whipping post stood outside its door. The first
Portland 173
capital conviction in the United States Courts after the adoption of the
Constitution (Article I, sec. 8: 'The congress shall have power ... to define
and punish piracies and felonies committed on the high seas . . .') occurred
here in 1790, when one Thomas Bird was sentenced to be hanged for
piracy and murder. Bird's petition for pardon was refused by President
Washington, and he was promptly executed on Bramhall Hill. A jail
(1797-1859) and a jail-keeper's house were built in the rear of the court-
house, the former having a dungeon with chains, shackles, and ringbolts.
The debtor's rooms in the attic ' were not so repulsive, yet those who were
then confined in them — did not appear as if they were happy/ A new
brick courthouse was erected in 1818 and, four years later when Maine
became a State, it was used by the legislature. Until 1822, spirituous
liquors were sold on the premises, a practice which was discontinued in
that year ' during the sitting of the Court of Legislature.' Another build-
ing adjoining the courthouse had been erected in 1820 to accommodate
the Senate and State offices, and was in use until the State capitol was
removed to Augusta in 1831. At the time of Lafayette's visit to Portland
in June, 1825, an awning was spread from the front of the statehouse to the
elm trees lining the street before it, and the General held his public recep-
tion on a platform built from the entrance.
Two other city and county buildings on the site of the old courthouse,
jail, and statehouse were built and burned before the construction (1909-
PORTLAND. POINTS OF INTEREST
1. Monument Square 21. Sweat Mansion
2. Edwards and Walker Company 22. School Fine and Applied Art
3. Portland Society of Natural His- 23. Storer-Mussey House
tory 24. Dole or Churchill House
4. First Parish Church 25. State Street Hospital
5. Portland City Hall 26. Deane House
6. Cumberland County Courthouse 27. Saint Luke's Cathedral
7. Lincoln Park 28. Milliken House
8. Birthplace of Fanny Fern and 29, Shepley House
N. P. Willis 30. MeUen-Fessenden House
9. Cathedral of the Immaculate 31. John Neal Houses
Conception 32. Longfellow Statue
10. Eastern Cemetery 33. Neal Dow Homestead
11. Henry W. Longfellow Birthplace 34. Fort Allen Park
12. Thomas B. Reed Birthplace 35. First Civic Monument
13. Grand Trunk Station 36. Fort Sumner Park
14. Water Front 37. Portland Observatory
15. Old Post Office Building 38. Deering Mansion
16. Wadsworth Longfellow House 39. Deering's Oaks
17. Museum Maine Historical So- 40. Thomas B. Reed Statue
ciety 41. Williston Congregational Church
18. Birthplace of Cyrus H. K. Curtis 42. St. Joseph's Academy
19. Cumberland Club 43. Tate House
30. L. D. M. Sweat Museum 44. Means House
176 Seaports and River Towns
12) of the present city hall, designed by Carrere and Hastings of New
York and Stevens and Stevens of Portland.
In the rear of the building a Municipal Auditorium with a seating capacity
of over 3000, houses the Kotzchmar Memorial Organ, gift of the late Cyrus
H. K. Curtis in memory of Herman Kotzchmar (1829-1908), cdmposer.
teacher, and for 47 years organist of the First Parish in Portland. The
Kotzchmar organ, one of the largest in the world, is really eight instru-
ments in one; it has 177 speaking stops and couplers, over 6500 pipes, and
a carillon. Although there is at present no municipal organist, a series of
summer concerts is sponsored by the American Guild of Organists, and
each year many well-known musicians participate.
R. from Congress St. on Pearl St.
6. The Cumberland County Courthouse (1906-07) (open weekdays), NE.
cor. Federal and Pearl Sts., an impressive neo-classic structure of Maine
granite designed by George Burnham, houses the county governmental
and judiciary offices and archives. Directly across, SE. cor. Pearl and
Federal Sts., stands the Federal Court Building, a similarly impressive
granite building, where the U.S. District Court holds its sessions.
Retrace to Congress St.; R. on Congress St.
7. Lincoln Park, bounded by Congress, Franklin, Federal, and Pearl Sts.,
occupies the heart of the city. Formerly a heavily congested residential
area, it was set aside after the fire of 1866 by the city fathers as a 'pro-
tection against the spread of fire and to promote the public health.' The
land was purchased for a public square and market place, designed ac-
cordingly in 1867, and named Phoenix Square. At the protest of the
common council, the name was shortly changed to Lincoln Park. With
the judicious planting of trees and the installation of a fountain in 1870
the spot soon became a welcome and restful breathing space in a section
of the city which in the course of time has grown somewhat drab.
R. from Congress St. on Franklin St.
8. The Birthplace of Fanny Fern and N. P. Willis (private), 24 Franklin
St., is an undistinguished gray house on a quiet street, with little about it
to indicate that two famous children of a distinguished father were born
and lived here more than a century ago. Here in 1807 was born Nathaniel
Parker Willis and in 1811 his sister, Sara, known to thousands of readers
as Fanny Fern. Their father, Nathaniel Willis, was the founder of the
Youth's Companion; both children at an early age became even more
famous than he, Nathaniel as an international journalist and poet, Sara
as novelist and essayist (see The Arts}.
Retrace to Congress St.; R. on Congress St.
9. The Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, 307 Congress St., its main
entrance facing Cumberland Ave., is the seat of the bishopric and the
mother church for the entire Catholic diocese of Maine. Completed and
dedicated in 1869 in spite of repeated setbacks in its building during the
Civil War and the great fire of 1866, after which the bishop was obliged to
Portland 177
celebrate mass in the shed of the Grand Trunk Depot for want of a church,
it has been remodeled once, in 1930. Apparently an agglomeration of
several structures, the Cathedral is designed in a modified French Gothic
style. The main building's lofty interior, resembling somewhat those of
the cathedrals of Europe, is embellished with walls of Carrara, Brescia,
Pavonazzo, Porta Santa, and Numidian red marble and adorned with
delicately tinted ornament. The Stations of the Cross are executed in
mosaic and the 18 stained-glass windows are of Munich glass.
10. The old Eastern Cemetery, extending below Mountfort St. from
Congress to Federal Sts., has been in use for more than 250 years, and for
more than two centuries of that period was the only graveyard within the
city limits. The six acres of this crowded burial place, almost in the heart
of the city, contain the graves of many of Portland's early and most
prominent families. The oldest legible stone is dated 1717. Here, side by
side, lie the bodies of the two gallant young commanders of one of the
decisive naval battles of the War of 1812, Lieutenant William Burrows,
commander of the victorious U.S. brig 'Enterprise,' and Captain Samuel
Blyth, Commander of the British brig 'Boxer,' who were killed in action
between Seguin and Monhegan September 5, 1813. Two days after the
sea fight the ' Enterprise ' arrived in Portland Harbor with the defeated
British vessel. Then, to the accompaniment of booming guns and fol-
lowed by nearly all the boats in the harbor, the officers' bodies were
brought to shore in ten-oared barges rowed by ships' masters. Congress
subsequently had a commemorative medal struck in honor of Lieutenant
Burrows.
Near the graves of the commanders of the ' Enterprise ' and the ' Boxer ' is
a memorial to Lieutenant Henry Wadsworth, the uncle for whom Henry
Wadsworth Longfellow was named. In September, 1804, this 20-year-old
officer was killed off Tripoli when the fireship 'Intrepid,' dispatched to
destroy the Tripolitan navy, was blown up to save it from capture. A
monument commemorating this event stands at the western front of the
Capitol in Washington.
An impressive marble tomb marks the grave of one of Portland's famous
citizens, Commodore Edward Preble (1761-1807). In 1803, President
Jefferson chose Preble to command the forces sent to conquer the Barbary
pirates. Sailing for Tripoli with the celebrated 'Constitution' for his
flagship, Preble conducted so effective a campaign that the Barbary
powers sued for peace at any terms. Pope Pius VII said of him that ' he
had done more for Christianity in a short space of time than the most
powerful nations have done in ages.'
R. from Congress St. on Mountfort St.; R. from Mountfort St. on Fore St.
Fore Street is as integrally a part of Portland as the far busier main
thoroughfare, Congress St. Its crooked course, lined with rows of weath-
ered, often ramshackle, brick and frame buildings, indicates the contours
of the original Portland waterfront. Fore and contiguous streets — Love
Lane, now Center St., Fish St., now Exchange, Lime St., now Market,
178 Seaports and River Towns
Fiddle Lane, now Franklin St., Turkey Lane, now Newbury St., Moose
Alley, now Chatham St., Chub Lane, now Hampshire St., and King St.,
now India, the oldest street in Portland — were long the commercial and
residential centers of the city, and comprise the district which suffered
most from the fire of 1866. Longfellow recalled the Fore St. of his youth,
with its ' black wharves and the slips . . . and the Spanish sailors with
bearded lips,' when the fashionable residential section still lay east of
Congress St. Here on Fore St. were the counting-houses, chandleries,
slopshops, saloons, lodging-houses, and the warehouses crammed with
West Indian goods. Wharves and piers were piled high with barrels of
Jamaica rum, hogsheads of Porto Rico molasses, and the thousands of feet
of lumber that were hauled in from the surrounding country by ox teams,
a practice which occasioned a bit of popular verse, which with many
variations, was repeated all over the globe :
'From Saccarap' to Portland Pier
I've hauled boards for many a year;
Since this hard work, with much abuse,
I'm salted down for sailor's use.'
Later on in its history certain sections of Fore St. acquired an unsavory
reputation. With the laying out of Commercial St. in the middle of the
1 9th century, Fore was relegated to a position of secondary importance,
but suffered only slight diminution of activity. By the close of the Civil
War, however, the center of the city's business had moved away, and
while Fore St. today is by no means devoid of traffic, the turbulent bustle
of its heyday is long past. Many of its buildings are the tombs of a
former prosperity and, whereas midnight was once but another hour to the
scores of brawling and carousing sailors who frequented the street, its
silence is now broken only by an occasional, perhaps furtive, footfall or
the caterwauling of the stray cats that live in the deserted lofts and cellars.
ii. The Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Birthplace (1784) (open: 1st July-
Labor Day, 9-6; adm. 25<t, three for 50£), cor. Fore and Hancock Sts., is a
plain three-story frame house that has long since given up any preten-
sions to elegance or beauty. At the time of the poet's birth, when his
parents were visiting Stephen Longfellow's sister here, Casco Bay came
nearly to the dooryard of the house. A white sand beach, a favorite
location for administering the baptismal rites of certain fundamental-
ist denominations, stretched along the section now covered by railroad
tracks. For a time the house was headquarters for the now disbanded
International Longfellow Society. When the society attempted to restore
the dwelling in 1914, it was found that the original doorway had been re-
placed by a cheap, glass-paneled door. A doorway more harmonious
with the design of the house was found in another building, and a stately
entrance with mullioned side-lights, arched transom, and molded archi-
traves now ornaments the poet's birthplace. Not until 10 years or so ago
was it discovered that the old house, from which the doorway had been
removed, was also of considerable historic interest as the birthplace of
John Knowles Paine (1839-1906), America's earliest noted composer.
Portland 179
Plain wooden plaques bearing the names and dates of Homer, Virgil,
Dante, Shakespeare, and Milton are on the outside walls of the Longfellow
House.
R. from Fore St. on Hancock St.
12. The Thomas Brackett Reed Birthplace, 15 Hancock St., now a storage
warehouse, was the home of one of the leading political figures of Maine
and the United States in the last quarter of the iQth century. Thomas B.
Reed (1839-1902) grew up in this humble section of Portland where his
friends were the 'Brackett Street boys' and the 'Center-Streeters' when
' beyond them in the unknown regions of Munjoy Hill, were savage and
warlike tribes of whom we did not even know the names ' Graduated
from Bowdoin in 1860, Reed later served Maine in its house and senate
and as attorney general. In 1876 he was sent to Congress and was a
member of that body for 22 years. Speaker of the House for three sessions,
Reed won the sobriquet of 'Czar' Reed because of his autocratic rulings;
he was responsible for much of the legislative procedure in use today. He
was noted for his penetrating wit and humor as much as for his statesman-
ship. To one Representative's statement that he would 'rather be right
than President,' Reed replied: 'The gentleman from Illinois will never be
either.' Again, when informed that one member of the Senate was ill to
the point of being out of his head, Reed remarked : ' He ought to come up
to the House; they are all that way up there.' Although a great admirer
of Theodore Roosevelt, he once said to the latter: 'What I especially
admire about you, Theodore, is your enthusiasm at having discovered the
Ten Commandments.' Possibly Reed's wit was keener and more malicious
than he realized, and it may have had something to do with his small
showing when running against McKinley for the Presidential nomination.
He retired voluntarily from Congress in 1899 and made his home in Port-
land until his death.
Retrace to Fore St.
13. The Grand Trunk Station (1903), NE. cor. Fore and India Sts.,
occupies a site that has figured prominently in Portland's history from the
days of Indian warfare to the era of modern transportation and com-
merce. Under the authorization of the Massachusetts Government, a
stockade was built here in 1680. This stockade, on the site of Fort Loyal,
stood on a bluff about 30 feet higher than the present level of the station.
In the year of the fort's erection Thomas Danforth of Boston was ap-
pointed 'President of Maine,' and, invested with governmental authority,
came to Falmouth Neck, where he held formal court within the fort's en-
closure and established municipal government, the first ordered rule since
Indians had destroyed the settlement in 1676. Grants of land were made,
most of them in the India Street section, and a village was built along
defensive lines. Ten years later the fort was enlarged into a strong fortifi-
cation with four blockhouses and eight cannon. On May 17, 1690, nearly
all the houses of the new community were destroyed by a force of 500
French and Indians, the inhabitants fleeing to the fort. After a three-day
siege, during which the attackers had begun to undermine the defenses, the
180 Seaports and River Towns
fort surrendered. The French commanders assured the defenders quarter
and liberty to march south, but as soon as the gates were opened, the
English were abandoned to the Indians. The survivors, many of them
women and children, were taken captive and forced to make the arduous
24-day journey northward to Quebec. Fort Loyal was fallen and de-
serted. Two years later a party under Sir William Phips (see Tour 1, sec. b)
and Captain Church stopped to bury the bleaching bones of those who
had perished within and around the fort.
Until the laying-out of Commercial St. and the filling-in of the land, the
tidewaters of Clay Cove approached to within a short distance of the fort
plot. In 1826 this location became the site of a marine railway, a horse-
drawn cradle affair, which was the first approach to a modern dry dock in
this region. Much of the land now occupied by the station and railroad
yards was for some time given over to the clean wood-and-tar atmosphere
of a shipyard. Vessels of small tonnage for the West Indian trade were
launched here, but not before the Cove had been filled with floating logs
which, piling up before the sterns, lessened the momentum of the vessels
so that they did not run aground on the flats.
In 1853 the old fort site assumed a new and international importance. In
that year the Atlantic and St. Lawrence Ry., subsequently leased to the
Grand Trunk Ry. Co. of Canada and now forming a part of the Canadian
National Rys., was completed between the port of Portland and Montreal.
Dispute between Boston and Portland as to which city should be the
American terminus for the railroad was settled in unique fashion. A boat
leaving Liverpool bore two special mail bags for Montreal, one to be left
at Portland and one at Boston, the city from which the mail arrived first
naturally becoming the choice for the terminus. A tug sent out from
Portland intercepted the steamer, and in February, 1845, the Montreal-
bound mail left Portland. Relays of horses, changed every seven miles,
drew a sleigh northward through the snows of a severe New England
winter. Three miles from Montreal a team of spirited horses and a stylish
sleigh were given the driver, one Grosvenor Waterhouse. Bearing his
immense figure erect, the American flag streaming out beside him from
the whipsocket, Waterhouse urged his horses to a final tremendous burst
of speed. The 255-mile drive was completed in the unparalleled time of
1 8 hours and 6 minutes, several hours ahead of the Boston mail. Thus
Maine had demonstrated that Portland was the logical terminus for the
projected railroad.
The present station is constructed of brick and rough granite, its facade
surmounted by a square illuminated clock tower. East of the station the
railway's two huge grain elevators raise their gaunt shapes above yards
and wharves.
L. from Fore St. on India St.; R. from India St. on Commercial St.
Commercial Street, with the waterfront, is vitally important in the city's
commercial life. In 1850 increased trade and the projected railway to
Canada seemed to demand better and more ample transportation and
Portland 181
terminal facilities than were possible on Fore St., which at that time
bordered the water. Accordingly, in that year, Commercial St., 100 feet
broad, more than a mile long, with a 26-foot space in its center reserved
for the railroad, was laid out across tidewater, running over the heads of
the wharves. The area between Commercial and Fore Sts. was later
filled in ; the drop between the levels of the two streets is noticeable today.
Thus, leaving Fore St. stranded, Commercial St. has become the focus of
maritime activity and trade. The days when the street was as crowded
and busy as Congress Street of a Saturday noon today, and policemen
patrolled the district in pairs, have gone within the past quarter of a
century, but a semblance of the activity of a departed era is still found in
the wholesale concerns and marine supply shops that border its length.
14. The Portland Waterfront, lying adjacent to Commercial St., has more
than a score of wharves, chief of which is the $1,500,000 Maine State Pier.
This pier, 1000 feet long, provides two ocean berths with a 35-foot depth
at mean low tide on the east side and three berths with a lesser depth on
the west side. Equipped with modern transit sheds and with ample
equipment for the rapid handling of ships' cargoes, it has direct rail con-
nections with tracks, on Commercial St., and is the only public terminal
served directly by all railroads entering the city. The boom days of 1812
when, according to Kenneth Roberts' novel, the 'Lively Lady,' 'there
was free rum for the workers, and free food ' on the waterfront, and those of
the World War period, have declined, but fishing schooners and freighters
from many countries can still be seen almost any day discharging or tak-
ing on cargo. At several wharves, gleaming cargoes of fish, one of which
may be the spectator's lunch in some Portland restaurant, are taken out
daily from the laden boats while flocks of gulls hover and flutter about
waiting for scraps. Fussy little Casco Bay steamboats have replaced the
packets and steamers of about a dozen companies that once plied between
Portland and American and European ports. Naval vessels are occasion-
ally berthed at a Portland pier. The ends of many of the wharves are
more than a quarter of a mile away from the original shoreline, yet the
essential flavor of old Portland, its history, and the dependence upon its
position as a seaport, can best be sensed by visiting the waterfront.
At the wharf of the Casco Bay Lines are the little white steamers plying
between Portland and island villages and summer resorts (see Island
Tours).
R. from Commercial St. on Market St.; L. from Market St. on Middle St.
15. The Old Post Office Building (1871), cor. Middle and Exchange Sts., an
elaborate marble structure with a Corinthian portico, was Portland's
third post office on this site, the two preceding it having been destroyed
by fire. In its day it was considered the finest of the city's buildings.
Portland's (or Falmouth's) first post office was created in 1775 by Ben-
jamin Franklin, Postmaster General of the United Colonies; Deacon
Samuel Freeman, the postmaster, was not, apparently, overworked at his
duties, for there was but one mail a week and only 84 letters were re-
ceived during the first year. The document, signed by Franklin, which
1 82 Seaports and River Towns
created Freeman a 'deputy postmaster' can be seen in the rooms of the
Maine Historical Society. Since January, 1934, when Portland's more
capacious new post office was opened at 125 Forest Ave., this building has
been occupied by the offices of various Federal bureaus.
Return W. to Monument Sq.
TOUR 2 — 1.7m.
SW. from Monument Sq. on Congress St.
16. The Wadsworth-Longfellow House (1785-86) (open weekdays 9.30-5;
June l-Sept. 15, adm. 25fi> 487 Congress St., was the childhood home
of the poet, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. The dignified old house, built
by Longfellow's grandfather, General Peleg Wadsworth (see Tour 15), was
the first brick house in Portland. In 1815, after fire destroyed the gable
roof of the original two-story structure, the present third story and hip
roof were added. Set back from the street behind its high iron fence,
rectangular, solid and simple, it is almost severe in its plainness, its only
ornamentation being the Doric portico forming the front entrance. The
1 6 rooms open to the public are filled with documents, manuscripts, por-
traits, costumes, household utensils, and furnishings used by the Wads-
worth and Longfellow families, items pertaining to early Portland history,
and numerous personal belongings and souvenirs of the poet himself. A
pleasant shaded garden with quiet walks lying behind the house has been
restored and cared for by the Longfellow Garden Society. Although the
view of Back Bay that added much to its charm in olden times is shut off by
buildings, the garden today is much the same as it was when the poet
walked there.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was born at the Fore St. home of his aunt
February 27, 1807, and lived in the Congress St. house thereafter until he
was 14. The poet's formal education began at the age of three, when, still
in dresses and accompanied by a Negro servant, he went on horseback to a
school on Spring St. Longfellow entered Bowdoin College in 1821, when
he was only 14, and a few years after his graduation he became that
college's first professor of modern languages. Later he was made a mem-
ber of the faculty of Harvard University, and from that time his home was
at Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he died March 24, 1882. After his
death a memorial bust of the poet — the first American to be so honored
— was placed in the poet's corner of Westminster Abbey. A replica of the
bust is on exhibition at the Museum of the Maine Historical Society.
17. The Museum of the Maine Historical Society (open weekdays 9.30-5;
Sat. 9.30-12; adm. free), at the rear of the Wadsworth-Longfellow House,
contains a valuable historical and genealogical library for the use of the
society members (library privileges on request). In addition to the library
there are marked exhibits pertaining to Maine history, local history, and
Portland 183
archeology. The John W. Penny Collection of Indian relics and other
articles (dating to the beginning of the i8th century) that belonged to
Father Sebastian Rasle (see Tour 10) are especially interesting. There are
displays of military equipment of the Revolutionary and Civil Wars, as
well as documentary facsimiles, ship models, silverware and glassware,
textiles, watches, clocks, and lamps and lanterns of other days.
R. from Congress St. on Brown St.
18. The Birthplace of Cyrus H. K. Curtis (1782) (private), 69 Brown St.,
a small two-and-a-half-story frame house, unpretentious and weather-
beaten, is identified by a bronze tablet on the door. Cyrus Herman
Kotzchmar Curtis (1851-1934), editor, publisher of the Saturday Evening
Post and other well-known periodicals, and long an active patron of
education, music, and culture in the country at large, was for years one of
Maine's outstanding philanthropists.
Retrace to Congress St.; L. from Congress on High St. at Congress Sq.
19. The Cumberland Club House (1800) (private), 116 High St., a Georgian
structure in excellent preservation, has been at various times the home of
some of Portland's leading families. It was designed from sketches by
Alexander Parris, its lines similar to those of the Sweat Mansion (see
below). Most of Portland's old homes are to be seen on High, Spring,
Park, Danforth, and State Sts. within a small radius; they signify the
worldly success and the dignified but cosmopolitan culture of the seafaring
and trading class of Portland's youth.
20. The L. D. M. Sweat Museum (1908) (open weekdays except Mon. 10-
4.30; Sun. 2-4.30), 103 High St., a gallery of ivy-covered yellow brick,
was designed by John Calvin Stevens and attached to the rear of the
Sweat Mansion (see below). It houses such famous works as Gilbert
Stuart's portrait of General Wingate, Douglas Volk's portrait of Abraham
Lincoln, and paintings by John Singer Sargent, Winslow Homer, and
Chester Harding; a collection of paintings chiefly representative of 19th-
century artists, outstanding among which are those of Maine's Harry W.
Watrous; the Perry collection of i6-century Belgian tapestries; collec-
tion of Mexican and Indian potteries; all the work left by Franklin
Simmons, famous Maine sculptor of the i9th century; and Paul Akers's
marble figure, the 'Dead Pearl Diver,' known to readers of Hawthorne's
'The Marble Faun' (see The Arts). The museum holds monthly exhibi-
tions of contemporary paintings, water colors, and prints, an annual
photographic salon which is internationally known, and an annual ex-
hibition of the work of local artists. The Portland Society of Art, owner
of the museum, conducts in an adjacent building the Portland School of
Fine and Applied Arts.
21. The Sweat Mansion (1800) (adm. terms same as above), cor. Spring and
High Sts., is reached from the entrance hall of the Sweat Museum. It is
a fine post-Colonial structure with a semicircular porch. It was erected
by Hugh McLellan according to plans by Captain Alexander Parris, a
distinguished Boston architect who designed several of Portland's
1 84 Seaports and River Towns
lovely houses of this period. At one time the home of General Joshua
Wingate, whose wife was a daughter of General Henry Dearborn,
Secretary of War in the Cabinet of Thomas Jefferson, it was known for
years as the Wingate House. The mansion was left to the Portland
Society of t Art by the late Mrs. L. D. M. Sweat on condition that its
furnishings, which are of the late Victorian period, be kept intact and
unchanged.
L. from High St. on Spring St.
22. The Portland School of Fine and Applied Art, left from the Sweat
Mansion on Spring St., only school of its kind in the State, holds daily and
evening sessions through the academic year with an annual registration of
about 65 students (see Education}.
Retrace to High St.; R. from High St. on Danforth St.
23. The Storer-Mussey House (open), SW. cor. High and Danforth Sts.,
is now part of Portland's Children's Hospital, 68 High St., a charitable
institution organized in 1908 and open to all children of the State of
Maine. The old building of light-colored brick, now considerably en-
larged, is a fine example of Federal architecture, presenting one of the best
architectural studies of halls and stairways west of Wiscasset. The
delicate details of the side-lights and the panels of the front entrance are
exceptional, and the doors and fireplaces and the woodwork of the interior
are in keeping with the appearance of the exterior. Set above a terraced
lawn, it affords an excellent view of the harbor.
L. from Danforth Sf. on State St.
State Street is Portland's Beacon Street or Fifth Avenue. Here in the
wave of prosperity occurring at the turn of the i8th century and the boom
following the Embargo depression, the wealthy merchants and retired
shipping men built their impressive mansions. In them were held the
elaborate social functions of another day. Most of the old State Street
houses retain their splendid and enduring charm, however dilapidated
they may have become in the course of time, though some few have been
unfortunately 'modernized.' Although to the casual visitor most of these
historic doors are closed, and the stately interiors are not on exhibition, the
graceful porticoes and fine architectural lines are evident. Many State
Street homes today retain part of their original landscaped grounds and
gardens. In this section are many of the city's finest churches.
24. The Dole or Churchill House (1801) (private), 51 State St., was de-
signed by Alexander Parris for Joseph Ingraham, one of the town's
wealthiest and most enterprising citizens. Although converted into a
rooming and apartment house in recent years, its classic lines, with
applied pilasters and ornamental cornice, are worthy of attention. In
this mansion for many years lived one of Portland's famous citizens,
William Pitt Preble (1783-1857), jurist, diplomat, and railway president.
Under President Jackson he was U.S. Ambassador to the Netherlands; on
his retirement from Government service in later life he became president
of the new Atlantic & St. Lawrence Ry., and was largely instrumental in
making Portland the terminus of the line,
Portland 185
Retrace on State St.
25. The State Street Hospital (1834), cor. Danforth and State Sts., for-
merly the Female Orphan Asylum, was originally the mansion of Captain
John Dunlap of the famous Brunswick family, half-brother of Gover-
nor Robert Dunlap (see BRUNSWICK). Captain Dunlap's daughter
Fanny, reared in this gracious home, became the wife of the poet, James
Russell Lowell. Later the house belonged to Judge Joseph Howard,
Chief Justice of Maine and U.S. District Attorney. Here in 1860, Judge
Howard, then Mayor of Portland, entertained the Prince of Wales (King
Edward VII).
26. The Deane House (1821) (private), 106 State St., was originally a
joiner's shop with living quarters in the rear. About 1821 it was re-
modeled. A square hip-roofed frame structure with a long ell extending
to the rear, its simple charm stands out in contrast to the more elaborate
and ornate appeal of its neighbors. Here in 1825 was born Nathan Webb,
a leading jurist of Maine and U.S. Circuit Judge.
27. Saint Luke's Cathedral (1855) (open), 137 State St., is architecturally
one of Portland's finest churches, the work of Henry Vaughan, distin-
guished English architect who also drew the plans for Saint Stephen's
Church in Longfellow Square. The cathedral, of early English Gothic
design, is constructed of soft blue Cape Elizabeth ledge stone. Buttresses
and copings, door and window sills, are of Nova Scotia freestone, alter-
nating in red and gray. One of the outstanding features is the rose window
in the Sanctuary. The reredos, an unusually beautiful native piece of
wood-carving, was done by Kirschmeyer, considered the finest wood-
carver in the world at the time (1925), under the direction of the noted
church architect, Ralph Adams Cram. In the Codman Memorial Chapel
(1899) is a 'Madonna and Child,' painted by John La Farge.
28. The Milliken House (1802) (private), 148 State St., much changed
from its original appearance, was built by Neal Shaw, a rope-maker.
Until rope-making machinery came into use the strands of hemp, in
process of twisting, had to be pulled taut to their required length. The
reaches of ground over which the rope was stretched were called rope-
walks. Winter St., parallel with State, originated as a ropewalk.
29. The Old Shepley House (1805) (public dining-room), now the Portland
Club, 162 State St., is the best preserved of the State Street houses.
Designed from sketches by Alexander Parris for Richard Hunnewell,
this three-story post- Colonial mansion was built of brick with frame walls
in front and rear. The front doorway that replaced the original one is
especially beautiful, with its leaded fan-light and side-lights. Over the
door is an interesting Palladian window. The interior of the house has
elaborate ceilings, fine paneling, and delicate mantelpieces. Many of the
windows retain the original Belgian glass lights, marked with bubbles
and other imperfections. On one window on the second floor someone
has scratched with a diamond the names 'Lucy,' 'Annie,' 'Nellie,' and
'General George Shepley,' with the date July 19, 1816,
1 86 Seaports and River Towns
30. The Mellen-Fessenden House (1807), now the Monastery of the
Precious Blood (public chapel), 166 State St., its former post-Colonial
charm considerably altered, was built by Prentiss Mellen (1764-1840),
statesman, U.S. Senator, and Chief Justice of Maine. In 1848, the house
came into the possession of the Hon. William Pitt Fessenden (1806-69),
lawyer, politician, and financier, godson of Daniel Webster and brother-
in-law of Henry W. Longfellow. He served in the House of Representa-
tives and Senate, and in 1864, was appointed Secretary of the Treasury
by President Lincoln. Lincoln called him * a radical without the petulant
and vicious fretfulness of most radicals.' In 1934 the house was made
the cloister of the Catholic Monastery of the Precious Blood, and seven
Sister Adorers entered the building at the time, not to emerge until
death. An eighth has since joined them.
31. The John Neal Houses (1836) (private), 173-175 State St., are im-
pressively austere structures built of granite blocks. John Neal (1793-
1876), prominent Portland lawyer, athlete, and poet, and a prolific writer,
built these houses and settled here after an interestingly diversified
career during which, at one time, he was self-appointed apostle of Ameri-
can letters in London, having gone there for the purpose of proving that
there really existed an American culture. During his later life in Portland
he greatly influenced many artistically gifted young people, such as Paul
Akers. Number 173 was at one time the home of the Hon. L. D. M. Sweat.
32. The Longfellow Statue (1888), Longfellow Sq., occupies a central
position at the junction of Congress, State, and Pine Sts. The seven-foot
bronze statue, representing the poet seated in an armchair, one hand
clasping a roll of manuscripts, is the work of Franklin Simmons (see
The Arts) and cost $8500. The statue, a faithful portrait, is one of the
city's prized possessions.
L. from State St. on Congress St.
33. The Neal Dow Homestead (1824) (private), 714 Congress St., is the
home built by the ardent prohibitionist and author of the old Maine
prohibition law, opposite his birthplace, 717 Congress St. The latter
house was erected in 1800. Neal Dow (1804-97), through his ceaseless
activity, aroused statesmen and citizens all over the world to the social
ramifications of prohibition; he inaugurated legislation that in many
sections is still the subject of political controversy. His home, a sedate,
comfortable-looking brick house, painted gray, is still in the possession of
members of the Dow family, and many of the rooms are kept much the
same as when the great agitator lived there. On an escritoire still in the
library, Dow drafted his famous Maine law, and the original manuscript
lies there today. This house, so it is expected, will become a museum in
the hands of the Women's Christian Temperance Union of Maine, to the
members of which it is already a shrine.
Portland 187
TOUR 3 — 8.6m.
E. from Monument Sg. on Middle St.; R. from Middle St. on India St.; L.
from India St. on Fore St.
34. Fort Allen Park, junction Fore St. and Eastern Promenade, affords
an exceptional and unobstructed view of Casco Bay and its islands. Fort
Allen, named for Commander William Henry Allen of the sloop-of-war
'Argus,' who was killed in action in 1813, was hastily built on the site of
previous fortifications in 1814 when it was rumored that a British fleet
was approaching Portland. The fort mounted five guns and was manned
by regular soldiers and volunteers. In September, 1815, between 5000
and 6000 of the Cumberland and Oxford County Militia were encamped
in the vicinity of these fortifications on Munjoy Hill. It was doubtless to
these that Longfellow referred in his poem, 'My Lost Youth':
*I remember the bulwarks by the shore,
And the fort upon the hill;
The sunrise gun, with its hollow roar,
The drum-beat repeated o'er and o'er,
And the bugle wild and shrill.'
Fort Allen Park is landscaped with evergreens and other trees, shrubbery,
and flower beds. Benches line the cement walks, and a large summer-
house where band concerts are often held during the summer fronts the
harbor mouth. Two large Civil War cannon face seaward, and an eroded
cannon recovered from the U.S. 'Maine' is mounted in cement on a
rough ledge.
L. from Fore St. on Eastern Promenade.
Eastern Promenade, more than a mile long, begins at Fore St. and extends
to Washington Ave., ranging in width from over 89 feet to nearly 150 feet.
The parkway was laid out in 1836, when it was suggested that scenic
drives be built along the heights at both ends of the city. Graceful trees
arch above the promenade, and a circular drive has been added to allow
the motorist a more leisurely enjoyment of the panoramic view of the
outer harbor and Casco Bay.
35. The First Civic Monument of Portland, a graceful shaft of granite,
rises opposite the eastern end of Congress St. on the promenade. This
monument, dedicated in 1882, commemorates George Cleeve and Richard
Tucker, the founders of Portland, and records four names the city has
borne: Machigonne, Casco, Falmouth and Portland.
L. from Eastern Promenade on North St.
36. Fort Sumner Park, 60-80 North St., is the site of fortifications built
in 1794 when Congress made an appropriation for coast defense. Named
in honor of Governor Increase Sumner of Massachusetts, the fort had
little to recommend its site except its elevation; during the War of 1812 it
1 88 Seaports and River Towns
was found necessary to erect new fortifications near the waterfront. In
the spring of 1808 a company of 'sea f enables' was organized here to 'do
military duty at Fort Sumner': sentinels were stationed to watch for
fires, and the firing of a cannon was to be the signal for the fire bells'
ringing.
37. The Portland Observatory (not open), opposite the junction of North
and Congress Sts., rises 82 feet above Munjoy Hill. A heavy-timbered
octagonal structure resembling a windmill, with io-by-i4 inch corner
posts 63 feet long, it was erected in 1807 and for 116 years did active
service in informing the townspeople of approaching ships and noting
cases of distress on land and sea. The top of the tower is estimated to
be 223 feet above sea level; the builders weighted the cribbing above the
sill with 122 tons of stone to hold it secure against Atlantic gales. From
the lantern deck of the tower there is an extensive view of the coast from
Wood Island, off the mouth of the Saco River, to Seguin, off the mouth
of the Kennebec, while inland the Presidential Range of the White
Mountains and peaks farther south are visible. A lookout was once on
duty from sunrise to sunset, and flags were flown from the observatory to
announce homecoming vessels. President James Monroe inspected 'the
tower during his two days' visit to Portland in 1817. The structure was
pronounced unsafe in 1923 and since then has been closed to visitors, but
observation rooms on the top of some of the high buildings in the down-
town section adequately take its place.
R. from North St. on Congress St.; R. from Congress St. on Washington
Ave.; L. from Washington Ave. on Baxter Boulevard.
Baxter Boulevard, an automobile route circuiting the Back Bay section
of Portland, gives a fine skyline view of the city. The drive passes a
sanctuary for migratory game birds, mostly black ducks, and the cove is
dotted with flocks at all seasons of the year. City wardens usually have
little difficulty protecting these birds, but boulevard residents once, upon
investigating the strange actions of several ducks in the cove, discovered
a most ingenious poacher. They noticed live birds apparently moored
to one spot by a string attached to their mouths. It seemed someone
with a fondness for duck and a genius for invention had contrived an
elaborate snare ; he laid out through the water a weighted string to which
was attached a series of smaller strings on floats with baited fishhooks
at their ends. The hapless ducks that swallowed the hook and line could
only swim around in their usual way within a small radius. A casual
observer watching them would suspect nothing amiss. At night the
poacher arrived, pulled in his main line, and carried home a fine covey
of birds.
At intersection W. end Baxter Boulevard and Forest Ave., straight to Bedford
St.
38. The Deering Mansion (1804) (private), 85 Bedford St., one of Port-
land's most beautiful and best-preserved old houses, is particularly in-
teresting locally because it has been continuously the home of the Deer-
ing family, descendants of Nathaniel Deering, a shipbuilder, who came
Portland 189
here from Kittery in 1761. The house has become a veritable museum of
Portland history. It is furnished much as it was and is kept in the same
condition as when James Deering used to sail out to sea from his own
wharf in the field below his house, when Back Cove waters extended over
the land that is now Deering's Oaks.
L.from Bedford St. on Deering Ave.; L. into Deering's Oaks.
39. Deering's Oaks, lying between Deering and Forest Aves., is the
largest public park area in Portland. Longfellow found that 'Deering's
Woods are fresh and fair,' and so they have remained to this day. Less
than a century ago much of the territory now occupied by the Oaks was
still part of Back Cove, and a bridge along Forest Ave., built in 1806,
spanned the waters directly northeast of the present park site. In 1689
the park was the scene of a long and bloody battle, when Major Benjamin
Church and his men succeeded in defending the town and routing a large
force of Indians. Deering's Oaks is popular at all seasons of the year.
In summer there is swan boating on the pond, tennis and bowling on the
green, while in winter the park is a rendezvous for skaters.
R. from Deering's Oaks on State St. to Longfellow Sq.; R. on Pine St.; R.
from Pine St. on West St. to Western Promenade.
The Western Promenade, extending along a high ridge from Danforth
St. to Arsenal St., is the counterpart of the Eastern Promenade at the
opposite end of the city and was planned at the same time. Here is an
excellent panoramic view of the Presidential Range and other peaks,
South Portland, and Fore River. Directly below the Promenade on St.
John St. are the Maine Central R.R. yards and Union Station. Along the
parkway stand some of the finest homes of the city, overlooking a rich
spread of sward traversed by walks and planted with flower beds, shade
trees, and blossoming shrubs.
40. A Statue of Thomas B. Reed, executed in bronze by Burr C. Miller,
stands midway of the Promenade. In a natural posture 'Czar' Reed
dominates the scene here as he often did when ruling the U.S. House of
Representatives .
L. from Western Promenade on Bowdoin St.; L. from Bowdoin St. on
Cliford St.; L.from Cli/ord St. on Thomas St.
41. Williston Congregational Church (1876), 32-38 Thomas St., is the
birthplace of the Society of Christian Endeavor. Here in 1881 the Rev.
Francis E. Clark conceived the idea of organizing the young people of
the world into one body for greater Christian growth. Twenty years later
members of the society in America, Europe, Africa, and Australia joined
in placing a bronze tablet over the main entrance of the church in com-
memoration of the founding of this movement.
OTHER POINTS OF INTEREST
42. St. Joseph's Academy (1881) (open), 605 Stevens Ave. (3 m. west of
city), is one of the State's most distinguished academies for girls. Con-
ducted by the Roman Catholic Sisters of Mercy, its courses, of study run
190 Seaports and River Towns
through the primary and high-school grades to special teachers' and busi-
ness training classes. The enrollment is about 90, not limited denomi-
nationally. The extensive grounds of the convent, which includes the
academy, formerly the gardens of a large private estate, are of great
beauty. St. Joseph's Convent is the mother house of the Sisters of Mercy
in Maine.
43. The Tate House (1755) (open on application), Westbrook St., Stroud-
water (2.8 m. west of city), is of interest historically and architecturally.
Restored by the Maine Society of Colonial Dames, the old house, much
of its unusual wood paneling said to have been brought from England,
was the home of George Tate, mast agent for the English Navy, who
supervised the purchase and delivery of timber suitable for the con-
struction of masts and spars, reserving with 'the King's Mark' trees of
the right size and shape, regardless of the owners' wishes. Later he was
employed in the same capacity by the Czar of Russia. A son, George
Tate, Jr., left this home for the sea and subsequently joined the Russian
Navy, spending 50 years of his life in its service and eventually becoming
its First Admiral as well as a member of the Imperial Senate. The ex-
terior of this house, said by some to be Portland's oldest dwelling, has
never been painted. In the interior, the beautiful wainscoting retains
the gloss of its original white paint, and there are fireplaces in nearly
every room, one of which, in a tiny attic chamber, was used by slaves.
The house overlooks the site of the old mastyard on Fore River.
44. The Means House (private), 2 Waldo St., Stroudwater, has an in-
terior even more exquisitely paneled than the Tate house. This dwelling
with its brick ends and hip roof was built by Major James Means after
his return from the Revolutionary War, and it is said that he lavished
money on its construction. His prodigality is manifest today in the deli-
cate woodwork, deep windows, and stairways, which have been well
preserved.
Points of Interest in Environs:
Casco Bay trips (see Island Tours) ; Cape Elizabeth (see Tour 1, sec. a).
WATERVILLE
City: Alt. 95, pop. 15,454, sett, about 1754, incorp. town 1802, city 1883, city
charter 1888.
Railroad Station: 50 College Ave., for M.C. R.R.
Bus Stations: Elmwood Hotel, for M.C. Transportation Co. and Triangle Bus.
Airport: Municipal Airport, 3 m. from Post Office Sq. on State 11, for B. & M.
Airways; reservations at M.C. R.R. Station.
IN TOWN AND CITY
THE peaceful Common before the old Wiscasset Courthouse
contrasts sharply with the modern business areas of Maine's
cities in this picture group. Yet many Maine towns have not
grown so much as to have changed greatly in the past century;
many, no doubt, resemble today the Machias here pictured as
it looked to the local artist more than eighty years ago. As
a matter of fact, the tranquillity of the old Village Green is
found in the State's very heart — in the atmosphere of the
Bulfinch-designed capitol set in its flowing lawns and beauti-
fully kept shrubbery, in that of the Elaine House, as appro-
priate a symbol for Maine's tradition of gracious hospitality
as the Jed Prouty Tavern and its counterparts have been for
years symbols of Maine cheer. Even in the centers of the
other large cities there can be found the quality of peace and
serenity that is evident in the pictures of the swans at Deer-
ing's Oaks and of Lewiston's canal. And, finally, there is no
greater feeling of peace to be found anywhere in New England
than that which pervades its historic old graveyards, which,
more often than not, are the centralizing feature of the small
town.
VVISCASSET COURTHOUSE
SWANS AT DEERING S OAKS, PORTLAND
CANAL, ANDROSCOGGIN MILLS, LKWISTON
JED PROUTY TAVERN, BUCKSPORT
ANDROSCOGGIN RIVER AT RUMFORD
^^MMi
5-*^r'
PIP <
'•' AST M ACH \ AS,
PHOTOGRAPH OF PAINTING
HEART OF BANGOR
PORTLAND BUSINESS AREA
OLD CEMETERY AT WALDOBORO
BLAINE HOUSE (GOVERNOR *S MANSION), AUGUSTA
3 "1 "I
li
THE CAPITOL AT AUGUSTA
Waterville 191
Accommodations: Four hotels.
Information Service: Waterville- Winslow Chamber of Commerce, 13 Appleton
St.
Swimming: Municipal Pool, North St.
Annual Events: Winter Carnival, Feb.; Colby College, intercollegiate sport*
events.
WATERVILLE, lying on a broad terraced plain along the west bank oi
the Kennebec River at Ticonic Falls, is the seat of Colby College and an
industrial center and railroad terminal. The stir of a manufacturing com-
munity is leavened by the quiet atmosphere of a college town and of th«
pleasant residential areas stretching westward to the near-by countryside,
Factories lie close to the river, established on those Waterville shores
which have witnessed so much in the past: the vivid life of a large Indian
village across the river and the solemnities of Indian burial parties on the
site of present day Waterville; the struggles of the discontented soldiery
at Fort Halifax in the winter of 1755 who, 'being in a manner naked,'
waited miserably for shoes, clothing, and supplies to be dragged up-river
from Fort Western at Augusta; the shrill echoes from the snorting,
puffing river steamers that churned their way to the city a century ago;
and the thundering of logs, plunging over Ticonic Falls after their mad
dash through the Five Mile Rips above the city, in the great days of the
river-drivers.
While the falls of the Kennebec provide power for the operation of Water-
ville mills, the drainage basins in the vicinity (i.e., those of the Kennebec,
Messalonskee Stream west of the city, and the Sebasticook River at
Winslow) are equally important in the agricultural life of the region.
There are numerous farms in the suburbs that supply dairy and farm
produce for the larger city markets, as well as garden crops for local
consumption. A worsted and a cotton mill, employing about 875 workers,
are two of the city's chief industrial establishments. A shirt factory and
an iron foundry, the oldest of Waterville's active industries, employ most
of the remainder of the working population.
Ethnologically, Waterville presents an interesting racial grouping some-
what similar to that of other Maine manufacturing towns. Approxi-
mately 40 per cent of the population is of English ancestry while another
40 per cent is of French-Canadian, and 15 per cent is of Syrian, descent.
The French-Canadians, or Franco-Americans, who have supplied the
greatest growth in Waterville's population during the • past century,
began to arrive in 1827. Later, they came in increasing numbers as the
cotton and woolen mills were established. The majority of these people
have their own community in the district known as ' The Plains ' south of
the business district. Although they have retained their language and
many of their customs, and have their own churches, parochial schools,
and newspaper, the French elements have assimilated the English lan-
guage and customs, and figure largely in the social, economic, and politi-
cal life of the city. The Syrian population, concentrated along Front St.
192 Seaports and River Towns
and lower Union St., was first attracted to the city during the latter part
of the nineteenth century by opportunities for work on the railroads and
in the railroad repair shops.
Waterville's history was nearly identical with that of Winslow until
1802. The Canibas tribe of Indians, maintaining a large village along the
banks of the Sebasticook and Kennebec Rivers opposite Waterville long
before the coming of the English, held the central territory of the Abnakis
and were surrounded by sub-tribes of allied blood. The Jesuits had
already begun their successful missionary work among the Indians but a
few miles farther north at Norridgewock, penetrating the State from
Canada, when the first English trading post was established in 1653 at
Teconnet, as the Indians called the Waterville- Winslow region. Success-
ful trading relations were sustained until the outbreak of Indian wars in
1675, and for seventy-five years thereafter the Indians are reputed to
have used the first trading post and two successive ones as forts.
The construction of Fort Halifax, forming the frontier and northernmost
line of English defense on the river, was begun in 1754. With the fortifi-
cations as yet incomplete, Captain William Lithgow wrote Governor
Shirley of Massachusetts concerning the state of affairs at Fort Halifax
in January, 1755, an^ reported that 'the men in general seem very low
in spirits, which I impute to their wading so much in ye water, in ye
summer and fall, which I believe has very much hurt ye circulation of
their blood and filled it full of gross humors ' Like the Indian village
before it, the fort was strategically placed near the confluence of the
Sebasticook and the Kennebec; thus, the Penobscot Indians were cut off
from their travel route by way of the Sebasticook and connecting water-
ways to the Kennebec, and the war council meeting-grounds at Teconnet.
The fort also commanded the vital Indian route northward to Quebec by
way of the Kennebec and the Chaudiere River. However, despite the
hardships and ' gross humors ' of the Halifax garrison, the fort was never
attacked by French or Indians; it was dismantled, with the exception of
one blockhouse, in 1763. During the decade of military occupation, con-
tact was maintained between Teconnet and the settlements to the south
by a military (carriage width) road cut through the wilderness to Augusta,
and by whale-boat express to Portland. The scattered settlements of the
upper Kennebec were too young and unorganized to give much aid dur-
ing the Revolution, yet the men of Teconnet did assist Benedict Arnold
and his force in 1775 when they made their one- third mile portage
around Teconnet Falls.
By 1800, it was becoming increasingly difficult to govern satisfactorily
WATERVILLE. POINTS OF INTEREST
1. Colby College Campus and Build- 4. Redington Museum
ings 5. Old Indian Burial Ground
2. Coburn Classical Institute 6. Ticonic Falls
3. Mayflower Hill
WAT ;RVI
194 Seaports and River Towns
the settlements that had grown up on both sides of the Kennebec, Wins-
low and Waterville. Church services and town meetings were held
alternately, and a double set of officials, including two tax collectors,
caused dissension. A petition for separation was presented to the
General Court of Massachusetts, and in 1802 Waterville, taking its
name from the English 'water' and the French 'ville,' was incorporated
as a town, with a population of 800. The new town grew rapidly, con-
tributing towards the early nineteenth-century development of the
Kennebec River valley. Passenger and freight service on the river was
inaugurated in 1832 by the steamship 'Ticonic,' and competition in
river traffic soon became so keen that the fare from Waterville to Boston
was only one dollar. Despite the low steamship rate, the building of the
Androscoggin & Kennebec Railroad in 1849 and the completion of the
railroad to Portland and Bangor six years later precipitated the extinc-
tion of water-borne commerce up and down the Kennebec. The city's
minor industries and small grist, corn, and lumber mills began to decline
in importance after the Civil War. In 1873, ^ve years after the construc-
tion of the dam at Ticonic Falls, the first of Waterville's large-scale
manufactories was established.
One of the most important events in Waterville's history took place in
1813 when, upon the petitions of prominent Baptists in the State, a
charter was granted to the Maine Literary and Theological Institution.
Five years later, the ' Rev. Jeremiah Chaplin, with his family and seven
students from Danvers, Mass.' ventured up the Kennebec, traveling by
sloop to Augusta and thence by long-boats to Waterville, and began the
theological department of the institution; and thus the nucleus of Colby
College was formed. The power to bestow degrees was granted by the
legislature in 1820, and the following year the name was changed to
Waterville College. The theological department was short-lived, having
been discontinued after 1825. In gratitude for a gift of $50,000 and other
benefactions from Gardner Colby, a Boston merchant and prominent
Baptist layman, the name of the college was changed to 'Colby Uni-
versity' in 1867. It became co-educational in 1871, and as such is now
a small liberal arts college of about six hundred students.
The roster of Colby College graduates is distinguished for its list of
seventy-one foreign missionaries in addition to thirty-nine college presi-
dents, and numbers of ambassadors, generals, Senators, and Congress-
men. One of the earliest of Colby's noteworthy graduates was George
Dana Boardman (1801-31), a pioneer missionary to Burma and one of the
two members of the college's first graduating class in 1822. Elijah Parish
Lovejoy (1802-37), a graduate in 1825, was a prominent newspaper
editor, strongly anti-slavery in his views and a courageous advocate of
freedom of the press. First in Missouri and then in Illinois, Lovejoy
expressed his convictions in the face of threats and mob violence. Shot
by a mob of pro-slavery rioters in Alton, Illinois, twenty-four years before
the outbreak of the Civil War, his death aroused widespread attention
in the North and made Lovejoy one of the earliest martyrs in the cause
of freedom for slaves. Benjamin Butler, Civil War general, Governor of
Waterville 195
Massachusetts, and a figure in National politics, was graduated with the
Colby Class of 1838.
The activities of several Waterville citizens have supplemented the
cultural life of a college town. Robert B. Hall (1858-1907), a native of
Bowdoinham and one of Maine's most prominent musicians, became a
Waterville resident in 1890. Hall's compositions include about seventy-
five band marches, many of which are played all over the country. Samuel
Francis Smith (1808-95), at one time pastor of the First Baptist Church,
Waterville, and professor of modern languages at Colby, wrote the verses
of the anthem America, the tune of which he found while glancing through
a book of German melodies; the melody itself is identical with that of
the English 'God Save the King.' Professor Smith also composed 'The
Morning Light Is Breaking.'
TOUR — 3.5m.
N.from Post Office Sg. on College Ave.
i. Colby College Campus and Buildings (information and directions at
college library, first floor, Memorial Hall} lie along the east side of College
Ave., opposite and facing the M.C. R.R. Station.
At the southern end of the campus is Memorial Hall. Erected (1869)
in honor of the Colby students killed in the Civil War, and allegedly one
of the first Civil War memorial buildings in the North, the rubblestone
and granite hall was designed by Alexander R. Estey of Boston. The
style is modified Norman. On the second floor a reproduction of the
'Lion of Lucerne,' sculptured in marble by Millmore, surmounts a
polished slab bearing the names of Colby's Civil War dead. The building
contains many portraits, sculptures and objects of historic interest.
Memorial Hall is now used as a library and chapel.
North of Memorial Hall lies South College (1821), the oldest campus
building. A bell hanging in the hall was cast at the Paul Revere foundry
in 1824. Among the several college legends associated with the bell is
one concerning its travels. The bell was once removed by college students,
shipped by freight collect to Harvard, and thence by the same means to
the University of Virginia; the Virginia students in their turn dispatched
it to Her Majesty, Queen Victoria, via New York, where it was finally
traced by Colby authorities as it rested on a wharf preparatory to being
loaded aboard a sailing packet.
Champlin Hall (1836), next north of South Hall, a square, plain red-brick
structure typical of early nineteenth-century college buildings, was
designed by Thomas U. Walter, architect for the Capitol extension,
Washington.
North College (1822), north of South Hall, is a fraternity house. Like
South College and Champlin Hall, North is a simply designed, two-story
building of red brick, with stone and wood trim.
196 Seaports and River Towns
Northwest on the campus is Coburn Hall (1872), which houses a mounted
collection of local birds, Maine minerals, and rocks. The two-story stone
building is of modified Norman style and has a cupola.
Numerous residential halls, dormitories, and fraternity houses are in the
vicinity of the campus, particularly along College Avenue.
Retrace to Post Office Sq.; R. on Elm St.
2. Coburn Classical Institute, Elm St., is a private college preparatory
school founded in 1829 as Waterville Academy, and maintained under
the auspices of Colby College until its incorporation under its own name
in 1901. In 1883 Governor Abner Coburn of Skowhegan gave the present
school building as a memorial to his brother and nephew. The red-brick
building of indeterminate architectural design is surmounted with a tower.
A circular dome was added in 1893 and equipped as an astronomical
observatory.
Retrace to Post Office Sq.; L. on Oilman St.
3. Mayflower Hill, the site of the new Colby College Campus comprises
500 acres of land presented to the college by the citizens of Waterville
at a cost of $100,000. The present campus, having become so restricted
that expansion is impossible, is to be relocated on the northern and
eastern slopes, which command views of the city, of Mt. Blue to the west
and adjoining summits, and Messalonskee Stream to the southwest.
Landscaping has begun with the assistance of the Works Progress Ad-
ministration, although the construction of the new college buildings, at an
estimated cost of $3,000,000, has not yet been started (1937). The new
buildings, featured by a library with a i8o-foot tower which is to be illu-
minated by flood lights, will be of modified Georgian Colonial design.
Retrace to Junction of Oilman St. and Western Ave.; R. on Silver St.
4. Redington Museum (open weekdays except Mon. 8-12, 2-4), 64 Silver
St., presented to the Waterville Historical Society in 1927, was built in
1814 by William Redington, a Revolutionary soldier who underwent the
hardships of the winter at Valley Forge. It is a white frame two-story
Colonial building, with green shutters and granite foundation. On the
front of the house, four Ionic columns support a portico with an orna-
mental balustrade. A few pieces of furniture that belonged to the grand-
father of the builder have been retained. Museum pieces exhibited in-
clude Wedgwood ware, a watchman's rattle used in Boston when the
Common was still a cow pasture, wood from the Connecticut Charter
Oak, and a number of old maps and books.
R. from Silver St. on Main St.
5. An Old Indian Burial Ground once extended from what is now Temple
Street to the site of the Lockwood Cotton mills. In 1905 six skeletons
were unearthed at the junction of Main and Water Streets, while in the
same year the remains of an Indian, buried in a sitting position, numerous
implements and about two quarts of copper beads, were found when the
foundations for the Crescent Hotel block were being prepared.
Waterville 197
L. from Main St. to Ticonic Bridge.
6. Ticonic Falls, prominent in Waterville's history and industrial growth,
are visible from Ticonic Bridge between Waterville and Winslow. Since
the first bridge was thrown across the Kennebec at this point in 1824, the
destructive force of flood waters has necessitated either total or partial
reconstruction of the bridge on six occasions.
Points of Interest in Environs:
Fort Halifax, 1.1 m., Winslow (see Tour 10); China Lake, 8 m.,
China (see Tour 13).
III. HIGH ROADS AND
LOW ROADS
TOUR 1 : From NEW HAMPSHIRE LINE (Portsmouth) to
CANADIAN LINE (Clair, N.B.), 551.8 m., US 1.
Via (sec. a) York Corner, Wells, Kennebunk, Biddeford, Saco, Portland, Fal-
mouth Foreside, Yarmouth, Brunswick; (sec. b) Bath, Wiscasset, Thomaston,
Rockland, Camden, Belfast; (sec. c) Searsport, Winterport, Hampden, Bangor,
Brewer, Lucerne-in-Maine, Ellsworth; (sec. d) Cherryfield, Machias, Robbin-
ston, Calais; (sec. e) Woodland, Danforth, Hodgdon, Houlton, Littleton,
Bridgewater, Mars Hill, Presque Isle, Caribou, Van Buren, Fort Kent.
Hard-surfaced roadbed, three-lane at southern end. Northern sections some-
times impassable during winter storms.
US 1 in Maine runs close to the coast from one end of the State to the
other, turns north along the Canadian boundary, and finally doubles
back west along the St. John River. It runs through resort areas, rolling
and rocky farm land, through primitive forests, and along the banks of
broad rivers; it crosses high hills — locally called mountains — and blue-
berry plains. It connects the two ends of the 25oo-mile coast line, which
are but 225 miles apart by air line. It is this lower part of the route that is
most frequented; the broken and jagged coast has a picturesque charm
that has made it a favorite with summer travelers. South of Maine, land
and sea have few rigid boundaries; the waves encroach and retreat, the
land is washed away and built up. But on the Maine coast land and sea
meet abruptly; that old devil sea at times comes dashing in as though it
had been gathering force halfway around the earth to break the stubborn,
granite headlands; it attacks with a roar, retreats, and returns to attack
again.
There are two coasts of Maine. The coast known to most visitors has
spruce-tipped hills and hard beaches dappled with the red, orange, green,
blue, and white raiment of visitors, blue-green waters broken by tilting
sails and the wakes of speeding motorboats, and a brilliant blue sky. The
inhabitants of this land work night and day running hotels, boarding-
houses, tourist camps, and lunch stands, piloting fishing and sightseeing
boats, trying in a brief season to earn the wherewithal to keep their
families during the rest of the year.
The second coast of Maine is for four or five months muffled in snow;
travel is at times difficult and most hotels and many of the rooms in
homes are closed. But this Maine has its own charm. The rural in-
habitants, even though striving to add to their limited incomes, have
time to relax and they accept the comparatively few visitors as members
of their families, telling them long stories of grandfathers and uncles who
never returned from the sea, of the great-aunt who heard voices, and
other tales characteristic of a country that part of the year has almost
pioneer isolation. There are other rewards for the visitor who comes to
this coast out of season. The chowder and baked beans, made in family
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2O4 High Roads and Low Roads
quantities and eaten after strenuous climbs over snowy hills, have a
flavor unknown to summer visitors; the headlands, snow-crowned, take
on an icy glaze that sharpens their strange silhouettes; and the sea makes
acrobatic assaults that cause the very rocks to tremble. But the glory of
this Maine is its sky, unreal saffron after the gray light that comes before
the dawn, blue as Persian tiles for a brief time at midday, and an unearthly
pale green streaked with rose in the late afternoon, turning the snow pale
heliotrope with purple shadows.
Sec. a. NEW HAMPSHIRE LINE (Portsmouth) to BRUNSWICK,
76.9 m.
This section of US 1 is the main artery of entrance and exit from the State
of Maine. The southern part runs through pleasant farm lands broken
occasionally by pine groves, with open ocean (R) never far distant and
often visible across wide stretches of marshland. Side routes branch (R) to
historic and scenic spots on coastal peninsulas where the inhabitants are
for the most part descendants of early fishermen and seamen, gaining their
livelihoods from the summer colonists and tourists.
US 1 crosses the New Hampshire Line, 0 m., in the center of the Ports-
mouth-Kittery Memorial Bridge.
Left at the east end of the bridge is a granite monument with a bronze
plaque bearing the following inscription:
THE PROVINCE OF MAINE. Originally extending from the Merrimac
to the Kennebec Rivers, was granted Aug. loth 1622 to Sir Ferdinando
Gorges and John Mason, by The Council for New England, established at
Plymouth in 1635 when Gorges received the Eastern portion extending
from the Piscataqua to the Kennebec, which thereafter retained the
original name of the Province of Maine.
Right at 0.5 m. is a junction with a tarred road (see Tour L4).
At 6.7 m. is a junction with a tarred road.
Left on this road is the Mclntire Garrison House (private), 3.7 m. (L), built between
1640 and 1645 by Alexander Maxwell and restored in 1909 by John R. Mclntire.
As was customary in early garrisons, the second story overhangs the first so that
beleaguered defenders could pour hot pitch and grease upon the enemy below.
The building is constructed of heavy timbers interlocking at the corners and
sheathed on the outside with weather-beaten shingles.
YORK CORNER (alt. 60, York Town, pop. 2538), 6.9 m. The Maine
Publicity Bureau Information Building is R.
At 10.6 m. is a junction with State 1A (see Tour L4).
CAPE NEDDICK (alt. 50, York Town), 10.8 m. Noticeable in this area
are the well-built stone fences and rolling farm lands of southern Maine,
with rock outcroppings typical of the New England glacial terrain.
Right from Cape Neddick, on a winding gravel road; right at 0.5 m. and again
right at 0.9 m. ; the road passes through heavily forested country broken by summer
estates and has splendid vistas of the ocean. The coast line becomes more rocky as
the tip of the cape is reached.
At 3.2 m. is the Episcopal Memorial Stone Church with bell in an arch of the roof
over its entrance. The church stands on a cliff overlooking the sea.
TOUR 1 : From Portsmouth to Clair 205
At 3.3 w. is a trail to Bald Head Cliffs, against which the surf pounds continuously.
At 3.7 m. is the entrance to the Ogunquit Cliff Country Club.
At 5 m. is the junction with a road (R) leading 0.2 m. to Perkins Cove and its art
colony. Grouped about the art school are small individualistically decorated
cottages. The village abounds with art and antique shops and has several gaily
decorated Chinese restaurants.
At 5.9 m. is the junction with US 1 in OGUNQUIT (see below).
At 12.8 m. (L) on a hill is a revolving Airplane Beacon.
At 14.1 m. (R) is the new Ogunquit Playhouse (see below).
At 14.5 m. is a junction with Agamenticus Road.
Left on this road is a camp site, 5.7 m., at the foot of Mount Agamenticus (alt.
692), where the Indian ' Saint' Aspinquid was buried. This, the highest of the hills
in this relatively low area, long used as a point of navigation in the days of square-
riggers, is still so used by coastal vessels. A i5-minute climb from the camp site
along a bridle trail leads to the Fire Lookout Station, from which is an extensive
view of the sea in one direction with Boon Island Light in the distance.
According to tradition, in April, 1682, the 'Increase/ a trader between Plymouth
and Pemaquid, was wrecked on an offshore island, its only survivors, three white
men and one Indian, existing as best they could on the rocky shores. They were
nearly ready to give up hope of rescue when one day in May they saw smoke rising
from the summit of Agamenticus. This smoke was that of the burnt offerings of
hundreds of Indians from all over Maine, converts of Aspinquid, who was a disciple
of John Eliot; they had brought deer, moose, fish, and even rattlesnakes to
sacrifice in the flames to the memory of their departed leader. Heartened by the
smoke that indicated the presence of people on the mainland, the castaways gath-
ered driftwood and themselves built a huge fire which attracted rescuers from the
mainland. In gratitude for their salvation, it is said, the men named the island
Boon. Boon Island Light was erected here in 1811.
OGUNQUIT (alt. 60, Wells Town), 14.9 m., noted for many years only as
a fishing village in a particularly beautiful situation, now has 16 hotels
and is known for its colony of artists and actors.
The summer theater group, one of the largest in Maine, has been under
the direction of Walter Hartwig for several years, and has nationally
known stage and screen stars as guest artists. During the season a new
play is presented each week. The Workshop, an interesting development
that attracts students of the theater from all sections of the country,
makes several presentations during the summer.
Among the many recreations here is fishing for tuna (see Sports and
Recreation: Salt Water Fishing), which has become popular along the
southern Maine coast in recent years.
At Ogunquit is the junction with a branch road to Cape Neddick (see
above).
Between Ogunquit and Wells are (R) many glimpses of sand dunes,
beaches, and the ocean. This section of US 1 is highly commercialized,
appealing to tourist trade with road stands, restaurants, and cabins.
The First Congregational Church, 18.6 m. (L), stands on the site of the first
church building in Wells, which was organized about 1643 by the Rever-
end John Wheelwright, who shared the beliefs of Anne Hutchinson, the
English nonconformist. Wheelwright, who had been exiled from Massa-
206 High Roads and Low Roads
chusetts, settled at Exeter, but, when that was declared to be under the
jurisdiction of Massachusetts, he migrated to this town with his family.
About 1646 he made his peace with Massachusetts and returned to
Boston. While a student at Oxford University he was apparently notable
as an athlete, for Oliver Cromwell, his classmate there, said later in life
that he had never felt as much fear before any army as before Wheelwright
in competitive sports. The church he helped build at Wells was burned
by the Indians in 1692.
At 18.8 m. is the junction with an improved road.
Right on this road to WELLS BEACH (alt. 20, Wells Town), 1 m., a popular
resort with a good bathing beach.
At 19 m. (R) is the Joseph Storer Garrison House (private), where 15
soldiers withstood a 2-day siege by 500 French and Indians in 1692. It is a
weather-beaten, yellow, two-and-a-half story structure with a foundation
of granite.
WELLS (alt. 50, Wells Town, pop. 2036), 20 m., is a small settlement in
one of Maine's oldest townships. Covering a large area that originally in-
cluded Kennebunk, the town was often the center of hostilities during the
Indian wars which raged intermittently between 1650 and 1730. The
names occurring most frequently in accounts of early Indian warfare are
the names still most commonly heard in the town today. For most of its
existence, farming has been the chief means of livelihood for the in-
habitants. Increasing numbers of tourists and summer residents have
afforded a large market for local garden produce.
The Lindsey Tavern (1799), 20.2 m. (R), now a tourist home, was a stage-
coach stop on the old post road. Some of the original features of the in-
terior, including stencilled wallpaper in the entrance hall, a Dutch oven
in the dining-room, and hand-made door hinges, have been retained.
At 21.8 m. is the junction with State 9 (see Tour IB}.
KENNEBUNK (alt. 20, Kennebunk Town, pop. 3302), 25 m., is notable
for its fine elms. The town, settled about 1650, was for nearly a century
in almost constant dread of attack by Indians. By 1730, shipbuilding had
begun along the Mousam River. This industry and an active trade with
the West Indies made Kennebunk a town of importance until the begin-
ning of the Revolutionary War. Soon after the Revolution, the Mousam
River was again utilized in the development of industry. Small mills
sprang up along its banks; shoes, twine, and lumber are still manufactured
here. Kennebunk has one of the few municipally owned light and power
plants in the State.
The Storer House (private}, first house (R) on Storer St., was the home of
General Joseph Storer, Revolutionary soldier and personal friend of La-
fayette. This large, yet simple, structure is representative of the excellent
taste in home building that characterized the post-Revolutionary period.
Kenneth Roberts, author of 'The Northwest Passage,' and other histori-
cal novels, was born in this house. Just beyond (R) is the spreading
TOUR 1 : From Portsmouth to Clair 207
Lafayette Elm, under which the French hero stood during the reception
given in his honor in 1825 by the people of Kennebunk. The tree has
grown so large that it has been necessary to prop up several of its massive
limbs.
The Bourne Mansion (private] (1815), second house (L) on Bourne St., is
a square three-story structure with four chimneys, two at each end of the
building. The principal entrance, facing the garden, has a fan-light of thick
leaded glass, a motif that is repeated above in the second-story window.
Outstanding features of the interior are the curved staircase and the fine
paneled fireplaces.
Five Elms (R), on Main St. near Fletcher St., are believed to have been
set out on the day of the battle of Lexington. Directly back of the fourth
elm is the Nathaniel Frost House, one of many fine homes built by pros-
perous merchants and shipowners in the town's period of greatest affluence.
The First Parish Unitarian Church (L), at the north entrance to Kenne-
bunk village, was built in 1774 and remodeled in 1803. The fine steeple
surmounts a three-story tower with front windows; over the open belfry
is a four-faced clock which is beneath an octagonal lantern cupola with
elliptical openings. In 1803 a bell cast in the Paul Revere foundry was
placed in the steeple.
Right from Kennebunk on State 35 at 0.1 m. is the Robert Lord House (1800-03),
similar in formality and dignity to the Sewall House, of the same period, in York.
It is a massive, two-story, rectangular structure with a low hip roof and parapet
rail. The symmetrical facade is finished with carefully matched siding simulating
stone, and is broken by the lines of slender Doric pilasters, by a slightly projecting
central pavilion with crowning gable pediment, and by a narrow belt course at the
second-floor level. The elliptical fan-light of the entrance doorway and its dark
louvred shutters are repeated in a large sentinel window in the pediment. In the
second story is a triple rectangular window, its sections separated by slender
paneled pilasters. The wall openings are framed with an unusually fine trim. The
design of the parapet rail, although a trifle light in the absence of the usual corner
posts, is notable for its delicately turned balusters. An older house (about 1767)
forms a rear wing.
The Taylor House (1795-97), adjoining the Lord House, is notable for its three
exterior entrances. Of similar proportions and detail, these doorways are designed
with flanking pilasters, semicircular fan-lights, and crowning pediments. The in-
terior is decorated with unusually fine putty-stucco ornament — a characteristic
medium of the period used in simulating 'carved' ornament on flat surfaces.
At 0.6 m. is the junction with a tarred road.
Right here to a field road, 1 m., leading R. to a granite monument marking the Site
of Larrabee Garrison House (i 720) , overlooking Mousam River. A bronze bas-relief
on the monument depicts the garrison within whose walls were five houses.
On State 35 at 1.2 m. is the yellow brick Wedding Cake House (private), one of the
most extraordinary relics of the scroll-saw era extant. The house, apparently built
some time before the decorations were added, is a square, two-story structure of
good proportions with a central doorway and, above, a graceful Palladian window.
At the corners have been added series of slim, elaborately ornamented wooden
pinnacles that rise several feet above the low roof; these are duplicated on each side
of the entrance and, in miniature, in front of a trellised canopy over the steps that
lead to the doorway. In between these pinnacles at the tops of the first and second
stories, has been suspended an elaborate tracery, raised to Gothic peaks over the
entrance canopy and the Palladian window; the effect is that of the paper lace mat
208 High Roads and Low Roads
that is fastened above the old-fashioned valentines. A long barn, touching the rear
of the house on the right, also has pinnacles and its small high windows are outlined
by large wooden arches. A local legend — which, as S. Weir Mitchell said of the
average family tree, is more genial than logical — is that the decorations were
added by a sea captain whose bride had been deprived of her large wedding cake by
his being ordered hastily to sea in an emergency.
Between Kennebunk and 30.6 m., US 1 follows the post road established
for early mail carriers.
BIDDEFORD (alt. 80, pop. 17,633), 33.6 m. The twin cities of Bidde-
ford and Saco (see below), on opposite banks of the Saco River, are united
historically, industrially, and socially. As a unit, they rank second in
industrial importance in Maine; Biddeford is the industrial part of the
union, Saco being predominantly residential. The? population, strongly
Franco-American, is employed in the three large textile and textile-
machinery mills and the several smaller manufactories.
As far as is known Richard Vines was in charge of the first company of
Englishmen to explore the site of Saco; he had been sent out from England
in 1616 by Gorges, the most enthusiastic of the English promoters of
settlement at the time, and others whom Gorges had interested in the
enterprise (see Tour IB). In 1629, Saco was granted to Thomas Lewis and
Richard Bonython and a permanent settlement was made shortly there-
after.
It is said that about 1675 some drunken sailors, rowing in the river, saw
an Indian woman and her infant in a canoe near-by, and determined to
test a tale they had heard to the effect that Indian offspring swam from
birth by instinct. They overturned the canoe; the woman reached the
shore safely, but the child died a few days later as the result of the ex-
perience. Unfortunately for the settlers, the child was the son of Squando,
an Indian leader, who executed terrible revenge on the whites.
The Pepperell Manufacturing Company Plant (visited by permit} (R) at
170 Main St., an industry established in 1845, occupies an area of 56
acres and manufactures nationally advertised cotton products.
The Saco-Lowell Company Plant (visited by permit), left of Main on Smith
St., has built textile machinery for more than 100 years.
The York Manufacturing Company Plant (visited by permit). Main St. on
Factory Island between Biddeford and Saco also manufactures textiles.
The Lafayette House, 20 Elm St., is a square, yellow, three-story house
with a hip roof. It is on the property of the Diamond Match Company.
In Biddeford is a junction with State 9 (see Tour IB).
SACO (pro. Saw'ko) (alt. 60, pop. 7233), 34.5 m., is at a junction with
State 5 (see Tour 15) and State 9 (see Tour 1C).
The Cyrus King House, 271 Main St. (R), now the rectory of Holy
Trinity Roman Catholic Church, was built in 1807 by Cyrus King,
member of the Scarboro family that produced the first Governor of Maine.
A later occupant of the house was Horace Woodman, the inventor, who in
1854 devised the self-stripping cotton card and many other textile manu-
facturing appliances.
TOUR 1 : From Portsmouth to Clair 209
Lyman Beecher Stowe, a grandson of Harriet Beecher Stowe, was born in
Saco when his father was minister of the First Congregational Church, cor.
Beach and Main Sts.
York Institute (open weekdays 1-4), 375 Main St., a small brick building
erected in 1928, contains a collection of Colonial costumes and furniture,
paintings, statuary, Maine minerals, Indian relics, and historical doc-
uments.
Thornton Academy, 438 Main St., a co-educational school of high standing
in general preparatory courses, was founded in 1811 and now has 200
students.
North of Saco the wide highway passes through open hill country with
many tourist camps, lunch stands, and filling stations along the way.
DUNSTAN (alt. 50, Scarboro Town), 40.2 m., is at the junction with
State 9 (see Tour 1C). Opposite the junction is (L) the St. Louis School
for Boys conducted by the Sisters of Charity. Large residences in this
vicinity have been converted into tourist homes and inns that advertise
' New England Shore Dinners ' — steamed and fried clams, lobster stew,
boiled and broiled lobster.
North of St. Louis School is (L) the Scarboro Police Barracks.
The highway crosses Scarboro Marshes, where underlying quicksands
have caused great difficulties in road construction. Asphalt paving has
been used, without cement surface, pending establishment of a solid base,
for the surface invariably settles several inches within a few months after
being repaired. In former days large crops of salt marsh hay were gathered
on the hundreds of acres of marshland bordering the shore south of Port-
land. Seven-by-ten-inch oak slabs were fastened to the hoofs of the
horses used in haying to keep them from sinking into the ground. Pro-
tected by game laws, plover, duck, and gulls feed uninterruptedly on the
marshes where they formerly were hunted.
At 41.8 m. is the junction with a dirt road.
Left on this road to Scottow's Hill. The first stagecoach road from Boston passed
over this steep summit to avoid the marshes near the coast. At 0.6 m. (L) is the
King Homestead, a two-story gable-end house with a long shed at one end.
At 41.9 m. (R) is the Danish Village, a tourist camp with cabins, pat-
terned after the colorful little homes of a medieval Danish town,
grouped about the Raadhus (town hall). Architectural details have been
faithfully copied in the hall where meals are served, as well as in the in-
dividual cabins.
OAK HILL (alt. 100, Scarboro Town), 43.2 m.
Right from Oak Hill on State 207 to (R) the Hunnewell House (private), 0.7 m.,
built in 1684, known as the Old Red House. It stands in a 'heater piece,' a tri-
angular plot of ground at a junction of roads so called in early days when snow-
removal equipment, which contained a heater, was stored there. The timbers of
this small one-and-a-half-story lean-to dwelling are hand-hewn and wooden-pegged.
A trapdoor in the living-room floor leads to a shallow dugout used as a hiding-place
during Indian raids.
210 High Roads and Low Roads
SCARBORO (alt. 20, Scarboro Town, pop. 2445), 1.2 m. Most of the houses in
this small village were built and inhabited by seafaring men. The First Parish Con-
gregational Church (R), on the site of one built in 1728, is an attractive little white
structure with a fan window in the front, and a belfry and spire.
The Parson Lancaster House (1766) (private), 1.5 m. on State 207, is a two-and-a-
half-story unpainted dwelling with two huge elms in its front yard. Interesting
architectural features include wide roof boards, single board wainscoting, white
(pumpkin) pine paneling, HL hinges, hand-wrought latches, knobs, and locks,
fireplaces with hand-carved woodwork, and a staircase with delicate balustrade.
The floors, ceilings, and unpainted woodwork have the patina of age.
In the Black Point Cemetery 1.7 m. (L), the dark gray slate stones date back to
1739-
At 3 m. a road (L) leads to the popular bathing resort, Higgins Beach.
The private Black Point Preserve and Game Farm, 3.7 m. (R) on State 207, lies
opposite the Black Point Fruit Farm, which has fine orchards. Small game, such as
partridge, pheasant, and rabbit, roam unmolested in the small wooded preserve
set aside by local residents.
Massacre Pond, visible (L) at 4.1 m., was so named because in 1713 Richard
Hunnewell and 19 companions were set upon near here and slain by a band of 200
Indians.
Opposite the pond is the fairway of the Prout's Neck Country Club Golf Course
(private). At the seventh hole is a marker on the site of the first Anglican church
in Maine, erected prior to 1658.
At Garrison Cove, 4.8 m., the road emerges from the woods to a cliff from which is a
splendid view of the bay with the white sands of Old Orchard Beach gleaming in the
distance.
A Marker at 5.2 m. (R) indicates the spot where Chief Mogg Heigon, subject of
Whittier's poem 'Mogg Megone,' was slain in 1677. This marker is at the east end
of beautiful Garrison Cove on the site of Josselyn (or Scottow) Fort, headquarters
for the defense in the first Indian war. Directly ahead is Black Point, its rugged
shore line sweeping westward toward Old Orchard Beach (see Tour 1C).
The Prout's Neck Yacht Clubhouse (R), 5.1 m. on the ledges of the Point, commands
a wide view of the Atlantic.
Left from the highway is a path leading to the Prout's Neck Bird Sanctuary, given
to Scarboro by Charles Homer in memory of his brother, Winslow Homer, the
artist.
PROUT'S NECK (alt. 40, Scarboro Town), 5.5 m., is a pretentious summer settle-
ment. Left is the site of the blockhouse where, in 1703, eight men under Captain
John Larrabee for several days withstood a siege by 500 French and Indian
marauders.
In 1633, Thomas Cammock and his wife Margaret moved from Richmond's
Island to Prout's Neck, then called Black Point. Here they were joined by Henry
Josselyn and for a short time, in 1638, by his brothe" John Josselyn. John's
account of his visit, published as 'New England Rarities,' repeats stories of sea
serpents, witches, revels, etc. Josselyn included a description of the native flora
and of the Indians remarking, ' There are many stranger things in the world than
are to be seen between London and Stanes.'
At 44.3 m. (R) is the old Plummer House (private), set well back from the
street with its side turned to it. It is a one-and-a-half-story, gable-end
house with central chimney.
The Nonesuch River, 44. 9 m., so named for its remarkably crooked course
to the sea, figured prominently in the affairs of Scarboro settlers and is
mentioned in many early histories. Because it was impossible to bring
TOUR 1 : From Portsmouth to Clair 211
boats of any size up this sharply winding tidal river, a canal was con-
structed, to follow the general course of the river. Instead of digging the
entire canal by hand, the workers made a narrow ditch along the proposed
course. The action of the tides carried away the loose soil, finally com-
pleting a project that would have required much back-breaking toil.
Near the highway bridge, fishermen congregate in May for the annual
run of alewives.
THORNTON HEIGHTS (alt. 80, South Portland), 46.1 m., is a small
residential community.
At 47.6 m. US 1 crosses Fore River, the southern boundary of Portland,
on Vaughan's Bridge. Huge oil and gas tanks line the highway on both
sides of the river, which separates Portland and South Portland.
At 48.7 m. is the junction with Brackett St., Portland.
Right on Brackett St. crossing the Million Dollar Bridge, 0.2 m., with Portland's
waterfront (L). SOUTH PORTLAND (alt. 60, pop. 13,840), 0.9 m. at the mouth of
Fore River, is a residential community, occupied chiefly by people working in
Portland. It has several factories, however, among them being the Maine Steel,
Inc. (L) on Second St., makers of snowplows and marine hardware.
Left from Brackett St. on Cottage St. to Broadway, 1.2 m. Follow trolley line (L)
to Shore Road. At 2.9 m. is the main gate (L) of Fort Preble (open), named for
Commodore Edward Preble. It was built between 1808 and 1811 and enlarged
during the Civil War. It commands a splendid view of Portland Harbor, the
breakwater jutting far into the ocean, with Fort Gorges, an old unused stone fort
near-by, and Peak's Island in the distance.
Shore Road passes many beautiful estates.
CAPE COTTAGE (alt. 30, South Portland), 4.7 m. Left is the northern entrance to
Fort Williams (open), where the U.S. Fifth Infantry has been stationed since 1922.
Organized July 24, 1808, the Fifth is one of the oldest Regular U.S. Army regi-
ments. Its motto is 'I'll Try, Sir,' words spoken by Colonel James Miller in the
battle of Lundy's Lane, July 25, 1814. During the Philippine insurrection it was
stationed in the archipelago; in the World War it did guard duty in the Canal Zone
and went to Germany with the army of occupation. Within the fortification near
the shore is Portland Head Light (1791), the oldest lighthouse on the Maine coast.
The white conical tower rises 101 feet above high water. From the hurricane deck
of the tower, many of the 222 Casco Bay islands and the Cape Elizabeth shore can
be seen. These islands are sometimes called the Calendar Isles because an official
English report of 1700 said, 'Sd. Bay is covered from storms that come from the
sea by a multitude of Islands, great and small, there being (if one may believe
report) as many islands as there are Days in a yr.'
At Pond Cove (L), 6 m., the shore line cuts in nearly to the outer rocks, flinging
spray across the highway in heavy weather.
POND COVE VILLAGE (alt. 100, Cape Elizabeth Town, pop. 2376), 7.3 m., is
the center of a large town in which fertile soil is well adapted to the raising of
garden truck.
TWO LIGHTS, 11 m. (L), on the rocky point of Cape Elizabeth, is the neighbor-
hood name for a group of cottages, two light towers and a Coast Guard station.
There is a light only in the outer tower which is 120 feet high (open). The Coast
Guard station, established in 1887, serves the coast from the Kennebec River to
Biddeford Pool, with a personnel of only 14 men. A man is constantly on duty in
the tower to receive distress signals by telephone, radio, or flares. The white
Government buildings stand out sharply against the varied green of the shore
foliage and of the ever-changing ocean. This exposed point, which bears the brunt
of heavy seas after every storm, attracts scores of people who like to watch the
magnificent display of surf as the huge waves batter themselves against the ledges.
212 High Roads and Low Roads
PORTLAND (alt. 80, pop. 70,810) (see PORTLAND), 49.2 m. at Long-
fellow Square, is the point of departure for steamer trips to Casco Bay
islands (see Island Trips).
Here are junctions with State 26 (see Tour 14), with US 302 (see Tour 18),
and with State 25 (see Tour 19).
Casco Bay (Ind.: Aucocisco, 'place of herons') was visited by most of the explorers
who came along this coast shortly after 1600; all were attracted by it because of the
safe anchorage offered by its deep waters and because the islands gave them places
to land where they felt reasonably safe from the inhabitants of the country, on
whom they looked with some fear. The islands are now much visited by summer
visitors; some are fairly large, some mere dots on the water. On them hang count-
less legends of castaways, buried treasure, shipwrecks, and Indian gods. Many of
the islands bear homely names given by the pioneers who displayed considerable
imagination in finding resemblances to objects and animals in the rough profiles —
Ram, Horse, Sow and Pigs, The Goslings, Turnip, and Whaleboat, are among
them. Others have names derived from events that took place on them, or were
given because of animals inhabiting them.
The first settlement in the bay took place in 1623, when Captain Christopher
Levett erected a stone house on one of the islands, probably YORK, or House, as it
was formerly known.
JEWELL ISLAND, one of the outermost, acquired by George Jewell in 1636, has
the usual legend of vast treasure buried in it by Captain Kidd. Treasure-seekers,
ignorant of the fact that Kidd never visited this part of the coast, tried every
possible device to find the gold and jewels they believed to be there, sacrificing
animals, using divining rods, and invoking the help of demented people believed to
have second sight. Legends have grown up about the activities of the persistent
diggers; one concerns a mysterious stranger who appeared, asking for the help of a
skipper residing there. The visitor disappeared without anyone's having seen him
leave the island and shortly afterward the captain showed evidence of great wealth;
curious neighbors announced that they had seen the imprints of a large chest near
a newly dug hole and a later treasure hunter reported the finding of a buried
skeleton near-by.
Large PEAK'S ISLAND, near Portland and a favorite resort of residents of that
city, has various amusement devices; a number of Portland residents have year-
round homes here.
CLIFF ISLAND was the home of men who were accused of wrecking ships by de-
coying them to the rocks, in order to wreck them.
EAGLE ISLAND, on the outer rim of the bay, was owned by Admiral Robert
E. Peary, who made his home on its stony acres for many years.
ORR'S ISLAND, accessible from State 123, south of Brunswick, was the scene of
Harriet Beecher Stowe's story, 'The Pearl of Orr's Island.' Mrs. Stowe's former
home stands on a hill near the ferry landing.
BAILEY ISLAND, south of Orr's, was the summer home of Clara Louise Burn-
ham of Chicago, who wrote a number of stories about the area.
At 54.8 m. is the entrance (R) to Portland Country Club (open to public).
At 55.1 m. (L), is a marker indicating the near-by Site of Fort New Casco,
which, erected in 1698, was also a trading post. The Indians of Maine
had at first been very friendly with the English ; it was only after they had
been repeatedly betrayed, insulted, cheated, and assaulted that they be-
came hostile and vengeful. The French, who have far less race prejudice
than the English and therefore manage their relations with people of
other races more amicably, soon won the friendship of the Indians and
determined to use them in their efforts to drive the English from American
TOUR 1: From Portsmouth to Clair 213
shores. Maine, part of the territory that the French claimed longest, was
particularly subject to attack. In 1703, a conference was held with the
Indians at Fort New Casco and the settlers hoped for safer times; but
within two months another attack came and the fort was the center of
defense for the settlements of Casco Bay. The attack of a large force of
Frenchmen and Indians was repulsed only by the arrival of an armed
vessel. The fort was abandoned in 1716, when Massachusetts thought it
was no longer necessary to maintain a garrison here.
The attractive castellated stone edifice (R) is the Episcopal Church of St.
Mary the Virgin; directly opposite is Falmouth Town Forest, a well-kept
grove of old pine trees.
FALMOUTH FORESIDE (alt. 100, Falmouth Town, pop. 2041), 57.1
m., is a residential section of fine homes in an agricultural town on the
shores of Casco Bay.
Underwood Spring (R), now exploited as a private commercial enterprise,
is a natural curiosity, for though it has no perceptible source, it has a
large flow of pure water unaffected by drought or freshet. The Abnaki
Indians maintained a permanent settlement here, and Waymouth, the
English explorer, wrote in his journal that the Indians allowed him to fill
his casks at this spring.
Along the route here is an exceptional panoramic view (R) of Casco Bay
and its islands.
At 61.4 m. (R), in the Westcustogo neighborhood (Ind.: 'clear tidal
river'), is a Burial Ground dating back to 1732. Just beyond is a group of
three large Old Houses. The most southerly of the houses is on the site of
Royall Garrison House, part of the property purchased by William Royall
in 1643. The house behind it stands on the site of the first church of Yar-
mouth built in 1729. The third house (1769) is on the site of the Loring
Garrison of the i7th century.
At 62.3 m. is the junction with State 115.
Left on State 115 is YARMOUTH (alt. 80, Yarmouth Town, pop. 2125), 0.4 m.
This seaport town on Casco Bay was settled in 1658, laid waste by Indians in 1673,
and resettled in 1713. Fishing and crab-meat packing are the major industries,
which have supplanted the shipping and shipbuilding of the igth century.
North Yarmouth Academy (R), on Main St., was founded in 1810.
At 66.8 m. is the junction with a local road.
Left on this road to the Desert of Maine (adm. 25^), 2 w., covering 300 acres and
surrounded by forests and green farm lands. Such miniature Saharas are not un-
usual in coastal areas.
The first patch of sand, noticed in the latter part of the igth century, was about 30
feet square. The sand stratum is at present around the 3oo-acre (1937) area for a
radius of 6 miles. In this circle a top layer of loam is either being covered or worn
by frequent sandstorms. Some geologists believe the spot covers the bed of an
ancient lake, perhaps formed by glacial deposits, for a glint of mica is apparent in
the sand which is very fine in texture. Sandstorms constantly raise and lower the
desert level as the erosion creeps outward, the sand covering everything in its path,
creating 30-foot gullies and high dunes. The tops of trees once 70 feet high appear
as bushes, and strangely enough are still alive. Among them is an apple tree which
Still blossoms and bears fruit.
214 High Roads and Low Roads
FREEPORT (alt. 140, Freeport Town, pop. 2184), 68 m., a pleasant,
tree-shaded old village, is often referred to as the Birthplace of Maine,
because the final papers for the separation of Maine from Massachusetts,
which established it in 1820 as an independent State, are said to have been
signed here by commissioners from Massachusetts and the Province of
Maine, probably in Jameson's Tavern (1779), just north of the post
office (L).
When Freeport was incorporated in 1789 it was named for Sir Andrew
Freeport, the character in Addison's 'Spectator Papers' who represented
the London merchant class. Whether the town namer admired Addison
or, what is more probable, the prosperous conservative whom he presented,
is unknown.
There was a time when Freeport had a prosperous shipbuilding business,
but it is now engaged in shoemaking, crabbing, and crab-meat packing.
The crab-meat is picked from the shells by groups of young women and
shipped in iced cartons.
Freeport, like almost every other old town along this coast, has its story of
an Indian attack. In 1756, Thomas Means, living near Flying Point, was
surprised in his bed and scalped; his wife and infant son were killed by a
single bullet; two other children crept into hiding and escaped. The In-
dians took Mrs. Means' sister Mary away with them to Canada, where
she became a housemaid in the home of one of the French feudal lords.
She was later rescued by William McLellan, whom she married.
Right from Freeport on a dirt road to an old Cemetery, 0.6 m. (R), that is the burial
place of many sea captains and seamen of the area.
PORTER'S LANDING, 1.2 m., the commercial center in Freeport's shipping
days, is now a dignified residential section in which the old homes have been en-
tirely modernized.
At 2.7 m. is a four corners in SOUTH FREEPORT, the street (L) leading to the
village center. South Freeport, at the mouth of Harraseeket River on Freeport
Harbor, which is navigable throughout the year, has been a fishing center from its
earliest days, assuming its greatest importance between 1825 and 1830 when as
many as 12,000 barrels of mackerel were packed and shipped annually. Of late
years it has specialized in crab-meat packing. In 1878 the 'John A. Briggs,' one of
the largest wooden vessels built on the Maine coast up to that time, was launched
here.
Left, beyond the four corners, are the ruins of Casco Castle, once a picturesque
summer hotel modeled after a medieval stronghold. The tower, all that remains of
the hotel, which was burned in 1904, is a round solid structure of field-stone about
80 feet high with walls 3 feet thick. Standing on an eminence overlooking the bay,
it has long been a landmark for fishermen.
At 68.9 m. is the junction with a dirt road.
Left on this road is Shiloh, 10 m. (services at noon Sun.*), which has received
national attention from time to time as the home of the Holy Ghost and Us
Society, a religious sect with Adventist beliefs, founded by the Reverend Frank W.
Sandford, the 'Elijah' of the early i goo's.
Sandford's cult brought converts from many parts of the world to pour their
money into a common fund. Men and women sold their worldly possessions and
turned the proceeds over to him. The colony flourished for a time, practicing
various crafts. When the world did not end as he had predicted after ordering a
TOUR 1: From Portsmouth to Clair 215
ceaseless night-and-day vigil of prayer in the high tower on the main building,
Sandford announced that the Almighty had commissioned him to go forth and
convert the heathen. When he prayed for means to accomplish this, a $10,000
check appeared. Forthwith, he purchased a i5o-ton sailing vessel, the 'Coronet,'
and set sail from Portland Harbor with a flowing beard, purple robe, sailor hat, and
Bible underarm. Several voyages were made in various ships without noticeable
results. During the last voyage, made in the 'Coronet' in 1912, after many hard-
ships and privations, eight members of the party died of scurvy; when the ship
returned to Portland Harbor, Sandford had trouble with the authorities. When
he returned to Shiloh, two years later, he found his old power gone, his people
scattered, and he subsequently dropped from sight. The buildings, on a high,
windswept hill, are unusual. The square, hip-roofed, three-story main struc-
ture, on a high foundation, has a large five-story tower on its front, each story of
the tower containing a large room and the top floor having protruding bay windows
on each side; the tower is surmounted with a high-domed cupola supported by very
slender columns. Between the main building and two-story, towered wings are
three-story ornamental gateways with arched doors. Broad piazzas with balustrades
on the roofs surround the three buildings.
In 1936, after many years of neglect, the place was repaired and the towers re-
gilded. A small group of cultists lives here but does not welcome curious visitors.
When rumors reached Portland of renewed activities under the leadership of
Sandford's son and of the reconditioning of the ' Coronet,' reporters were sent to
investigate; the residents refused to answer questions concerning the whereabouts
of the elder Sandford.
Services are held in a well-carpeted room seating 200. During prayer all persons
kneel with elbows on chairs, various members introducing the prayers as called
upon by the speaker. While visitors are now invited to these services, none may
inspect other buildings or the grounds at any time.
BRUNSWICK (alt. 30, Brunswick Town, pop. 7604) (see BRUNS-
WICK), 76.9 m., is at the junction with US 201 (see Tour 10).
Sec. b. BRUNSWICK to BELFAST, 79.3 m.
East of Brunswick US 1 runs through the old shipbuilding city of Bath,
crosses the Kennebec River, and gradually swings northeast to follow the
western edge of Penobscot Bay. The countryside is fairly open with
distant views of the ocean. Houses belong chiefly to the igth century and
there are few signs of recent prosperity. The area around Camden is
particularly beautiful, the hills being covered with the evergreens that are
increasingly present as the route moves northeast.
US 1 leaves BRUNSWICK (see BRUNSWICK) 0 m.
At 0.4 m. is the junction with State 24 (see Tour ID).
BATH (alt. 50, pop. 9110), 9 m., named for the ancient city of Bath,
England, has a history of almost two centuries of shipbuilding, though its
yards turn out comparatively few vessels today. Its heyday was in the
wooden-ship era, though the first steel sailing vessel, a four-master, was
built here. Naturally, many of its inhabitants have been shipmasters and
shipowners, and the older homes are filled with souvenirs from far parts
of the earth — printed India linens, teakwood chests, blue and white
ginger jars from Canton, and strangely shaped sea shells. During the
World War the local yards were active again, attracting several thousand
workmen, but the revival was temporary. The chief event in local life
216 High Roads and Low Roads
still is, however, as it has long been, the launching of a new craft; and the
townspeople follow the histories of Bath ships with pride.
Bath Iron Works (visited by permit), in the center of the city at Union and
Water Sts. below the Carlton Bridge, was founded by General Thomas
Hyde after his return from the Civil War. Some fairly large and many
small Government vessels have been built here, including the battleship
'Georgia,' cruisers, and lighthouse tenders. Many fine yachts and sail-
boats have also come from this plant which built the 1937 America's
Cup winner, the 'Ranger.'
Near-by are other shipbuilding works that can make any but the largest
vessels.
The new Davenport Memorial Building, right on Front St., housing the
Bath municipal offices, has in its tower a bell cast in 1805 at the Paul
Revere foundry. The Davenport Memorial Museum, in the building, con-
tains ship paintings and original half-models from which were built
famous Kennebec merchantmen and vessels launched in other Maine
ports, as well as many exhibits of importance in Maine marine history.
In the beautifully landscaped City Park, on Front St., is a cannon taken
from the British man-of-war 'Somerset,' which was 'swinging wide at her
moorings ' in Boston Harbor when Paul Revere made his ride. The cannon
was used for the firing of salutes at Bath until the latter part of the igth
century.
The Apartment House, 3 North St., corner of Front St., formerly a rather
pretentious old home, was between 1915 and 1924 occupied by Madame
Emma Fames (1867- ), the operatic star, and her husband, Emilio De
Gogorza, the baritone.
The home of Herbert L. Spinney (open), 75 Court St., houses a Collection
of Native Flora and Fauna. Mr. Spinney was associated with the Smith-
sonian Institution for many years.
In Bath is the junction with State 209 (see Tour IE).
Left from Bath on Washington St., at 1.6 m. and opposite Harward St., is the Old
Peterson House, on the river bank. The place is an architectural curiosity that was
built (1770) by ship carpenters for the King's timber agent. The mass of the build-
ing is broad at the base and narrow at the top; the door jambs, windows, and win-
dow frames follow the lines of the house. The front lawn is the site of the dock at
which were loaded the tree trunks that had been marked with a 'broad arrow,'
indicating that they were sacred to the Royal Navy. These trees were intended for
masts and were at least 24 inches in diameter. The resentment of the people of
Maine against the commandeering of their best mast pines drove them into the
revolt that became a revolution.
Left from Washington St. on Harward St.; at 1.8 m. is the junction with High St.;
left here to Whiskeag Rd. ; right on the latter to (L) the Stone House (private), 2.1 m.,
a structure with cathedral-like doors and windows that was erected in 1805 and
became the home of Maine's first (1820) Governor, William King. It is said to have
been built as a hunting lodge by Englishmen.
East of Bath US 1 crosses Carlton Bridge (50^ toll) built in 1927, which
spans the Kennebec River. It commands a sweeping view of the river,
waterfront, and city.
TOUR 1: From Portsmouth to Clair 217
The Kennebec is one of the historic rivers of America. It was one of the
earliest explored streams on the coast of North America; various adven-
turers had made fragmentary reports on it before 1600 and Champlain
and Waymouth had explored it to some extent before 1606. It was named
as one of the boundaries of various large land grants made during the race
between the French and the British for control of the continent. In the
middle of August, 1607, George Popham and Raleigh Gilbert, command-
ing the expedition promoted by Sir Ferdinando Gorges and Sir John Pop-
ham, sailed up the river, passing the place now spanned by the bridge in
their search for a site for the colony (see Tour IE) that was to send fur,
sassafras, and other commodities back to England to make fortunes for
the London investors. Two decades later it saw a steady stream of
traffic to and from the trading settlement at the present Augusta made
by the ' Undertakers ' of Plymouth, and it was the rich cargoes that came
down its waters that saved the Massachusetts settlement from ex-
tinction. Since that time the river has been the scene of continuous
activity, of log-drives, ship launchings, commercial travel, power develop-
ment, and, not least important, hunters' and fishermen's treks.
WOOLWICH (alt. 30, Woolwich Town, pop. 671), 10.2 m., is on the
east bank of the Kennebec River opposite the city of Bath. Shipbuilding
and fishing for shad and sturgeon were the early industries, now replaced
by farming, dairying, and orcharding. The canning of corn, peas, and
beans is here rapidly increasing in volume.
In Woolwich is the junction with State 127 (see Tour IF).
Left from Woolwich on State 127, to DAY'S FERRY (alt. 20, Woolwich Town),
3 m., is the Appleton Day House (R), built in 1777 on the site of the Samuel Harn-
den blockhouse. It is a two-and-a-half-story frame house with a fireplace in each
room. The chimneys and fireplaces are constructed of locally made bricks. There
are three cellars under this house; legend has it that an underground passageway
extending from the cellars to the river was built for use in times of Indian attack.
Nequasset Meeting-House, 11.6 m. (L), the oldest meeting-house east
of the Kennebec River, was built in 1757. Here Josiah Winship, the
first permanent pastor, was ordained in 1765, when there were but 20
families and only two frame houses in the settlement.
At 14.7 m., is the junction with Montsweag Road, which is unmarked and
in poor condition.
Right on this road, at 4.4 m., is a view of Hockomock Bay, with its several islands.
At Phipps Point, 4.8 m. (R), in a private estate, is the site of Sir William Phips'
home. Phips was born in Maine in 1651 of a poverty-stricken family and worked
as a shepherd and ship carpenter until he was 25, when he went to sea; he learned
to read and write in Boston and decided to make his fortune by treasure hunting,
managing in 1683 to receive a commission from the English Crown for the recovery
of treasure in a ship sunk off the Bahamas. He was successful in this enterprise,
receiving £16,000 and a knighthood as his reward. He next commanded an expedi-
tion that captured Port Royal without difficulty but his second expedition to
Canada failed. Through the wirepulling of Cotton Mather he was appointed
Royal Governor of Massachusetts; he lacked the tact and education, however, to
enable him to cope with the problems that confronted him and became involved in
difficulties that resulted in his recall to England. He died there in 1695 during an
investigation of the charges against him.
2i 8 High Roads and Low Roads
WISCASSET (Ind.: 'meeting of three tides' or 'rivers') (alt. 50, Wis-
casset Town, pop. 1186), 19.3 m., seat of Lincoln County, is a charming
town with little more than half the population it had in 1850, when it was
still a fairly important port on the west bank of the wide Sheepscot River.
Its beautiful old homes, most of which were built by shipping merchants
and sea captains, are now occupied in part by artists and writers who
have been attracted by the distinctive charm of the place. The town,
formerly much larger in area than it now is, was called Pownalborough in
honor of Royal Governor Pownal until 1802. Settlement began here in
the middle of the iyth century but the place was abandoned during King
Philip's War and was not again occupied until 1730.
Open House Day is held annually in August (adm. $2), the funds going to
the support of the town library. On this day the beautifully furnished
old homes, some occupied by descendants of the original owners and
others by summer residents, are opened to the public and collections of
old and new craft work are displayed.
The Nickels-Sortwell House (1807-08), corner of Main and Fort Sts.,
one of the largest mansions of its period in Wiscasset, is a massive three-
story structure with a one-story entrance portico, Corinthian pilasters, a
long central Palladian window in the second story, and a large semi-
circular window above it interpolated between the square windows on
each side in the third story. This unfortunate arrangement of windows is
a characteristic central motif of the facade in houses on the Maine coast.
The inharmonious railing above the portico is a later addition (about
1890). An interesting variation in the detail of the main cornice is the
omission of the modillions and the use of a double row of dentils in their
place. The main portal with itselliptical fan-light and elaborately mullioned
side-lights is particularly notable for slender pilasters and delicately carved
transom rail and architrave. The face of the pilasters is carved in herring-
bone pattern.
The Abiel Wood House (1812), cor. High and Lee Sts., though built a few
years later than the Nickels House, is almost a duplicate of it. The Wood
House, however, has greater distinction because of the more pleasing pro-
portions of its Palladian window, and the lack of such superficial em-
bellishments as the Corinthian pilasters. It was restored to its original
lines in 1936.
The Clapp House, or Lilac Cottage, on US 1 opposite the Common, is an
old story-and-a-half structure of unknown date, now painted white with
green shutters. The front yard, which is fragrant with lilacs in the spring,
is enclosed by a picket fence.
The Lincoln County Courthouse (1824), on the Common, contains a jail
that was at one time a State prison. This building, the oldest in which
court is still held in Maine, at one time resounded the rolling periods of
Daniel Webster.
The Lee-Pay son-Smith House, right on High St., opposite the library,
is still owned by the descendants of Samuel E. Smith, who was Governoi
TOUR 1: From Portsmouth to Clair 219
of Maine 1831-34. It was erected in the early igth century and admirably
illustrates the skill of the carpenter-architects of the day and their sensi-
tive appreciation of classic detail executed in wood. The distinctive
charm of this square, two-story frame house, with its clapboard front,
brick ends, hip roof topped with a captain's walk, and low service wings,
is found in its refinement of detail and subtle proportions, which attain
an almost monumental quality. Perhaps the most notable feature of the
exterior is the fine modillioned and dentiled cornices, both on the main
section of the house and on the ells at the side; its thin acute-angle profile,
combined with the low pitch of the roof, gives an effect of singular grace
and delicacy. The Ionic pilasters, placed at some distance from the
corners of the main facade, are carved in somewhat heavier detail. The
open railing around the captain's walk, suggesting a Chippendale pattern,
is very well proportioned to the mass of the house.
In the Town Library, High St. (open weekdays 2-5.30), is a very old piece
of fire apparatus, a hand-drawn affair, equipped with two leather buckets,
two cotton bags for use in carrying small articles from burning buildings,
and a bed key for unfastening beds preparatory to their removal. The
Wiscasset Fire Society, organized in 1801, though no longer active in a
fire-fighting capacity, has maintained many of its old-time rules and
regulations and members are still fined 10^ if they are absent from meet-
ings.
The Tucker Mansion, or Tucker Castle, east end of High St., was built in
1807, of curious architecture, and is said to be a copy of a castle in Dun-
bar, Scotland. The piazza was added in 1860. Inside, a slender spiral
staircase with mahogany balustrades rises in the center of the hall. Pa-
tience Tucker Stapleton, daughter of a sea captain and author of ' Trail-
ing Yew' and other stories, lived here in her youth.
At Wiscasset is a junction with State 27 (see Tour 12) and State 218.
Left from Wiscasset on State 218 to (L) the old Alna Meeting-House (apply at
Walker House, next door, for admission), 7.1 m. The original hand-hewn shingles
are in place on two of the weather-beaten sides of this old structure, which was
built in 1789, and on the north side are the original clapboards, shiplapped at the
northeastern corner against the storms. Curiously designed hand-wrought foot
scrapers grace the sides of the doorstep. The interior woodwork is very well
preserved; the box pews, with carved spindles, seated nearly five hundred people.
The raised hourglass pulpit, with a winding flight of steps and finely molded hand-
rail, is paneled in contrasting dark and light wood; above the pulpit is an octagonal
bell-shaped canopy and sounding board, and behind it is a long arched window
flanked by fluted pilasters. The pulpit, with an arrangement for accommodating
ministers of different heights, has been used by many men of varying oratorical
talents since Parson Wood, the first minister, preached of fire and brimstone and
fought in vain against the introduction of instrumental music.
HEAD TIDE (alt. 40, Alna Town), 10 m. This tiny village, consisting of a few
homes, one store, a church, and a sawmill, lies on both sides of the bridge that
crosses the Sheepscot River. The second house (L) on the road beyond the store is
the Birthplace of Edwin Arlington Robinson (see Tour 10).
Right at 20 m., at the east entrance of the long bridge over the Sheepscot
River, is the junction with a tarred road (see Tour 1G).
NEWCASTLE (alt. 60, Newcastle Town, pop. 914), 26.7 m., is a pleasant
22O High Roads and Low Roads
little community with tree-shaded streets on the bank of the Damariscotta
River, at a point where it widens considerably. Like many southern
Maine towns, Newcastle was settled early in the zyth century, but the
settlers, harassed by Indians, left their new homes repeatedly.
Left from Newcastle on a local road is (R), atop a hill, the Kavanaugh Mansion
(private), 2.6 m., built in 1803 and once owned by Edward Kavanaugh, acting
Governor of Maine in 1843. Tne two-story white building has an octagonal
cupola, a balustraded roof, and a fine doorway with fan-light and side-lights under a
semi-circular portico. Although slightly altered from its original form, it retains an
old-fashioned charm.
St. Patrick's Roman Catholic Church (open), 2.8 m. (R), built 1803-08, was ded-
icated by Father Jean de Cheverus (1768-1836), who became the first Roman
Catholic bishop of New England in 1808. Bishop Cheverus came to America from
France in 1796 and did some work among the Indians of the Maine coast. In the
final year of his life, after his return to France, he was made a cardinal.
This thick-walled old church has a 25o-year-old altar-piece from France. Some of
its paintings were taken from a Mexican convent during the Mexican War. The
present altar is of the sarcophagus type, unusual in the United States; in the
chancel is the original altar.
DAMARISCOTTA (alt. 30, Damariscotta Town, pop. 825), 26.9 m., is a
tiny village on low land in a bend of the Damariscotta River.
The digging of clams, which are served extensively in the many near-by
summer hotels and eating places, and are shipped away in refrigerated
cars, is an important local industry. The clammers, who live in shacks
near the salt water during the summer, tap along the beaches at low tide,
causing the clams, disturbed by the vibrations, to spout out tiny streams
of water that betray their hiding places in the mud.
At Damariscotta is the junction with State 129 (see Tour \H).
Between a white house and a barn at 28.4 m. is the junction with a dirt
road.
Left on this road, which runs through a pasture, to Shell Heaps, 0.5 m., which have
been explored, leaving the strata exposed. Between the bottom layer and the
second, which is approximately 6 feet thick, is a layer of soil; in this second layer
the shells are mixed with the bones of animals. The top layer, containing smaller
shells, is covered with earth holding good-sized trees. The age of the heap is un-
known but the bottom layer was undoubtedly deposited many centuries ago. The
top deposit was made by the Abnaki Indians who came to this region in summer to
catch fish and smoke them for winter use.
NOBLEBORO (alt. 170, Nobleboro Town, pop. 599), 31.3 m., was part
of the Pemaquid Patent and named, when incorporated in 1788, for
Arthur Noble, one of the heirs of the proprietor.
At 37.8 m. is the junction with State 220.
Right on State 220 to WALDOBORO (alt. 120, Waldoboro Town, pop. 2311), 0.7
m., at the head of navigation on the Medomak River. It was named for General
Samuel Waldo, proprietor of the Waldo Patent, which included this township and
many hundred thousand other acres. The settlers, who arrived in 1748, were
Germans who had received special encouragement from General Waldo. The
town at one time had considerable prestige as a shipbuilding center, the first five-
masted steamer, the ' Governor Ames,' having been built here.
A seasonal local industry is the catching, packing, and shipping of alewives, com-
monly called herring. The village also has a pearl button factory and derives con-
TOUR 1 : From Portsmouth to Clair 221
siderable income from the summer tourist trade. Many local boats are hired for
deep-sea fishing, the catch including cod, cusk, hake, and halibut. Fly-fishing for
mackerel and pollock is popular with visitors in this area. Occasionally gamey
striped bass and very large tunas are secured in near-by waters.
The German Meeting-House (open for services once a year), on the west side of the
river, was built between 1770 and 1773. The 36X45 foot building has a large en-
trance porch. Inside, a gallery overlooks a hand-made communion table and
contribution boxes. The pews are unpainted. A cabinet contains a collection of
old German books and mementos.
Near-by is the old German Cemetery, with many unusual and interesting inscriptions
on grave markers. One bears the following:
"This town was settled in 1748 by Germans who immigrated to this place
with the promise and expectation of finding a prosperous city, instead of
which they found nothing but wilderness.'
On the eastern side of the river is the Residence of John H. Lovett, whose works on
bees and pollination are accepted as authoritative by the U.S. Department of
Agriculture.
FRIENDSHIP ^alt. 90, Friendship Town, pop. 742) , 10.1 m., a fishing village of small
neat homes, is at the end of a peninsula. Local travel here being generally by boat,
small floats or wharves appear at the ends of the side streets, which slope sharply
down to the shore. Pride in the building and care of small boats is traditional in
Friendship, as is evidenced by the large number of well-painted craft in the bay.
In a small building on the grounds of Dr. William H. Hahn (L) is an extensive
Collection of Glassware (seen at convenience of owner), consisting of about 1000
pieces, most of which are early American lamps. Dr. Hahn also has a collection of
ruby glassware and some old Roman and Turkish metal lamps.
Salt-water fishing, from both sail and motor boats, is the chief pastime in the
vicinity of Friendship, the coastal waters offering many kinds of fish. Casting for
mackerel has become popular, but heavy catches are often made by trolling in the
early morning and in the evening ; these fish are as lively and agile as trout. Gunners,
excellent pan fish 12 to 15 inches in length and up to 1^2 pounds in weight, are
usually caught on the incoming tides, with sharp hooks on straight poles baited
with worms, clams, or periwinkles. Pollock, gamey as salmon, are caught with a fly
rod by trolling bright flies in a swift current, or with herring attached to a colored
spinner. The silver hake, which when fresh is one of the most satisfying foods for a
hungry fisherman, can be caught from small boats near the shore.
As at other points on the Maine coast the skipper who takes parties out for deep-
sea fishing is generally an entertaining fellow who knows the fish runs, as well as
many fish stories; he furnishes tackle as well as good advice, and cooks a tasty
chowder.
Clambakes, another popular diversion, can be arranged at reasonable rates, if
assistance is wanted. A driftwood fire, built between granite boulders and reduced
to embers, is used to steam lobsters, clams, and crabs in pails of seaweed; potatoes
and corn, also cooked in seaweed, complete the menu.
Garrison 'Island (alt. 20, Friendship Town), off the extreme southern end of the
peninsula but connected with the mainland at low tide, is the site of a fort built
about 1755.
At 43.6 m. is a junction with State 137.
Left on State 137 is WARREN (alt. 70, Warren Town, pop. 1429), 1.3 m. In 1864,
after the recovery of Mrs. Mary Baker Glover Eddy — then Mrs. Patterson —
from a serious illness under the guidance of P. P. Quimby of Portland, Me., she came
to this village with another Quimby pupil, who had become much attached to her.
While here she gave a number of public lectures which she reported to the Portland
healer in a series of charming letters. The title of one lecture she wrote was publicly
advertised as 'P. P. Quimhy's Spiritual Science Healing Disease s ~~
222 High Roads and Low Roads
Deism or Rochester-Rapping-Spiritualism.' Her work here is considered by some
as the beginning of her career as the founder of Christian Science.
At 47.7 m. is the junction with State 131.
Left on State 131 is the entrance (L) to the Knox State Arboretum and the Academy
of Arts and Sciences, 1.1 m. (adm. free). In the arboretum are specimen trees,
shrubs, and wild flowers native to Maine. The museum, a two-story brick building,
has a valuable collection of Maine minerals, Red Paint and Indian artifacts, two
fine American bird collections, and a collection of sea shells and marine life in-
digenous to Maine.
Maine State Prison (visiting hours Tues. and Fri., 2.30^1), 48.2 m., on
Limestone Hill and surrounded by high gray walls of field stone, has ac-
commodations for 300 prisoners. The first, and possibly the only, military
execution in Maine took place on this site when Jeremiah Braun was
hanged on the charge of having guided a British raiding party that in 1780
captured General Peleg Wadsworth, a grandfather of Henry Wadsworth
Longfellow.
The prison site was sold to the State in 1824 by William King, Governor
of Maine in 1820.
Capital punishment was abolished in Maine in 1876, re-established in 1883,
and finally abolished in 1887 at the request of the Governor who said that
it had not deterred crime.
THOMASTON (alt. 100, Thomaston Town, pop. 2214), 48.7 m.
Steamship service to coastal points and Monhegan and other islands; schedules
vary; inquire at wharves.
Thomaston, lying at the head of the long narrow inlet into which St.
George River drains, is a favorite port of call of yachtsmen. Its main
street has many attractive old homes with notable doorways. A trading
post stood here in 1630 and occupation of the site was fairly continuous
in spite of Indian attacks, though actual settlement did not begin until
more than a hundred years later. Real development began after the
Revolutionary War; Henry Knox, who had made a name for himself at
the battle of Bunker Hill, who became a trusted adviser of Washington,
and who was Secretary of War both under the Confederation and during
Washington's first term as President, had married a granddaughter of
Samuel Waldo, proprietor of the enormous Waldo Patent (see above).
Through purchase and marriage he acquired a large part of the patent
and, at the close of his Cabinet career, came to live in Thomaston, which
had been incorporated in 1777. Knox made many plans for the develop-
ment of his holdings, trying shipbuilding, brickmaking, lime burning,
farming, lumbering, and many other industries, but, though an able
military man, he was a poor businessman. His open-handed hospitality
contributed to his failure to amass a fortune.
The community prospered, however, and was at one time active in ship-
building, reaching its peak of prosperity and population about 1840, when
its population was three times as large as it is today.
The plain frame Cilley House (private}, 25 Main St., was the home of
Jonathan Cilley, a Congressional Representative from Maine, when he
TOUR 1 : From Portsmouth to Clair 223
was killed in a duel in February, 1838, on the old Bladensburg, Maryland,
dueling ground, close to the District of Columbia Line. Cilley had risen in
Congress to denounce an article that had appeared in an anonymous
gossip column of a New York newspaper with a charge of immorality
against another Congressman. He fastened the blame for the article on a
Virginian, was challenged to a duel by William Graves, a Representative
from Kentucky, and fell at the third shot.
On a hill (R) at 49.5 m. is Montpelier (open daily 10-6, June 1 to Nov. 1;
adm. 50^), a recent reproduction of the home built in 1793 by General
Henry Knox (see above}. This large, imposing two-story and basement
structure has a low roof surrounded by a balustrade and surmounted with
a monitor that rises between the four inside chimneys. The central third
of the facade is elliptical and ornamented by four engaged columns; the
pedimented doorway is reached by a stairway leading to a wide roofless
piazza. The 18 rooms of the house are furnished with old pieces, many of
them from the original structure; they also contain many relics of the
general and a portrait of him by Gilbert Stuart.
At 49.6 m. is (R) a junction with State 131 (see Tour I/).
At 50.2 m. (R) is the Lawrence Portland Cement Company Plant (not open
to visitors), one of the largest of its kind in New England. The quarry is
between the highway and the plant.
ROCKLAND (alt. 40, pop. 9075), 53 m., separated from Thomaston and
incorporated in 1848 as East Thomaston, is a trading center and shire
town for Knox County. The many summer residents and visitors have
been a good source of trade. The city fronts on the fine harbor that the
Indians called Catawamkeag (great landing place). Fishing, shipping,
shipbuilding, and limestone quarrying have been the chief industries of
the past.
The Birthplace (1892) of Edna St. Vincent Millay, the poet, is at 200
Broadway.
The Community Yacht Club and Public Landing, Main and Pleasant Sts.,
has floats, docks, and clubhouses for visitors.
At Rockland is a junction with State 17 (see Tour 17).
Right from Rockland on Main St.; at 2 m. left on a tarred road; at 2.1 m. left to
large triangular Range Beacons, 3.7 m. These open structures are used by vessels of
the U.S. Navy in sighting their positions on the measured trial course off Rockland,
rked by
ditioned are sent there for tests of speed and engine efficiency.
which is marked by six buoys. New vessels and old ones that have been recon-
OWL'S HEAD (alt. 40, Owl's Head Town, pop. 574), 4.6 m., a summer resort, lies
on the far end of a tree-sheltered cape. Visited by Champlain in 1605, it was then
called Bedabedec Point (Ind.: 'cape of the waters'). The town was the scene of a
bloody encounter in 1755 when Captain Cargyle, famous Indian fighter employing
Indian tactics, killed and scalped nine braves, receiving a bounty of £200 each.
During the Revolution and the War of 1812, British and American privateers were
active in near-by waters.
Left from Owl's Head to the heavily wooded U.S. Lighthouse Reservation at 5.3 m.
224 High Roads and Low Roads
Owl's Head Light (open 9-11.30 all year; 1-5 July- Aug.; 1-3 remainder of year), was
built in 1826, during the administration of President John Quincy Adams. The old
white tower is only 26 feet high; but because of its situation, the light can be seen
1 6 miles at sea. In summer, yachts cruising in these waters are welcomed by three
strokes of a bell. Snowshoeing parties from Rockland visit the snow-clad headland
in winter.
At 5.7 m. the road ends. From this point it is but a short walk to the shore where the
red and yellow quartz-streaked face of the headland, worn smooth by the pounding
of the surf, rears itself nearly 100 feet above sea level. Tall spruce, their roots
clinging tenaciously to the few inches of soil, crown the summit.
There is steamship service, also, from Rockland to the islands of Vinal-
haven, North Haven, Deer Isle, Isle Au Haut, and Swan's Island which
lie in broad Penobscot Bay and, to the east of it, in the Atlantic Ocean
(see Island Tours}.
NORTH HAVEN (pop. 476), about 12 miles from Rockland, at the mouth of
Penobscot Bay, is a fashionable area with a number of summer estates. There is a
flying field here.
VINALHAVEN (pop. 1843), is south of North Haven, with which it is con-
nected by ferry. It also has many large summer homes. The town was settled in
1789 and when incorporated, 14 years later, was named for John Vinal of Boston.
It has a larger permanent population than North Haven because of its active
franite quarries, from which came the 51 to 55 foot monoliths of the Cathedral of
t. John the Divine in New York City.
DEER ISLE (pop. 1226), on the eastern side of Penobscot Bay, is an hourglass-
shaped area, about 12 miles in length. It has much charm but has received little
development, which is a satisfaction to those who cherish its primitive character.
Its permanent inhabitants are skilled boatmen, some of them having manned
yachts in the international races.
ISLE AU HAUT (pop. 89), presenting a headland to the Atlantic some miles
south of Deer Isle, is the administrative headquarters of Isle Au Haut Township,
which contains about a dozen smaller islands. It is chiefly visited by the more
hardy summer visitors. The near-by waters have been the scene of a number of
wrecks.
At 54.3 m. is the junction with Waldo Ave.
Right on Waldo Ave. to the Rockland Breakwater which extends from Jameson
Point nearly i mile across the harbor entrance and makes an excellent point from
which to survey the city and environs. There is a Lighthouse at the end of the
breakwater.
ROCKPORT (alt. 100, Rockport Town, pop. 1651), 59.4 m., another
town with a diminishing population, was set off from Camden in 1891.
From the bridge at the southern end of the village is a remarkable view of
the harbor and of the white lighthouse jutting out on the point. Goose
River forms a V-shaped waterfront that has been landscaped by Mrs.
Mary Louise Bok (see below}. Unusually interesting are the Old Lime
Kilns near-by.
Spite House (R), on Deadman's Point, was moved in 1925 over land and
water from Phippsburg, 85 miles away, by Donald W. Dodge of Phila-
delphia. The story of this house is closely associated with the James
McCobb House at Phippsburg Center (see Tour IE). James McCobb,
prominent Phippsburg citizen of his time, was three times married and
built the so-called Minott House in Phippsburg for his second wife.
Some time after his third marriage, the elder McCobb died while hic v»r
TOUR 1 : From Portsmouth to Clair 225
Thomas was at sea. Mrs. McCobb, who had also been previously married,
arranged a marriage between a son by her first husband and the sister of
Thomas McCobb, thereby obtaining practical control of one of the largest
estates in the section. When Thomas McCobb returned and learned of
the marriage and its consequences, he became incensed and declared he
would build himself a mansion large enough and sufficiently grand to
overshadow the residence occupied by his stepmother. In 1806 he built
this beautiful structure, which, from the day of its completion, has borne
its present name.
CAMDEN (alt. 100, Camden Town, pop. 3606), 61 m., one of Maine's
loveliest towns, lies ' under the high mountains of the Penobscot, against
whose feet the sea doth beat,' as Captain John Smith described the site.
Champlain, who visited the Penobscot in 1605, named the Camden Hills
the 'mountains of Bedabedec' on his map; so steeply do they rise from
the blue waters of Penobscot Bay, that the magnificent yachts dropping
anchor all summer long in the harbor seem from a distance to ride in the
heart of the business district.
The town has developed rapidly as a small summer resort in recent years,
the estate valuation now being more than half that of Bar Harbor. It has
also become a winter sports center. The summer residents have taken
particular interest in the landscaping of the town, a project that is
stimulated by annual contests in which prizes are awarded.
Behind the Camden Public Library, Main St., is an Amphitheater with a
seating capacity of 1500, landscaped with native trees, shrubs, and plants.
The old Camden Opera House, cor. Elm and Washington Sts., has been
remodeled into a modern auditorium with elaborate interior decorations.
Mrs. Mary Louise Bok, daughter of the late Cyrus H. K. Curtis, a
summer resident for many years, has been a leader in carrying out many
municipal improvements. A notable group of musicians, including Josef
Hoffman, pianist, make their summer homes in Camden.
1. Left from Camden on Mechanic St., the southern section of State 137; straight
ahead (R) from State 137 at 1 m.\ left at 1.5 m., passing a lake at 3.4 m.; left at 3.5
m. and again at 3.7 m. to the Camden Bowl, in which carnivals and competitive
sports events are held in summer and winter.
2. Left from Camden on Mountain St., which enters the northern section of State
137, at 1 m., is the junction with a trail leading to the summit of Mount Battle (alt.
800). From this height, occupied by cannon during the War of 1812, are beautiful
views of Penobscot Bay and the surrounding hills. An area of approximately 6000
acres between Lake Megunticook and the seashore, including part of Mt. Megunti-
cook, Mt. Battie, and Bald Mountain is being proposed for National park devel-
opment.
At 71.7 m. is a junction with a gravel road.
Right on this road is NORTHPORT (alt. 140, Northport Town, pop. 413), 0.5 m.,
near Saturday Cove, an arm of Penobscot Bay; many delightful woodland walks
lead from the village to the shore.
At 78.3 m. is (R) the Belfast City Park with excellent camping and trailer
facilities.
BELFAST (alt. 160, pop. 4993), 79.3 m., a popular tourist center and
226 High Roads and Low Roads
seat of Waldo County, has parallel streets that follow a rolling terrain,
which rises in a majestic sweep from the banks of the Passagassawakeag.
Its highest points command a view over the island-sprinkled waters of
Penobscot Bay.
The town was named for Belfast, Ireland, by a group of Scotch-Irish
settlers who came to the place in 1770, after having tried settlement at
Londonderry, N.H. Belfast was harassed by the British in 1779 and its
settlers were driven away, but they successfully re-established themselves
five years later. The city reached its peak of population in 1860 with
5520 inhabitants, but has since achieved prosperity by catering to the
many summer residents and visitors.
Reminiscent of an earlier prosperity are the many fine old houses, whose
chief interest lies in their variation on the standard igth-century archi-
tecture.
The James P. White House (private), 30 Church St., is a simple white
structure built in 1825. Fine old elms shade the broad lawn, which is sur-
rounded by a picket fence.
The Clay House (private), 130 Main St., opposite Waldo Ave., was built
in 1825. It is an attractive structure of the Greek Revival type with
Doric columns.
The Old Johnson House, 100 High St., set in beautiful grounds, is a hip-
roof structure with a lookout, built in 1812. The Corinthian columns on
the front and sides may be later additions. Its shutters were the first used
in Belfast.
The Ben Field House (private)^ 137 High St., is a large, square, hip-roof
structure with a den tiled cornice, built in 1807.
The old Blaisdell House (private), 0.4 mile south of the center on High St.,
OH spacious grounds, has a portico with four Ionic columns and an
elaborately carved pediment.
At Belfast is a junction with State 3 (see Tour 16).
1. Left from the center on Main St., State 3; right at 0.2 m. on Waldo Ave. to the
junction with Poor Mills Rd. at 1.4 w.; left here to the old Joseph Miller Tavern,
2.4 m. (R). It has the only salt-box roof left in Belfast, tiny panes in the windows,
and no eaves, a characteristic of early building in the vicinity.
2. North from the center on High St. at 1.2 m. (R) is the Otis House (private),
a one-and-a-half-story gable-end house on Nickerson Hill, overlooking the river;
it was built in 1800.
3. Visible from Belfast's waterfront, and lying about 6 miles offshore in Penobscot
Bay, is Islesboro, a long, low, tree-clad island reached from Belfast. (See Island
Tours.)
Sec. c. BELFAST to ELLSWORTH, 61.3 m.
North of Belfast US 1 continues to follow the west bank of the Penobscot,
running through scenic country to Bangor; at Bangor it cuts sharply SE.
to reach the coast again, traversing placid farmlands that contrast with
the wooded hills.
TOUR 1 : From Portsmouth to Clair 227
US 1 leaves BELFAST (see Tour 1, sec. b),Qm.
On the northern outskirts of the city, 0.5 m., the route crosses Passa-
gassawakeag River on the Belfast Memorial Bridge, which is dedicated to
Waldo County's enlisted men in the World War. From a hill beyond the
bridge are seen, to the rear, the dark red warehouses of Belfast's water-
front. From US 1, between this point and Belfast, are a succession of
views of the waters of Penobscot Bay and its islands.
At 1.9 m. is (L) Stephenson Tavern (private}, a story-and-a-half house of
simple lines, built in 1800; there is a well sweep in the front yard. The old
pine sign, bearing a black horse and the name of Jerome Stephenson, is so
weather-beaten that the painted horse and lettering stand out a quarter
of an inch.
SEARSPORT (alt. 50, Searsport Town, pop. 1414), 5.9 m., has a small,
compact business district on its main street (US 1). The rest of the village
stretches along the highway, which affords many vistas of Penobscot Bay.
In the heyday of New England shipping, Searsport was known as the
home of expert seamen, and it has been the birthplace of many United
States naval officers. As a terminus of the Bangor and Aroostook Rail-
road, it ships much of the annual potato crop of Aroostook County.
In an old brick house that was built in the village during the days of the
town's prosperity, is housed the Penobscot Marine Museum, containing
an unusually fine collection of relics and papers connected with the ships,
shipowners, and captains of the days when the Penobscot was one of the
most important shipbuilding centers of the Nation.
At 6.2 m. (R) stands the Home of Lincoln Colcord, a writer of sea stories and
the son of a sea captain; he was born off Cape Horn. His home, for several
generations the snug haven to which his adventurous forebears retired at
the end of their voyages, is beautifully situated above the bay.
In this area US 1 passes many estates, also many farms that have achieved
prosperity by catering to the needs of their summer neighbors.
STOCKTON SPRINGS (alt. 150, Stockton Springs Town, pop. 877),
10.1 m., has become relatively prosperous because of its fish canneries and
fertilizer factories. In 1890 an attempt was made to exploit the spring for
which the town was named but failed when it was found that sediment
settled in the bottles when the water was ready to market.
Here is a junction with State 3 (see Tour IK).
PROSPECT (alt. 90, Prospect Town, pop. 388), 14.6 m.
Right from Prospect on State 174 is Fort Knox, 2.5 m., now a State reservation. The
site for this fort was selected during the days of the heated boundary disputes with
Great Britain, but work was not begun until 1846; the fort was never entirely
completed, though troops were trained here during the Civil War. This massive
structure was built of Mt. Waldo granite and commands one of the most beautiful
views on the Penobscot River.
A short distance beyond Fort Knox is the western approach to the Waldo-
Hancock Bridge (toll, 50*f) on State 3 (see Tour IK).
The granite ledges of Mosquito Mountain, 16.6 m., rise sharply (L).
228 High Roads and Low Roads
At 17.4 m., along both sides of the road, is the Mt. Waldo Granite Corpora-
tion Plant (open to public], with, near-by, the deep clefts from which
countless tons of fine granite have been quarried.
Mount Waldo (alt. 1062), highest of several small peaks in this region, can
be seen (L) at intervals. Mt. Waldo granite has been used in many
public buildings.
The flat lands here bordering the river are one of the several points on the
Maine coast where Captain Kidd is said to have buried a part of his
treasure. A tinker who lived on the spot refused to allow searchers on the
property; after his death a number of attempts were made to find the
supposedly hidden jewels and gold. Legend has it that the hunters were
frightened away by mysterious noises from the earth; no treasure has
ever been found here.
FRANKFORT (alt. 180, Frankfort Town, pop. 468), 18.8 m., a village
shaded by huge century-old elms, belies its history of industrial prosper-
ity. Log cabins first appeared here in 1756, and a permanent settlement
was made in 1760. Shipbuilding began early and, by the time of the
Revolution, Frankfort was important enough to draw the attention of the
British Navy. Many of the 33 ships destroyed along the Penobscot in
1779 were tied up, or under construction, in this port. The English bom-
barded the settlement in 1814, subsequently occupying it.
In the vicinity of Frankfort, the road, which is very hilly and winding,
affords many panoramas of the valley. Small farms cling to the hillsides.
At 20.9 m. (L) is the Blaisdell House (closed), built 1798, a two-and-a-half-
story yellow structure with gable roof and two dormer windows.
WINTERPORT (alt. 80, Winterport Town, pop. 1437), 21.5 m., whose
name was derived from its position at the head of winter navigation on the
Penobscot River, had at one time some importance as a shipbuilding com-
munity and a port. In the 1936 State election Winterport was the first
and only town in Maine to use voting machines.
At 28 m. (R) is Dorothea Lynde Dix Memorial Park on the site of the Isaac
Hopkins farm, on which in 1802 the prison and almshouse reformer, for
whom the park is named, was born. When Miss Dix went to Boston as a
young girl, she was so shocked by conditions in public institutions that
she began a nation-wide campaign that resulted in marked reforms.
HAMPDEN HIGHLANDS (alt. 150, Hampden Town), 28.6 m., has
blue-green river vistas. In the latter part of May the numerous orchards
in the township and in Orrington across the Penobscot blanket the
countryside with translucent pink and white beauty and send forth a
delicate scent that permeates the whole area.
HAMPDEN (alt. 80, Hampden Town, pop. 2417), 29.8 m., on the banks
of the Penobscot River, a suburban village flanked by farms, was settled
in 1767, two years before Bangor, and for a long time rivaled that town
in importance. During the War of 1812 the British drove the outnum-
bered militia from the settlement.
TOUR 1 : From Portsmouth to Clair 229
Here is a junction with State 9 (see Tour 13).
Huge piles of pulpwood are seen in the Penobscot (R) as the route passes
through the outskirts of Bangor.
BANGOR (alt. 100, pop. 28,749) (see BANGOR), 34.8 m., is at a junction
with US 2 (see Tour 4).
BREWER (alt. 100, pop. 6329), 35.5 m., is a city somewhat over-
shadowed by Bangor, across the Penobscot River. It was named for
Colonel John Brewer who was one of the first settlers, as well as the first
postmaster. Once famous for the wooden ships built in its yards, the city's
present prosperity depends on the activity of pulp and paper mills.
Chillicote House, now an antique shop (L), at the corner of State and N.
Main Sts., is a conspicuous landmark standing at the crest of a short hill
that drops sharply to the east approach of the Bangor-Brewer bridge.
At 80 Chamberlain St. is the Joshua Chamberlain House (private).
General- Chamberlain, noted for his gallantry during the Civil War, re-
ceived the Congressional Medal of Honor for his part in the defense of
Little Round Top at Gettysburg; and as a further reward he was dele-
gated to review and receive the arms and colors of the Confederate Army.
In spite of repeated injuries received while in active service, he was able
to serve his State as Governor (1867-71), and Bowdoin College as
president (1871-83).
At Brewer is a junction with State 178 (see Tour 5).
At 38.1 m. is a sweeping view across valleys and mountains.
HOLDEN (alt. 190, Holden Town, pop. 543), 42.2 m. The Town HaU
and Grange Hall (R) mark the corporate and social center of the town-
ship. The National Grange of the Patrons of Husbandry, of which the
local lodges are members, was organized in 1867 by Oliver H. Kelley, an
employee of the U.S. Department of Agriculture who felt the need of a
fraternal organization to unite the farmers for social and educational pur-
poses. The lodges became politically important, serving as local forums;
they are particularly active in Maine. Grange suppers and meetings are
open to the public and visitors who want to study the State are advised to
attend the meetings, which are always advertised. The suppers are
standardized — baked beans, ham, cold slaw, pie and cake.
EAST HOLDEN (alt. 100, Holden Town), 43.5 m., is at a crossroads
where overnight cabins outnumber the residences.
At 46.4 m. is a beautiful view of Lake Lucerne.
LUCERNE-IN-MAINE (alt. 440, Dedham Town, pop. 279), 46.6 m., is
a resort on the shores of Lake Lucerne, drawing winter sports enthusiasts
as well as summer visitors. The Clubhouse (R), just off the highway, was
the halfway house on the old Bangor-Ellsworth stagecoach route; it has
been much remodeled. Thick woods nearly conceal (L) the huge log
tourist lodge and tennis courts and (R) a golf course, bridle paths, hiking
trails, and a bathing beach. This resort was carefully planned by the head
230 High Roads and Low Roads
of a lumbering firm who could not bear to see the natural beauty of the
lake shore and hills spoiled.
ELLSWORTH (alt. 100, pop. 3557), 61.3 m., the county seat and only
city in Hancock County, was settled in 1763. The community has seen
extensive lumbering operations, a period of shipbuilding, and an industrial
era brought about by the development of its water power. A large part of
the business district, and many of the old buildings, were destroyed by
fire in 1933, but the center has been rebuilt. Today the town is a happy
combination of gracious old homes and attractive modern business build-
ings. An example of this is the juxtaposition of the new City Hall, which
shows a Scandinavian influence, and the old white Congregational Church,
which dominate the business district from the east side of State Street
Hill. The latter, built in 181 2, has a portico with delicately fluted columns,
and a slender spire.
The sparkling Union River flows through the center of the city, and from
the bridge (R) a 6o-foot falls is visible.
The Black Mansion (open May 30-Nov. 1; adm. 50£), on W. Main St.,
built about 1802, was the home of Colonel John Black, land agent for
William Bingham who owned large tracts of land east of the Penobscot
River. Colonel Black's predecessor in the agency was his father-in-law,
Colonel David Cobb, an aide-de-camp of General Washington. The two-
story brick house, an elegant structure in the tiny frontier settlement, is of
modified Georgian design, with one-story wings that may have been added
after the main structure was built. An ornamental cornice and a balus-
trade surround the low roof. The main structure has no front entrance;
four triple-hung, shuttered windows open out on a low porch with five
Ionic columns, that runs the length of the main building and is surmounted
with a balustrade. A notable feature of the interior is the gracefully
curving staircase rising from the spacious hall that divides the house and
parallels its front. Many of Colonel Black's possessions and those his wife
inherited from her father are in the house; other articles have been added
since the house became public property in 1928. Among the valued relics
are a miniature of Washington by one of the Peales, a rare volume of the
Colonial laws of Massachusetts, and a high-backed Dutch chair with a
hinged seat that can be lengthened to form a couch or bed.
The Public Library (open 2 to 5), State St., once the Tisdale house, built
before 1820, retains many of its architectural features, such as arched
doorways and fireplaces.
At Ellsworth are junctions with State 3 (see Tour IK and Tour 2) and with
State 15 (see Tour 3).
Sec. d. ELLSWORTH to CALAIS, 123.9 m.
Following the coast for several miles, US 1 then passes through the hunt-
ing grounds of the Passamaquoddy Indians, which still provide good
sport in season. Broad blueberry plains stretch out to the north, and
numerous rivers and streams along the route provide excellent fishing.
TOUR 1: From Portsmouth to Clair 231
US 1 leaves ELLSWORTH (see Tour 1, sec. c),Qm.
At 1 m. is a junction with State 3 (see Tour 2).
At 3.6 m. is a magnificent view of the Schoodic Hills and Cadillac moun-
tain, also various other hills rising from and around Frenchman's Bay.
The region through which US 1 passes here has small farms that look
fairly prosperous, and much wooded land.
HANCOCK (alt. 40, Hancock Town, pop. 760), 9.1 m., was settled in 1764
and incorporated in 1828. In 1890 the township had a population of 1 190;
the decrease has been gradual.
At 11.8 m. is a striking view of Mt. Desert Island and its hills.
SULLIVAN (alt. 60, Sullivan Town, pop. 873), 12.3 m., a small hamlet, is
the corporate center of a township whose many summer homes are spread
out along US 1.
The Stone Store (closed), in the center of the village, is a two-story
gabled building, constructed of heavy blocks of stone.
At 18.5 m. is the junction with State 186 (see Tour 1Z,), which rejoins US 1
at 21.6 m.
GOULDSBORO (alt. 80, Gouldsboro Town, pop. 1115), 22 m., is princi-
pally a summer resort and small trading center for the Grindstone Neck
area. David Cobb made his home here from 1796 to 1808. During those
years he was one of the most influential citizens of Maine. In 1795, he was
appointed agent of the great Bingham estate (see Tour 1, sec. c), moving
to Gouldsboro in 1796, and in 1802 was sent to the Massachusetts Legisla-
ture to represent eastern Maine.
STEUBEN (alt. 40, Steuben Town, pop. 684), 26.8 m., when incorporated
in 1795, was named in honor of Baron von Steuben, inspector general of
the Continental Army.
MILBRIDGE (alt. 20, Milbridge Town, pop. 1207), 32.3 m., lies at the
mouth of the Narraguagus, its main street, which US 1 follows, paralleling
the river. From the highway at the southern end of the village there is a
fine view of the offshore islands (boats and guides for deep-sea fishing)^ .
Lumbering, lobster fishing, and farming are the main sources of liveli-
hood. A knitting mill is also in operation.
A boat once frequently seen along the Maine coast and still occasionally
found in some of the fishing villages of Nova Scotia is the pinky. ('Pinky7
is provincial English for ' small.') These boats, pointed at both ends, have
wide gunwales rising to meet in a stern overhang. In 1927, Howard L.
Chapelle, naval architect and author of ' The History of American Sailing
Ships/ revived the building of this type of craft in the Milbridge yard.
CHERRYFIELD (alt. 50, Cherryfield Town, pop. mi), 37.8 m., lies on
both sides of the Narraguagus River. The 'Belgrade,' a full-rigged bark
that carried 56 local men around Cape Horn to California in the days of
the gold rush, was built in this formerly active shipbuilding community.
Today lumbering and blueberry packing are the chief industries of the
232 High Roads and Low Roads
town. The highway here turns north along the eastern bank of the
river.
HARRINGTON (alt. 40, Harrington Town, pop. 862), 44.1 m., was
settled about 1765 and incorporated in 1797. Like many of the other
villages between this point and Ellsworth, its air of comfort and prosper-
ity depends largely on the money derived from the summer tourist trade.
Pleasant Bay is a favorite spot for deep-sea fishing.
At 47.1 m. is the junction with a dirt road, known locally as the Jeff Davis
Trail, which was cut in 1858 to enable members of the U.S. Coast Survey
to transport supplies and heavy instruments to the top of Humpback, or
Lead Mountain. Jefferson Davis, a close friend of Alexander Bache,
superintendent of the Coast Survey, was a guest at the survey camp
during the summer when the trail was cut.
Left on this road is COLUMBIA (alt. 60, Columbia Town, pop. 409), 1.5 m.,
settled soon after the Revolutionary War.
The road continues in a northwesterly direction on a 2oo-square-mile plateau,
where nearly 90 per cent of the country's blueberries are raised. Small brooks
meander through acres of the low bushes, which in mid- June are covered with in-
verted bell blossoms. Blueberry packing begins in August and lasts through1 Sep-
tember. Men in large straw hats, women in sunbonnets, and barefoot children
work from dawn to sundown raking, winnowing, and boxing the berries to be
trucked to the canning factories.
The blueberry industry has grown up in the wake of lumbering; the plants quickly
cover the thin sandy soil after the trees are cut, and they need little cultivation.
The land is burned over every third year to stimulate new growth. The spruce in
this area was removed in the first quarter of the i9th century to provide masts and
spars for ships built in the near-by yards. 'Blueberry plains' or 'barrens' as they
are locally called, are privately owned and protected by the State. 'Bootleg ber-
ries' — those stolen by night pickers — are not so common as they once were.
COLUMBIA FALLS (alt. 60, Columbia Falls Town, pop. 583), 48.9 m.,
was once a thriving lumber and shipbuilding center. Today the in-
habitants depend on general farming and the blueberry industry for a
livelihood. The prosperity that the town once knew is revealed by the
many fine old homes in the vicinity.
The Ruggles House (open), constructed after a design by Aaron Sherman
of Duxbury, Mass., who planned a number of homes in Washington
County, was built about 1820 for Judge Thomas Ruggles, a wealthy
lumber dealer. The house is notable for the delicate detail of its exterior
trim. The interior woodwork, executed by an unknown English artisan,
is unusually fine. In the drawing room are rope beadings on the cornices
of the fireplace, done with great skill; exquisite carvings on the molding
and delicate indentures on the chair rail of the wainscoting and on the
frames and sills of the wide-shuttered windows. The house is in the
process of restoration (1937), and workmen have uncovered rich mahog-
any-inlaid panels. Of particular interest is a swastika design which was
carved with a common penknife below the mantel of the dining room. It
is said that the villagers were so impressed by the delicacy of the work
that they believed the carver's knife was guided by the hand of an angel.
TOUR 1 : From Portsmouth to Clair 233
Arthur Train used the Ruggles house as the setting for his short story,
'The House that Tutt Built.'
The Maude Bucknam House, opposite the post office, a yellow Cape Cod
style dwelling with a wing, was built about 1820. It is notable for its
woodwork.
The Lippincott House, opposite the Bucknam House, is a square, hip-roof
house, with such interesting interior details as old-fashioned rope mold-
ings and many fireplaces.
At 50.2 m. is a junction with State 187.
Right on State 187, which cuts through the deep stillness of the woods and runs
along the western shore of Englishman's Bay for several miles, presenting many
attractive scenes, is JONESPORT (alt. 40, Jonesport Town, pop. 1634), 12.7 m.
Although it derives considerable income from summer visitors, Jonesport's princi-
pal means of livelihood are fishing and sardine packing. Jonesport became famous
as the background of a radio program, 'Sunday Night at Seth Parker's.' Island
views, camp sites, fishing, and beaches are its resort attractions.
In the harbor is Beats Island, reached from Jonesport by ferry. BEALS (alt. 40,
Beals Town, pop. 524) is a fishing community on Beals Island, as well as a summer
resort where the popular sport is deep-sea fishing.
There is a faithful congregation of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints
at Beals. In 1865, G. J. Adams, a disgruntled Mormon elder from Philadelphia, suc-
ceeded in spite of local opposition in recruiting followers here. Prevailing upon
many to sell their worldly goods, he organized the Palestine Emigration Association,
issuing a religious publication, 'The Sword of Truth and the Harbinger of Peace.'
After arrangements had been made with the Turkish Government, through the
Ameiican consul, 175 members left on a 52-day voyage to Palestine in the barken-
tine, 'Nellie Chapin,' and settled near Jaffa. Beset by internal dissensions, mis-
understandings with the natives, and disease caused by poor sanitary conditions,
the colony was disbanded within a year and the survivers returned to the United
States (see Education and Religion).
Barney's Point, on the island, was named for Barney Beal, a son of Manwaring
Beal, the first settler. The most colorful of the island legends are woven around the
bold exploits and feats of strength of 'Tall Barney,' who always wore a butcher's
coat and whose 6 feet 7 inches of brawn earned him fame as 'cock of the walk'
from Quoddy Head to Cape Elizabeth; it was said that when he sat in a chair his
hands touched the floor. Once, while he was fishing off Black's Island, armed
sailors, objecting to his proximity to English territory, boarded his sloop, intent on
capture at gun-point. Barney relieved the sailors of their guns, which he promptly
broke over his knee and tossed back into the British boat. When the Canadian
guards unwisely persisted in their intimidations, Barney twisted the arm of one
until he broke the bone. In Rockland, Barney was said to have felled a horse with
his fist, when a truckman drove too close to him. In a Portland saloon, without
argument or assistance, he proved to 15 men the folly of deriding a 'down-easter.'
Perio's Point, near the Freeman West Beal wharf, was named for Perio Checkers,
an Indian, who is the only man known to have scaled the perpendicular side of the
steep cliff at this point that still challenges climbers.
In the past, shipwrecks in this vicinity were frequent. Companies were formed on
the mainland to salvage boats and cargoes.
The Gravestone of Aunt Peggy Beal, in the cemetery near the public square, reminds
natives of how Aunt Peggy exorcised the powers of a witch, a Mrs. Thomas Hicks.
Mrs. Hicks had the habit of borrowing from Aunt Peggy; if Aunt Peggy refused to
lend what Mrs. Hicks wanted, it either died or disappeared. The last thing re-
fused was a sheep, which died the following day. A Salem sailor, who claimed to
know all about the handling of witches, told Aunt Peggy to build a hot fire and to
234 High Roads and Low Roads
hold the sheep over it until it was scorched all over. This was done. 'Now,' he
said, ' a boat will come over for something three times, and you must refuse each
time, even though the witch tells you where the article is.' It all came about as
the sailor predicted, so the story goes, and the day following the refusal of the third
article, Mrs. Hicks was dead.
Separated from its larger but much less populous neighbor, Great Wass Island, by
the Flying Place, a narrow strait, Beals Island affords views of surrounding islands
and curious sea-wrought rock formations. Play of surf is most spectacular on
stormy days in the Flying Place.
Great Wass Island Coast Guard Station is notable for its equipment and drills. The
Seacoast Mission Ship regularly visits the island lighthouse.
In this area US 1 continues through blueberry plains; the homes show few
evidences of prosperity, being weather-beaten and unpainted.
JONESBORO (alt. 60, Jonesboro Town, pop. 468), 57.6 m., a small farm-
ing community on the Chandler River, had a Revolutionary War heroine
in the person of Hannah Weston, a descendant of Hannah Dustin, who
became famous in the Indian massacre at Haverhill, Mass., in 1697.
With a younger sister, Hannah Weston carried 50 pounds of lead and
powder, collected from neighbors, through the woods from Jonesboro to
Machias for use during the 'Margaretta' episode (see below) in June, 1775.
The Grave of Hannah Weston is near the highway on the Charles Fish
farm at the northern end of the village.
At 59.3 m. is the junction with State 1A.
Left on State 1A is WHITNEYVILLE (alt. 70, Whitneyville Town, pop. 229),
4m., & small farming community on the western bank of the Machias River that is
the terminus of an annual spring log drive. It is also a terminus of the Grand
Lake-Machias Waters Canoe Trip (see Sports and Recreation: Canoeing). A marker
near the river indicates the spot where the 'Margaretta' was beached, after being
towed up the river following her capture, and concealed from the British by leafy
boughs.
State 1A runs through wide blueberry plains and rejoins US 1 at Machias, 8.5 m.
MACHIAS (Ind.: 'bad little falls') (alt. 80, Machias Town, pop. 1853),
65.1 m., seat of Washington County, lies along the Machias River; the
town formerly included what is now the town of Machiasport (see below).
The gristmill in the center of the bridge across the river looks down on the
narrow gorge through which the waters tumble and roar ceaselessly.
From the bridge are seen the buildings of the Washington State Normal
School on a high hill overlooking the town.
After the destruction of the Plymouth Colony trading post at Pentagoet
by the French, the English in 1633 here established another post under
command of Richard Vines, in a spot much closer to the French head-
quarters; La Tour, French Governor of Acadia, wiped it out almost at
once. In 1675 Rhodes, the pirate, used the site as a base for repairs and
supplies; a few decades later another pirate, Samuel Bellamy, came here
for the same purpose, and, liking the place and deciding that it offered
him security, determined to establish a permanent stronghold. Piracy
was rampant along the Atlantic seaboard at this time, partly because of
English and Spanish trade restrictions, designed to force colonists to buy
from the mother country alone; this created a good market for stolen
TOUR 1 : From Portsmouth to Clair 235
goods in the Colonies. Privateering provided good training for piracy, as
Cotton Mather warned in 1704 in one of his 'hanging sermons,' and many
men who started out to prey on shipping for their governments soon de-
cided to keep the booty for themselves. Bellamy, from all reports, devel-
oped a Robin Hood philosophy on the matter; when he had captured a
ship he would harangue its crew, invite them to join him, arguing that the
men had as much right to rob as had the shipowners, who were merely
powerful bandits who had had laws made to protect their operations.
When Bellamy determined to settle on the site of the present Machias, he
erected breastworks and a crude fort before leaving for another expedition
with three objectives — recruits, loot, and women. He had left the mouth
of the river and was plundering along the Nova Scotian banks when, by
mistake, he attacked a French naval vessel. His vessel, the 'Whidaw,'
was almost captured before he managed to escape. Sailing south, he had
further bad luck; he captured a New Bedford whaler, whose captain pre-
tended to join him and agreed to act as a navigator through the dangerous
reefs and shoals. The whaling captain did his part for a time and then
deliberately ran his ship aground on a sand bar near Eastham, Mass. The
pirate ship, following the lead of the whaler, went on the rocks, and
Bellamy and most of his crew drowned.
In 1763 the first permanent English colony was established by settlers
from Scarboro near Portland.
The Machias River has played an important part in the town's develop-
ment as a commercial lumber and shipbuilding center. One of the few re-
maining 'long lumber' log drives in Maine takes place on the Machias
River each spring. Logs are hauled over the snow to the landings, and
when the ice goes out of the river they are shoved into the fast-moving
water, which hurtles them downstream. When one of the numerous jams
occurs, a daring river driver walks out on it to pry loose the key log; if this
does not succeed the jam is blasted.
Burnham Tavern (open Sat. aft., June 1 to Oct. 1; small adm.fee), High and
Free Sts., a plain two-story gambrel-roofed structure with the lower sec-
tion of the roof broken back to a vertical wall with five windows, was
built in 1770 by Joe Burnham. Beneath each of the four cornerstones of
the building the owner placed a box containing a slip of paper inscribed
with the words 'hospitality,' 'cheer,' 'hope,' and 'courage.' Over the
door hangs the original sign, which reads: 'Drink for the thirsty, food for
the hungry, lodging for the weary, and good keeping for horses.' Beneath
the roof the townspeople gathered to plan their movements against the
British and to discuss the exciting events of the day. Here Jeremiah
O'Brien and his comrades planned the capture of the 'Margaretta' (see
below).
In the O'Brien Cemetery, about 0.3 m. from the center (R), is the Grave of
Captain O'Brien (see below). Just beyond the cemetery (L) is a marker
indicating the site of his home.
Also on Elm St. about 0.5 m. from the center is a small stream called
236 High Roads and Low Roads
Foster's Rubicon] the men of Machias met on its banks in June, 1775, to
discuss the demands that they furnish lumber to be sent back to Boston
for the building of barracks for the British troops. After a long debate in
which part of the townsmen advocated compliance and part resistance,
Benjamin Foster, a church leader as well as a rebel, sprang across the
stream, inviting those who shared his views to follow him. The rebels
went first, then those who had been wavering, and finally those who had
advocated compliance; and the settlement as a whole was committed to
the Revolution.
At 68 m. is the junction with a local road.
Right on this road is MACHIASPORT (alt. 80, Machiasport Town, pop. 825), 4
m., a typical Maine coast village where lumber shipping is now the chief activity.
When news of the battle of Lexington reached this part of Maine in early May,
1775, Ichabod Jones, who had left Massachusetts because of the increasing dis-
turbance to business caused in part by the Boston Port Bill, hastily left for Boston
to secure his personal property. The Boston Port commander, however, refused to
allow him to take his boat out of the harbor except to return to Maine for lumber
to be used in building barracks for the increasing number of British soldiers. The
armed schooner 'Margaretta' was sent along as a convoy to enforce the order.
Meanwhile, public opinion in Machias had been inflamed and Captain Moore of
the 'Margaretta' found a Liberty Pole in the little frontier coast town and citizens
incensed at the idea of providing supplies for armies to be used against them. Led
by Benjamin Foster and the fiery Irishman, Jeremiah O'Brien, the local citizens
commandeered two boats, one of which, however, became stranded, and on June
12, 1775, closed in on the 'Margaretta'; in the fight that followed the British
officer was mortally wounded and his boat captured. The following month the
Machias men captured a British schooner from Nova Scotia. The British sent Sir
George Collier with the ' Ranger' and three other boats to punish the rebels; Collier
routed the local force from the breastworks they had hastily thrown up along the
river and burned several buildings before his fleet moved on. The capture of the
'Margaretta' has been called the 'first naval battle of the Revolution'; the battle
itself was not important, but it provided the Revolutionary leaders in Philadelphia
with a talking point in urging the establishment of a navy.
Machiasport was the terminus of the narrow-gauge Machias-Whitneyville R.R.,
built in 1841 to carry lumber from Whitneyville to Machiasport for shipping, and
operated for 50 years by the Sullivan family of Whitneyville. One of the locomotives
used on this railroad is now at the Crosby Laboratory, University of Maine,
Orono.
From Wright's Lookout, a bold rock at the top of Corn Hill, a few hundred yards
back from the main street, is a splendid view of the Machias headlands and the
western end of the Bay of Fundy.
At the southern end of the village, on the western bank of the Machias River, is the
State reservation holding the Earthworks of Fort Machias, or Fort O'Brien as it is
locally called because it was erected in part through the activities of the O'Briens.
After the Collier raid, Washington ordered a regiment of militia recruited and sent
to protect the settlement. In 1781, Fort Machias was made part of the national
defense. The British, however, did not return to the little town until 1814, when
they took the fort and burned the barracks. The place was again fortified in 1863,
during the Civil War, but was not attacked.
At Clark's Point, 7 m. (L), are the so-called Picture Rocks. Figures somewhat
resembling men, animals, and landscapes can be seen on a slanting ledge below the
high-water mark. Some authorities who have examined the formations believe
they are geologic, others that they are hieroglyphics.
EAST MACHIAS (alt. 60, East Machias Town, pop. 1253), 69.6 m., is
TOUR 1 : From Portsmouth to Clair 237
divided by the East Machias River, the residential area and the business
districts being on opposite sides of the stream.
On top of a hill across the river (R) is Washington Academy. A general
interest in having a local school was shown as early as 1790-91, and a
petition for help from the Government in the undertaking was trans-
mitted to the General Court of Massachusetts in that year. The petition
was granted, and Township u, since known as Cutler, was given as an
endowment for an academy, but it was not until September, 1823, that
Washington Academy was opened.
In the Library (R), a brick building with two old millstones from an early
gristmill set strikingly in the front wall, one on either side of the entrance,
is a canvas showing a panorama of the community in the prosperous
lumbering and shipbuilding days.
At 73 m. (L) is the graveled entrance to the Summer Surveying School of
the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, on the shore of Gardner
Lake; the neighborhood provides a variety of surveying problems.
Indian Lake (fishing and boating facilities) , 76.6 m. (L), lies along the road,
the blue of its waters enhanced by the dark green foliage of the dense
forest surrounding it.
WHITING (alt. 60, Whiting Town, pop. 327), 82.2 m., a village formerly
called Orangetown, in an area where extensive lumbering operations are
still carried on, is recognized by the large piles of lumber along the road
near its center. The route passes a lumber mill on the Orange River,
which has been dammed at this point to provide water-power.
In this area are long stretches of forests, broken occasionally by small
scrubby farms. In spite of the extensive lumbering operations that have
been carried on in what is now the State of Maine, the forests have not
been seriously depleted. The country is full of game. Many rabbits are
caught here and shipped to other parts of Maine, as well as to other States,
for stocking game preserves.
At the rear of a small white church (L) is the Grave of Colonel John Crane,
the first white settler. He was a member of the Boston Tea Party, and
during the Revolution commanded one of the batteries whose fire diverted
the attention of the British from the American forces in their capture of
Dorchester Heights in March, 1776.
At Whiting is the junction with State 189 (see Tour 1M).
DENNYSVILLE (alt. 30, Dennysville Town, pop. 443), 91.5 m., took its
name from Dennys River which was named for an Indian chief whose
hunting grounds were in this region. Swift Dennys River, where there is
excellent fishing (see Sports and Recreation: Fishing), parallels the main
street over which tall trees form an arch.
In 1786 the township land was granted to General Benjamin Lincoln of
Hingham, Mass., who, at the surrender of York town, was selected to con-
duct the British to the spot where their arms were deposited.
There is a fine Salmon-fishing Pool near the center of the village.
238 High Roads and Low Roads
The Lincoln Home (private), 0.5 mile north of the center and facing the
river, was erected in 1787 by artisans from Hingham, Mass., under the
direction of General Lincoln's son, Theodore. It is a yellow, two-story
structure. Theodore, who occupied the house, had large lumber interests
and employed many Indians of the district. James Audubon, the artist
and naturalist, was a friend of Theodore's son, Thomas, who assisted
Audubon in making arrangements for an expedition to Labrador in 1833.
Members of Lincoln's family still own and occupy the house, which con-
tains many of the early furnishings, also old books and documents.
In the store of I. K. Kilby (R) in the village is a Collection of Indian Relics
(open), found in the neighborhood.
WEST PEMBROKE (alt. 50, Pembroke Town), 96.7 m., which seems
part of Pembroke village, rather than a separate community, has a
number of sturdy old homes. H. Styles Bridges, Governor of New Hamp-
shire (1935-36) and U.S. Senator (1937- ), was born here on Septem-
ber 9, 1896.
Left from West Pembroke on State 214, an improved gravel road, is Meddybemps
Lake, 10 m., with excellent fishing (boats and canoes for hire) and a good bathing
beach.
This is one of the many hunting regions where the illegal practice of 'deer jacking,'
less frequent today, was popular. The bright light of a hooded lantern or of a
flashlight fascinates the fleet-footed animal, making him a target for the hunts-
man's bullet. When shot, the deer seldom drops immediately, but runs sometimes
for hours, the hunter in hot pursuit. This phase, known as ' deer running/ develops
fleet runners, particularly in deer-jacking expeditions when the law is pursuing the
hunters as swiftly as the hunters are pursuing the deer.
A story is told of a Washington County stripling who, left unwarned on sentry duty
at Cedar Creek, Va., when a retreat was ordered, found himself alone facing the
advancing enemy. He made his solitary retreat from Cedar Creek with the speed he
had acquired in deer running in the Meddybemps region. He is said to have re-
ported at Harpers Ferry, W. Va., 19 miles from his post, in advance of the dispatch
bearer, who was on horseback.
PEMBROKE (alt. 80, Pembroke Town, pop. 965), 97.7 m., is a village of
pleasant homes along the bank of the Pennamaquan River. While the
principal industries are now the packing of blueberries and sardines, the
substantial, well-built houses recall the prosperity of the wooden-hull era,
when extensive shipbuilding activities were carried on in the area.
The large, square, stone building of the Old Iron Works (R), resembles
an old fort. The plant was established in 1828 with machinery brought
from Wales. Much of the ore used came from bogs in the vicinity.
PERRY (alt. 40, Perry Town, pop. 992), 103.6 m., lies on a double bend
of US 1 where it crosses Boyden Stream. The houses are few and scattered.
At Perry is the junction with State 190 (see Tour IN).
At 105.5 m. is a granite boulder (L) placed by the National Geographic
Society to mark the Forty-fifth Parallel of Latitude, which is exactly mid-
way between the Equator and the North Pole.
ROBBINSTON (alt. 60, Robbinston Town, pop. 582), 111.5 m., is a
village whose main street parallels the St. Croix River (ferry service to St.
TOUR 1 : From Portsmouth to Clair 239
Andrews, N.B.). The smokestack of a sardine-canning factory that
burned down sometime in the past is a landmark here. Fishing is the
principal industry of the town, supplemented by sardine canning. In the
spring when the herring are running, the fish weirs offshore can be seen
from the road.
RED BEACH (alt. 90, Ward 9, City of Calais), 115 m., takes its name
from the color of the granite outcrop along the shore. The village lies
along the main highway in a pleasant wooded area from which the wide
island-dotted St. Croix is visible.
Opposite Red Beach, in the St. Croix River, is Docket Island (alt. 40), which is
reached by rowboat.
In 1603, Pierre du Guast, the Sieur de Monts, received the trading concession for
Acadia, which, in the grand manner of the times, was denned as a territory extend-
ing from Cape Breton Island to a point well below the present New York City. In
the following spring he set sail with his lieutenant, Samuel de Champlain, and
fourscore colonists, including a Huguenot minister and a Catholic priest, landing
on June 26, 1604, on this island, which he called St. Croix, where he expected to
establish a trading post and settlement. So sketchy was knowledge of the New
World at the time that the settlers brought with them part of the timber used in the
erection of their buildings. Before winter arrived, the island held a storehouse,
dining hall, kitchen, barracks, and a blacksmith shop, and carefully laid out gar-
dens. An unusually severe winter and scurvy wrought such discouragement that
in the spring of 1605 de Monts and Champlain sailed off south to find a more suit-
able place for the colony; in August, however, they decided to move it to the spot
that is now Annapolis Royal, in Nova Scotia. Dochet Island was not entirely
abandoned; for the French used it for a garrison at intervals for some years.
This early settlement played an important part in the adjustment of the boundary
question at the end of the Revolutionary War; both the United States and Great
Britain acknowledged the River St. Croix as the point of departure in drawing the
line, but Britain disputed the American claim on what river bore this name. Dis-
covery of Champlain's map and the subsequent examination of the ruins of the
early settlement decided the matter; had the British won their point, eastern
Maine would probably now be Canadian territory.
At 122.2 m. is the Saint Croix Golf Club (open to visitors), on the bank of
the river.
CALAIS (pron. Kal'is) (alt. 82, pop. 5470), 123.9 m., the 'international
city' of Maine, is the only city in the State on the Canadian border. It is a
port of entry and many of its citizens came from the Canadian Provinces.
The city spreads out on a hilly terrain along the western bank of the St.
Croix River, directly opposite St. Stephen, N.B. The mile-long main
street, a wide thoroughfare lined with fine old elm trees, runs from the end
of the International Bridge to the St. Croix Country Club at the southern
end of the city. The business district is in the northern end of the city,
close to the river; from the bridge are visible the docks that once played an
important part in the city's industrial life. Encircling the business district
are quiet streets with attractive houses surrounded by trees, broad lawns,
and well-trimmed shrubbery. Handsome churches and modern schools
add to the air of prosperity. The municipal affairs of Calais and St.
Stephen are allied to the extent that the fire engines of the two com-
munities clang back and forth across the International Bridge to answer
alarms in what to each community is technically a foreign land. The
240 High Roads and Low Roads
Calais water supply comes from St. Stephen, being piped across the river.
United States and Canadian currencies are accepted in both cities.
The first settlers, who arrived in 1779, were attracted to Calais by the
wealth of timber, the fertile soil, and the abundance of fish and game.
Calais early became an important lumbering center. The launching in
1801 of the 'Liberty,' the first vessel built in the community, marked the
beginning of a profitable industry that lasted till the end of the ' era of tall
ships.' In 1809, the Massachusetts Legislature named the settlement for
the French port of Calais, as a compliment to France because of the aid
rendered to the struggling Colonies during the Revolution. After 1820 the
primitive backwoods settlement began to expand rapidly. Roads and
bridges were built; churches and homes sprang up along the highways.
In 1850, with a population of 4749, it was incorporated as a city.
In 1935, when the 'Normandie' made its maiden trip to America, the
French city of Calais sent to the American Calais a hand-carved mahog-
any chest containing soil from its ancient cemeteries, four volumes of
Calais history, and a dozen pieces of lace. In 1936 the American city
shipped to France a tablet of red granite, taken from Dochet Island.
The Mason House (private), at the point (R) where Main St. turns toward
the customhouse, was the home of Noah Smith, Jr. (1800-68). Smith,
paternal grandfather of the writer, Kate Douglas Wiggin, is said to have
been one of the last people who had official business with President
Lincoln before his assassination; at that time he received the President's
signature to a pardon granted to a young Calais soldier who had been
convicted of treason.
Sec. e. CALAIS to FORT KENT, 210.4 m.
North of Calais, US 1 passes through a wooded area where the occasional
villages have been chopped out of the wilderness; part of the country is so
thinly populated that it belongs to the so-called wild lands, township-size
units having no local government. Sportsmen and hunters who enter
these areas should hire guides because only expert woodsmen can find
their way about. The upper two-thirds of the route passes through the
great potato-growing section of Aroostook County, where in summer the
fields are undulating seas of green, broken in July by white and purple
blossoms.
Aroostook County was involved in the long dispute between England and
the United States over the boundary question, which was finally settled
by the Webster- Ashburton Treaty of 1842. Before this time a series of
border disputes and clashes had taken place, the best-known of which was
the 'Aroostook War' of 1830-40, in which Maine men went north to expel
Canadian lumbermen who, the ' Mainiacs ' believed, were cutting lumber
in United States territory. Many of the men who took part in this ex-
pedition went back to settle the border county; however, the development
of the large area was very much hampered by lack of transportation
facilities until the Bangor and Aroostook R.R. was completed; produce of
TOUR 1 : From Portsmouth to Clair 241
the district had to be taken over to the St. John River in New Brunswick,
or to a Canadian railroad, passing in a roundabout way through foreign
territory before it reached the home markets. Hie fine was extended to
Fort Kent in 1902.
North of Van Buren, US 1 follows the northern boundary of Maine beside
the St. John River from which wide imHnlaiing meadows spread to the
edge of woodlands. In this area 90 per cent of the population is of French
extraction, many of the people being descendants of the Acadians who
were expelled from Canada during the French and Indian War, an event
that was the basis of Longfellow's 'Evangelme.9 These Roman Catholics
stin follow many of the customs brought by their ancestors from the
coast of Brittany.
CALAIS, 0 m. (see Tour 1, sec. <Q.
MILLTOWN (alt. 85, Ward i of Calais), 1-5 m., is, as its name suggests, a
mffl settlement on the banks of the St. Croix (R), many of the residents
being employed in the cotton mills across the river. The monotony of the
drab buildings here is relieved by the beauty of the swift St. Croix rapids.
Magurrewock Mountain (L) rises precipitously almost from the edge of the
road.
At 4.6 m . is the junction with a local road.
Right on this road is BARIXG (alt. 100, Baring Town, pop. 204), 1 •«.. an agricul-
tural cngnmiinity namn^ jn IMMMIT of AV*ra«ffrf Baring, Lord AshbuitOD, England's
representative in the Webster-Ashborton Treaty negotiations of 1842 (see afar).
Baring was the son-in-law of WHfiani Bingbam (see sec. c).
At 6.9 m. (L) is a junction with State 9 (see Tour 5).
WOODLAND (alt. 130, Bafleyvffle Town, pop. 2017), 10.1 m ., visible from
US 1, is several hundred yards east of the highway on the banks of the St.
Croix River. The community sprang into being in 1005 with the estab-
lishment of a paper mill whose huge stack and conveyor look down on a
neat modern village. Large piles of pulpwood fill the river and line the
shore n^»r thg raflroad tracks.
Small quantities of gold have been found in Wapsaconhagan Stream at the
south end of the village.
PRINCETON (alt. 210, Princeton Town, pop. 984), 19.6 m., a small ehn-
shaded village (guides and equipment for hunting and fishing), lies at the
southeast end of Lesecys Lake, a headwater of the St. Croix River. The
dear waters of the lake are excellent for both swimming and fishing and
the near-by woods abound with game for the hunter. Princeton is the
starting point of the Grand Lake-Machias Waters Canoe Trip (see
Sports and Recreation: Canoeing).
6 »., on the shores of Big Lake (balking batch; cottages am* camps far rod).
US 1 now crosses a steel bridge to enter the Unorganised Township of
Indiantom, a sparsely populated area, inhabited in part by the Passama-
qnoddy Indians. Granted to them by treaty in 1796, this section has
always been fh<yr favorite hunting ground. Many fierce engagements
242 High Roads and Low Roads
between the Passamaquoddies and roving bands of Mohawks once took
place here.
The road follows Big Lake shore about a mile.
At 21.9 m. is the junction with a dirt road.
Left on this road 2 m., then sharp left on another dirt road, to an Indian Reser-
vation (open), 4m., at Peter Dana's Point on Big Lake. Many new houses have
been built here for the Passamaquoddies, while near-by is a convent and chapel.
These Indians hunt, fish, act as guides for the region, and make baskets for sale to
visitors.
Near the reservation is a State Fish Hatchery (open).
Just beyond (R) the junction are six Log Cabins used by the University
of Maine Forestry Department as a field work base for forestry students.
WAITE (alt. 330, Waite Town, pop. 165), 28.9 m.
Left from Waite on a local road is West Musquash Lake, 6 m., with sporting camps
along its shores. The occasional splash of fish and the myriad symphonies of the
deep woods break the stillness of this delightful spot.
At 29.6 m. is the junction with a narrow dirt road.
Right on this road, which passes through thick woods, is Tomah Stream, 5m., a
ribbon of glistening waters flowing between deeply wooded banks, and named in
honor of an Indian chief who aided the settlers of Machias during the Revolution.
TOPSFIELD (alt. 495, Topsfield Town, pop. 224), 35.1 m., an agricul-
tural village, is in fine hunting country, and it is not unusual to see deer
grazing in apple orchards not far from the road. The township is rich in
cultivated fields, neat farms, and stretches of woodland dotted with lakes
where hunting and fishing lure sportsmen from many distant points. The
fire lookout on Musquash Mountain (L) is plainly visible.
Left from Topsfield on State 16 to Musquash Lake, 4m.,& fine fishing ground.
BROOKTON (alt. 420, Brookton Town, pop. 240), 43.4 m., is a small
village at a 'four corners.' The shores of Jackson Brook Lake (cottages for
hire), where there is excellent fishing, are only a stone's throw right.
1. Right from Brookton on a local road to FOREST STATION (alt. 410, Unorgan-
ized Township of Forest City), 3 m., a stopping place on the Maine Central Railroad.
FOREST CITY (alt. 444, Unorganized Township of Forest City, pop. 70), 12 m.
Sporting camps have replaced extensive lumbering operations in this forest settle-
ment on the shore of East Grand Lake.
2. Left from Brookton, on a dirt road, to Baskahegan Lake, 1.5 m., one of the larg-
est bodies of water in this section. Surrounded by deep woods and canopied by the
blue bowl of the sky, this wide sheet of water is ideal for the angler who wishes
beautiful scenery combined with the prospect of a well-filled creel.
EATON (alt. 407, Danforth Town), 49.8 m., is a little woods hamlet that
was once engaged in lumbering.
DANFORTH (alt. 387, Danforth Town, pop. 1462), 55.1 m., in the
Baskahegan River valley, is the scene of much activity in spring and
summer, when its two lumbering mills are in operation. Huge logs line the
banks and float on the surface of the river. The sharp tang of fresh-cut
wood fills the air as the saws buzz and whine and a great mound of yellow
sawdust rises like a grotesque beehive on the river bank beside the spool
mill.
TOUR 1 : From Portsmouth to Clair 243
WESTON (alt. 720, Weston Town, pop. 323), 60 m., lies in a setting of
great natural beauty. From every point on the highway which runs along
the side of a hill and then climbs abruptly to the summit, the view of East
Grand Lake (R) is magnificent. Apple orchards, pasture land, wood lots,
and hay fields slope from the homes that face the road, to the woods-
fringed shores of the body of water. In the distance a chain of smaller
lakes makes an intricate design in the dense forests that stretch to the
green-clad Canadian hills.
ORIENT (alt. 460, Orient Town, pop. 161), 66.2 m., a tiny community in
the woods, owes its existence in great part to the fine hunting and fishing
in the vicinity.
Right from Orient on a local road to Sunset Park, 3 w., on the north end of East
Grand Lake (boats for hire), where there is a bathing beach.
NORTH AMITY (alt. 580, Amity Town, pop. 324), 74.2 m., stretches out
along the main highway on a high ridge of land, from the south end of
which there is an excellent view of Mt. Katahdin.
GARY (alt. 435, Gary Plantation, pop. 241), 78 m., is completely sur-
rounded by dense woods.
HODGDON (alt. 470, Hodgdon Town, pop. 1054), 82.5 m., is at the foot
of Westford Hill (R), a tree-crowned elevation within easy walking
distance of the main highway. Here the checkered pattern of Aroostook
farmland meets the eye, the farmstead showing as on a picture map, with
Mt. Katahdin's bold peak on the skyline (L).
HOULTON (alt. 340, Houlton Town, pop. 6865) (see HOULTON),
88.1 m., is at a junction with US 2 (see Tour 4).
At 94.6 m. is a junction with Willey Road.
Left on the Willey Road to two Circular Depressions (L), 1 m., which are thought
to be ' sink holes ' or the beds of lakes that have long since dried up.
At 2 m. there is fine fishing and swimming at Carry Lake, which is surrounded by a
dense growth of pine and spruce that fills the air with a clean sharp scent.
LITTLETON (alt. 440, Littleton Town, pop. 1035), 95.5 m., lies on a
plain, its only distinctive feature being the long rows of potato sheds along
the railroad tracks on the northern edge of the village.
In 1800, when the territory was still part of the State of Massachusetts,
the southern half of this town, then unsettled, was granted to Williams
College, and in 1801 the great forest-covered northern half was given to
Framingham (Mass.) Academy. Settlements were founded here shortly
after these dates, but the town was not incorporated until 1856.
During the latter part of the iQth century camp meetings, lasting several
days, played an important part in the social life of such Aroostook com-
munities as Littleton. They were held in pine groves or near lake shores,
usually in August after the hay was in, people coming from long distances
and bringing their own food and bedding. The living quarters were either
rough bunkhouses or temporary shacks. Each camp ground had a taber-
nacle, often merely a long roof over ground covered with fresh sawdust; in
244 High Roads and Low Roads
front of the rows of pine benches was a platform holding the speaker's
table or lectern, and the little organ with foot-operated bellows that
>upplied the music. During the meetings, held in the mornings, after-
noons, and evenings, emotional fervor often reached a high pitch; but
between times horse trading and the swapping of land, farm implements,
patterns, and gossip, were carried on with zeal. Many Aroostook court-
ings began and were completed during these gatherings. Camp meetings
are still held but the radio and automobiles have lessened the social need
of them.
Visible from the highway (L) is a group of eskers, or ' horsebacks ' as they
are called locally, whose long ridges are remnants of the vast sheets of ice
that covered this part of Maine during the glacial period.
MONTICELLO (alt. 415, Monticello Town, pop. 1467), 100.7 m., settled
in 1830, was incorporated in 1846. A small river divides the one-street
village, which spreads over two hilltops.
Conroy and Howard Lakes, on the Wadleigh Road, are good fishing waters,
and the surrounding woods afford excellent hunting.
BRIDGEWATER (alt. 415, Bridgewater Town, pop. 1235), 108.6 m.,
with its neat, well-built homes along the main highway, is the principal
settlement of this heavily wooded township. Near the village is Portland
Lake, excellent for swimming and camping; Whitney Brook offers good
trout fishing.
BLAINE (alt. 410, Blaine Town, pop. 1061), 114.3 m., is a small farming
village. Left is the old Valley House (private), built in 1851 and known as
a 'good bedded' hostelry in the days when a good bed was the most
desired haven at the end of a day spent in a stagecoach bumping over the
rough dirt road between Presque Isle and Houlton.
MARS HILL (alt. 710, Mars Hill Town, pop. 1837), 115 m., takes its
name from near-by Mars Hill (alt. 1660), a notable eminence in the low
rolling country here. This hill entered into the hotly contested boundary
dispute when Great Britain contended that this peak was ' the highlands
which divide those rivers that empty themselves into the river St. Law-
rence, from those that fall into the Atlantic Ocean,' named in Treaty of
1782; the United States maintained that the highlands were much farther
north and nearer the St. Lawrence River.
Right from the village on a short trail to the top of the mountain, from which there
is an excellent view of the St. John Valley.
EASTON (alt. 580, Easton Town, pop. 1505), 126.2 m., is a smaU village
in a pleasant farm country.
PRESQUE ISLE (alt. 450, Presque Isle Town, pop. 6965), 133.2 m., in
the valley of the Aroostook River and surrounded by some of the most
fertile land in Aroostook County, is a bustling center of trade with an up-
to-date appearance.
The first explorers of this region came down the Arnold Trail from Canada
to the Kennebec River, then overland; the first permanent settlers arrived
TOUR 1 : From Portsmouth to Clair 245
at Presque Isle in 1820, but there were only 732 people in the township in
1860, the year after it was incorporated. Stories of pine trees so tall that
4 the clouds were torn as they passed over them,' and of land rich in game,
told by those returning from this northern area, in time tempted other
adventurous souls to try their fortunes here.
Like the neighboring townships of Caribou, Fort Fairfield, and Mars
Hill, Presque Isle plants more potatoes than any other crop. In addition,
however, to the 10,000 acres of potatoes, the farmers of the town sow
4500 acres of oats and cut about 7000 tons of hay annually.
One of the principal industries of Presque Isle is the manufacture of potato
starch. The improvement in the quality of the potatoes of the district has
meant that fewer potatoes are used in the production of starch, but the
mills still turn out thousands of pounds of this commodity each year.
The Presque Isle Fairgrounds, outer State St., are the scene of the annual
Northern Maine Fair in September, providing a spirited carnival and
holiday for people from all over 'the Aroostook.' The primary object of
the fair is to promote agriculture in all its branches. There are also ex-
hibits of handicrafts as well as the usual side shows, music, fireworks, and
dancing. The major event, however, is horse racing. Enthusiasm anc'
betting run high. Aroostook men are particularly interested in pacing and
trotting; native-born sons are the drivers in many instances and their skill
in the 'racing start,' a complicated and often long-drawn-out affair,
evokes loud cheers or angry comment from the partisans in the grand-
stand. The light sulkies used in this type of racing occasionally lock
wheels with resultant spills that add to the excitement.
Close to the hearts of the people of northern Aroostook is the name and
memory of John R. Braden, one of the most famous pacers that ever ap-
peared on Maine tracks. A Granite Monument, opposite the grandstand,
tells the story of this great horse's record.
During the first week in March an annual Winter Carnival, sponsored by
the Abnaki Club, is held with a lively program of sporting and social
events.
Left from Presque Isle on State 1A to Aroostook Farm (L) (open), 1 m., a 275-acre
experiment station. The United States Department of Agriculture, in co-opera-
tion with the University of Maine and the Aroostook County Farm Bureau,
conducts farm research work here. Experiments in plant foods, soils, plant
diseases, growing methods, and crop control are carried on, both in the field and
in a modern, well-equipped laboratory.
CARIBOU (alt. 495, Caribou Town, pop. 7248), 145.5 m., the potato-
shipping center of northern Aroostook County, sends out thousands of
carloads for seed and consumption.
Along the railroad tracks of this community on Caribou Stream are long
potato warehouses with a capacity of 400,000 barrels. Offices of potato-
protection societies, brokers, growers, and shippers occupy the buildings
of the modern business district. During the growing and picking season
the streets of the town teem with motor-trucks and the low-slung horse-
drawn wagons used in transporting potato barrels. Conversation revolves
246 High Roads and Low Roads
around the possible price the crop will bring, and harvest time finds
speculation rife on the trend of the potato market.
When the crops have ripened in the broad surrounding fields, an army of
pickers arrives from all parts of the United States on their circuit of
seasonal jobs. In the old days the farmers of Aroostook kept a 'shed
room ' for the farm hands. The pickers are still ' boarded ' in the potato
country where they are well fed and housed. Pickers are paid 10 cents a
barrel and an unusually good worker can average 100 barrels a day during
the harvest season. The farmers fare well in the good years and it is not
unusual for the potato growers in the district to receive $5,000,000 for the
year's crop.
In February the annual Aroostook Sportsmen's Show attracts large
numbers of visitors; the climax of the event is the Bangor-Caribou Ski
Marathon of about 170 miles.
The Caribou Municipal Airport, south of the village on US 1, the first
municipal airport built in Maine, is the only port of entry (1937) for air-
planes on the Maine-Canadian border. Its hangars accommodate 10
planes.
The Aroostook and Little Madawaska Rivers and Caribou Stream, flowing
through the township, offer excellent trout and salmon fishing.
1. Right from Caribou on State 223 to a State Fish Hatchery (R) (open), 1 m.,
which annually stocks the streams in this part of Aroostook with thousands of
salmon and trout. Near the feeding ponds of the hatchery is a picnic grove.
2. Right from Caribou on State 161 is FORT FAIRFIELD (alt. 390, Fort Fair-
field Town, pop. 5393), 13 m., port of entry from Canada on the St. John River.
It was named for a border fort which, in turn, was named in honor of Governor
John Fairfield. The town was settled in 1816 by people from the Canadian
Provinces, who played an important part in the Aroostook War (see History).
The Aroostook Country Club, Ltd., across the river and just over the Canadian
border, was built during the prohibition era. It has a 9-hole golf course and a club-
house used by citizens of both countries.
3. Left from Caribou on State 161 is NEW SWEDEN (alt. 865, New Sweden
Town, pop. 898), 8.9 m., a modern settlement that is the result of a successful im-
migration experiment of 1870. The legislature in that year appointed William
Widgery Thomas, Jr., Commissioner of Immigration. Free farms had been offered
by the State and Thomas, former consul at Gothenburg, Sweden, proceeded to that
country in the spring, recruited a colony of 51 men, women, and children, and re-
turned with them to this township in Aroostook, which had been set aside for their
occupancy. Other people from Sweden followed and today's population consists of
their descendants. Every 10 years festivities are held in commemoration of the
founding of the community.
VAN BUREN (alt. 495, Van Buren Town, pop. 4721), 167 m., named
for President Martin Van Buren, is the largest of the northern boundary
towns in population. The inhabitants are employed in lumber operations
or in the potato fields. A bridge here spans the St. John River, which
parallels the main street.
During the days when extensive lumbering operations were being carried
on in the vast tracts of land at the head of the St. John River and its
tributaries, the river was used to float the huge logs to sawmills and
TOUR 1 : From Portsmouth to Clair 247
markets. At intervals booms, or floating chains of logs, were attached to
piers and other structures on the banks to hold back the flow of logs. The
five small islands in the river near Van Buren formed a barrier that could
be utilized in forming one of these temporary dams and the place was the
scene of great activity during the spring log drives. The air would be
filled with the rumble of cracking ice, and the thunder and crash of the
logs hurled against each other. Frequent jams occurred that had to be
broken at considerable risk to the drivers who, here as elsewhere, were a
wild, hard-drinking, dare-devil crew. Their feats, appetites, and vocab-
ularies became matters of legend that filled every small boy in the com-
munity with envy. The spring drives continue but have lost some of their
colorful character.
KEEGAN (alt. 450, Van Buren Town), 169.3 m., is the site of the first
French-Acadian settlement in the town. The lumber industry, the back-
bone of the community in the boom days, has dwindled to sporadic bursts
of activity and lumber mills along the river are idle most of the year.
GRAND ISLE (alt. 510, Grand Isle Town, pop. 1408), 182 m., is a vil-
lage that, like other small ones in this area, is notable only for the or-
nateness of its church.
ST. DAVID (alt. 510, Madawaska Town), 187.8 m., is the original place
of settlement of the Acadian refugees who came to this region from Nova
Scotia (see above). They had traveled along the St. John until they
reached a village of the Malecite Indians, who permitted them to land on
the forest-lined shores. Acres of meadowland and pasture were cleared,
roads were built, and commodious farm buildings and smaller dwellings
sprang up. Opposite, on the Canadian side of the river, is the Malecite
Indian Reservation.
A large White Cross, at the rear of St. David's Church (R), 188.6 m., marks
the landing-place of the Acadians.
MADAWASKA (alt. 595, Madawaska Town, pop. 3533), 190.6 m., a port
of entry from Canada into the United States, has an atmosphere of in-
dustrial activity that differentiates it from other Aroostook communities
on this route. At the northern edge of the village on Bridge St. are (R) the
large Fraser Paper Company, Ltd., Mills (visited by permit). The establish-
ment of these mills in 1926 brought skilled workmen and business to what
had been a sleepy little river village. Large pipes that carry the paper
pulp in liquid form span the St. John River and connect the mill here
with the, one at Edmundston, N.B.
FRENCHVILLE (alt. 501, Frenchville Town, pop. 1525), 197.9 m., is
strung out along a bend of the St. John River. As in near-by towns the
inhabitants here are descendants of the French Acadians, and are de-
pendent upon the potato crop for their livelihood. Scattered throughout
the area are occasional sawmills, reminders of the once-active lumber
industry.
Left from Frenchville on State 162 is ST. AGATHA (san tagat') (alt. 615, St.
Agatha Town, pop. 1596), 4.5 m., on the northwest shore of Long Lake, the starting-
248 High Roads and Low Roads
point of the Fish River Chain of Lakes (see Sports and Recreation). There are
several sporting camps (guides available) along the shores of the lake which offers
excellent trout and salmon fishing.
At 200.1 m. are the imposing buildings of St. Luke Church and St. Rosaire
Convent.
FORT KENT (alt. 530, Fort Kent Town, pop. 4726), 210.2 m., is a port
of entry from Canada. It was settled by French refugees from Acadia
and, when incorporated in 1869, took the name of a fort that was erected
here in 1839 (see below). Here, as in other villages along the river, the
simple one- and two-story buildings are overtopped by the spire of the
Roman Catholic church. Most of the population speaks a provincial
French and, being strongly religious, observes the church feasts and fasts
faithfuUy.
A Corpus Christi Procession, held on the Thursday following Trinity
Sunday, which is the eighth Sunday after Easter, is the most impressive of
these. This medieval splendor and pageantry is preserved in the colorful
vestments of the priests and in the banners.
Fort Kent, on Main St. opposite Pleasant St., marked by a small heavily
built Blockhouse (open), is a relic of the troubled days of the Aroostook
War. Edward Kent was Governor of Maine in 1838 when plans were
made for this fort to protect the lumber interests of the area, and it, as
well as the township, was named for him. The blockhouse stands on a
slight eminence and commands a view of the near-by St. John River.
The sturdy timbers, the hand-wrought ironware of the doors and win-
dows, and the weathered wood of the blockhouse show the painstaking
workmanship of an early day.
A cannon that belonged to the fort is now on the greensward in front of
the library in Fort Fairfield (see above), to the disgust of the citizens of
Fort Kent. After Fort Fairfield had been torn down the citizens of that
town came to regret that they had no souvenir of the Aroostook War.
Someone there discovered that the custodian of the old Fort Kent cannon
was very fond of strong spirits and arranged to have him liberally sup-
plied with them while the cannon was moved away.
Fort Kent is at a junction with State 11 (see Tour 6). The village is the
terminus of the Allagash River Canoe Trip (see Sports and Recreation:
Canoeing).
Left from Fort Kent, near the International Bridge, on a local road to ST. FRAN-
CIS (alt. 597; St. Francis Plantation, pop. 1367), 16 m., a small French settlement
near the point where the St. Francis River flows into the St. John River. This
woods-surrounded settlement is one of the northern termini on the Allagash River
Canoe Trip.
At 210.4 m. (R) is the International Bridge. Clair, N.B., lies on the oppo-
site side of the river.
TOUR 1 A : From JUNCTION WITH US 1 to CAPE NED-
DICK, 15.4 m.y Unnumbered road and State 1A.
Via Kittery, Kittery Point, York, York Harbor, York Beach.
Two-lane tarred roadbed.
THIS route, an alternate to US 1 just north of the New Hampshire Line,
follows the Piscataqua River near the sea.
An unnumbered road branches east from US 1 (see Tour 1, sec. a), 0 m'.,
at a point 0.5 m. north of the Portsmouth Bridge.
KITTERY (alt. 50, Kittery Town, pop. 4400), 0.3 m., is the administra-
tive center of a town, formerly much larger, that was incorporated
October 20, 1647, as Piscataqua Plantation. The interests of the village
center largely around the Portsmouth Navy Yard (open to public), the
entrance to which is right. The yard, established in 1806, is spread over
several islands in the Piscataqua River. Admiral Cervera and his staff,
captured during the Spanish-American War, were technically held
prisoners in the yard for a time. The so-called Portsmouth Conference,
for the arrangement of the treaty of peace at the end of the Russo-
Japanese War, was held here, the treaty being signed in the Supply
Department Building.
Kittery has been interested in shipbuilding since its earliest days. The
'Ranger' was built in this yard in 1777 and the members of the crew were
chiefly Kittery men. This was the ship, commanded by John Paul Jones
and sent to France to carry word to the American commissioners that
Burgoyne had surrendered, that received the first salute accorded a ship
of the new Republic. Kittery yards also built the 'Kearsarge/ whose
fight with the * Alabama ' was an important naval event during the Civil
War.
At 0.5 m. (R) is a good view of the Navy Yard buildings. The highway
proceeds between rows of beautiful, well-kept old homes.
The Lady Pepper ell House (private), 2.1 m. (R), was built between 1760
and 1765 for the widow of Sir William Pepperell, soldier-merchant (see
below). Lady Pepperell, born Marjory Bray, lived here till her death in
1789, always using her former title in spite of the Revolution that de-
stroyed it, and demanding the deference to which she felt it entitled her.
The house, an elaborate two-story structure of Georgian design with a hip
roof and four large chimneys, is said to have been built by two skilled
English carpenters. The ell in the rear is of later construction. The main
facade is heavy and lacking in refinement, in spite of the corner quoins
and the pedimented central pavilion, which is flanked by two pedestaled
Ionic pilasters, whose richly carved caps carry a bellied fringe and cornice
uniting them with the modillioned main cornice. The most interesting
250 High Roads and Low Roads
room in the house, said to be the work of Pelatiah Fernald, a local man, is
the small one behind the parlor; it has a charming fireplace, paneled and
finished flush with the closet on either side of it.
Opposite the house is the First Congregational Church, built in 1730 and
remodeled and turned in 1874. The most interesting feature of the build-
ing is the pulpit; the steps on each side are of later date, but the central
part, with delicate paneling and graceful lines, bears the date 1730. The
church has a belfry and many-paned windows.
Next to the church is the entrance to the long tree-bordered walk leading
to the Sparhawk House (1742), classed among the really fine Georgian
houses of America, and said to have been built by Sir William Pepperell
for his son-in-law. Except for the addition of a rear ell and a cupola, the
house has been little changed since it was built. The massive structure,
now painted white, has a gambrel roof broken by end chimneys and, on
the front, by five pedimented dormers. The many-paned windows of the
first story on the front, and of both stories on the sides, have triple
pediments. The entrance, with a i2-paneled door, richly carved pilasters,
and graceful scrolled pediment, is the most interesting feature of the ex-
terior. The house is of the central-hall type, with four rooms on each
floor; the stairway, with a fluted newel topped with a pineapple motif, has
richly carved and elaborately turned and twisted balusters. The parlor on
the right, which is wainscoted and paneled, contains an octagonal chim-
ney, the fireplace of which, with paneled overmantel, is flanked by
delicately fluted pilasters. The reception room, also finished with fine
raised paneling and having deeply recessed windows and window seats, is
somewhat plainer in design.
At 2.4 m. (R) is the entrance to Fort McClary (open), which commands a
view of the river.
The fort, now partly in ruins, was built in 1690 and called first Pepperell's
Fort and later Fort William. The present name was given at the time of
the Revolutionary War. The fort was garrisoned again during the Civil
War, extensive repairs and additions being made. It is hexagonal in shape.
The chief feature of interest now is the old blockhouse with overhang,
which was built in 1812.
A winding road leads through a forested area to KITTERY POINT (alt.
40, Kittery Town), 2.8 m., one of the earliest settled sections of the town.
It is now a fishing village and summer resort. The lighthouse on Apple-
dore Island is visible from the point on a clear day.
In the center of the village is the Pepperell House (private), a weather-
beaten two-and-a-half-story dwelling with gambrel roof. It was built in
1682 and was the home of the first William Pepperell, father of the
baronet. The door and window casings still show the marks of hand
cutting and the windows have the original lights, 1 2 in the upper sashes,
8 in the lower. Above the front door is a spread-eagle decoration of metal.
At a cement triangle, 3.2 m., bear right on Braveboat Harbor Road. At a
fork, 6.3 m., continue left.
TOUR 1A: From Junction with US 1 to Cape Neddick 251
At 8 m. the road crosses SewalVs Bridge (1757) ; the original was one of the
first pile bridges in America.
On the river bank (L) at the eastern end of the bridge is the large red,
two-and-a-half-story Sewall House with a central chimney, shaded by fine
old elms. This house was once owned by a member of the Sewall family,
but there are no records showing that Samuel Sewall, the bridge builder,
lived here. A cigar-store Indian on the river bank marks the supposed exit
of a former secret passage built to enable those in the house to escape in
case the place were attacked by Indians. This house, built in the early
days of the igth century, is designed with unusual dignity and restraint.
The monumental facade, with its fine entrance portal, decorative Ionic
pilasters, heavy dentiled cornice, and balustraded parapet, is finished with
flush, matched siding in contrast with the clapboards at the sides. The
lawn is enclosed by a delicate railed fence, notable for its urn-topped posts
and square balusters; the latter are set diagonally to obtain the best play
of light and shade.
The design of the main entrance is of exceptional charm and grace.
Crowned by a fine dentiled cornice and elliptical fan-light, the eight-
paneled door is flanked by finely modeled Ionic pilasters and engaged
columns; their slender shafts having the classic refinement of entasis.
The interior, with a delicately paneled stairhall and spacious salons is
designed with a dignity in keeping with the exterior. The windows in the
dining room on the left have sliding shutters. The parlor mantel is orna-
mented with a decorative frieze bearing the allegorical figures of Peace
and Justice.
After passing (R) the York Country Club (visitors admitted), and several
attractive summer homes, the unmarked route at 9 m. becomes State 1A.
YORK (alt. 50, York Town, pop. 2532), 9.6 m., one of the most attractive
old coastal villages, is the commercial center of the near-by beach resorts.
Generally known as Old York and now under the township form of
government, York was settled as Agamenticus about 1624 by the Ply-
mouth Company and was given a city charter and government under
name of Gorgeana in 1641 by Sir Ferdinando Gorges. Thomas Gorges, a
nephew of Sir Ferdinando, was the first mayor, and the little wilderness
'city' had a full set of officials, including aldermen and sergeants. In
1652, Gorgeana was reorganized as a town and called York after the
English county of that name. In 1716 it was made the shire town of
Yorkshire, now York County, by the legislature of Massachusetts.
After the battle of Dunbar, Scotland, in 1650, Oliver Cromwell found
himself with many prisoners on his hands. More than 1000 of them were
sent to the Colonies, 150 being apportioned to New England to be sold at
£20 and £30 each for service to last six, seven, and eight years; the
proceeds of the sale went to the captain of the ship. A year later, after the
battle of Worcester, England, more bondmen were sent over, 275 of them
to Boston on the ship 'John and Sarah.' Many were brought to Maine.
The prisoners, after having completed their terms of servitude, were free
to settle where they chose and twelve of them remained in York. The
252 High Roads and Low Roads
first Scot to settle in York (1657) was Alexander Maxwell who had been
sold to George Leader of Berwick. After him came others from Dover and
Exeter to form the section of the town known as Scotland.
As the friction between the Colonies and the mother country increased, the
people of York took sides, most favoring the Colonial cause. They even
had their own 'tea party,' when the sloop 'Cynthia,' with James Donnell
as master, anchored at Keating's wharf with a cargo containing 150
pounds of tea for his uncle, Deacon Jonathan Sayward. The Sons of
Liberty, much incensed, seized the tea and carried it to Captain Edward
Grow's store for safekeeping. The next night a roving band of ' Pequawket
Indians ' entered the town, broke into the store, and carried the tea away.
This town, in which many important events in the State's early history
occurred, saw the beginnings of industrial activity in Maine with the es-
tablishment of the first cotton mill. The York Cotton Factory Company
was incorporated by the Massachusetts Legislature February 12, 1811.
York was once the home of Madam Wood, Maine's first novelist (see
The Arts).
In the village is (L) a beautiful white Church (1747), its clock tower and
spire surmounted by a weathervane and cock. The stained windows were
added many years after its construction.
The lichen-covered slate headstones of the Old York Cemetery (R), dating
back to the early part of the i8th century, bear many old-fashioned in-
scriptions beneath such somber and conventional designs as the weeping
willow and the Grecian urn. Many of the headstones have crude death's
heads with wings over the inscriptions with their old English spelling. One
grave, completely covered by a large boulder placed between the head-
stone and footstone so the occupant could never escape, is called the
Witch's Grave, said to be that of a woman executed for witchcraft and
buried here in 1744.
Next (L) is the Town Hall, built in 1747 and rebuilt in 1882.
Farther along (R) is the York Gaol (open in summer), now a museum.
The large gambrel-roof building with frame ends is built around the stone
jail, built in 1653; the walls of the old building form the sides of the later
one. In the old part of the structure are dark cells. The place contains
many old Colonial and Indian relics.
The Wilcox House (private), opposite the jail, was originally a tavern. It
stands on land leased for 900 years, 300 years of which have elapsed.
The fourth house (L) on Long Lands Road is Coventry Hall (private), a
large, handsome, two-story white house with ornamental balustrade
around the edge of the flat roof. The entrance door has a fan-light and is
framed by slender columns.
Opposite Coventry Hall is the Woodbridge House (private), a two-and-a-
half-story, hip-roof structure with dormers in front and an elaborate
captain's walk on the roof.
At 10.2 m. is the junction with a tar-surfaced road.
CULTURAL LANDMARKS
THE pride of Maine, her distinguished sons and daughters,
is accorded enough recognition within the State to refute
satisfactorily the often-repeated saying about the prophet in
his own land. Many communities throughout Maine boast
a local museum dedicated to the memory of the celebrity who
was born or who once lived there. The Longfellow houses
are, of course, the most famous of these, and they reflect in
their design the tradition of gracious living which the poet
always represented. But the homes of Sarah Orne Jewett and
Lillian Nordica are likewise shrines to many pilgrims, as are
those houses made famous by transient human genius which
are not open to the public, but which are constantly pointed
to with pride by remembering neighbors. The L. D. M. Sweat
Museum is at once a memorial to a prominent Portland family
and a municipal art gallery.
Maine's educational institutions are here represented by four
pictures. Fryeburg Academy is the old boarding-school where
Daniel Webster started out in life at the age of twenty as a
'preceptor.' The view of the library at Bowdoin College, its
central building, is an unusual one.
~^
sils
yfflL :.-•-
WADS\VORTH-LONGFELLOW HOUSE, PORTLAND
LONGFEUX)W S BIRTHPLACE, PORTIJIND
is4H *
!
L. D. M. SWEAT MUSEUM, PORTLAND
ffl
III
FRYEBURG ACADEMY
ADMINISTRATION BUILDING, UNIVERSITY OF MAINE, ORONO
COBURN HALL, COLBY COLLEGE, WATERVILLE
REAR WING OF BOWDOIN COLLEGE LIBRARY, BRUNSWICK
MADAME NORDICA S HOMESTEAD, FARMINGTON
EMMA EAMES HOUSE, BATH
ilJU U
QUIJLLCOTE, HOME OF KATE DOUGLAS WIGGIN, HOLLIS
REDINGTON MUSEUM, WATERV1LLE
HOME OF JACOB ABBOTT, FARMI NGTON
SARAH ORNE JEWETT MEMORIAL, BERWICK
TOUR IB: From Junction with US 1 to Biddeford 253
Right on this road and left at 0.1 m. to the Sayward House (private), 0.2 m., a white
two-story gable-end house with an ell that exactly copies the main structure.
YORK HARBOR (alt. 50, York Town), 10.3 m., on a headland at the
mouth of York River, has long been a fashionable resort. The shore
estates and residences along the heavily shaded streets are dignified and
impressive.
At 12.5 m. is the southern end of a i. 5-mile stretch of sand known locally
as Long Beach, part of the York Beach resort area, with cottages (L)
bordering the shore road. The wide beach, the delight of sea bathers and
one of the most attractive in Maine, is unmarred by concessions. The
Boon Island and Nubble lighthouses are visible from the beach.
At 13.2 m. is the junction with an improved road.
Right on this road to Nubble Light, 1 m.
YORK BEACH (alt. 20, York Town), 14 m., is the busy center of the
resort area. While having public amusement facilities, it is not garish.
At 15.4 m. State 1A joins US 1, near Cape Neddick (see Tour 1, sec. a).
TOUR IB: From JUNCTION WITH US I to BIDDEFORD,
20.8 m., State 9.
Via Kennebunkport, Cape Porpoise, and Fortune Rocks.
Two-lane tarred road.
STATE 9, winding through marshlands, from time to time reaches high
ground with thick growths of pine and hemlock. It runs fairly close to
the rocky shores and sandy beaches of a broad peninsula.
State 9 branches east from US 1 (see Tour 1, sec. a), 0 m., at a point 1.8 m.
north of Wells and runs through heavy forest growth broken at intervals
by marshy inlets.
At 2.9 m. is the junction with a local road.
Right on this road to KENNEBUNK BEACH (alt. 15, Kennebunk Town), 0.9 m.,
where great spurs of rock extend into the ocean, breaking a long stretch of white
sand. Summer hotels and residences in attractive groves overlook the water.
KENNEBUNKPORT (alt. 20, Kennebunkport Town, pop. 1284), 4.4 m.,
an elm-shaded resort village, was once the chief shipbuilding center of
York County and a port of some importance. The old houses dating
back to 1785, with their captain's walks, are reminiscent of the days when
the occupants waited anxiously for the return on their investments by sea.
In the outskirts amid charming gardens are the summer homes of Booth
Tarkington, Margaret Deland, Kenneth Roberts, and other writers and
254 High Roads and Low Roads
artists. Much of Tarkington's writing has been done aboard the l Regina,'
which is tied up near the River Club on Ocean Ave.
A gay event of the summer season here is the Water Carnival, held at
night; the dark waters of the river then gleam with the reflections of
hundreds of twinkling lights.
The Garrick Playhouse (L), on Temple St., is a summer theater in which
plays are presented during the summer months as try-outs before the
New York season.
A beautiful example of old New England church architecture is the First
Congregational Church (1764), also on Temple St., with a stately columned
portico and graceful spire.
The old Perkins Mill (L), on Mill Lane, a picturesque, weather-beaten
structure perched on the edge of a stream, has been grinding grain since
1749, when there were but four houses in Kennebunkport.
The Luques House (private}, corner Main and Union Sts., is a two-story
gable-end house with a matching ell. It has a beautiful fan-light over the
entrance door.
CAPE PORPOISE (alt. 20, Kennebunkport Town), 6.7 m., is a year-
around fishing village with summer residences along the shores; in summer
the sheltered harbor is brightened by innumerable small boats. Inns here
are famous for their sea-food dinners. Lobsters taken green from the cold
sea waters are, within an hour, served piping hot in scarlet shells.
Right from Cape Porpoise on a local road; from the summit of a small hill at 0.5 m.
is a view of the colorful harbor where small, lightly wooded islands make irregular
green patches on the blue surface. Here and there brown reefs shine with the spray
of the surf. The white, cylindrical tower of Goat Island Light at the entrance to the
outer harbor is visible from this point.
FORTUNE ROCKS (alt. 15, Biddeford), 13 m., attracts many summer
residents to its bold rocks and sandy beaches by the sea.
North of Fortune Rocks the highway passes Three Fresh-Water Ponds (L)
not 50 feet from the salt spray of the surf.
At 14.1 m. is a junction with State 208.
Right on State 208 to BIDDEFORD POOL (alt. 15, Biddeford), 1.2 m. The land-
scaped grounds of several large estates follow the curving shores of Fletcher's Neck,
and cottages of every description cluster around the wharves on a deep narrow gut.
Dories and lobster traps are scattered about the wharves, and all summer long
stout fishing boats, light yachts, and cruisers lie at anchor in the saucer-shaped
cove.
At 2.2 m. (R), facing open ocean across the fissured rocks of the shore, is a Coast
Guard Station.
A bronze marker (L), between two buildings, at 14.2 m., marks the Site of
the Richard Vines House, a thatch-roof log structure built in 1616, when
Captain Vines and a crew of 16 men spent the winter here testing out the
winter climate of Maine for Sir Ferdinando Gorges, who wanted to send
out a group of colonists. Vines called the place Winter Harbor and he and
his men were so comfortable that he reported enthusiastically that there
TOUR 1C: From Saco to Dunstan 255
had not been as much as a headache to plague them. During this winter
he explored the Saco River and its banks.
The Haley House (private), 14.6 m. (R), is a salt-box house, built in 1730,
that has had numerous additions. The weathered, clapboarded dwelling
was built by Benjamin Haley, who did not agree with his neighbors on the
character of the Indians and refused to take refuge with them in the Tar-
box Garrison at night. One bitter evening he admitted two Indians who
apparently judged him to be as hostile as others they had met and tried
to snatch brands from the fire to burn the house. He succeeded in eject-
ing them and spent his nights in the garrison thereafter.
At 15.9 m. is a junction with a tarred road.
Right on this road to HILLS BEACH (alt. 20, Biddeford), 1 m., where small
summer cottages and fishermen's homes straggle along the narrow spit stretching
to Biddeford Pool. A landmark for seamen is a tall white Monument on Basket's
Island (L).
At the end of the point, 1.9 m., a bronze tablet, facing the wharves of the pool
across the gut, marks the Site of Fort Hill, built about 1688.
The Goldwaithe House (1717), west of the fort site, was once known as the Jordan
Garrison House. The high surrounding palisade of timber and stone with corner
lookouts has disappeared, and the dilapidated two-story house bears no evidence of
its former use.
At 16.1 m. (R) is the Stella Marls Home, a kindergarten boarding-school
supervised by the Franciscan Brothers.
At 17 m. is the junction with Ferry Lane.
Right down Ferry Lane to what is known as the Lower Ferry on the Saco River,
where is the Site of the First Hotel in Maine, 0.4 m. The Saco court records for 1654
state that one Henry Waddock was granted the right ' to keep an ordinary to enter-
tain strangers for their money.' Apparently the entertainment of guests caused
some concern in the community, for the court made some very sharp rulings as to
the conduct of drinkers. One of these regulations reads : ' Whoever is drunk pays
35. 4d.; for drinking too much, 2s. 6d.; for sitting after nine at night, 53., to be im-
prisoned until he pays, or sit in the stocks for 3 hours.'
At 20.4 m. is the junction with Alfred St. ; right on Alfred St. then left on
Main St. to US 1 at Biddeford (see Tour 1, sec. a).
TOUR 1C: From SACO to DUNSTAN, 9.6 m., State 9.
Via Old Orchard Beach and Pine Point.
Two-lane cement and tar-surfaced road.
THIS loop route, an alternate to US 1 between Saco and Dunstan, skirts
a i4-mile beach and then crosses marshland.
State 9 branches southeast from US 1 at Saco (see Tour 1, sec, a), 0 m.
256 High Roads and Low Roads
At 0.9 m. is the junction with a local road.
Right on this road to CAMP ELLIS (alt. 20, Saco), 4 m., a beautiful spot on the
northern bank of the Saco River at its mouth, with a rugged breakwater and a view
of Biddeford Pool (R) and the Wood Island Light. Power boats with pilots can be
hired here for a day's fishing on the ' grounds ' (see Sports and Recreation: Salt-Water
Fishing).
A squatters' colony has grown to a sizable collection of cottages and shacks here on
the spit, a piece of land made within the past 10 years by drifting sands that now
cover part of the breakwater.
At 1.6 m. (R) is the stone clubhouse of the Biddeford-Saco Country Club
(open to visitors).
At 2.2 m. is the junction with a local road.
Right on this road to OCEAN PARK (alt. 15, Old Orchard Beach Town), 0.7 m., a
settlement of cottages where many religious organizations hold summer confer-
ences. The Baptist Camp Grounds are left, 1.4 m. from the park.
At 3.2 m. is the junction with Union Ave.
Right on this road to the Methodist Camp Ground, 0.2 m. (L), a natural amphi-
theater in a grove of old pines. Among the annual gatherings here each summer is
that of the Salvation Army with its large Silver Band.
OLD ORCHARD BEACH (alt. 40, Old Orchard Beach Town, pop.
1620), 4 m., with one of the longest beaches on the Atlantic coast, has been
a popular resort for more than a century. Hotels and cottages crowd
closely along the streets branching from the compactly built-up village.
Roller coaster, fun houses, and scores of other concessions are centered
here.
The Pier, over the beach, has a carnival promenade, its eastern side lined
with confectioners' booths, games of chance, souvenir shops, and the like.
The music of the merry-go-round at the entrance and the odor of popping
corn and frying 'hot dogs' are among the attractions to many visitors.
Well-known dance bands play during the summer months in the dance
hall at the end of the pier. Because the Saco town line passes across the
pier's end, its owners pay taxes in two towns.
Staples Inn, i Portland Ave., built in 1730, is still a lodging-house and,
though remodeled, has the original panels and doors. The inn was built
on land granted by the Council of Plymouth to Richard Bonython, one of
the first settlers.
At 5.6 m. (R) is the R. P. Hazzard Estate (private), one of the show places
on the ocean front in this section of the coast; it is recognizable by its
stucco surrounding wall studded with mosaics. The small flat cement
building (R), near the main house, is a guest house and an excellent ex-
ample of modern architecture. All space has been utilized without sacri-
fice of line, and the interior seems spacious. It is beautifully furnished in
a restrained modern style.
PINE POINT (alt. 15, Scarboro Town), 6.5 m., is a residential settlement
along the beach.
Right from Pine Point a road follows the shore line, passing summer cottages and,
farther along, the small homes of clam diggers who make their living from near-by
clam flats; it then loops back to State 9, 1 m.
TOUR ID: From Brunswick to Bailey Island 257
The point of land (R) across from Pine Point is PROUT'S NECK (see
Tour 1, sec. a).
At Pine Point the road swings left and soon crosses Scarboro Marshes.
At 9.2 m. (R) a marker indicates the Site of the Birthplace of William King,
Maine's first governor (1820).
At 9.6 m. State 9 rejoins US 1 at DUNSTAN (see Tour 1, sec. a).
TOUR ID: From BRUNSWICK to BAILEY ISLAND, 17
m., State 24.
Via Great (Sebascodegan) and Orr's Islands.
Two-lane tar-surfaced and graveled roadbed.
THE transition from the mainland to the islands, lying in the north-
eastern part of Casco Bay, is hardly noticeable because of the narrowness
of the channels; the road runs through a growth of pines that spread a
carpet of tawny needles to the edge of the road. The rocky ridges along
the highway terminate in ledges at the southern tip of Bailey Island.
State 24 branches south from US 1 (see Tour 1, sec. £), 0 w. at the eastern
end of Brunswick.
At 0.5 m. is the junction with State 123.
Right on State 123, which runs down an elongated peninsula, not more than 1.5
miles wide at any point, to NORTH HARP SWELL (alt. 60, Harpswell Town),
6.8 m.
HARPSWELL CENTER (alt. 30, Harpswell Town, pop. 1364), 8.8 m. The Con-
gregational Church (L) was built in 1843 f°r Elijah Kellogg (1813-1901), early
pastor at Harpswell and author of several books for boys. While the structure is
fundamentally of the usual New England type, the trim of the oversized steeple
and the ogee arch of the entrance door are Gothic. A boulder on the lawn (R)
marks the site of the first church, built in 1757. In the large old cemetery (R) are
buried the Reverend Elisha Eaton (1702-64), first Harpswell pastor, and his suc-
cessor, the Reverend Samuel Eaton, who died in 1822 at 86 years of age and in the
59th year of his ministry.
WEST HARPSWELL (alt. 70, Harpswell Town), 12 m., is a small village with
excellent sea views.
SOUTH HARPSWELL (alt. 30, Harpswell Town), 14.5 m., offers deep-sea fishing
facilities and boating. The peninsula here is very narrow, with summer homes
grouped closely on barren rock. At the close of day the houses, silhouetted against
a backdrop of sun-glinted sea, form a striking picture.
At 5.3 m. State 24 crosses a bridge over the gurnet, a narrow channel of
rushing tides, to GREAT ISLAND, or Sebascodegan, locally known as
East Harpswell, the 'Lost Paradise' of Robert P. Tristram Coffin, poet
and novelist. A small summer colony at this point is called Gurnet.
258 High Roads and Low Roads
At 6 m. is the junction with a dirt road.
Left on this road to a briar-covered old Cemetery, 1.5 m. (L), one of many in this
section of the State. The oldest gravestone, in an iron-fenced plot, bears the date
September 24, 1774.
CUNDY'S HARBOR (alt. 20, Harpswell Town), 5.2 m., is a tiny fishing village
catering to summer visitors who like deep-sea fishing.
The road winds through pastures to Cundy's Harbor Beach, 6 w., on a cove in East
Casco Bay. On summer holidays and Sundays many inland families come here for
boat trips, camping, clam-bakes, and swimming. The picnic ground is one of many
recently developed at less widely known beach resorts on the Maine coast.
At 7 m. (L) is a small cove in which graceful seagulls feed; ahead is a fine
seascape.
The Gurnet, 11.1 m., a rugged inlet where incoming and outgoing tides
rush furiously, has borne its name at least 200 years.
Here the highway cuts through a high cliff of gray stratified rock to
reach a short bridge leading to ORR'S ISLAND. The highway, following
the ridge of the island its entire length of 4.5 miles, commands a far-
reaching view of East Casco Bay with its many craggy islands.
The Orr Homestead (private), 14 m. (R), a one-and-a-half -story yellow
house near the cemetery, is occupied by descendants of the family for
whom the island was named.
ORR'S ISLAND VILLAGE (alt. 40, Harpswell Town), 14.6 m., a settle-
ment of attractive summer homes, lies along a low ridge sloping to the
shore. Deep-sea fishing is among the popular summer sports here.
At 15 m. (R) a footpath leads to a small white house near the shore known
as the Pearl of Orr' s Island House (private). This house is believed to have
been the home of the heroine of Harriet Beecher Stowe's 'The Pearl of
Orr's Island.'
South of the village the highway crosses Will Straits on Bailey Island
Bridge, which spans the narrowest part of the channel, then curves to
follow the line of a thin spit to solid ground. The bridge, considered to be
one of great beauty, is built of uncemented granite blocks laid honeycomb
fashion, similar to a breakwater; it thus holds more effectively against
strong spring ice-jams than would a rigid structure, and is kept in position
by its own weight. The tides flow freely through the large cells of ' the
honeycomb.' It is said that the only other bridge of this type is in Scotland.
BAILEY ISLAND (alt. 30, Harpswell Town), 17 m., is the southern-
most summer settlement on this route. Steamers ply between Bailey and
Portland, stopping at several other Casco Bay Islands. The Wharf (R)
is the center of activities, boating and deep-sea fishing being the chief
recreation of the summer residents.
A dirt road gradually rises for a mile to end on the ledges at the southern
tip of the island, where is a magnificent view of the ocean. Mericoneag
Sound and the numerous small islands of Casco Bay are seen (R), and 5
miles out is Halfway Rock Light, so called because it is midway between
Portland Head and Seguin Lights. The 76-foot white granite tower, com-
pleted in 1871, appears to rise abruptly from the water, Halfway Rock it-
self barely showing above high tide.
TOUR IE: From BATH to FORT POPHAM, 17.5 w., State
209.
Via Winnegance, Phippsburg, and Parker Head.
Two-lane tar-surfaced and dirt roads.
THE country gradually becomes more rugged as State 209 winds past
fields and pastures, and past old farmhouses surrounded by snowball
bushes and other informal shrubbery, to the mouth of the Kennebec
River. The colors of the wild flowers here are made more vivid by the sea
air.
State 209 branches south from US 1 at Bath (see Tour I, sec. b), 0 m.
WINNEGANCE (alt. 20, City of Bath), 2.7 m.
At 3 m. is the junction with a dirt road.
Left on this road to a Tide Mill, 0.4 m., which until 1935 was used for cutting
lumber. This old structure is a primitive forerunner of the mills and factories
planned as part of the Passamaquoddy Power Project.
At 4.3 m. is the junction with a dirt road.
Left on this road to a dwelling at 1.6 m., to the rear of which is the Site of Fort
Noble, a stronghold built in 1734. It faced down river to the wide waters at the
southern end of Fiddlers Beach, forming an important defense of the Kennebec.
South of this point open fields and farmlands are less frequent, the road
running through woods that thin at intervals, giving glimpses of the river.
At 5.9 m. is an exceptional view of the Kennebec (L); the white-spired
Phippsburg church is visible, standing out against a green background.
PHIPPSBURG CENTER (alt. 20, Phippsburg Town, pop. 801), 7.1 m.
On the left side of the village street is the James McCobb House (private),
built in 1774, with a beautifully paneled interior. The hinges and bull's-
eye glass of the entrance door are of interest to antiquarians. The town's
first post office was established in the kitchen of this house, built by James
McCobb, shipbuilder and trader. An old black walnut tree and three old
lindens in the yard are noteworthy. Near-by is the site of Spite House,
which was removed to Rockport (see Tour 1, sec. b).
Right from Phippsburg Center on State 216; on the western shore of a small lake,
0.7 m., (R) is a hillside, where in 1935 Indian skeletons were uncovered during
road-building operations.
Right from State 216 at 5.4 m. on a dirt road (sign, Aliquippa House) to the Site of
Ancient Augusta, 6.3 m., a fishing village established on Casco Bay in 1 716. Hidden
in juniper and bayberry growth on a knoll are the scattered bricks of a fort, built in
1716, by Dr. Oliver Noyes and his men as a protection against Indians. An
enormous pit near-by may have been covered and used as a refuge or as a store-
house. The settlement remained until about 1821.
At 7.5 m. (L) stands an old brick store at the head of a former shipyard
erected in 1806 by the McCobb family. The last square rigger built here
260 High Roads and Low Roads
slid down the ways in 1893. Formal launchings came into fashion on the
peninsula in 1904, when engraved invitations were sent out for the debut
of the five-master 'Marcus L. Urann.'
PARKER HEAD (alt. 30, Phippsburg Town), 11 m., with small well-
kept houses along its rough steep highway, was named for one of the
pioneers who settled here about 1645. Clam flats along the shore provide
the general means of livelihood.
At 12.8 m. is the junction with a dirt road.
Left on this road to Cox's Head, jutting into the Kennebec, 0.9 m. (private prop-
erty), a huge rock formation topped at the southern end by a ridge of earthworks
built in 1812. Enthusiastic young recruits, who had expected to shoulder muskets
on the battlefield, found themselves resentfully pushing wheelbarrows of earth
up the steep incline to build the fortification.
Passing through a lovely stretch of woods, the road, bordered in summer
by marsh grass and occasional clumps of purple iris or yellow lilies, soon
reaches the sea.
At 15.9 m. (R), a few yards from the highway, ocean rollers break on a
wide beach that still has few summer cottages and little resort develop-
ment. Sea winds have carved the sands into high dunes, now overgrown
with bayberry bushes.
At 16.5 m. (L) is the entrance to Fort Baldwin (open), a U.S. fortification
whose armament was removed and whose 45-acre tract was purchased by
the State in 1924. Its three batteries, built (1905-12) into the wooded
side of Sabino Hill, are now cracked and broken. The batteries, named
respectively for Patrick Cogan and John Hardman, officers in the
Revolutionary Army, and Joseph Hawley, Brigadier General in the Civil
War, were garrisoned during the World War.
The State reservation includes the Site of the Popham Colony (R), between
the entrance gate and the shore. The information obtained by Sir John
Popham, and particularly by Sir Ferdinando Gorges, from the Indians,
who had been kidnaped and carried to England by Waymouth in 1605
(see Tour I/), prompted them to finance a settlement on the shores of
Maine. Acting under the Virginia Company Patent, Gorges sent out an
expedition in 1606 under Captain Henry Challons; he disobeyed orders,
however, sailing too far south, and was captured by the Spanish, This did
not dampen the enthusiasm of Gorges; largely through his activities, a
second set of colonists was sent out in the following year on the ' Gift of
God,' commanded by George Popham, and on the 'Mary and John,' com-
manded by Raleigh Gilbert. The ships touched at Nova Scotia but sailed
south to the country recommended by Waymouth and, on August 19,
1607 (O.S.), landed at this place. The group was hastily organized with
Popham as president, the land laid out, and Fort St. George, a barracks, a
chapel, storehouses, and houses were built. Immediately afterward the
colonists built a boat of about 30 tons, described in the records as ' a pretty
pynnace,' naming it the 'Virginia.' The careful manner in which Gorges
selected the colonists, including among them capable craftsmen, should
TOUR IF: From Woolwich to Five Islands 261
have made the settlement successful, but the winter was unusually severe
and George Popham, an elderly man, and a number of the settlers died.
In the following spring when one of the ships, which had gone to England
for supplies, returned, it brought word that a financial backer of the ex-
pedition, Sir John Popham, had died; the next ship brought word that
Raleigh Gilbert's brother had also died, an event forcing Raleigh Gilbert's
return. Deprived of leadership and faced with the prospect of another
hard winter, the settlers lost heart and sailed for England in September,
1608.
POPHAM BEACH (alt. 15, Phippsburg Town), 17.2 m., is the center of a
group of weather-beaten houses extending for half a mile across the point
between the Kennebec River and the ocean. The settlement, facing two
low barren islands known as the Sugar Loaves, with Seguin Light beyond
them, has been an active summer colony since 1890.
Transportation can be arranged to Seguin Island Light (open), highest
light above the sea on the Maine coast, which stands on an island off the
mouth of the Kennebec. The original 38-foot tower was built in 1795
during President Washington's administration. The present tower (1857),
53 ft. high, stands 180 ft. above high tide.
Rough waters between Popham and Seguin keep the Kennebec River
Coast Guard Station (R) busy during bad weather.
Fort Popham (open until 8 P.M.), 17.5 m., an impressive granite and brick
structure erected in 1861 but never completed, has been a State reserva-
tion since 1924. It was garrisoned in 1865-66, again in 1898, and men
were stationed here during the World War. Built in the shape of a half-
moon, the outer curve is a 30-foot wall of granite blocks pierced for
musketry. Within the arc is a parade ground. A fine spiral staircase at
each end of the fort leads to upper tiers. The top of the structure com-
mands a sweeping view up the Kennebec in one direction and seaward in
another.
Fort Popham Light is at the southern side of the fort. The white pyramidal
bell tower, its top 27 feet above high water, is visible 7 miles at sea.
TOUR IF: From WOOLWICH to FIVE ISLANDS, 15.3 m.,
State 127.
Via Arrowsic and Georgetown.
Two-lane dirt road.
STATE 127 runs over a series of heavily wooded islands from whose hills
are views of Sheepscot Bay and other islands, large and small. In the
262 High Roads and Low Roads
days when shipping was important on the Kennebec, many of the in-
habitants of these islands sailed the seven seas; today agriculture, fishing,
and clam digging combine to provide a livelihood for the people, who still
live much as their fathers did, using kerosene lamps, hand pumps, and
other out-moded appliances.
State 127 swings south from Woolwich (see Tour 1, sec. b), 0 m.
The Drawbridge, 0.6 m., carrying the route across the Sasanoa River to
Arrowsic Island, had until recently a toll gate.
The ebb tide of the Kennebec, which returns much more slowly than does
the tide of the Sasanoa, meets the ebb tide of the Sasanoa at Hell Gate, 1.5
m. left of this bridge, in Sheepscot Bay. Great skill is needed to bring
a boat up against this tide, reefs and shoals adding to the hazards.
At 2.2 m. the road bears L. through growths of spreading maples and silver
birches.
The Stinson Farm House (private), 3.2m., built in 1751 by John Stinson, a
magistrate of Yorkshire (now York County), stands back from the road
(L) in a pine-fringed field. Only one room in the weather-beaten structure
has the original hand-hewn paneling.
Left from the Stinson House on a footpath to Hockomock Point, 0.2 m., the site of
the Clark and Lake settlement in 1650. Clark and Lake conducted a trading enter-
prise, placing groups of settlers in favorable situations to trade with the Indians.
They bought Arrowsic Island in 1654, and during the following year built several
dwellings, a warehouse, and a large barracks within a fortified enclosure. It was in
their shipyard on this point that Sir William Phips (see Tour 1, sec. b) worked as an
apprentice. There were 30 families here in 1670. Six years later the Indians
burned all the settlements on the island. Cellar holes, overgrown by bushes, mark
the places where the early houses stood.
ARROWSIC (alt. 25, Arrowsic Town, pop. 135), 6.3 m., is marked by the
Town House (R). Houses of the township are scattered, the oldest being
on the shores of coves; others, plain little structures with their barns con-
nected by sheds, are near the road.
At 7.5 m. is a junction with a dirt road.
Right on this road to the old Denny Cemetery, 2.9 m. (R), nearly concealed by
bushes, birches, and apple trees. Slate markers date back to 1729. Samuel Denny,
an Englishman, built a blockhouse near this cemetery in 1728. An educated man,
he acted as judge and bailiff, and the stocks in which he imprisoned offenders were
still standing in 1800.
Here, overlooking the Kennebec River, stood the old church mentioned in Arnold's
report of his journey up the Kennebec to Quebec (see Tour 11). The river and
Phippsburg Center are clearly visible from the open field where the church once
stood.
The Watts' Garrison, 3.1 m. (R), on Butler's Cove, was a brick structure sur-
rounded by homes. The garrison was built by John Watts of Boston in 1714 and
the town of Georgetown was incorporated in 1716 with this nucleus. All that re-
mains of the settlement is a row of cellar holes with raspberry bushes growing up
through a few decaying hand-hewn timbers containing hand-wrought nails.
At the foot of the hill, 3.3 m., near the river, are two old,"rambling one-and-a-half-
story buildings, crumbling and vacant, their doors swinging with the winds, re-
minders of the general desertion of these once busy lands.
TOUR IF: From Woolwich to Five Islands 263
Near-by (L), on what is now an island but which was once Squirrel Point, is a
Ruined House, the only visible remains of the prosperous fishing settlement estab-
lished by John Parker in 1629.
At 8 m. a steel bridge crosses Back River to the island of Georgetown,
early known as Parker's Island.
GEORGETOWN VILLAGE (alt. 60, Georgetown Town, pop. 361), 11.9
m. Here are the general store, post office, town house, and near-by the
two bridges that cross Robinhood Cove.
This township lies on hilly islands; the gradual settling of the continental
terrain is very noticeable here. Stretches of marshland, formerly flooded
only at high tide, are now waterways, navigable by small craft, even at low
tide. Patches of land are at intervals cut off, more islands being created.
The shore line, where dulse, an edible seaweed, grows, is very rugged.
Doubtless it was from such rocks as these that Moncacht-Ape, a Yazoo
Indian, nearly three centuries ago gazed for the first time upon the great
waters, fascinated and terrified by their expanse and their roaring as they
lashed against the ledges only to fall back each time in huge billows of
spent foam. An account written in French relates how this red man had
traveled from the lower Mississippi Valley to the east coast seeking the
place of origin of the North American Indians. The story is told of his
first sight of 'the Big Water.'
When I saw it I was so glad I could not speak. My eyes seemed too little to
see it all. But the night came The water was close to us, but below.
The wind was big and I think it made the Big Water angry. It made so
much noise I could not sleep. I was afraid the blows made by the Big
Water on our high place would break it, though it was made of rocks I
was a long time without speaking to my friend. To see me always looking
and never speaking he thought I had lost my mind. I could not understand
where all this could come from. The wind went away before the sun came
up and the Big Water was not as angry as it had been. I was surprised to see
it coming back to us. That made me afraid. I got up and ran as fast as I could.
My friend called to me that I had nothing to fear. . . . He said Red Men had
seen the Big Water and that it was always traveling, sometimes going away,
sometimes coming back. But he said it never came nearer the land at one
time than another We went away so we could sleep far away from this
noise which followed me everywhere. Until evening I did not speak of any-
thing else to my friend.
FIVE ISLANDS (alt. 40, Georgetown Town), 15.3 m., has small boat con-
nections with Bath. This popular residential village, with a good harbor,
is at the mouth of the Sheepscot River; its unpretentious summer homes
are built along the highway and rocky shore. A short beach (R) is a
favorite spot for clambakes, and the little dance hall is a busy place when
an occasional cruise of Boston yacht clubs brings a number of visitors to
the harbor at 'Five' for a night. From the wharf, the center of village
life, private speedboats ply back and forth between the sparsely settled
and privately owned small islands near-by.
TOUR 1 G : From JUNCTION WITH US 1 to SOUTH-
PORT, 13.4 m., Local road and State 27.
Via Edgecomb and Boothbay Harbor.
One year-round hotel at Boothbay Harbor.
Tarred and gravel roadbeds.
THIS route, skirting coves and inlets, runs down the peninsula, through
fishing villages and the large resort area of Boothbay Harbor.
An improved, unnumbered road branches south from US 1 at the eastern
end of Wiscasset bridge (see Tour 1, sec. b), 0 m.
At 0.3 m. is the junction with an obscure dirt road.
Right on this dirt road to Fort Edgecomb, (grounds open, though not the block-house)
0.4 m. The grounds adjoining this octagonal wooden blockhouse command an
exceptionally fine view of the Sheepscot River, with the long island of Westport in
the foreground. Constructed in 1808-09 °f heavy wooden-pegged square timbers
of pine and ash from near-by forests, the building is well preserved. The first story,
27 feet wide and pierced for musketry, is overhung by a second story 30 feet wide
with i2-foot posting, having square portholes and heavily shuttered windows.
The narrow slits in the high tower were used by lookouts. The stockade and
parade grounds have been obliterated, but the earthworks and the remains of the
gun emplacements are still visible. The heavy armaments, consisting of four 18-
pounder guns and one 5o-pounder gun, were removed in 1816, never having been
used in an engagement.
NORTH EDGECOMB (alt. 50, Edgecomb Town), 0.8 m., is a small
settlement of white houses, with lawns extending to the tree-shaded bank
of the Sheepscot.
Left, opposite the post office, on the high riverbank is the Marie Antoinette
House (visited at convenience of owner). This structure, built in 1774 by
Captain Joseph Decker on Squam Island, from which it was much later
brought to this spot, was inherited by Decker's daughter, the wife of
Samuel Clough, captain of a merchantman that frequently visited
France. In 1793 the captain became engaged in an enterprise, the details
of which are somewhat obscure. According to romantics he was moved by
the unfortunate situation of the imprisoned Queen of France to attempt
her rescue with the aid of her friends; it seems clear, however, that he was
merely hired by them to carry her to America on the 'Sally' when they
had managed to effect her release. Some of her personal belongings and
various articles that her "friends thought might make her home in exile
more comfortable and furnish it in a style befitting her rank were smuggled
aboard the Yankee ship. The plan, however, like others with the same
purpose, failed; the queen was beheaded and Captain Clough set sail
hastily to escape possible punishment for his share in the enterprise. In
the meantime the captain had written to his wife to give her warning of
the guest she might expect to have for a time, carefully trying to reconcile
TOUR 1G: From Junction with US 1 to Southport 265
her to the dismaying idea of sheltering royalty. He doubtless found his
home polished and shining when he at last arrived — without the queen.
The captain stored the queen's possessions in his home; some thought
this was because of a personal devotion to her, but it seems more likely
that his Yankee conscience made him uneasy about his right to dispose of
the goods that had come into his possession in such an irregular manner.
Gradually, as time passed and no one came to claim the cargo, the furnish-
ings came into use in the large, plain, square house, now standing in North
Edgecomb. Many stories are told of their later uses and wanderings. It is
said that a satin robe, worn by the King of France on state occasions, was
in time made into a dress by Mrs. Clough. A Wiscasset clockmaker dis-
covered in the interior of an old clock a plate inscribed in French indicat-
ing that the timepiece had been presented by the maker to the Queen on
the Dauphin's birthday. Other mementoes are at the Metropolitan
Museum of Art in New York; a few articles still remain in the Clough
House.
There is a legend that Talleyrand and Marie Antoinette's son, the
Dauphin of France, were passengers on the return voyage of the ' Sally '
and that both were guests at the Clough House for some time.
It is Captain Clough who is given credit for having introduced coon cats
into Maine. He is said to have brought a cat home with him from some
Chinese port, and that the present-day coon cats, seldom seen except on
this coast, are descendants of this cat and one of the usual domestic breed.
Local sages insist that the cat is a hybrid descendant of a house cat of
China, Me., who mated with a wild raccoon, but the theory has no
scientific backing. The coon cats, quite gentle and fragile, have long,
frosty-gray hair; they are difficult to rear, being particularly susceptible
to pneumonia, but some people have a profitable business raising them
for sale.
At 1.5 m. is the junction with State 27; right on State 27.
EDGECOMB (alt. 50, Edgecomb Town, pop. 367), 3.4 m., was formerly
the home of the Wawenock Indians, who fished on the shores with bone-
tipped spears and crude fishhooks of bone. The town was settled and in-
corporated in 1774. In 1850 it had a population of 1231, but the decrease
since that time has been constant. There are few houses in the village,
most of the inhabitants living on farms some distance apart.
The tradition that elderly Samuel Trask, one of the settlers of Edgecomb,
was once a member of Captain Kidd's crew has furnished grounds for
intermittent treasure hunting in this neighborhood. When Kidd was
arrested and hanged, his estate was very small, giving rise to many stories
of treasure buried by him, or by his crew for him. Edgecomb gossips said
that Trask had been one of those delegated to hide part of the booty and
that it had been buried near his clearing in Edgecomb. Since Kidd died
in 1701 and Trask did not come to this neighborhood till 1774, such
treasure, had it been trusted to a boy, would have had a long period of
travel.
266 High Roads and Low Roads
BOOTHBAY (alt. 80, Boothbay Town, pop. 1345), 9.6 m., thought to
have had a settlement in 1630, was first known as Newagen, and then as
Townshend. It has an old Meeting-House (R) of early American design,
with an old Cemetery in the rear. A new Summer Theater in Boothbay adds
to its importance as a summer recreational center.
At 11 m. is the junction with a gravel road.
Left on this road is EAST BOOTHBAY (alt. 30, Boothbay Town), 2. 7m., a. small
fishing village and summer resort. A Tide Mill in the village is still used for cutting
lumber after a century of service.
OCEAN POINT (alt. 20, Boothbay Town), 6.4 m., has steamer connections
(variable schedule, apply at wharf) with Bath.
The weather-beaten effect of the summer cottages on this exposed point of land is
prized by the owners, who came here for the sea views and exhilarating air.
BOOTHBAY HARBOR (alt. 40, Boothbay Harbor Town, pop. 2076),
11.4 m.
Accommodations. All types.
Steamers and Boats. There is ferry service from Boothbay Harbor to Squirrel
Island, and steamer service to Monhegan Island (see Island Trips). Sailboats
and motorboats for fishing and other purposes for hire at wharves, with or without
skipper.
Annual event. Regatta third Fri. in Aug., sail and power boats, headquarters
Boothbay Harbor Clubhouse.
This town is one of the most popular resorts on the coast; in addition to
the summer residents and usual visitors, a number of artists and parents,
whose children are in near-by camps, come here annually. Because of its
summer importance the population of the town has gradually increased
since it was separated from Boothbay and incorporated in 1889. The
settlement, however, knew early days of prosperity, first as a trading cen-
ter and later as a port and scene of shipbuilding. Well-kept homes line the
few streets and the main street, sloping down to the wharves on the
harbor, is lined with little shops that are busy all summer.
The harbor during the vacation season is a busy place, with small sail-
boats and outboard motorboats slipping about between the mahogany and
grass-trimmed yachts. The down-east coasting schooner, mourned by
lovers of the sea as gone forever has taken a new lease on life in the trans-
portation of pulpwood to Maine paper mills. While this type of shipping
is not as profitable as that of the small coasting vessel of the old days, it
provides a living for the skipper and his small crew. These schooners,
mostly two-masted, are beginning to be a common sight again in ports
all along the Maine coast.
A favorite tale of the fishermen along the harbor here is of Luther Mad-
docks and his whale. In 1885 Maddocks decided that the exhibition of a
whale at a Grand Army of the Republic reunion in Portland would be
profitable. Capturing a 6o-foot humpbacked whale, he towed it at high
tide over a scow he had ingeniously weighted to a reef with rocks. When
the tide receded, Maddocks removed the rocks, bailed out the water, and
waited for another tide to lift his load. He towed his catch into Portland
TOUR 1H: From Damariscotta to Pemaquid Point 267
Harbor, and, after a heated argument with the mayor, won the right to
exhibit it, realizing $800 by the venture. He then sold the carcass for
$150 to a company that wanted the hide and blubber. The company,
having profited by the venture, sent the remains out to sea where it sank.
Unfortunately, gas had begun to generate in it, and it soon floated in-
shore, to the annoyance of the inhabitants, who towed it out again. But
the remains floated back in. The performance was repeated several times,
though it was once lashed temporarily to a rocky islet. At length it came
ashore at Old Orchard Beach, where another Yankee decided to profit by
it; he exhibited the foul bulk as a 'sea-serpent' and special excursions
were made from various points to view it. The directors of a Middle West
museum that was building up a collection eventually heard about it and
purchased the bones.
At 12.9 m. is the junction with a gravel road.
Left on this road to a U.S. Fish Hatchery and Aquarium (open 8-6), 1.2 m., at
McKown's Point. It was established in 1903 for the conservation of marine life.
The raising of flounders has supplanted the hatching of cod and lobsters. Eggs
secured in the spring are placed in containers through which salt water, pumped by
electricity and steam, runs continuously during the three weeks' hatching period.
The aquarium has, among other exhibits, marine growths, crabs, giant lobsters,
and rays. A large colony of seals is kept near the wharf.
SOUTHPORT (alt. 40, Southport Town, pop. 412), 13.4 m., has steamer
service to Boothbay Harbor and Bath. This widespread village catering
to summer visitors is on a heavily wooded island separated from the
mainland by a narrow channel.
TOUR 1 H : From DAMARISCOTTA to PEMAQUID POINT,
15.8 m., State 129 and State 130.
Via Bristol, Pemaquid, and New Harbor.
Gravel road with short stretches of tarred surface.
SUPERB coastal scenery is offered by this route, which winds through
small fishing hamlets, never far distant from the white surf. Here is seen
the 'rock-bound coast of Maine' in all its beauty, with the waves flung
high. In summer white sails always dot the stretches of open water.
State 129 branches south from Damariscotta (see Tour 1, sec. b), 0 m.
At 3 m. is the junction with State 130 which the main route follows.
Right on State 129 is WALPOLE (alt. 40, South Bristol Town), 3 m., a settlement
of a half dozen houses on the east bank of the Damariscotta River. The Old
Presbyterian Church (services in July and Aug.) was built in 1772 on the site of a
church erected in 1 766. Huge clumps of lilacs surround the white, green-shuttered
268 High Roads and Low Roads
structure. The church resembles an ordinary two-and-a-half-story dwelling. Its
ancient high-backed pews were accorded the dignity of paint for the first time in
1872, when repairs were made. The Bible lying on the heavy carved pulpit, sur-
mounted by a sounding board, is dated 1793. A spacious gallery extends along
three walls.
At 7 m. is the Wawenock Golf Clubhouse (greens fee $1.50; meals served).
SOUTH BRISTOL (alt. 80, S. Bristol Town, pop. 563), 13.5 m., formerly shipping
out fish in considerable quantities, is now largely dependent on summer visitors for
a livelihood. The village, lying on an island — a fact difficult for those unfamiliar
with the coast to realize, draws many people back year after year for the sake of the
views of shining ocean and picturesque islands.
CHRISTMAS COVE (alt. 25, S. Bristol Town), 15.1 m., is visited by coastal
steamers (variable service; apply at wharf). This place was so named by Captain
John Smith when he brought his ship to anchor here on Christmas Day, 1614. It
is one of the ' 25 excellent good Harbors; In many whereof there is ancorage for 500
sayle of ships of any burthen: in some of them for 5000: And more than 200 lies over-
growne with good timber, of divers sorts of wood, which do make so many harbors
as require th a longer time than I had, to be well discovered,' on which he reported
after the voyage. It was Smith's report that helped to keep up the faith of Gorges
in the possibilities of the land; Smith had announced that he would rather live in
Maine than anywhere else, adding that if a colony there could not maintain itself,
even if indifferently equipped, it ought to be allowed to starve.
The main route here follows State 130.
At 5 m. (L) is an attractive Camp Site.
BRISTOL (alt. 100, Bristol Town, pop. 1413), 5.9 m., its homes built
along the highway on a side hill, is known as The Mills. Midway, on the
rising slope (R), a modern cemetery, with monuments of polished marble,
looks down on an earlier burying ground and the ruins of an old sawmill
(L) at the foot of the hill.
On the west side of Bristol St. has been placed a stone that helped form the
walls of the little garrison in which the settlers of this region gathered to
escape the Indians. Near this spot in the i73o's two young girls were shot
down by Indians as they were going out to milk the cows.
PEMAQUID (alt. 60, Bristol Town), 10.5 m.
The Harrington Burial Ground (R) is the largest cemetery in this old
section of Bristol. Many odd epitaphs are inscribed on the lichened
gravestones, which reveal here and there the blurred names of early
settlers, arid dates as early as 1716.
At 12.5 m. is the junction with a dirt road.
Right on this road to PEMAQUID BEACH (alt. 20, Bristol Town), 1 m., which
has steamer connections (variable schedules, apply at wharf) with near-by shore
villages. This is a fishing and resort village. The sandy beach, though short and
narrow, is unusual on this long stretch of rocky coast.
The earliest history of Pemaquid is found in occasional references in the journals of
early explorers. It was visited by David Ingram (see below) in 1569, by Captain
Bartholomew Gosnold in 1602, by Raleigh Gilbert (see Tour IE) in May, 1607, and
by Captain Thomas Dermer in 1619.
Captain John Smith of Virginia, in describing his visit to Monhegan in 1614, said
that opposite Monhegan 'in the Maine' in a port called Pemaquid, was a ship of
Sir Francis Popham whose people had'used the port for 'many years.' The Sieur
de Monts, who, with Champlain, explored this coast in 1605, mentioned that
TOUR 1H: From Damariscotta to Pemaquid Point 269
settlements then existed in this vicinity. It seems probable that a group of Bristol
(England) merchants maintained a fishing and trading center with a resident agent
here as early as 1600 and more certainly in the following decade. The history of the
200 cellars (see below) and paved streets is not satisfactorily explained even by
legend.
The first fort at Pemaquid, then called Jamestown, was a stockade named Smart's
Fort, built about 1630. The fort and settlement were destroyed by Indians or
pirates in 1689. Fort Charles was built in 1677 by order of Governor Edmund
Andros of New York; it was two stories high, with a stockade. The extensive, well-
equipped Fort William Henry, built in 1692, was destroyed in 1696 by the French
under Baron de Castin. Fort Frederick, named for the Prince of Wales, built in
1729 by Colonel David Dunbar under royal commission, was destroyed during the
Revolution by local residents to prevent its occupation by the British. The little
settlement suffered many depredations by the Indians in 1745-48 during the Fifth
Indian War.
Next to Captain Kidd of another period, probably no pirate in Maine waters has
been the subject of so many tales as Dixey Bull. In 1632 a band of French seized
the Plymouth Company's trading post at Castine, and captured the sloop, goods,
and provisions belonging to Bull, who happened to be there at the time as a trader.
Fired by a desire for revenge, Bull assembled a crew of twenty-odd men to prey
upon foreign, preferably French, shipping. His ventures meeting with little success,
Bull attacked several small English vessels. When in 1632 Bull sailed into Pema-
quid, sacked the trading post and near-by dwellings, he carried away booty amount-
ing to $2500 in value. Bull's lieutenant was killed during the raid. The free-booter
and his men continued raiding isolated colonies and attacking small vessels until,
in November, the government at Boston dispatched a fleet of five sloops and
pinnaces to capture him. Although the fleet cruised off the Maine coast for several
weeks, it failed to find the pirate captain and eventually returned to Boston.
There is no definite record of Bull's end, though one version has it that he was
finally caught and executed at Tyburn, England.
A Reproduction of the Tower of Fort William Henry (open 2-6) faces the beach.
Inside, the great rocky foundation of the old fort is seen, and showcases containing
relics recovered from the site, copies of old Indian deeds, early military equipment,
and many other articles. From the roof is an excellent view of the wooded bay
shores.
A low stone wall encloses the old parade ground, with the fort in the left corner
and the Fort House in the right. The house, built by Colonel David Dunbar in 1 729,
is a square two-story frame building with cupola, now a private residence. Border-
ing the stone wall are about 200 old cellars, some of them still open and others
partly filled in; sunken paved streets, excavated some time ago, are now exposed
in only one or two spots. A few yards from the rear of the fort enclosure, reached by
a beaten path, is the old Fort Cemetery. Most of the stones are of slate imported
from Wales and dated in the i8th century; the oldest legible inscription is that of
Ann Rodgers, wife of Lieutenant Partrick Rodgers, who died July i, 1758, in her
4ist year.
NEW HARBOR (alt. 30, Bristol Town), 13.1 m., is a compact fishing
and resort settlement. The small boats riding in the harbor are particu-
larly well built to withstand the buffeting of the rough waters outside.
Along the wharves are scattered upturned dories, lobster pots with floats,
drying nets, fish-drying stages, and all the appurtenances of fishing.
New Harbor was the home of Samoset, the Indian who, in March, 1621,
startled the Pilgrims of Plymouth by appearing among them with the
words, 'Much welcome, Englishmen.' He explained that he was a sachem
and had learned the language from Englishmen engaged in fishing off
Monhegan, and named many of the boat captains. He was apparently
270 High Roads and Low Roads
accustomed to English fare, eating without comment the food they offered
him. On his next visit he brought with him Squando, who became a
friend of the settlers. Chief Samoset was a magnificent figure, tall and
straight, his body naked save for a loin cloth. The advice of these Indians
enabled the Pilgrims to replenish their dwindling stores, a friendly act
that was later repaid with treachery.
Samoset was entertained, with other Indian leaders, in 1624 in Portland
Harbor by Captain Christopher Levett.
Left from New Harbor on State 32 is ROUND POND (alt. 25, Bristol Town), 6.6
m., a tiny village of well-kept homes and a post office, sloping down to a small cove
on Muscongus Bay. Eighty years ago it was busy with shipbuilding, the making of
sails and rigging, and as the home port of fishing fleets.
Loiid's Island (alt. 30, Bristol Town), lying 1.5 miles off Round Pond village
(rowboat ferry; irregular service), is 4 miles long and 1.5 miles wide. It was formerly
called Muscongus Island. By an oversight, the report of an early survey omitted
mention of the island, though it was settled about 1745. The map of the coast did
not show it, and it had the distinction of being subject to no government. A
system of self-government, producing excellent results, was formed by the residents.
The island is now included within the town of Bristol.
Left from Round Pond village 2 m. on a dirt road; here stands the Old Rock School-
house, built in 1836 of granite blocks nearly a foot thick, and chinked with
plaster. In the small building eight rough benches, each accommodating three
pupils, are formed by planks nailed at right angles to the walls. One of the oldest
school buildings in Maine, it was abandoned years ago, but is kept in repair by a
local organization.
PEMAQUID POINT (alt. 60, Bristol Town), 15.8 m., the extreme tip of
the peninsula, is marked by Pemaquid Light (parking space 15j£). The old
light was established in the white pyramidal tower connected with the
dwelling in 1827; the dwelling is no longer occupied. In 1934 an auto-
matic illumination apparatus was installed in the old tower.
The point extends far out from the bordering land. A vast expanse of
ocean sweeps before it and on its rocky shore a heavy surf pounds cease-
lessly.
David Ingram with his companions, Richard Browne and Richard Twide,
are thought to have visited the Bashaba Bessabez here in 1569 on their
long walk from the Gulf of Mexico to Nova Scotia after they had been
set ashore by Captain John Hawkins. Ingram's tales were so hazy on
practical details and so embroidered by his imagination that it is im-
possible to identify anything he described with certainty.
TOUR 1 J : From JUNCTION WITH US IMPORT CLYDE,
14.5 m., State 131.
Via St. George, Tenant's Harbor, and Martinsville.
Two-lane tar-surfaced route.
THE upper section of this delightful route follows the eastern bank of
the broad St. George's River, then crosses the narrow peninsula to run
along the inletted shore line, where it is swept by exhilarating breezes
from the Atlantic Ocean.
State 131 branches south, from US 1 (see Tour 1, sec. b),Qm.,on the east-
ern edge of Thomaston.
ST. GEORGE (alt. 90, St. George Town, pop. 2108), 5.2 w., was named for
the Georges Islands, a name given originally to Monhegan by George Way-
mouth in honor of England's patron saint and his own name saint. Way-
mouth visited the region in 1605, one year after the French had made a
settlement on Dochet Island in the St. Croix River, claiming the whole
northern part of the coast for France. Waymouth placed a cross on Allen
Island, one of the present Georges Islands, to establish England's claim
to sovereignty over the land. The village is near the site of a trading post
established about 1630 by the English and maintained periodically until
the Indian War in 1675.
The red granite Memorial on the village Green is to members of the
Gilchrist family who served in the Revolutionary, Mexican, and Civil
Wars.
Wilbert Snow, contemporary poet, was born on Whitehead Island in this
town. His books of verse, 'Down East,' 'Inner Harbor,' and 'Maine
Coast,' are vividly descriptive of the beauty of this area and narrate many
of the old local legends.
Behind the white church (R), overlooking a cemetery on the bank of St.
George's River, is the unmarked Site of Fort St. George's, built in 1809 and
garrisoned during the War of 1812. Rugged earthworks 6 feet high and
50 feet long, overgrown by alders, are the only remains of the crescent-
shaped rampart upon which i5-pounder guns were once mounted. The
English ship 'Bulwark' captured the fort and spiked the guns in 1814.
TENANT'S HARBOR (alt. 30, St. George Town), 9.8 m., is a village
with stained and weather-beaten homes. The deep pits of granite quarries
are visible from the highway, which provides a view out to the fir-topped
islands.
At 11 m. is the junction with a dirt road.
Left on this road to the ELMORE NEIGHBORHOOD (alt. 25, St. George Town),
1.7 m., on Hart's Neck. At the end of this road a footpath has been worn through
the woods to the rough jagged shore where the intermittent boom and roar of
272 High Roads and Low Roads
Spouting Horn, near-by, drowns out all other sounds. This waterspout is caused by
the rush of the sea through a narrow passage under a ledge. On the incoming tide
with a stiff east wind, the water is forced 40 feet into the air.
MARTINSVILLE (alt. 20, St. George Town), 12.1 m., with its few houses
by the roadside, is the village in which Sarah Orne Jewett (see Tour 11)
once taught school. Her 'Country of the Pointed Firs,' written in the
schoolhouse that stood on the site of the present school building (R), has
this immediate area for its locale.
PORT CLYDE (alt. 30, St. George Town), 14.5 m., has steamer con-
nections (variable schedules, apply at wharf) with coastal villages and
islands.
Life in this village on the tip of the peninsula revolves around the packing
house and wharf where little fishing boats ride at their moorings.
The first hostile act of the English against the Indians is said to have been
committed near here in 1605. Captain George Waymouth, in the 'Arch-
angel,' visited here and found 'where fire had been made: and about the
place were very great egge shelles bigger than goose egges, fish bones, and
as we judged, the bones of some beast.' The party lingered on this pleas-
ant spot, repairing their ship, catching lobsters and fish, and gathering
the berries which grew in abundance. Establishing friendly relations with
the Indians, the party traded knives and baubles for valuable furs and
tobacco. Then, seizing five of the aborigines, they sailed away to display
them in England. These Indians, Tahanedo, Amoret, Skicoworos,
Maneddo, and Saffacomoit, attracted much attention in England.
Three were held by Sir Ferdinando Gorges who presented two to Sir
John Popham; these Englishmen were the chief backers of Waymouth's
expedition. Sir John taught his Indians to speak English, in order to
learn more about the country from which they came and to judge for
himself the possible sources of wealth in it. Two of the Indians were sent
back from England with expeditions sent out in 1606, for which they
were to act as interpreters. The ship bearing the Indians was captured
by the Spanish. Skicoworos, one of the remaining Indians, came back
to Maine in 1607 on the 'Gift of God,' or on the 'Mary and John,' ships
commanded by George Popham, brother of Sir John, and by Raleigh
Gilbert, son of Sir Humphrey and nephew of Sir Walter Raleigh. This
expedition first landed on Allen Island, which is between the end of St.
George peninsula and Monhegan Island (see Popham Beach, Tour IE).
TOUR IK: From STOCKTON SPRINGS to ELLSWORTH,
27.6 m., State 3.
Via Sandy Point, Verona Island, Bucksport, Orland, and East Orland.
Two-lane tar-surfaced highway.
THIS route, through hilly farmlands offering views of the Penobscot
River, is a short cut for the section of US 1 that loops north to Bangor.
State 3 branches east from Stockton Springs (see Tour 1, sec. c), 0 m.
SANDY POINT (alt. no, Stockton Springs Town), 3.2 m., is an attrac-
tive settlement of green-shuttered, white frame houses retaining all the
charm of old New England. The graceful facade of the white church in
the center of the village looks toward Penobscot Bay, from which many
men from this township departed for foreign ports. Immediately op-
posite the church is a small burial ground with many stones marked
'Lost' or 'Died at Sea.' The most pretentious monument is that in
memory of Captain Albert Partridge; a globe of polished granite bears the
names of the many distant ports he visited.
At 6.4 m. is the junction with a road leading (L) 0.3 m. into the Fort
Knox reservation (see Tour 1, sec. c).
The Waldo-Hancock Suspension Bridge (car and driver 50^f), 6.7 m., carries
State 3 across the Penobscot River. The bridge, rising 137 feet above the
river, was completed in the fall of 1931.
VERONA (alt. 80, Verona Town, pop. 228), 7.5 m., is on an island in the
Penobscot River. The last vessel built and launched in this former ship-
building village was the 'Roosevelt,' which carried Commander Robert E.
Peary on his final Arctic expedition, during which he is believed to have
reached the North Pole.
State 3 crosses Verona bridge to enter Bucksport.
BUCKSPORT (alt. 80, Bucksport Town, pop. 2135), 8 m., lies on the
east bank of the Penobscot, the main street following the shore of the
river. Directly opposite Bucksport are the gray ramparts of Fort Knox
(see Tour 1, sec. c), which stands like a medieval castle at a high point of
vantage on the river bank. The shopping and trading center of the village
lies on the low ground near the river, and the residential area spreads on
higher ground.
The Maine Seaboard Paper Company Mill (visitors welcome) was erected in
1930 in the northern part of the village. The mill can produce more than
1280 feet of 2i6-inch high-grade newsprint a minute. Although the mill
was originally designed to produce 250 tons daily, an average daily pro-
duction of 328 tons was reached in 1936. Paper makers from all parts of
the world have made studies of the methods, high-speed machines, and
other devices in use at this mill.
274 High Roads and Low Roads
Opposite the mill is a group of Colonial-style company houses with land-
scaped grounds.
Franklin Street is lined with houses built for merchants and shipmasters
of the early days of this town, which was settled in 1762 and incorporated
in 1792. These old homes contain many souvenirs, pieces of bric-a-brac,
and furnishings, gathered from all parts of the world.
North of Franklin Street, the buildings of the former Eastern Maine Con-
ference Seminary crown a hilltop. Established in 1851 and discontinued
in 1934 because of lack of funds, this former Methodist-Episcopal semi-
nary was in 1936 reopened as Spofford Junior High School, a part of the
public school system of the town. From the campus is visible the emerald
beauty of Verona Island and the Waldo-Hancock Bridge, which looks
like a shining ribbon of steel flung across the blue Penobscot.
On the south side of Franklin Street is the Birthplace of William and
Dustin Farnum, stage and screen actors.
On the corner of Federal and Franklin Sts. is the Doctor Moulton House, an
architecturally undistinguished structure, built in 1799 and occupied
during the War of 1812 by the British, who came ashore and raided and
burned property.
The Jed Prouty Tavern (1804), on the northeast corner of Main and
Federal Sts., is known as the setting of the popular comedy, 'Old Jed
Prouty.' This old white, three-story hostelry was a well-known stopping-
place on the stage route between Bangor and Castine, the county seat.
Here travelers sat beneath a great blackheart cherry tree growing among
white rosebushes by the fence, and watched the busy river traffic while
they waited for supper.
On the pages of the old register are ' Martin Van Buren, The White
House/ written in bold letters; 'Gen'l Jackson — Hermitage'; the name
of William Henry Harrison; and 'John Tyler, Washington.' After the
last some person, apparently not an admirer, wrote, 'And the Old Nick
is after him.'
In Buck Cemetery, near the entrance to Verona Bridge, a plain Granite
Obelisk, visible from the highway, marks the resting place of Colonel
Jonathan Buck, for whom Bucksport was named. Legend has it that,
while living in Haverhill, Mass., prior to coming to Maine, Colonel Buck
was called on, in an official capacity, to execute a woman condemned as a
witch. It was said that the woman placed a curse on him; after his death
the likeness of a leg and foot appeared on the side of his granite monument.
The mark, undoubtedly a defect in the stone, reappears after every effort
to efface it, and the townspeople call it the Witch's Curse.
ORLAND (alt. 180, Orland Town, pop. 891), 10.3 m., with neat homes
and churches, is an attractive village on the bank of the blue Narramissic
River. Edwin Ginn, founder of the Boston publishing house that bears
his name, was born here in 1838.
At Orland is a junction with State 175 (see Tour 3).
TOUR 1L: Gouldsboro- Winter Harbor Peninsula 275
EAST ORLAND (alt. 150, Orland Town), 14 m., is a crossroads.
Left from East Orland on a gravel road to a U. S. Fish Hatchery (open), 1.3 m.,
established on the shore of Alamoosook Lake for the propagation of salmon and
trout. The gravel road completely circles the wooded shores of the lake. Five Red
Paint Indian cemeteries, together with Indian relics and workshops, have been un-
earthed during extensive archeological excavations carried on along the lake shore
(see Earliest Inhabitants}.
Right from the hatchery on a trail that extends about 2 m. along the course of
Craig Brook to Craig Pond, then north to Great Mountain (alt. 1037), on whose
slope is a deep Cave that burrows more than 60 feet into the center of the mountain-
side. The formation of walls and ceiling gives its several rooms a weird appearance.
At 27.6 m. State 3 rejoins US 1 in Ellsworth (see Tour 1, sec. c).
TOUR 1 L : From JUNCTION WITH US 1 to JUNCTION
WITH US 1, 16.6 m., State 186.
Via Winter Harbor, Birch Harbor, and Prospect Harbor.
Two-lane tarred roadbed.
THIS route swings over a crooked and rolling road with many sharp
curves and hills on the Gouldsboro-Winter Harbor peninsula, an ex-
clusive summer resort area. Off the blunt southern end juts Grindstone
Neck, from which are unsurpassed views over white-capped seas. Pointed
firs crown wind-swept ledges along the jagged coast and from the western
shores are superb views across blue Frenchman's Bay of Mount Desert
Island with its forest-clad hills.
At 0 m. State 186 swings south from US 1 (see Tour 1, sec. d), on the west-
ern edge of West Gouldsboro.
The route follows the shore line of Frenchman's Bay for several miles.
SOUTH GOULDSBORO (Gouldsboro Town), 3 m., is a small village on
an inlet.
At 6.7 m. is the junction with a local road.
Right on this road is WINTER HARBOR (alt. 50, Winter Harbor Town, pop.
517), 0.3 m., in an area identified principally with summer recreation and beautiful
summer homes; its marine views, through the wide-mouthed harbor with its dozen
islands, are famous. Although Frenchman's Bay, visible beyond Turtle Island, has
been known to freeze, the sheltered harbor here with an average depth of seven
fathoms, has never been frozen.
The road swings left at the end of the village and passes the Grindstone Inn Golf
Club (open June 15 to Sept. 15; g-hole course), and Swimming Pool, and at 1.6 m.
reaches GRINDSTONE NECK, a beautiful area with summer estates.
At 7.7 m. is the junction with an improved road.
Right on this road, at 3.8 m., is an improved road (L) that winds its way 1 m. to the
276 High Roads and Low Roads
summit of Schoodic Mountain, locally called Schoodic Head (alt. 437). From this
height the entrance to the Bay of Fundy can be seen northeast.
At 4.6 m. the main side road swings right and at 4.8 m. is the junction with a dirt
road that leads 1.5 m. to the U.S. Radio-Direction Finder Station (not open to
public).
At 5.2 m. is a parking site at the tip of the Schoodic Peninsula which is a part of
Acadia National Park. There is a beautiful view of the ocean and Cadillac Moun-
tain. The view at this point is particularly fine when the ground swells come roll-
ing in against the rocks after a storm at sea. On the eastern side of Schoodic
Peninsula is Wonsqueak Stream, locally called One Screech. It is said that an
Indian became jealous of his squaw and, taking her out in his canoe, threw her over-
board. Before the waters closed over her she gave one screech.
At 9.6 m. is BIRCH HARBOR (alt. 50, Gouldsboro Town). Tradition
says that this beautiful harbor, which now has a summer colony, was so
named for a thick birch grove along the shore. Today there are few
birches, but the seascape is one of the finest along this section of the
coast.
PROSPECT HARBOR (alt. 30, Gouldsboro Town), 11.6 m., called
Watering Cove in the early days of settlement, is a summer residential
village.
Right from Prospect Harbor on a local road to COREA, 3 m. Here wind-swept
dunes contrast with the otherwise rugged coastal scenery. A summer settlement
tips the slender headland jutting out into the sea, while in a quiet cove are the
cottages of fishermen, whose nets hang drying on rickety wharves.
Near-by is a lobster pound, a huge tank from which live lobsters may be selected
before they are cooked in seaweed. Several Maine coast resorts have such pounds.
On the outskirts of GOULDSBORO, State 186 rejoins US 1 (see Tour 1,
sec. d) at 16.6 m.
TOUR 1 M : From WHITING to LUBEC (Treat's and Cam-
pobello Islands), 11 m., State 189.
Two-lane gravel road.
THE route runs through an area that makes clear why 'rock-bound'
always precedes mention of the coast of Maine; on the mainland are high
cliffs, the land rises abruptly from the rivers and bays, and the offshore
islands are rugged. The area is particularly fascinating to inlanders, be-
cause both the villages and the people have distinctive characteristics,
developed by long contact with the sea. The weathered wharves and
canning factories are the centers of interest to visitors, as well as the
centers of community life.
State 189 branches northeast from US 1 at Whiting (see Tour 1, sec. d),
0 m., crossing Orange River.
TOUR 1M: From Whiting to Lubec 277
At 1.6 m. (R) is a free camp site.
At 5.7 m. is the West Lubec Post Office.
1. Left from West Lubec Post Office on a gravel road, along which are shafts of
abandoned lead mines, is NORTH TRESCOTT (alt. 20, Trescott Town, pop. 365),
5.5 m., on a point of land formed by the Cobscook River and an arm of Cobscook
Bay.
Cobscook Falls, visible at the road's end, are formed by high tides rushing with
tremendous force through a narrow gut.
2. Right from West Lubec Post Office, on State 191, is CUTLER (alt. 60, Cutler
Town, pop. 492), 14.1 m., a farming and fishing community on a horseshoe-shaped
harbor. The town with its irregular coast line has numerous picnic grounds and
camping spots.
At 9.8 m. is the junction with a local road.
1. Left on this road, known as the North Lubec Road, which has many excellent
views as it runs along a narrow neck of land that extends into Cobscook Bay.
NORTH LUBEC (alt. 80, Lubec Town), 3 m., gained notoriety from the Jernegan
gold swindle (1896-98). Jernegan, pastor of a local church, claimed he had per-
fected a method of extracting gold from sea water by electrolysis. A stock company
was formed and much stock sold throughout the country. A plant was erected on
the shore; divers were sent to the bottom and came up bringing small quantities of
gold. Large crews of workmen were imported and operations went on for a few
months until Jernegan, having collected a considerable sum of money, disappeared.
2. Right on the local gravel road is West Quoddy Head (alt. 40), 8 m., the most
easterly point of the United States, where a Coast Guard station and a lighthouse
are maintained. From this point the high cliffs of Grand Manan Island are visible
on a clear day.
LUBEC (alt. 80, Lubec Town, pop. 2983), 11 m., has had greatly increased
activity since the beginning of the Passamaquoddy Power Project (see
Tour IN). It is a picturesque seaside village with beautiful views of sur-
rounding bays and coves.
Chaloner Tavern, Main and Cleaves Sts., formerly a stage-line terminus,
has been used as a public house since 1804. Chaloner's, the Golden Ball,
and Stearns' were the taverns in this harbor town in an earlier day when
illicit border trade was profitable. Flour, bought in Canada for $4 a
barrel, sold here for $8. Smuggling was rampant. Vessels hailing from
Lubec or near-by towns took out papers for Spain or Portugal, sailed in-
stead to some Canadian port where sugar, molasses, flour, and rum were
loaded and returned with full cargoes. At any time of night innkeepers
might be awakened by furtive knocks upon their doors.
The Golden Ball, now the Corns tock House, is on Pleasant St. It is said
the tavern keeper had a special room for deserting British sailors whom
he recognized by their sea-soaked clothing, for they usually swam ashore.
Generally they had money and he was glad to aid them in boarding a
coaster at near-by ports. The story is told of an English officer who, look-
ing for a hide-out, was tossed into the street when he displeased the inn-
keeper. The keeper's daughter went to the officer's assistance and later
they were married.
Most of the old houses here face east, according to the former custom.
On TREAT'S ISLAND (alt. 40, Lubec Town), in Cobscook Bay, reached from
278 High Roads and Low Roads
Lubec by ferry, considerable construction in connection with the Passamaquoddy
Tidal Project (see Tour IN) has been in progress. The dam was to have run directly
across the island.
A large granite Shaft, near the center of the island, is in memory of Colonel John
Allen, Indian Superintendent for the Eastern District during the Revolution, who
was chiefly responsible for keeping the Passamaquoddy Indians on the side of the
colonists. Colonel Allen conducted a trading post on this island.
CAMPOBELLO ISLAND (Ital.: 'beautiful meadow'), though Canadian soil, is
reached by a few minutes' ferry ride across Lubec Narrows. 1.5 m. from the ferry,
the Summer Home of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, a large red house, is visible
from the road. There is excellent fishing from the island, and the 30 miles of im-
proved roads winding over it and passing many beautiful summer homes, provide
magnificent panoramic views of the sea and the Maine coast.
TOUR IN: From PERRY to EASTPORT, 7.3 m., State 190.
Via Quoddy Village.
Two-lane tar-surfaced road.
THE route runs close to the shore of Passamaquoddy Bay, which, in
sunlight, is intensely blue; beyond the islands dotting the water rise the
hills of New Brunswick. This route is particularly delightful in the early
morning, when the thumping of motor-boats and the tangy aroma of dry-
ing fish is a reminder of the area's fishing activities.
State 190 branches southeast from US 1 at Perry, 0 m. (see Tour 1, sec. d).
At 0.7 m. is the junction with a gravel road.
Left on this road is Pleasant Point, 2 m., a, loo-acre reservation established about
1822 and occupied by 300 Passamaquoddy Indians. The State appoints an agent to
supervise the business affairs of the reservation but the Indians elect their own
governor and may send a member of the tribe to represent them before the legisla-
ture. Houses on the reservation are of modern camp type and there is a fully
equipped elementary school.
These Indians had accepted Roman Catholicism before there was extensive white
settlement in the State and have remained devout communicants even though
retaining some of their primitive ceremonies. After a conventional church wed-
ding in the little brick church, for example, the dark-skinned, sleek-haired Passa-
maquoddies dance to the beating of drums and the chanting of old songs. Dis-
carding ordinary dress, which differs little from that of the white people living
around them, they don ancient costume and headdress, and paint their faces. They
welcome visitors to these affairs and appreciate applause. While they do not make
friends easily, once their initial shyness has worn off they belie their reputation for
taciturnity and are excellent story-tellers.
The Passamaquoddies do some farming and occasionally work on the roads, but
their livelihood is derived chiefly from fishing.
From the time of the Revolution, the men have been active in military service;
many joined the northern troops in the Civil War. In the Indian Cemetery (R) at
the top of the hill near the entrance to the reservation, is a monument to Moses
TOUR IN: From Perry to Eastport 279
Neptune, killed at the Argonne in 1918, and another to the memory of Charles
Nola, who was posthumously awarded the Croix de Guerre for remarkable courage
and tenacity in defending an advance post until he was killed, in the World War.
Most of the graves are marked by small wooden crosses with carved inscriptions.
A Dam, a part of the Passamaquoddy Project, has been built between Pleasant
Point and Carlow Island.
At 4.2 m. State 190 crosses a bridge to Moose Island. A short distance
south of the bridge is Quoddy Village, in which 250 New England young
men are learning (1937), in a National Youth Administration experi-
ment, to choose careers compatible with their talents and abilities.
The boys occupy the 1 20 temporary cottages, nine permanent houses, the
apartment buildings, the barracks and the mess halls formerly used by the
laborers and engineers employed on the gigantic tidal project to harness
the high tides of the Bay of Fundy. The youths have their own municipal
government, run a newspaper, and do all the maintenance and service
work.
In the exhibition building at Quoddy Village there is a working Model
of the Passamaquoddy Tidal Power Development Project as originally
planned, its purpose being the utilization of the high range of tides in the
vicinity of Passamaquoddy Bay near Eastport.
This controversial project was undertaken by the United States Govern-
ment in April, 1935, with Federal funds, work being placed under the
supervision of army engineers. Actual construction was begun in Febru-
ary, 1936. Work was suspended in February, 1937, after the dams con-
necting Pleasant Point to Carlow Island and Carlow Island to Kendall
Head (thus linking Eastport with the mainland) and a short dam between
Treat and Dudley Islands had been completed. The estimated cost of
the total finished project is between 37 and 38 million dollars.
The idea of harnessing tidal power is not new; even in Colonial days there were
small tidal mills along this coast and in other parts of the world, principally grist-
mills. But the Quoddy Project was the first large-scale attempt to manufacture
power from the changes of the sea. At Passamaquoddy Bay is one of the few known
possible sites in the world for such an undertaking; unusually high ocean tides (their
average range from 13 to 23 feet) flow and ebb with great force through narrow
channels connecting two large natural basins which are adjacent to each other and
are almost entirely landlocked.
The originally conceived International or 'Two-Pool' Plan of development em-
braced Cobscook Bay and all of Passamaquoddy Bay as well, the northern part
of which is in Canada. In this plan, power would be generated continuously by
controlling the flow of water into the two pools so as to keep them at variant levels,
thus producing a powerful waterfall at a. point between the basins known as 'the
Carrying Place'; here the generating station would be installed. The Canadian
Government's failure to co-operate in the international development limited the
project to the single-pool plan. The planned operation of the latter is identical
with that of the double pool, except that the lower basin would not be blocked off
from the ocean and so would not remain constantly at low tide level, but would rise
and fall with the ocean tide. Dams would run across the mouth of Cobscook Bay,
the arm of Passamaquoddy from Estes Head on the southeastern shore of Eastport
to Lubec Neck, crossing Treat and Dudley Islands, the top of the dam making a
highway between Eastport and Lubec only two and a half miles long (at present
it is 42 miles by road from Eastport to Lubec). That part of the dam already com-
pleted connecting Eastport with the mainland to the north replaces the old
280 High Roads and Low Roads
wooden railroad trestle. The tide would flow in through filling gates between the
islands and out through locks between Dudley Island and Lubec Neck and
through a canal cut through ' the Carrying Place ' between the northeast section of
Cobscook Bay and the St. Croix River. The incoming and outgoing tides would
here run large turbines to generate the power.
In this plan generation would continue seven hours out of the tide cycle of ap-
proximately twelve and a half hours. During the remaining time when Cobscook
Bay was being refilled, the gap in power production would be taken care of by (i)
a pumped storage plant, (2) tying in the project with existing power systems, (3)
an auxiliary hydro-electric plant which could be constructed in the vicinity, or
(4) a mechanical generating plant. The pumped storage reservoir, perhaps the most
feasible of these devices, could be constructed in the vicinity of Haycock Harbor,
over 100 feet above sea level; when the tidal power plant was not running, water
would be released from the reservoir through an auxiliary set of turbines, thus
furnishing continuous power. Pumps could operate as turbines during the flow
of water back to the ocean, and likewise the motors driving the pumps could act
as generators furnishing power.
The electricity generated at Quoddy would be greater than the combined capacity
of all existing power stations in the State, and would supply cheap power to farms
throughout Maine and to industries which might be encouraged to enter the region.
It was hoped by advocates of the project that the newly created opportunities for
manufacturing would bring about the development of the State's mineral deposits
(see Mineral Resources).
EASTPORT (alt. 80, pop. 3466), 7.3 m., with its neighbor Lubec, has long
been important in the fishing industry, though it is now less so than
formerly. Fishing, like agriculture, has fallen on evil days. Centralized
control of the marketing end of the business, the use of the high-powered
beam trawlers that destroy millions of young fish, pollution of the
streams in which the fish formerly spawned, and other factors have re-
duced many of the fishermen to abject poverty.
In this area the most valuable fish are cod, haddock, cusk, hake, pollock,
halibut, and herring; the smal1 herring are canned as sardines. Sardine
canning began in Eastport about 1875 and since that time the women of
the town, young and old, drop whatever they are doing, seize their aprons
and knives, and rush to the factories when the siren gives warning of a
new catch. The old folk speak of sardines as 'little fish biled in ile.'
The once worthless herring scales have become a valued by-product of the
industry, now being carefully gathered for the making of an essence used
to give iridescence to artificial pearls. Two plants here manufacture the
product.
The town was settled in 1780, but European traders were here a hundred
years earlier. The port had considerable prosperity after the passage of
the Embargo Act of 1807, becoming the center of extensive two-way
smuggling operations. The British ignored these activities until after
1812 when war was declared; in July, 1814, they captured the town, con-
fiscating several vessels that were about to sail, loaded with contraband.
The Site of Fort Sullivan, erected in 1808 for the protection of the settle-
ment, is on a high ledge behind the Shead Memorial High School; from
the ledge is a magnificent view of the coast and islands.
The George Pearse Ennis Art School (open) is on High St. opposite
TOUR 2: From Ellsworth to Tremont 281
Boynton St. Many artists visit Eastport in numbers each summer be-
cause of the striking coast views and in spite of the fogs that are frequent
in August.
Eastport Country Club Inn (open), on the outskirts of the city, maintains
a g-hole golf course.
Yachting and fishing are popular forms of recreation (boats for hire).
Campobello Island (see Tour 1M) is visible from the waterfront.
TOUR 2 : MOUNT DESERT ISLAND :From ELLS WORTH
to TREMONT, 54.1 m., State 3, State 198 and State 102.
Via Salisbury Cove, Hull's Cove, Bar Harbor, Seal Harbor, Northeast Harbor,
Mount Desert, Southwest Harbor, Manset, and Ship Harbor.
Two-lane tarvia and cement roadbeds.
THIS route, one of the most scenic in Maine, winds through the fashion-
able summer resorts of Mount Desert Island and through Acadia National
Park, dominated by Cadillac Mountain (alt. 1532). The island is one of
the most dramatically beautiful spots in the world. Here eighteen hills —
locally called mountains — and twenty-six lakes and ponds cover a rocky,
wooded island that is cut nearly in half by a fiord. The circling highway
presents ever-changing views of the island-dotted waters and the abrupt
and broken coast of the mainland.
Mount Desert Island, as well as the rest of Maine and what is now the
United States as far south as the Mason and Dixon Line, was included in
the grant called Acadia that was made by Henry IV of France in 1603 to
the Sieur de Monts. In 1604, Samuel de Champlain, making his second
voyage to the New World, this time with de Monts as his patron, came
down the coast after a colony had been established at the mouth of the
St. Croix River, exploring the waters as far as Cape Cod. He is credited
with the discovery of this island, which he named, possibly with a punning
reference to the man who had sent him on the voyage, 1'Isle des Monts
deserts. A few years later a French missionary colony was established
here, but this was speedily wiped out by the English, who had no intention
of permitting France to establish a foothold in a country so rich in furs
and forests. In 1688, Louis XIV granted the island as a feudal fief to the
Sieur de la Mothe Cadillac — later founder of Detroit — who came to
live on his domain. In 1713, Louis XIV was forced to cede the island, as
part of a large slice of Maine, to the English. Massachusetts acquired
control of it and granted the island to Sir Francis Bernard, its Royal
Governor, for 'distinguished services.' Bernard visited the place in 1762
282 High Roads and Low Roads
and was enchanted by its beauty. At the time of the Revolution Ber-
nard's property in America was confiscated, but later his son succeeded in
having half the island returned to the family; a granddaughter of Cadillac
managed to gain control of the other half.
Several small settlements were made on the land at various times, but it
was not until after the advent of the steamboat that the real development
began. About the middle of the nineteenth century Mount Desert Island
began to attract visitors and from then on its history has to some extent
paralleled that of Newport as a fashionable summer resort.
In 1901 the State of Maine began a movement to preserve the beauty of
the place by setting some of it aside as a public reservation. In 1916 con-
trol of the reserved area was transferred to the Federal Government; this
control has been extended and the public lands are now called Acadia
National Park.
ELLSWORTH (alt. 100, pop. 3557) (see Tour 1, sec. c), 0 m., is at a
junction of US 1 (see Tour 1, sec. c) and State 15 (see Tour 3). State 3
branches south from US 1, 1.1 miles southeast of the center of Ellsworth.
At 7.1 m. (L) is the Bar Harbor Airport and modern flying field built under
the supervision of the Public Works Administration.
At 8.8 m. is the drawbridge spanning Mount Desert Narrows, which
separate the island from the mainland.
At SALISBURY COVE (alt. 20, Bar Harbor Town), 14.1 m., are (L) four
buildings occupied by the Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratory (open
Wed. p.m.), which provides research facilities and instruction.
At 16.4 m. (R) are trim pine and spruce groves; left is a view of French-
man's Bay, which in summer is livened by dipping white sails and speed-
ing motor-boats.
At HULL'S COVE (alt. 80, Bar Harbor Town), 16.8 m., a boulder in the
village cemetery (R) marks the Grave of Madame Marie TMrese de
Gregoire, granddaughter of Cadillac, who once owned the island.
BAR HARBOR (alt. 70, Bar Harbor Town, pop. 4486), 19.9 m.
Accommodations. Hotels, rooming houses, and restaurants, with wide price range.
Transportation. Bus service in summer between Bar Harbor and B. & M. R.R.
Station in Ellsworth. Regular and special boat trips to islands daily (inquire on
waterfront). Power boats, sailboats and canoes for rent on waterfront. Daily sight-
seeing trips, 10.30, 2.30, and 4.30 on Frenchman's Bay, lasting 2 hrs. ; $1 per person.
Information Services. Headquarters Acadia National Park, Main St.; detailed
maps for sale, free naturalist-guide service for park area. Bar Harbor Publicity
Bureau, Main St., for information on hotels, boarding houses, sightseeing trips, etc.
Bar Harbor is the center of social and commercial life on the island. In
summer the two business streets are lined with smart shops, branches of
those on Fifth and Madison Avenues in New York City, and are filled
with brightly dressed visitors and summer residents. There is a constant
stream of arrivals and departures into Bar Harbor in connection with the
gay house parties and entertainments given by the dowagers and debu-
TOUR 2: From Ellsworth to Tremont 283
tantes of the wealthy and nationally prominent families that own homes
here. Yacht races, a marine tennis tournament, swimming, and numerous
other competitive sports, as well as flower shows, garden parties, and the
like, are prominent in the season's program.
Besides the visitors whose names are recorded weekly in the social
columns of the metropolitan dailies there are those whose objective is the
resort's beauty; they never tire of climbing the rocky slopes to find new
vistas of the coast and sea.
The Shore Club, on the harbor, established by six of the leading hotels, is
the social center for hotel guests, visiting yachtsmen, and summer
residents.
The Mount Desert Players present Greek, Shakespearean, and modern
drama in the Casino, on Cottage St.
Branching from the business streets are park-like sections containing
churches, hotels, and residences.
Right from Bar Harbor on Mt. Desert St. to Cadillac Mountain Drive. At 1.2 m.
(L) is the Kebo Valley Country Club (open July 4-Od. 15, 18 holes).
The Building of Arts, 1.3 m. (L), with massive columns, and friezes of the Muses,
has a terraced amphitheater at the rear where recitals are given during the summer
season by well-known musicians.
At 1.7 m. (L) is the entrance to Acadia National Park, which has 15,000 acres of
mountain lakes. One section of the park is on the mainland, covering Schoodic
Point, south of Winter Harbor (see Tour 1). The rocky summits, jutting cliffs, and
forested slopes of the island rise so abruptly from the heavy waves of the open
Atlantic that the roads and trails of the park provide an almost endless series of
views that are breath-taking. The reservation is a wild-life sanctuary with a com-
bination of woodland, lakes, highlands, and seashore that makes possible an
amazing variety of vegetable and animal life; it is, moreover, in the band where the
Northern and the Temperate Zone floras meet and overlap, and is directly on the
coastal migration route of the birds. Vegetation grows here with exceptional vigor,
and, among the many wild flowers in the forests and on the frost-split, lichen-clad
rocks, are some of great rarity and others of exceptional beauty. In addition to the
motor road, there are more than 200 miles of well-kept and plainly marked trails
and bridle paths that thread their ways through the area to places where those who
like solitude can find it without difficulty.
At 2.6 in. the Cadillac Mountain Summit Road, a smooth, skillfully engineered
ascent whose gradient never exceeds seven per cent, is entered. It winds up the
mountain-side through heavy woods and past occasional open spots providing wide
panoramas of exceptional grandeur and striking contrasts. Parking stations have
been provided at intervals where the views are particularly beautiful. The sweep of
sea, islands, coves, and inlets is increasingly wide as the road rises, and craft in the
waters below become no more than toy boats.
At 6.3 m. the road reaches the plateau that is the Summit of Cadillac Mountain
(alt. 1532) and circles it. From the ample parking space here is a view of sea and
land stretching far into the distance that is particularly impressive at sunrise or
sunset. Many miles of the ragged, surf-silvered coastline are visible. To the south
is the ocean, flecked here and there with boats; to the north is solitary Mount
Katahdin, no miles away. Westward, the graceful outlines of the Camden Hills
are visible.
Easter sunrise services, largely attended, are held annually on the mountain-top.
South of Bar Harbor, at 21.3 m., is a junction with Ocean Drive.
Left on Ocean Drive; this 6-mile loop of highway follows the shore. Across
284 High Roads and Low Roads
Frenchman's Bay is a fine view of Schoodic Point, jutting far out to sea with the
waves breaking grandly over it. After a storm at sea the ground swell that comes
racing in against the headland makes a scene unsurpassed on the Atlantic coast.
Schooner Head, 2.4 m. (L), a high, wave- washed cliff, named for its resemblance to
a schooner, is said to have been cannonaded in 1814 by the British, who mistook its
outline for that of a ship. In the cove on the south shore of Schooner Head is
Indian's Foot, a marking in the rock resembling a footprint. The ledge at the
southern end of the cove has been washed out by pounding waves and is known as
Anemone Cave.
Great Head, 3.4 m. (L), a high promontory reached by several paths, affords (L) a
superb view of Frenchman's Bay with its many humped islands, and (R) the open
ocean. In the cove formed by Great Head is a short sand beach.
Thunder Hole is at 3.9 m. (L). As the waves dash against the rock the water rushes
into a deep crevice with a terrific roar, rising to a height of 40 feet.
From Otter Cliff. 4.4 m. (L), on a narrow point that descends steeply to the ocean
on both sides, is an unmarred marine view.
At 21.7 m. (L) is the entrance to the Roscoe B. Jackson Memorial Labora-
tory (open 3-5, weekdays except Sat.), where biological research is carried
on under the direction of Dr. Clarence C. Little, biologist, former president
of the University of Maine and of the University of Michigan, and now
managing director of the American Society for the Control of Cancer.
At 21.9 m. (L) Acadia National Park maintains a Motor Camp (free),
equipped with electric lights, running water, laundry, barracks, and out-
door fireplaces.
At 22.3 m. is a junction with a tarred road.
Right on this road is the Sieur de Monts Springs and Park, 0.3 m. In the National
Park Building (information; maps), spring water can be sampled.
Left here is the Abbe Museum (open in summer; archaeologist in charge), now part of
the park property; it was erected and is maintained through the generosity of the
late Dr. Robert Abbe, a New York surgeon, and his friends. It contains relics of
the stone age of Indian culture.
The spring (R), reached by a short path, is protected by glass and a canopy;
named for the first proprietor of the area, the spring has a flow of 62 gallons a
minute, the overflow being piped to supply a small trout pool.
At 23.9 m. (L) is the south entrance to Ocean Drive (see above}.
At 26.8 m. is a junction with Cooksey Drive.
Left on Cooksey Drive to the Champlain Monument, 0.4 m. (R), erected in com-
memoration of the explorer, Samuel de Champlain, who discovered the island in
1604.
At SEAL HARBOR (alt. 80, Mount Desert Town), 28.3 m., are summer
homes of John D. Rockefeller, Jr., and Edsel Ford.
In the settlement ASTICOU (alt. 80, Mount Desert Town), 29.5 m.,
named for the Indian chief who lived in the area when the French settle-
ment was made in 1613, is (R) Thuya Lodge (open), formerly the summer
home of Joseph H. Curtis, the landscape architect. It has a small museum
and a reading-room with many books of interest to the naturalist. The
extensively landscaped grounds have a great variety of trees and shrubs.
From the lodge is a broad view of the inlets of the shore and the Cran-
berry Isles.
TOUR 2: From Ellsworth to Tremont 285
Left at 32.2 m. is NORTHEAST HARBOR (alt. 60, Mount Desert Town),
whose summer residential section is entered over Peabody Drive; it has
an i8-hole golf course. This village is a well-known yachting center and
in August the Northeast Harbor fleet, made up of about 120 small craft,
holds daily racing and cruising events and treasure hunts.
In the Neighborhood House, built with the aid of summer residents,
and maintained through the proceeds of an annual vaudeville perform-
ance, dancing, theatricals, other amusements and social activities are
held.
Visible from the waterfront are the three Cranberry Isles, their spruce-
mantled cliffs rising two to four miles offshore. (Reached by mail boats;
variable schedules; inquire at wharf.)
Leaving the dock at Northeast Harbor, the small boat follows a southeasterly
course for 4 miles between wooded islands to ISLESFORD (alt. 40, Cranberry
Isles Town, pop. 349), on Little Cranberry Island. In this little village is Sawtelle
Museum (open in summer, free), which contains Professor William Otis Saw-
telle's collection of maps, documents, pictures, furniture, books, and memorabilia
of all kinds illustrating every phase of the history of the Mount Desert Island
area.
Upon these islands, named for the vast cranberry marsh spreading over 200 acres
on Great Cranberry, birds rare to this latitude come to nest. Leach's petrel, seldom
seen except far out at sea, lays its eggs here. On the rocky cliffs and shores large
colonies of herring gulls and the common tern have their breeding places.
On near-by Sutton Island, the smallest of the Cranberry Islands and the one
nearest Northeast Harbor, is the summer home of Rachel Field, the locale of whose
'Time Out of Mind' is this section.
North of Northeast Harbor, Sargeant Drive is followed along the cliff top
beside Somes Sound, one of the few natural fiords on the Atlantic coast.
The narrow inlet extends between 100- to i5o-foot cliffs for 5 miles, cutting
the island and its mountain range nearly in two.
At the head of the sound the route swings left into MOUNT DESERT
(alt. 40, Mount Desert Town, pop. 2022), 39.7 m., a small settlement
generally known as Somesville. When Governor Bernard came to inspect
the island in 1762, he found a man named Somes building a cabin here for
himself.
At 41.5 m. (R) the road skirts Echo Lake, King long and placid 90 feet
above salt water. On the left looms Acadia Mountain (alt. 680).
At 43.6 m. (L) is Saint Sauveur Mountain (alt. 670), so named for the
French settlement of 1613 on Fernald's Point (see below).
At 44.8 m. is a junction with a tarred road.
Left on this road is Fernald's Point, 0.7 m. The hill at this point is the Site of the
Settlement of Saint Sauveur.
A party of French colonists, including Father Peter Biard and Father Ennemond
Masse, had intended to establish a colony on the Penobscot River. Overtaken by a
storm they landed in June, 1613, on the exposed southeast shore of Mount Desert
Island, where, warned by friendly Indians that their position was too exposed, they
came to Fernald's Point the same day. The party landed, planted a cross and
celebrated Mass, calling the place Saint Sauveur or Holy Savior.
286 High Roads and Low Roads
They then set about building homes and primitive fortifications on this beautiful
hillside sloping to the sea.
In September, 1613, Captain Samuel Argall, acting under orders of the English in
Virginia, destroyed the mission, set Father Masse and fourteen others adrift, and
took Father Biard to Virginia; Father Masse and those with him finally reached
Nova Scotia.
SOUTHWEST HARBOR (alt. 40, Southwest Harbor Town, pop. 888),
45.7 m., is another resort village in a beautiful situation.
At 49.1 m. the neighborhood (L) bears the local name of SEAWALL, be-
cause the shore is a long natural wall of boulders that have been cast up
by the sea.
Ship Harbor, 51.1 m. (L), is a tiny natural harbor extending to the edge of
the road. In 1740, the ship 'Grand Design,' of 30x5 tons, loaded with
passengers from the north of Ireland, struck on Long Ledge outside this
harbor. Legend has it that after a night of terror they found that the ship
had floated off the ledge and drifted through the narrow inlet into this
refuge; this incident is said to be the source of the harbor's name.
TREMONT (alt. 40, town pop. 954), 54.1 m., is in a town of the same
name. This was originally a part of Manset; it was incorporated in 1848.
The highway swings east, then north to Seal Cove, overlooking Blue-
hill Bay. A narrower road follows the western shore of the island, return-
ing to the village of Mount Desert.
TOUR 3 : From ELLSWORTH to ORLAND, 62.6 m., State 15
and State 175.
Via Bluehill, Sedgwick, Brooksville, Penobscot.
Two-lane tar and gravel roadbed.
THIS route, looping around the shores of one of the most beautiful and
interesting of the many jagged peninsulas on the coast of Maine, follows
the winding Union River south of Ellsworth, skirts lovely Bluehill Bay
with many views of Mt. Desert Island to the east, meanders along
Eggemoggin Reach with near-by Deer Island in view for several miles,
and swings gradually north along Penobscot Bay. Many summer
residents have built homes in this area. The now somnolent villages,
which in the past seemed destined for an active commercial development,
are in winter inhabited chiefly by fishermen and retired seamen.
Someone once wrote that the King's Council for New England had been
guilty of ' confusing carelessness ' in making land grants, but that censure
is mild when applied to the French and English authorities in relation to
TOUR 3 : From Ellsworth to Orland 287
the grants covering this peninsula; probably no other area on the coast
had quite as many bellicose and persistent claimants, in part, no doubt,
because of its strategic position at the mouth of the Penobscot River,
which provided entrance into the heart of the rich hinterland of Maine.
Champlain inspected it on his trip south from the Colony at the mouth of
the St. Croix when he was hunting a less rigorous home for de Monts
settlers; Father Biard considered it in 1611 when exploring to find a site
for the mission the Marquise de Guerchville proposed to establish; and it
was one of the points selected by the Pilgrims as a valuable site for a trad-
ing post to obtain the furs that would make them rich. The French and
English governments fought for its possession for nearly two hundred
years.
State 15 branches south from US 1 at Ellsworth, 0 m. (see Tour 1, sec. c),
which is also at a junction with State 3 (see Tour IK).
At 5.6 m. (R) is the Surry Theater, one of Maine's several summer
theaters, where noted players appear for a brief season.
SURRY (alt. 40, Surry Town, pop. 488), 6.5 m., after its incorporation in
1785, became a busy fishing village. While the inhabitants still do some
fishing to supplement their incomes, since the decline in prosperity of the
individual fisherman, they have been largely dependent on catering to
summer visitors for their livelihoods. Gaily painted summer cottages line
the shores of Patten Bay. In winter this body of water, which freezes
over, is covered with small tent-like houses, used by fishermen while
catching smelts. In the spring the alewives rushing up Patten Stream to
spawn are caught by the townspeople and smoked.
Between Surry and Bluehill, the route cuts across a subsidiary pen-
insula.
BLUE HILL VILLAGE (alt. 50, Bluehill Town, pop. 1439), 14 w., is at
the head of a pointed cove near Blue Hill (alt. 940) , for which it was named.
This hill provides a particularly impressive view of rugged Mt. Desert
Island. Although the village is now chiefly known for its summer res-
idential colony, it was a thriving seaport in the middle of the i9th century
and before that had had industrial development. Within 40 years of its
settlement in 1762, it had several small mills, including one that spun
cotton yarn, and the lanes and harbor were echoing all day long with the
steady pounding of hammers and sledges in the shipyards. Another
source of early prosperity was the mining of minerals in Bluehill, chiefly
copper, though occasional small deposits of gold were discovered and
some chalk. The copper deposits, though not entirely exhausted, are no
longer mined because of western competition.
One of the notable citizens of the town was Jonathan Fisher, to whom
Mary Ellen Chase in 'A Goodly Heritage' devoted two chapters. In
1796, four years after his graduation from Harvard College, Fisher be-
came the first pastor of the Congregational Church, which he served for
40 years. He was a man of broad interests and unusual energy. The
Jonathan Fisher House (L), Main St., was designed and in part built by
288 High Roads and Low Roads
him; he made the paint for it from yellow ocher he discovered near-by, and
constructed almost all the furnishings, including a clock that ran perfectly
for 50 years. Not far from the house is his Windmill, which provided the
power for machines that he devised for sawing wood, removing stones
from the ground, and for splitting straws used in hatmaking.
In order that all parishioners might understand his weekly texts — and
possibly for sheer joy in intellectual exercise — he read them in Hebrew,
Latin, French, Greek, and Aramaic. When he died he left a volume of
poetry for each of his children. The rugged hills of the peninsula were no
impediment to the discharge of his clerical duties; it was not unusual for
him to walk 35 miles to perform a baptism or to comfort a parishioner who
was in distress.
It is not surprising that a town so long under the guidance of this in-
tellectual man should in later years have been congenial to distinguished
artists, authors, and musicians.
The musicians of the summer colony today hold weekly concerts in
Kneisel Hall, on Pleasant St., formerly the studio of Dr. Franz Kneisel
(1865-1926), the Roumanian violinist who was concert-master of the
Boston Symphony Orchestra (1895-1903) and founder of the Kneisel
Quartet, at one time the foremost chamber-music organization in the
United States.
Mary Ellen Chase, born here in 1887, has preserved the memories of her
childhood in this delightful old seaport in 'A Goodly Heritage'; the
stories she heard in her youth were beyond doubt an inspiration for her
novel 'Mary Peters,' a story of life and adventure on this coast.
State 175 is now followed south across another small inlet of Bluehill
Bay.
BLUEHILL FALLS (alt. 25, Bluehill Town), 17.2 m. Here is the former
Summer Home of Ethelbert Nevin (1862-1901), the composer, which is now
(1937) occupied by his widow.
South of Bluehill Falls for about 8 miles the highway runs close to the
western shore of beautiful Bluehill Bay.
At 17.9 m. (L), on the shore of the bay, are Shell Heaps, recently explored,
that are relics of the days when the Indians came from inland to lay in a
winter supply of fish.
SOUTH BLUEHILL (alt. 60, Bluehill Town), 18.2 m., is the home
(1937) of Captain Otis M. Candage, who now has carved and built more
than 100 miniature squareriggers and 200 miniature sloops and schooners
since he gave up his boat 25 years ago.
State 175 swings across the head of the narrow peninsula to BROOKLIN
(alt. 100, Brooklin Town, pop. 782), 26.3 m.
Left from Brooklin on a narrow dirt road to Naskeag Point, 3 m., the far outer tip of
the neck that is included in the township of Brooklin. In July, 1778, William Reed,
working in a field near the shore here, saw the British sloop 'Gage* coming to
anchor in a cove, preparing to land men. Hastily procuring his musket and sending
TOUR 3: From Ellsworth to Orland 289
word to neighbors, he crept near the party of 60 men that was arriving in small
boats and fired, killing two before they reached land. Fellow townsmen arrived,
dragging an old swivel gun, which they filled with nails, filings, and pebbles, and
fired. The landing force was at a disadvantage and returned to the sloop after two
men had been captured and five badly wounded; before they left, however, they
fired six houses and three barns, and seized some calves and hogs. Not being pre-
pared to combat the inhabitants, whose irregular fighting methods had given the
impression of more numbers and weapons than were actually there, the invaders
came ashore the following day under a flag of truce and obtained the release of the
captured men by returning the cattle.
Between Brooklin and Sargentville State 175, known as Eggemoggin
Reach Drive, provides delightful views of the Reach and of Deer Island.
HAVEN (alt. 50, Brooklin Town), 27.2 m., is part of the chain of resort
villages along the Reach.
SEDGWICK (alt. 50, Sedgwick Town, pop. 699), 31.4 m., is a village of
neat white houses. The Town Hall (R), a handsome white structure on a
hill overlooking the village, was built as a church in 1837, replacing the
first church, built in 1794. Four columns ornament the front entrance and
a weather-vane surmounts the attractive domed cupola. Daniel Merrill,
first pastor of the early church, received an annual salary of £50. That
the town was not particularly prosperous in the early days is shown by the
official records which reveal that all unattached and unmarried females
who could not find anyone to undertake their support were warned to
leave town.
SARGENTVILLE (alt. no, Sedgwick Town), 34.6 m., has a ferry
(variable schedule; inquire at Guild's Wharf) running to near-by Deer
Island lying 1.7 miles off shore (see Island Tours). A new bridge (1938)
will connect Sargentville and Deer Isle.
DEER ISLAND is bisected by a motor road, State 172, that runs to DEER ISLE
(alt. 30, Deer Isle Town, pop. 1266), 4.5 m., on a wide cove of Penobscot Bay.
At 10.1 m. is STONINGTON (alt. 50, Stonington Town, pop. 1418), a village in
the center of the south shore of the island (see Island Tours).
At Sargentville State 175 turns due north across the head of the peninsula
covered by Brooksville.
In a charming grove (R) at the crest of Caterpillar Hill, 36.7 m., is a park-
ing space and picnic ground from which is a broad and far-reaching view.
Below the hill is Walker Pond and beyond it are the island-sprinkled
waters of Penobscot Bay.
PENOBSCOT (alt. 25, Penobscot Town, pop. 708), 48.6 m., is a ship-
shape village that opens the doors of its attractive little homes to summer
visitors. This township is one of the few where stories of buried treasure
have been justified. In 1840 a fortunate resident found about 2000 coins
in a hillside near Bagaduce River; because most of the coins were French,
though there were Spanish pieces of eight and 25 pine tree shillings and
one sixpence, dated 1652, it was believed that the money might have been
buried by the family of de Castin when they left for Canada in 1704; it is
quite as possible, however, that this was pirate loot. The coins are now
hi the possession of the Maine Historical Society at Portland.
290 High Roads and Low Roads
At 50.5 m. (L) the route follows the western shore of the small-mouthed
triangular bay on which Penobscot lies.
At 53.9 m. is a junction with State 202.
Left on State 202 is CASTINE (alt. 80, Castine Town, pop. 726), 4.2 m., which has
boat connection with Belfast and Islesboro {variable schedule; inquire at wharf).
As a popular resort this old village now has an i8-hole golf course. The more than
100 markers at various points indicate the pride that the residents take in their
historic background.
Castine was for nearly two hundred years the center of a struggle by three nations
for control of the peninsula. In 1629 the King's Council for New England granted
permission to the Pilgrims to send Edward Ashley to establish a trading post
at this point, then called Pentagoet. The post was, however, destroyed in 1631
by the same vigilant la Tour who wiped out the Vines-Allerton post at Machias.
As Governor Bradford, first of the long line of Massachusetts men to succumb to
the vice of history- writing, told the story: ' . . . their house at Penobscot was
robbed by the French, and all their goods of any worth were carried away.' The
Englishman remained, however, and brought in new goods to be exchanged for
furs. Meanwhile, Richelieu in France had sent out a new governor for Acadia with
specific orders to keep the English out of the country east of Pemaquid and in 1635
Sieur d'Aulney de Charnisay, who had been given the task of carrying out this
order, learned of the Pentagoet post from Indians and arrived to destroy it. The
Frenchman, for some reason, resorted to the formality of forcing the agent to give
him a bill of sale for the goods and left the members of the post with ' their shalop
and some victualls to bring them home.' The Plymouth colonists were outraged by
this and appealed to the Massachusetts Bay colonists for help; but the Bay leaders
merely gave them their blessing and permitted theni to hire a 3oo-ton ship and its
crew. Miles Standish and 20 men accompanied the little ship in a bark, giving the
captain advice on how he should proceed; but the captain, probably unwilling to
risk damage to his boat, persisted in using up his ammunition by firing from a dis-
tance and after inflicting only a little damage the ship and bark left Pentagoet.
The Pilgrims again tried in vain to get assistance from the Bay Colony, warning the
members of the menace of the encroachments of the French; the leaders in Boston
not only declined to act but later on established friendly relations with the French
on the coast. Bradford says that bay traders even furnished the French here with
'Poweder and shott' because it was to 'their profite.'
Meanwhile a Capuchin mission had been established here and when in 1646 the
Jesuit Father Druillettes came down from Canada to establish a mission at Nan-
rantsouak (see Tour 10) he visited the fathers and received advice from them. In
1648 they built a Chapel of Our Lady of Hope on the site of the present village
church of that name; in 1863 a copper sheet was found in the ground near the place
with this inscription: ' 1648, 8 Junii, Frater Leo Parisiensis in Capuciorum Missione,
posui hoc fundamentum in honorem nostrate Dominae Sanctae Spei.'
A few years later the English, under Cromwell's orders, took the place but they held
it briefly, the French regaining possession in 1670. In 1673 Flemish pirates assailed
the fort and kidnaped the governor.
Meanwhile there had appeared on the scene Jean- Vincent d'Abbadie, Baron de St.
Castin (1652-1717). Castin, as he is usually called, had been in Quebec. Apparently
neglected and deprived of the use of his wealth, the youngster at 15 started out in a
canoe with three Abnaki Indians to inspect a royal grant that stood in his name at
the mouth of the Penobscot. Pentagoet pleased him and he determined to stay
there; when in 1673 the governor of the fort was carried away, Castin, then 21
years old, stepped into his place. The neglected lad, having lived with the Indians,
had adopted many of their ways of life — even to the extent of marrying the
daughter of a chief. By this time the French had begun to use the Indians to fight
the English and they approved the establishment of friendly relations with the
aborigines, but it is apparent from the rebukes Castin received that the govern-
ment considered he was carrying the business rather far in this last respect.
TOUR 3: From Ellsworth to Orland 291
Meantime he had in 1675 driven Dutch attackers away and in 1687, when the
English in another attempt to take the place ordered him away, he had ignored the
order. The following year Sir Edmund Andros came up to drive him away and,
while Castin was off on a fishing trip, started pillaging. By 1693, when it seemed
that the French were giving up their claim to this territory, Castin made some sort
of arrangement with the English to accept the situation; but when Iberville three
years later went down to attack Pemaquid, Castin led a band of Indians to attack
from the rear. He was ordered back to France in 1 701 and left expecting to return.
The little town had a period of peace until the Revolutionary War; in 1779, the
British took it, remaining till 1783. The colonists made one attempt to take it
back in an ill-starred expedition of 1779 that blighted Paul Revere's hopes of a
military career and forced him to return to the unromantic job of casting cannon
and the like for the army. There was a second British occupation, this time of
eight months, during the War of 1812.
The Bartlett House (open), Perkins St. (1803), is a two-story yellow house once
occupied by the British, and is distinguished by its large open fireplaces and at-
tractive staircase.
The Wheeler House (1810) (private), opposite the Bartlett House, was occupied by
the British paymaster in early days. Clapboards cover the bricks of this Colonial
structure.
On Perkins St., near the shore, is the Site of Fort Pentagoel, erected by the French
in 1635 and burned in 1722. It was originally a trading post built during the winter
of 1613. It was later called the French Fort and was held by d'Aulney, de Castin,
and others.
The Wilson Museum (1921) (open 10-12 and 1-4 weekdays), also on Perkins St., is a
red-brick building containing anthropological and geological as well as Colonial and
Revolutionary period collections. Dr. J. Howard Wilson, archeologist, who with
his mother, the late Mrs. Cassine G. Wilson, gave the museum to Castine, is
director and curator.
Fort Madison (open), on Perkins St., is yet another relic of the repeated military
occupations of this delightful old town. This fort, occupied by the British during
the War of 1812 but built by the Americans in 1811, has been variously called Fort
Castin, Fort Porter, and United States Fort. It was rebuilt and occupied during the
Civil War.
At various points in the village are vestiges of earthworks thrown up at one time or
another during the nearly two hundred years in which four governments sought to
hold the place.
Fort George (open), in Witherle Park, was erected by the British in 1779. Near-by
are batteries built by the British in 1814-15, at the same time they built the canal
that crosses the peninsula at its narrowest point.
The Eastern State Normal School Buildings are opposite the park.
The Johnston House (1805) (open at discretion of owner), Upper Main St., is one of
the most attractive early houses in this historic community. It is notable for its
fine self-supporting staircase. Of Federal design, the house has been restored
recently. Its beautiful doorway under a Palladian window is somewhat marred
by latticework.
The Parson-Mason House (1765) (private), Maine and Court Sts., a two-story
yellow house, said to be the oldest in the town, has been considerably altered since
it was built.
The Old Meeting-House (1790), on Court St., an attractive white structure with
belfry and spire, is one of the oldest churches in Maine and is now owned by the
Unitarian Society. It was remodeled in 1831.
The Whiting House (1812) (private), on Court St., is another Castine home that saw
British occupancy. For many years a window pane in the house bore a crude draw-
ing of the Stars and Stripes upside down with the inscription ' Yankee Doodle upside
down,' scratched with the diamond of a British lieutenant.
292 High Roads and Low Roads
The Old Courthouse, on Court St. opposite the Town Hall, is now the town library.
The Whitney House (about 1800), near the Common, the Dyer House (about 1805),
in Dyer Lane, and the Abbott House (about 1800), on Battle Ave., are among the
many early Castine houses with the traditional central halls, wide staircases, and
massive doors with leaded glass fan-lights and side-lights.
The route now follows the western shore of the narrow Castine Peninsula
along Penobscot Bay.
NORTH CASTINE (alt. no, Castine Town), 55.8 m. The Old Devereaux
House (R) , opposite a lobster pound, is a low-posted white house with
central chimney, built in the lySo's. The dormers were a later addition.
During the War of 1812, the Americans hid powder in a closet of the
house. One day while Mrs. Devereaux was ironing, a party of British
came to search the house. They failed to discover the powder for Mrs.
Devereaux covered the closet with her freshly ironed clothes.
ORLAND (alt. 180, Orland Town, pop. 891), 62.6 m. (see Tour IK).
TOUR 4 : From HOULTON to NEW HAMPSHIRE LINE
(Shelburne), 279.1 m., US 2.
Via Houlton, Island Falls, Lincoln, West Enfield, Milford, Old Town, Orono,
Bangor, Hermon, Newport, Skowhegan, Norridgewock, Farmington, Wilton,
Dixfield, Mexico, Rumford, Bethel, and Gilead.
Mostly two-lane macadamized roadbed, open all year.
CROSSING Maine, between New Brunswick and New Hampshire, US 2
passes through five counties. The northern part of the route traverses the
rolling potato fields of central Aroostook County, west of which rise great
stands of birch, maple, and beech trees, full of wild game. A network of
lakes, rivers, and streams teems with salmon, trout, bass, pickerel, and
other game fish. Between Island Falls and Mattawamkeag lie 40 miles of
desolate, wild country, from the wooded land of Silver Ridge Plantation
to the wide stretches of the Mattawamkeag Swamp. South of Mattawam-
keag the road parallels the Penobscot River, running through farming
country and lumbering centers. Near Lincoln and in southern Aroostook
County, the stark grandeur of Katahdin, Maine's highest peak, is visible.
Between Skowhegan and Rumford lies a region of lakes with the ancient
forests coming down to their shores, and the mountains of the Rangeley
group rising to the north. Between Rumford, thriving center of the pulp-
wood industry, and Gilead the road winds along the Androscoggin River,
and past scenic hills and mountains to the New Hampshire Line.
HOULTON (alt. 340, Houlton Town, pop. 6865) (see ffOULTQN), 0 m.,
TOUR 4 : From Houlton to Shelburne 293
is at the junction with US 1 (see Tour 1, sec. e). East of Houlton, 2.5 m.,
is the Canadian Boundary Line, 11.5 miles west of Woodstock, N.B.
At 3 m. is the Trans-Atlantic Receiving Station (L) (open) of the American
Telephone and Telegraph Company, the first long wave receiving station
of its kind. Oceanic service was begun January 7, 1927; at present, one-
third of all traffic routed by way of England is handled here. This in-
cludes stations as far away as Australia. As part of the first international
telephone circuit operated in connection with the telephone system of
Great Britain, the station was established at Houlton because of its geo-
graphical position; that is, its comparative closeness to England, and its
distance from the Equator, source of static disturbances; also it was the
furthest point north in the United States reached by reliable telephone
wire service. This station supplements the trans-wave radio telephone
station of the Bell system in New Jersey. It receives the transmissions
from the British long wave station at Rugby, England.
LUDLOW (alt. 510, Ludlow Town, pop. 361), 9.9 m., single village of this
farming township, consists of a cluster of dwellings along the highway on
the northern shore of Cochran Lake, whose placid surface is broken by the
swirl and splash of pickerel and salmon.
SMYRNA MILLS (alt. 579, Smyrna Town, pop. 442), 16.5 m., a potato-
raising center, lies deep in the valley on the banks of the east branch of the
Mattawamkeag River.
DYER BROOK (alt. 620, Dyer Brook Town, pop. 262), 20.3 m. Several
homes grouped around potato warehouses near the railroad station com-
prise this small village.
Many of the barns in this area were erected by barn raisings. Accumu-
lating all materials, the proprietor would set a date, and farmers from
the township and near-by territory would come and set to with a will,
raising and boarding the frame work amidst much friendly laughter and
shouting. At sundown the men and their families gathered near-by for
a hearty meal laid on rough board tables beneath large shade trees; it was
customary for the young folks to dance after supper in the new barn to the
fiddling of square dances, jigs, and reels.
In the days when Dyer Brook was an active logging center, some of the
villagers believed that if a man went seven nights at the same hour to the
same place, the Devil would appear and talk with him on the seventh
night. There is a tale to the effect that a log driver called Jack-the-Ripper
carried out the conditions, and held converse with Satan who warned him
to stay off the logs the following day to avoid an accident. Ignoring the
warning, Jack jumped carelessly from log to log, working his way to the
center of the drive. As he did so, a streak of red fire in the form of a pick-
axe flamed up between the logs, a reminder of the warning. He went
hastily ashore. From then on Jack was thought by his neighbors to be in
league with the Devil. When his axe chopped, another was always heard
in accompaniment. He was often heard conversing with a voice whose
owner was invisible. Once he drove his axe into the hard trunk of a tree
294 High Roads and Low Roads
with such force the handle split. When he reached out to grasp the
handle again, it became whole in his hands. Conclusive proof to residents
of Dyer Brook that Jack-the-Ripper had acquired supernatural powers
came when, after the combined efforts of several woodsmen had failed,
Jack, single-handed, though unobserved, cleared a camp site of a huge
tree that had blown across it during a storm.
ISLAND FALLS (alt. 450, Island Falls Town, pop. 1455), 27.5 m., trad-
ing place for near-by farmers and center of a large area frequented by
hunters and fishermen, has a lumber mill, a tannery, and a woodenware
factory. The township contains much wooded wild land, two lakes, and
numerous streams.
Northeast of Island Falls is Pleasant Lake, one of Theodore Roosevelt's
favorite hunting and fishing spots. Several anecdotes are still told about
him and his guide, Bill Sewall, a descendant of the first settler in the dis-
trict. Driving up a rocky backwoods road one early spring, Roosevelt
jokingly asked how one could tell the roads from rivers. ' No beaver dams
in the roads/ was Sewall's reply.
South of Island Falls, US 2 passes through 20 miles of the Macwahoc
woods to enter Township i, Range 5. Through this township the route
parallels Molunkus Stream.
MACWAHOC (Macwahoc Plantation, pop. 163), 56.5 m., is a tiny set-
tlement, the southernmost in Aroostook County on US 2.
At 63.8 m. the highway traverses a Bridge built on the unusual base of
five bridges that have sunk successively in Mattawamkeag Swamp.
MATTAWAMKEAG (alt. 212, Mattawamkeag Town, pop. 461), 66.3 m.,
with extensive train yards, is a junction for the Maine Central R.R. and
Canadian Pacific R.R. at the point where the Mattawamkeag River flows
into the Penobscot. Lumbering was once carried on extensively in this
region.
In Mattawamkeag is a junction with State 11 (see Tour 6).
WINN (alt. 240, Winn Town, pop. 560), 68.8 m., a little town clinging to
the eastern bank of the swirling Penobscot River, was head of river
navigation in the days when travel into this area was chiefly by boat.
LINCOLN (alt. 174, Lincoln Town, pop. 2970), 79.6 m., named for
Governor Enoch Lincoln, is a busy agricultural center in Penobscot
County, and the only settlement of size between Houlton and Old Town.
Its most active industrial establishment is the Lincolnsfield Woolen Mill
(visitors by permit) , which manufactures woolen blankets, suitings, and the
like.
Lincoln lies near Mattanawcook Pond, one of a chain of lakes and ponds
running diagonally across the State. It is used for swimming and boating,
and is a popular resort of local fishermen.
WEST ENFIELD (alt. 130, Enfield Town, pop. 1138), 91.6 m., has the
cutting of pulp wood as its chief industry.
TOUR 4 : From Houlton to Shelburne 295
Here is a junction with State 11 (see Tour 8).
PASSADUMKEAG (Ind.: 'quick water') (alt. 140, Passadumkeag
Town, pop. 325), 96.6 m., is on the northern bank of Passadumkeag
Stream at its confluence with the Penobscot.
Specimens of Red Paint artifacts have been found near the settlement
(see Earliest Inhabitants).
OLAMON (Ind.: 'red paint') (alt. i28,Greenbush Town, pop. 3 78), 101.1
m., is at the mouth of the Olamon Stream as it joins the Penobscot River.
MILFORD (alt. 115, Milford Town, pop. 1203), 114.6 m., is separated
from Old Town by the Penobscot River and Old Town Falls. The river at
this point was the scene of great activity in the heyday of lumbering.
Huge sawmills in the two communities handled millions of logs from up
river and each spring the West Branch drive was the center of interest.
When the logs guided downstream by river drivers reached the booms,
placed about two miles upstream, 200 or more men who had been waiting
in ' driving boats ' raced down the Penobscot to Milf ord or Old Town with
the news. The approach of the winners was heralded by the firing of a
cannon on Indian Island, and a general celebration followed.
The highway here swings right, crossing the Penobscot.
OLD TOWN (alt. 115, pop. 7266), 115.3 m., was formerly a lumbering
center (see above), and on the line of the State's first railroad, which was
built in 1836 and extended between Bangor and the iron works on the
Penobscot River.
Industrial activities today include the manufacture of woolens, wood
products, paper, pulp, and toilet preparations. Better known, however,
are the canoes manufactured here and sent to all parts of the world. At
the Old Town Canoe Company Factory (open to public), the entire process
of modern canoe construction is demonstrated from the steaming and
bending of the bows and ribs to the varnishing of the finished product.
The presence of Indians working with modern equipment recalls the
romance that hovered over the silvery birch craft so skillfully fashioned
by their forefathers; they bring to mind the lines of Hiawatha in Long-
Bellow's beautiful poem :
'I a light canoe will build me,
That will float upon the water,
Like a yellow leaf in Autumn,
Like a yellow water lily.'
On INDIAN ISLAND (reached by row-boat ferry: fare b£) in the Penobscot River,
off Old Town, is an Indian Reservation (visitors welcome), the home of the remaining
members of the Penobscot tribe, numbering about 400, a fragment of the once
powerful Abnaki Nation. Although they neither vote nor pay taxes, the Penobscots
own the island under State supervision and send a non-voting representative to
the Maine Legislature.
The village, which centers around the main street extending back from the wharf,
has a drab appearance, only the church, school, and parochial residence being
painted. The Indians live in unplastered, weather-beaten structures, though the
meagerly furnished rooms are scrupulously neat.
296 High Roads and Low Roads
Although some of the Indians are employed at Old Town mills, they do not like to
work in factories, and the men usually find employment in the woods, on the river,
and as guides during the hunting and fishing seasons. Each spring a great many of
the Penobscots leave the island for the seashore and mountain resorts, where they
camp for the summer, selling baskets, handiwork, and curios to tourists. Both men
and women are skilled in basket-weaving and the products of their handiwork are
for sale in the shops on the island and near the ferry-landing in Old Town.
Many of the old customs are still retained. During the tribal celebrations (visitors
welcome), held several times a year, centuries slip away and once again the island
rings with the chanting of old songs, and flashes with the brilliance of the painted
and ornamented men twisting and writhing in ancient ceremonial dances.
Wooden crosses mark most of the poorly kept graves in the Two Cemeteries on the
island. The Catholic cemetery (1688) contains the remains of John Attean (1778-
1858), governor of the tribe for over 40 years; John Neptune (1767-1865), lieuten-
ant-governor for half a century; and other dignitaries of the tribe. Among those
buried in the other cemetery are Andrew Sockalexis, runner and member of the
American team in the Fifth Olympiad at Stockholm, Sweden, in 1912, and his
brother Louis, Holy Cross graduate, and baseball player on the Cleveland Amer-
ican League Club.
In a small, tree-shaded grassy plot on the island stands a Monument to the Penobscot
Indians Killed in the Revolution. A bronze tablet on the monument lists the names
of the men who fought with the Continental forces.
A Catholic mission was established on the island in the i7th century and in the
church here that romantic figure, the Baron Jean- Vincent de Castin (see Tour 3),
took the daughter of Chief Madockawando for his bride, likely a diplomatic al-
liance. About 80 years ago the old church was replaced by the present frame build-
ing in which hangs a Picture of the Crucifixion painted many years ago by Paul
Orson, an Indian artist who used the juice of berries for his colors and the tail of an
animal for a brush.
Princess Watawasa, a singer and dancer, who assumed her title for stage purposes,
is a native of the island. Another well-known Penobscot is Chief Needahbeh,
known as Roland Nelson at the New York Sportsmen's Shows.
ORONO (alt. 80, Orono Town, pop. 3338), 120.6 m., home of the State
university, is an industrial as well as a college town. Canvas products,
oars, paddles, paper, and pulp are manufactured in this former lumbering
center.
The buildings and grounds of the University of Maine (L) (open) stretch for
three-quarters of a mile along the northeastern outskirts of the village.
The 5oo-acre campus, with its well-kept lawns and shade trees, overlooks
the Stillwater River. So well hidden by trees are the modern brick and
stone college buildings, some of which have Georgian and Gothic features,
that no single one dominates the campus. Fraternity chapter houses of no
architectural style line College Road from the campus south to the village
center.
The University of Maine is a part of the State's educational system.
Established originally as a State College of Agriculture and Mechanic
Arts under the provision of the Morrill Act, approved by President
Lincoln in 1862, the State of Maine accepted the conditions of the act the
following year and in 1865 created a corporation to administer the affairs
of the college. The institution opened September 21, 1868, with a class of
12 members and two teachers. Tuition was often paid in cordwood, or
other local produce. By 1871, four curricula had been arranged — •
TOUR 4 : From Houlton to Shelburne 297
agriculture, civil engineering, mechanical engineering, and elective —
which gradually developed into the present college of agriculture,
technology, and arts and sciences. The name, University of Maine, was
assumed in 1899.
The College of Agriculture, the outstanding unit of the University, com-
prises the various departments of agriculture and husbandry as well as
bacteriology, geological chemistry, forestry, home economics and horticul-
ture. Although a four-year course is required for the degree of bachelor of
science in agriculture, the college offers a two-year course and special
short courses in these subjects which have become unusually popular. Its
courses in forestry have been widely recognized. The University main-
tains a forestry camp in Indian Township near Princeton (see Tour 1, sec.
e). Throughout the year extension lectures are given; and an extension
service analyzes soils, studies animal and crop diseases, and distributes
scientific and practical information to farmers.
The Maine Agricultural Experiment Station was established as a division
of the University by an act of the legislature of 1887 as a result of the
Hatch Act. Its offices and principal laboratories, besides the one at
Orono, are at Highmoor Farm in Monmouth (see Tour 13) , and Aroostook
Farm at Presque Isle (see Tour 1, sec. e). The University also operates a
marine biological station at East Lamoine on the shore of Frenchman's
Bay.
The University buildings are best reached from the Administration
Building (campus guides and maps available). Parking space is always
available, and during the summer direction markers are posted along the
drives.
The Carnegie Library, a two-story granite building with glass-enclosed
central rotunda, houses the University library of 1 50,000 volumes and
pamphlets, and also its art collection.
VEAZIE (alt. 70, Veazie Town, pop. 568), 124.2 m. General Samuel
Veazie, a pioneer railroad operator, gave this community not only its
name but also its claim to fame. In 1854 the General purchased the narrow
gauge Bangor, Milford, and Old Town R.R., which ran through here, and
it became known as the Veazie R.R. Completed in 1836 it was Maine's
first railroad and one of the oldest in the country. The first rails were made
of wood.
In 1834 the General had established the Veazie Bank. Just after the
passage of the Federal Act (1866) taxing currency issued by State banks,
officials of the Veazie banks refused to pay the tax. This led to the U.S.
Supreme Court case, Veazie Banks vs. Fenno, hi which the Supreme Court
upheld the power of Congress to levy such tax. As a result the power to
issue State currency was virtually taken from the States.
Veazie, originally called The Plains, was a part of Bangor until its incor-
poration in 1853.
BANGOR (alt. 100, pop. 28,749) (see BANGOR), 128.6 m., is at a
junction with US 1 (see Tour 1, sec. c).
298 High Roads and Low Roads
HERMON (alt. 190, Hermon Town, pop. 1204), 136.9 m., is near the
railroad yards of Northern Maine Junction, a terminus of the Bangor and
Aroostook R.R. at its j-unction with the Maine Central R.R.
The Millerites, disciples of William Miller who preached that the second
coming of the Lord was imminent, won many followers here in the early
iSoo's. Contemporary newspaper accounts say his followers eventually
numbered 50,000 souls, but this is doubtless exaggeration. A day in 1843
was set as the date of the coming, and the anointed were exhorted to
prepare themselves. To be ready for heaven all the believers gave away
everything they possessed and disposed of all their property. On the
appointed day they donned ascension robes and climbed to hilltops so as
to be as near heaven as possible. Some of them mounted the roofs of their
houses. All day they stood looking into the sky. Nothing happened.
After having been, so they thought, at heaven's very gate, they had to
return to an earthly status made more difficult by the loss of their pro-
perty. Miller attributed the denouement to a miscalculation — whether
on his part or the Lord's is not clear. Many of his followers, especially
those in the town of Hermon, faithfully rallied around him once more,
remaining loyal until his death in 1847. For many years small colonies of
Millerites survived throughout the State.
CARMEL (alt. 170, Carmel Town, pop. 881), 144.3 m., is in one of the
oldest farming towns in Penobscot County. Bearing a name of Biblical
derivation, Carmel, aptly enough, was the birthplace of a curious religious
sect known as the Higginsites. The Reverend George Higgins, a local
Methodist pastor in the early igth century, started the sect; a village in
the neighboring town of Levant is still called Higginsville. The Higgins-
ites did not eat pork and believed in their ability to heal by faith. Tales of
their religious activities were widely circulated and one, concerning the
whipping of children in efforts to drive out the Devil, aroused the indigna-
tion of the townspeople, who determined to rid the town of Mr. Higgins.
Calling him from his home late one night, a group tarred and feathered
and drove him away.
ETNA (alt. 305, Etna Town, pop. 418), 147.9 m.
Camp Etna (R) is a campground on which spiritualists have held yearly
meetings (last week in Aug. and first week in Sept.) since 1876, when
Daniel Buswell, Jr., held the first meeting in a tent. Today there is a
temple, built in 1880, seating noo, a club house, and 78 cottages on the
80 acres of enclosed land. The Grave of Mrs. Mary S. Vanderbilt, a gener-
ous benefactor of the Campground Association, is marked by a conspic-
uous monument. In addition to the beautiful groves, the association owns
the Camp Etna Hotel and Farm.
NEWPORT (alt. 205, Newport Town, pop. 1731), 156.8 m., owes much
of its beauty to Sebasticook Lake, sometimes known as Newport Pond,
near the center of the town. The lake, 6 miles long, provides opportunities
for bathing, boating, and fishing.
Here is a junction with State 7 (see Tour 9).
TOUR 4: From Houlton to Shelburne 299
PALMYRA (alt. 260, Palmyra Town, pop. 887), 161.1 m., was in 1850 a
prosperous lumbering town with a population of 1625. It is now the
center of a small agricultural township.
CANAAN (alt. 230, Canaan Town, pop. 714), 172.7 m. Impressed by the
fertility of the land, early settlers named their town for the land of milk
and honey. It was part of the Plymouth Patent, but was not settled until
1770 when Joseph Weston of Lancaster and Peter Hey wood of Concord,
Mass., arrived.
SKOWHEGAN (alt. 190, Skowhegan Town, pop. 6431), 181.5 m. The
original settlement of the town was made on the island of that name in the
Kennebec River and even today, though the business and industrial area
has spread to both banks, the island is to some extent the physical center.
Long before the first white man came to the region in 1771, Indians knew
the island, had explored the falls, had taken fighting salmon from the
waters below it, and had named the place Skowhegan (place to watch for
fish).
Among those who were born or have lived here are Abner Coburn
(1803-85), one of Maine's Civil War governors who was prominent in the
economic and cultural development of this section of the State; Daniel
Dole (1808- ?), a missionary to the Hawaiian Islands who was instrumen-
tal in the establishment, and became president, of Oahu College, which
prepares white students to enter universities; George Otis Smith (1871),
a former director of the U.S. Geological Survey; Charles A. Coffin
(1844-1926), first president of the General Electric Company; Artemus
Ward (Charles Farrar Browne, 1834-67), American humorist, who was
employed a few months in his boyhood in a Skowhegan printing office.
At the eastern end of Water St. is attractive Coburn Park, extending for
nearly a quarter of a mile along the highway and named for Abner
Coburn, who gave much of the land to the town.
A large granite boulder, on the Site of Benedict Arnold's Camp in the
school grounds on the corner of Weston St., commemorates the passage of
Benedict Arnold's army, September 29, 1775.
The State Reformatory for Women, housed in six modern buildings on
Norridgewock Ave., was opened in 1916. Women delinquents over 16
years of age are confined in it.
The Skowhegan Fair Ground, Fairview Park, and an airplane landing
field are i mile north of Water St., on Madison Ave. (State 147).
Right from Skowhegan is State 147, an alternate and shorter route between Skow-
hegan and Solon (see Tour 10).
At 5.1 m. on State 147 is LAKEWOOD, a resort on the shore of Lake Wesserun-
sett, with a hotel having a dining terrace overlooking the lake, and with a dance
hall and other recreational facilities.
Lakewood has had a summer theater since 1900, housed in the early days in an old
amusement park. Admission at that time was five cents to those who arrived on
the jiggling, bumpy trolley cars, ten cents to those who provided their own trans-
portation, which was usually a buckboard drawn by plump horses. The plays,
usually either Broadway successes presented by companies preparing to go on the
3OO High Roads and Low Roads
road with them or try-outs for New York presentation in the fall, are now per-
formed in an attractive little structure of semi- Colonial design.
At 14.7 m. is the junction with US 201 (see Tour 10).
US 2 crosses the river, and on the southern edge of the city joins US 201
with which it is identical to Norridgewock.
NORRIDGEWOCK (alt. 180, Norridgewock Town, pop. 1478), 186.7 m.,
derived its name from the Indian name for the place, Nanrantsouk
(' smooth water between falls ' or ' rapids ') . Its early history is allied with
that of the Indian village at Old Point (see Tour 10). When Somerset
County, named for Somersetshire, England, was formed from the north-
ern part of Kennebec County in 1809, Norridgewock became the shire
town.
The Norridgewock Bridge, spanning the Kennebec, on US 201, is a four-
span cement structure of the bowstring-arch type.
US 201, branching from US 2, turns right at the bridge (see Tour 10).
MERCER (alt. 280, Mercer Town, pop. 408), 194.4 m., birthplace of
Frank A. Munsey, the publisher, is a little settlement sheltered in a
depression between two hills.
On the lawn of a small church (R) is a bronze tablet set in a large millstone
commemorating what is believed to have been the Largest Tree in New
England, an elm that was 32 feet in circumference.
At 198.6 m. is a junction with State 27 (see Tour 12).
NEW SHARON (alt. 340, New Sharon Town, pop. 750), 199.6 m. The
homes of this settlement are built along the highway which slopes for a
mile to the bridge over well-named Sandy River. Quantities of golden
bantam corn for canning are raised in the broad rolling fields around this
village.
FARMINGTON FALLS (alt. 335, Farmington Town), 204 m. When a
party of six men led by Thomas Wilson, an early hunter, explored this
country in 1776 with a view to settlement, they found the village of the
Indian Pierpole and the remains of another Indian village and fort here
at the falls. Pierpole became friendly with the white men and later aided
them in establishing themselves — another example of Indian friend-
liness until the trust was betrayed.
At 208.3 m. (R) is Stanwood Park (adm. 10^), a large zoo maintained by
the owner as a hobby. The 500 clean, well-cared-for animals, in cages and
fenced enclosures, include a collection representative of the State's wild
life.
FARMINGTON (alt. 420, Farmington Town, pop. 3600), 210.1 m., gate-
way to the Rangeley and Dead River regions, is the seat of Franklin
County, and agricultural and trading center for this fertile valley along
Sandy River. Fruitful apple orchards add to the incomes of many
farmers here.
The first Farmington Falls settlers of the i77o's were joined by others who
started clearings in various places along Sandy River; in 1782 eight
TOUR 4: From Houlton to Shelburne 301
families passed the winter in rough, snow-bound log cabins in the vicinity.
The settlers were, for the most part, people of considerable culture and
education. The first school of the settlement was opened in 1788 in the
log-cabin home of Lemuel Perham, Jr. By 1790 there were 404 in-
habitants, and in 1794 the town was incorporated.
Farmington State Normal School is on Academy St.
Here is a junction with State 4 (see Tour 11) and State 27 (see Tour 12).
WILTON (alt. 690, Wilton Town, pop. 3266), 218.7 m., a busy industrial
and farming settlement, stands at the point where Wilson Stream flows
into Wilson Lake. The stream runs parallel with the main street of the
village and a heavily wooded hill rises abruptly from the bank of the river.
Wilson Lake, along the highway just a few hundred yards west of the
business district, has good recreational facilities and many summer camps
on its shores.
The township was first called Harrytown for Harry, an Indian, who was
the scourge of the whites in the area. In 1 790, when Capt. William Tyng
in an expedition against the Indians killed Harry, the township was re-
named Tyngstown in honor of the captain. Abraham Butterfield, who
later came from Wilton, N.H., paid the expenses of incorporation in 1803
for the privilege of renaming the place for his former home.
Here is a junction with State 4 (see Tour 11).
DIXFIELD (alt. 420, Dixfield Town, pop. 1518), 235.7 m., in the shadow
of the Sugar Loaves, twin hills, is at the confluence of the Androscoggin
and Webb Rivers. The manufacture of paper boxes and wood-novelties is
among the industries here.
MEXICO (alt. 460, Mexico Town, pop. 4761), 240.3 m., is principally
occupied by employees of the Rumford paper mills across the Andros-
coggin. Swift River, west of the village, passes through the township with
a fall of 50 ft.
RUMFORD (alt. 610, Rumford Town, pop. 8726), 241.3 m., high in the
Oxford hills, where the Ellis, Swift, and Concord Rivers flow into the
Androscoggin, is the home of New England's largest paper pulp mills. It
is one of the most active towns socially in the State, and a popular winter
sports center. Directly in sight of the business section, the magnificent
Falls of the Androscoggin tumble down over a bed of solid granite, the
water supplying power for the huge paper mills that employ most of the
working inhabitants. The construction of a canal has placed the business
section on an island, connected with the mainland by three bridges.
One thousand cords of pulpwood are used here daily (1936) and pulp
piles rise high near the river.
The Oxford Paper Company Mill (permit at office), near Railroad Station,
one of the largest book-paper mills in the United States, manufactures
and prints book-cover labels, offsets, rotogravures, and lithographs.
Stephens High School, Congress St., offers the only course in New England
for the study of the manufacture of pulp and paper.
3O2 High Roads and Low Roads
The annual Winter Carnival, with competitive sports, is held in February
under the auspices of the Chisholm Skiing and Outing Club.
Left from Rumford on State 120 to the Mt. Zircon Bottling Company Works, 4.5 m.
(L), which owns the Noontide Spring, the flow of which, the owners say, increases 20
gallons a minute during the time of the full moon. The spring bubbles high on a
mountain reached by a 2-mile trail leading from the bottling works. This claim has
never been scientifically investigated.
At 252.3 m. is a junction with State 5 (see Tour 4A).
NEWRY (alt. 630, Newry Town, pop. 188), 259.5 m., is at a junction
with State 26 (see Tour 14).
BETHEL (alt. 700, Bethel Town, pop. 2025), 266.5 w., the center of a
township in the delightful Oxford Hills, is built on both sides of the wind-
ing Androscoggin River, which, flowing gently here, soon drops away
rapidly over numerous falls furnishing power for mills downstream.
Behind the cluster of handsome residences with landscaped grounds on the
slope of a low hill rise the rough foothills of the White Mountains. On
August 22, 1781, it is said that a party of Indians attacked Bethel, carrying
away a heavy plunder and three settlers. One of the captives escaped into
the woods; the other two were held as prisoners in Canada until after the
end of the Revolution.
On the brow of a hill is Gould's Academy, established 1836, one of the
leading preparatory schools of Maine.
The Chapman Home (private), west side of Church St., was the former
residence of the late Dr. William R. Chapman, organizer and conductor
for 25 years of the former annual Maine Music Festivals (see BANGOR;
PORTLAND), which were important musical events in the life of the
State.
Directly opposite the Chapman Home is a quadrangular elm parkway.
Bethel Inn (L), one of the best-known hostelries of Maine, was erected by
Dr. John G. Gehring (1857-1932), whose home is beyond the inn at the far
end of Church St. Dr. Gehring, a distinguished neurologist, late in life
converted his residence into a sanatorium where he could give individual
attention to patients suffering from nervous disorders. One of the wards
of the New York Neurological Institute is named in his honor. In 1923
Dr. Gehring published a book, 'The Hope of the Variant.'
In Bethel are junctions with State 5 (see Tour 15) and with State 26 (see
Tour 14).
GILEAD (alt. 710, Gilead Town, pop. 222), 276.6 m., a tiny settlement
near a railroad station, is on the northern line of the White Mountain Na-
tional Forest. Behind it are tumbling mountain streams and below it the
sweeping Androscoggin, cutting its way through forests of fragrant cedar
and pine, the waters mirroring the beauty of the forest. Silvery birches
spread a fragile web of loveliness over the highway.
Left from Gilead on a good road, through White Mountain National Forest, to
Evans Notch, 6 m. From the wooded area near the Notch are spectacular views
of the Presidential Range of the White Mountains.
At 279.1 m. US 2 crosses the New Hampshire Line, 3.8 miles east of
Shelburne, N.H.
TOUR 4 A : From JUNCTION WITH US 2 to SOUTH
ARM, 25.6 m., State 5.
Via Andover and The Notch.
Graveled roadbed.
THIS route, to the Rangeley Lake region, follows through the Ellis River
Valley to the intervale of Andover where a long ridge of the Canadian
border mountains far north can be seen. From a quagmire at the foot of
Lower Richardson Lake, Black Brook seeps through dense vegetable
matter, and flows beside the road in the heavily wooded area near South
Arm.
At 0 m. State 5 branches northwest from US 2 (see Tour 4).
Visible from 1.4 m. (L), is a long, bare, high ledge on the side of Mount
Dimmock.
At 3.6 m. (L) is the trail to Newry Mine, a goo-foot climb up Plumbago
Mountain. The discovery of tourmalines here, in 1900, was followed by
that of feldspar and pollucite. The mine is now inactive, its pollucite vein
being considered exhausted. Pollucite, probably Maine's most valuable
mineral — having had a maximum value of $20 per pound — is used in
the manufacture of alternating current radio tubes.
At 10.7 m. (R) is Andover Cemetery, in the northern end of which is the
Grave of Molly Locket, an Indian woman who was so constantly in demand
by the settlers as a midwife that she neither had the time nor the need to
establish a home of her own. Molly's second husband is said to have been
Chief Sabattus, and although her gravemarker says she was the last of the
Pequawkets, another tradition says two of her daughters were married to
white settlers. The inscription reads:
Mollocket baptized Mary Agatha,
Catholic, died in the Christian Faith,
August 2, A.D. 1816.
The Last of the Pequakets.
ANDOVER (alt. 610, Andover Town, pop. 783), 11.7 m., a small com-
mercial settlement formerly important for its lumbering, now caters to
summer campers. Throughout the entire township are visible the forest-
cloaked Aziscoos Mountains which lie north of the Rangeley Lakes.
The Notch (Township C), 20.7 m., formed by Old Blue Mountain (R)
(alt. 3735) and Parkhurst Mountain (L) (alt. 2870), is barely wide enough
for the road, which follows Black Brook. Old Blue towers sheerly above
the road.
SOUTH ARM (alt. 1480, Township C, pop. 9), 25.6 m. Buried deep in the
woods on the southern tip of Lower Richardson Lake, this little settle-
304 High Roads and Low Roads
ment with its half-dozen houses, wharf, and long rows of connected
storage garages is the 'jumping-off place' for visitors on their way to
hotels and camps scattered through the Rangeley Lake Region (see Tour
11A).
TOUR 5 : From BREWER to JUNCTION WITH US 1
(Calais), 87.5 m., State 9, The Air Line.
Via Eddington, Amherst, Wesley, Crawford, and Alexander.
Two-lane, bituminous-topped, and graveled roadbed the greater part of the
route; a few sections of narrow, unimproved dirt road; in winter it is not always
passable.
Limited accommodations; gas stations long distances apart.
THIS inland route, most direct between Bangor and Calais, passes
through a sparsely settled agricultural region, blueberry plains, and
forests with winding trout streams; tote roads used by lumbermen lead
into the woods at intervals. The more than 20-mile stretch between
Beddington and Wesley is without habitation. Between Crawford and
Alexander are lakes with sportsmen's camps.
This route, originally planned in 1838-39 as a military road during the
Aroostook War (see History) to speed soldiers to the border through
the wilderness, remained unfinished for more than 20 years after the
boundary dispute was settled. Little more than a dirt lane, it was
opened as a mail route in 1857 when Calais citizens became dissatisfied
with mail service over the highway along the shore. When it was im-
proved a few years later for the use of stages, travelers traversed it with
uneasiness, fearing wolves in winter and bandits in summer.
BREWER (alt. 40, pop. 6329) (see Tour 1, sec. c), 0 m., is at a junction
with US 1 (see Tour 1, sec. c). State 9 branches northeast from US 1
here.
EDDINGTON (alt. 50, Eddington Town, pop. 487), 4.1 m., with camps
and tourists' homes, is a small farming community on the eastern bank of
the Penobscot River.
The granite shaft, facing the river, is a Memorial to Jonathan Eddy, for
whom the town was named. Eddy was a captain in the French and
Indian wars, a colonel during the Revolutionary War, and the first
magistrate appointed along the Penobscot River.
The banks of the river in this vicinity have yielded Red Paint deposits
(see Earliest Inhabitants).
In Eddington, as in many inland villages before the days when sea food
TOUR 5: From Brewer to Calais 305
was brought to local stores, it was customary for the inhabitants to make
annual trips to the coast to procure several barrels of sand and a quantity
of clams. Each villager dug a hole in the earth of his cellar, filled it with
the sand, and buried the clams in the sand, which was kept wet in order
to keep the clams alive for use in the cold months. A story of clams thus
preserved is told in connection with an old sea captain who had retired to
this village. He had a clam-pit in his cellar, but he averred that instead of
keeping his clams for food he used them as rat-catchers; he said he often
went into the cellar and found a rat struggling against a clam that had
closed its shell in a tenacious grip on the rat's tail.
Right from Eddington village on a local road to a Training Camp for Field Dogs
(private), 2 m., on the eastern side of Eddington Pond. Here beautiful young bird-
hunting dogs are trained until they can point out covies of birds, 'freeze' into a
motionless stand, remain unflinching when a gun roars out at the rising birds, and
then retrieve the kill for their master. The State and New England Field Trials for
bird dogs were held here in 1935, and in May and September the Bangor Fish and
Game Association holds annual bird-dog field trials at this camp.
State 9 swings right at Eddington.
CLIFTON (alt. 155, Clifton Town, pop. 156), 12.1 m., is in a town where
hills are composed of 'puddle rocks' or pudding stone, in which stones of
many colors and shapes are held together by a conglomerate mass.
Left from Clifton on a dirt road is Chemo Lake (canoes for hire}, 0.7 m., a wide sheet
of water in summer reflecting forest-clad hills and blue skies. There is excellent
trout fishing here.
AMHERST (alt. 30, Amherst Town, pop. 163), 24 m., now a small
farming community, was once supported by saw, grist, clapboard, and
shingle mills, as well as a large tannery.
At 25.5 m. is a junction with State 179.
Right on State 179 to a Cannery (open), 3 m., in which great quantities of blue-
berries, hauled in from neighboring plains, are weighed, dumped in a long endless
conveyor where they are carefully sorted, washed, packed in tins, and cooked under
steam pressure, to be used eventually in pies and pan dowdies all over New
England.
AURORA (alt. 315, Aurora Town, pop. 86), 26 m. Hunters and fisher-
men now use the Village Inn, formerly a stagecoach stop.
At 27 m. is the junction with a dirt road.
Left on this road to Great Pond, 6 m,, where there is good trout fishing. This is a
section with numerous hunting and sporting camps, for game is also plentiful.
Between 28.4 m. and 30.7 m. the road passes over the Whale Back, an
alluvial ridge with an elevation of from 200 to 300 feet. Vast tracts of
woodland stretch along either side, and in fine weather, Mt. Katahdin, 80
miles northwest, is visible. In this area the white flags of startled deer are
often seen as they hurdle mossy logs to disappear into the dim forest.
Occasionally, especially on crisp evenings, the long bellow of a bull moose
echoes over the timberlands, and the staccato barking of the fox is heard
in the stillness of the vast area.
At 40.8 m. is a junction with State 193.
Right on State 193, 3 m., to old Beaver Colonies and Dams on the west branch of
306 High Roads and Low Roads
the Narraguagus. The broad-tailed, silky-furred workers are now rarely seen in
this region, but the large dam and several sub-dams that they constructed still
hold back the river waters over a considerable area, while cleverly built mounds ap-
pear like miniature brown igloos projecting from the water.
At 41.2 m. is a well-marked trail.
Left on this trail leading about 1 m. to a fire lookout station on Lead Mountain.
At the foot of the mountain is a Civilian Conservation Corps camp.
For many years it was believed that veins of gold ran through Lead Mountain.
Near-by settlements were often visited, so the story goes, by an Indian who offered
small gold nuggets in exchange for a drink of rum. As he was usually intoxicated
and apparently did no work to earn the gold, rumor spread that he knew of a lode
on Lead Mountain. Finally a settler plied the Indian with enough rum to extract
from him the story of a huge cave filled with nuggets, and the promise to lead him
to the cave. It is said the two men left the settlement, but the white man never re-
turned.
At 41.4 m. a bridge crosses the Narraguagus River, in which an annual
log drive usually takes place about mid-April.
BEDDINGTON (alt. 530, Beddington Town, pop. 35), 41.8 m. The
Old Shoppe House, now the post office, was for many years a stopping-
place for stagecoaches. Jefferson Davis, later President of the Con-
federacy, is said to have resided in this old hostelry for several weeks
during the summer of 1857 when he was visiting his friend, Alexander
Bache, Superintendent of the Coast Survey, who was taking personal
charge of work there and in the near-by Lead Mountain area. There is a
local tradition that Davis, before leaving, placed a small chest in the inn-
keeper's charge, instructing the latter to turn it over to a person who
would make a certain sign. The following autumn, on a windy night a
stranger appeared on horseback, made the sign, and rode off with the
chest. The villagers believed that the chest held documents that had
some connection with the Rebellion.
At 49.8 m. is the entrance to a foot trail.
Left on this trail, providing a stiff climb of about 1 w., to the top of Peaked
Mountain, where is a Fire Lookout Station from which is a view over vast blue-
berry plains, or barrens, as they are called.
At 54.3 m. is a wooden bridge crossing the Machias River, which was
once famous for its log drives. Right is a State Fish and Game Department
Camp, often used by wardens. Left is a free camp site^
WESLEY (Wesley Town, pop. 170), 65.1 m., is on a high hill amid ex-
tensive blueberry barrens. From a Fire Lookout Station (open), virtually
in the center of the village, is a panorama over great wooded areas, with
Eastport, 3 2 miles away, visible on a clear day.
There is a story that during the Civil War three Federal recruiting officers
were murdered here while trying to enforce draft requirements. During
stagecoach days many robberies were committed at the foot of Wesley
Hill, just beyond the village. This spot was still the scene of lawless
activities during prohibition, when rum-runners in high-powered trucks
brought contraband liquors from the Canadian Border; clashes with
revenue officers were frequent.
TOUR 5: From Brewer to Calais 307
At 69.1 m. (L) is a Free Camp Site.
At 72.4 m. is the junction with a local road.
Right on this road to Love Lake, 0.7 m., a small body of water surrounded by
birch-clad hills. Water lilies grow in profusion here, many of the coves being likened
to scenes portrayed by Monet. In the summer game is plentiful and quite tame
near the lake; moose, knee deep in the water, munch lily shoots, and deer, sil-
houetted against a brilliant sunset, offer unusual opportunities to photographers.
There are several small waterfalls in the streams that empty into Love Lake;
Seavey Brook, toward the west, tumbles over a series of rocks, forming rapids.
CRAWFORD (Crawford Town, pop. 120), 76 m., once the center of
extensive lumbering operations, was the scene of many stagecoach
robberies. Favorite yarns of early stagecoach travel tell of how, when
deep snow impeded the progress of the coach, packs of wolves would
follow the wheel tracks and were warded off only by the alertness of the
drivers and the quick cocking and firing of hand-loaded and primed guns.
Other exciting tales, many of them more frankly fiction but built around
a fragment of truth, abound in this region. One concerns three brothers,
living near Bangor, who became highwaymen and terrorized this district,
stopping coaches several times a week and extracting all valuables from
the passengers and their luggage. It is told that a passenger who had been
robbed while traveling here, several months later in Boston recognized a
man lounging in a tavern tap-room as one of the three bandits; accused,
the man shouted his innocence, but a golden nugget, hanging from his
watch chain, was found to bear the initials of the coach passenger.
Crawford Lake, in this town, has excellent bathing and fishing facilities.
At Cedar Cove, on the eastern shore, perpendicular cliffs rising high above
the sparkling waters are spoken of thus, by a local guide: 'The cliffs out
there are a "high eyeful," and only the Devil knows how deep.'
At 81.2 m. is the junction with an oiled graveled road.
Right on this road, ALEXANDER (alt. 420, Alexander Town, pop. 312), 0.4 m.,
a small community on a high hill, carrying on some farming in a hunting region,
overlooks Meddybemps Lake, (R), which is 7 miles long, 3 miles wide, and has 52
islands dotting its placid surface. Many sporting camps are scattered along the
shores of the lake which offers fine bass and perch fishing.
In the Corner Store, near the village Center, hangs a large sign reading: ' After
40 years of credit business, we have closed our book of Sorrow.' This combination
store, post office, information bureau, bank, and general gathering place is typical
of the New England general store of the past. Here shelves of modern canned
goods vie with bunches of fragrant pickling spices, dill-pickles in a barrel, beans in
five- and ten-pound bags, penny candy, overalls, rubber boots, embroidery material
and silks, and the heterogeneous mixture of merchandise required by village house-
wives and male 'bargainers.' In the evenings, the men gather around the pot-
bellied stove set in its sawdust-filled square box — the latter for the convenience of
tobacco ' chawers ' — to settle problems ranging in importance from international
affairs to fence disputes.
At 84.3 m. (L) is a Free Camp Site, maintained by the State Fish and
Game Department.
At 87.5 m. State 9 joins US 1 (see Tour 1, sec. e), 6.9 miles southwest of
Calais.
TOUR 6 : From FORT KENT to MATTAWAMKEAG, 138
m., State 11.
Via Wallagrass, Eagle Lake, Portage, Ashland, Patten, Sherman, and Medway.
Graveled or macadamized roadbed, narrow and rough in spots. Route not re-
commended except to reach sporting areas.
Accommodations infrequent except at sportsmen's camps.
THIS route, frequented chiefly by sportsmen, runs almost directly south.
Small villages in this area are widely separated in the midst of forests,
lakes, and mountains, with only occasional open farm land. Game
abounds. Most of the people depend on guiding sportsmen, trapping,
small-scale farming, and lumber operations for a livelihood. Between
Fort Kent and Portage, the French Acadian villages are like those along
the St. John River (see Tour 1, sec. e). Between Masardis and Sherman,
the route crosses a fertile potato belt.
FORT KENT (alt. 530, Fort Kent Town, pop. 4726) (see Tour 1, sec. e),
0 m., is at a junction with US 1 (see Tour 1, sec. e). The village is at the
northern terminus of the Allagash River Canoe Trip (see Sports and Re-
creation).
FORT KENT MILLS (alt. 610, Fort Kent Town), 1.5 m., was settled in
the i86o's when the Bradbury Lumber Company began operations at
this fine water-power site on Fish River. Extensive operations ceased
about 1916.
At 7.3 m. is a junction with a dirt road.
Left on this road is SOLDIER POND (alt. 590, Wallagrass Plantation), 1 w., on the
shore of a body of water named during the Aroostook Bloodless War (see History).
WALLAGRASS (alt. 820, Wallagrass Plantation, pop. 1145), 10 m., is
one of the series of French-Acadian settlements. In such villages as this
the medallion of the Sacred Heart of Jesus is often seen on the doors of the
homes, these people, like their ancestors, being devout Catholics.
EAGLE LAKE (alt. 602, Eagle Lake Town, pop. 1780) (guides available),
15.7 m., is active during the hunting and fishing seasons. The town was
settled about 1840 by French- Acadians and Irish emigrants.
Near the center of the village is the Northern Maine General Hospital, an
important institution in this area where medical aid is hard to find.
The clear water of Eagle Lake, one of the deepest of the Fish River Chain,
holds many landlocked salmon, and the streams flowing into the lake have
abundant supplies of speckled trout. During the fall, hunting in the
neighborhood is nearly always productive of the permitted quota of game.
Rufus Mclntyre and Major Strickland, leading their 200 men north from
Bangor at the time of the Aroostook War, were impressed by the large
number of eagles hovering about, and gave the lake its name.
TOUR 6: From Fort Kent to Mattawamkeag 309
In WINTERVILLE (alt. 1012, Winterville Plantation, pop. 408), 20.5
m., guides are available.
Right from Winterville on a gravel road to Lake St. Froid, 1 m., another of the Fish
River Chain, has an abundance of salmon, togue, and trout. Deer hunting in the
vicinity is well rewarded. Along the headwaters of the near-by Red River are 17
ponds that, with 10 others along the headwaters of Nigger Brook, contain square-
tail trout.
PORTAGE (alt. 641, Portage Lake Town, pop. 886), 36.6 m., on Portage
Lake is surrounded by dense forest growth. The lake is 60 miles from St.
Agatha, a terminus of the Fish River Chain of Lakes Canoe Trip (see
Sports and Recreation: Canoeing).
On fishing and hunting trips in this region guides frequently call attention
to beaver dams and homes. Beaver, amphibious rodents common
throughout Maine, are particularly numerous in the vicinity of Portage
Lake. A full-grown beaver reaches a weight ranging from 25 to 40 pounds;
its soft and velvety fur makes the pelt prized for luxurious garments. The
beavers' activities, starting in the spring and continuing through the
summer and fall, include the cutting of timber to build and repair their
dams and houses, and the gathering of their winter food supply — the
bark of poplar, white birch, and maple trees.
At the southern end of the lake is a large Muskrat Settlement. The houses,
built of mud and grass and resembling small hay stacks about 3 feet in
diameter and 2 feet high, are visible only when the level of the lake is low.
ASHLAND (alt. 75, Ashland Town, pop. 2198), 47.2 m., commercial and
industrial center of this area of Aroostook County, is an important
shipping center for lumber and potatoes. The nine warehouses along the
railroad tracks can hold 45,000 barrels of potatoes. There are several
small sawmills in the vicinity, though this is not an active lumbering area
at present; when the industry was at its peak, prior to 1916, daily ship-
ments of 100 carloads were not unusual.
SQUA PAN (alt. 549, Masardis Town), 52.2 m., a small settlement of
woodsmen, is said to have been named for an Indian squaw who married a
Frenchman named Pan.
At 52.7 m. (L) is a Maine Forestry Service Station.
MASARDIS (alt. 580, Masardis Town, pop. 584) (bus service to Oxbow),
56.4 m. During the Aroostook War in 1839, breastworks were built and
artillery stationed here, at the confluence of the Aroostook River and St.
Croix Stream.
Though lumbering operations are continued on a small scale, potato
raising is the principal means of livelihood; the soil, chiefly 'caribou loam'
— a local name for the exceedingly rich soil of the potato belt — is very
fertile. There is excellent trout fishing in the streams about the town.
At 61 m. is the junction with a dirt road.
Right on this road is OXBOW (alt. 620, Oxbow Plantation, pop. 176) (guides
available), 5 m., hunting and fishing center for sportsmen. Here, along the streams
and lakes, are many privately owned hunting lodges as well as public camps.
3io High Roads and Low Roads
Many large specimens of big game are taken from the forests. Small game such as
partridge and woodcock is abundant, and togue, black bass, perch, and pickerel
are plentiful. Jack Dempsey had his training quarters here before he fought Gene
Tunney in 1926.
MORO (Moro Plantation, pop. 169) (guides available), 81.8 m., is in a
hunting and fishing area, with numerous public camps. Brook fishing for
speckled trout is popular. There are beaver colonies here and there along
the streams, and deer are often seen in the environs.
Moro guides are particularly skilled in making camp life comfortable and
they are good cooks; in summer flapjacks and johnny-cake are served
with fried trout. In the colder seasons game replaces the fish, and is served
with bean-hole beans and salt pork. Codfish with salt pork scraps, and
pancakes covered with black molasses make another memorable meal.
PATTEN (alt. 541, Patten Town, pop. 1278), 93.3 m., is a busy lumbering
and commercial community with a well-developed business section.
Several good woods trails leading from the village have been cleared
recently. More than 20 ponds, in which salmon and trout fishing is car-
ried on, are within a 3o-mile area.
SHERMAN STATION (alt. 485, Sherman Town, pop. 1027), 100.2 m.,
lies on the southern edge of the potato-raising country.
At 102 m. State 11 swings sharp right to climb a long, winding hill.
STACYVILLE (alt. 520, Stacyville Plantation, pop. 600) (daily bus to
Sherman Station), 106.8 m., is at the northern end of the long Davidson
Woods-, in the early days it was an important stage stop.
The Appalachian Mountain Club Trail to Mt. Katahdin (see Tour 7)
starts here.
GRINDSTONE (alt. 322, Township No. i, Range 7, pop. 34), 117.1 m., is a
tiny lumbering village in which woodsmen and their families live in frame
buildings covered with tarred-paper. The East Branch of the Penobscot
River at this point passes through a rocky gorge, causing many log jams
during the drives. Before dynamite was used to loosen the jams, many
river drivers lost their lives trying to dislodge key-logs. A story is told of
how one pugnacious backwoods Frenchman, who was caught in a very
perilous position on a jam, lifted his voice loud in prayer, promising that
if he was saved he would never again fight man or beast. By luck he
reached shore and found himself face to face with a huge bear. Remem-
bering his vow, he hesitated; then, shouting a hasty plea to the Almighty
for forgiveness, jumped on the beast with his knife.
For several years the Great Northern Paper Company took its pulpwood
from the river here, hauling it overland by team to a plant at Millinocket.
Grindstone is the terminus of the East Branch Canoe Trip (see Sports and
Recreation: Canoeing).
MED WAY (alt. 280, Medway Town, pop. 406) (daily bus service to East
Millinocket and tri-weekly service to Lincoln), 126.8 m., lies at the con-
fluence of the Penobscot River and its East Branch which enters the main
TOUR 7: From Med way to Greenville 311
stream through a rocky gorge. In early lumbering days the village was an
important place; logs were sorted here and sent to Bangor in a segregated
drive. The settlement is now small and scattered, the remaining in-
habitants being employed at East Millinocket and Millinocket (see Tour
7).
Here is a junction with State 157 (see Tour 7).
At the northern end of MATTAWAMKEAG (alt. 212, Mattawamkeag
Town, pop. 461) (see Tour 4), 138 m., is a junction with US 2 (see
Tour 4).
TOUR 7 : From MED WAY to GREENVILLE, 95 m., State
157 and unnumbered road.
Via Millinocket, Katahdin State Game Preserve, Sourdnahunk Depot Camp,
Ripogenus Dam, Kokadjo, and Lily Bay.
Road partly macadamized, partly graveled. Narrow woods road in middle
section not recommended in wet weather. Private road with gates (open 6-6)
between Sourdnahunk and Ripogenus Dam; permit from Great Northern
Paper Company required at Bangor to cross dam.
Accommodations scarce; telephones for fire service only; 50 miles between gas
pumps.
THIS route runs through several paper-making towns, and as a mere lane
penetrates the heart of Maine's great North Woods, traversing 100 miles
of unbroken forest with little sign of human habitation. It crosses the
Katahdin State Game Preserve, above which looms Mount Katahdin,
Maine's highest peak, crosses Ripogenus Dam, and skirts the south-
eastern shores of Moosehead Lake.
MED WAY (alt. 280, Medway Town, pop. 406) (see Tour 6), 0 m., is at a
junction with State 11 (see Tour 6).
At EAST MILLINOCKET (alt. 340, East Millinocket Town, pop. 1593),
2.6 m., the forest comes almost to the back doors of the small houses. The
community grew up rapidly in 1907, when the dam and mill of the Great
Northern Paper Company were completed. The economic existence of
the population, about half of which is French-Canadian, depends upon
the paper mill.
MILLINOCKET (alt. 359, Millinocket Town, pop. 5830), 12.3 m., the
easternmost settlement of importance on the route, became a boom town
in 1899-1900 with the building of the Great Northern Paper Company
Newsprint Plant, which has become one of the largest mills of its kind in
the United States. It produces 620 tons of newsprint paper and 25 tons of
312 High Roads and Low Roads
wrapper paper in addition to 540 tons of ground wood and 200 tons of
sulphurized pulp every 24 hours.
The town differs from many others in Maine in that it did not grow from a
handful of early settlers, but sprang up overnight in answer to a labor
need. Because of the advantages of manufacturing near the source of raw
material, the Great Northern built its plant on the Penobscot River at
a place where a 141 -foot head of water-power furnishes abundant energy.
The company established and operates a hotel, financed homes for the
workers and their families, and constructed roads connecting Millinocket
with the outside world; it likewise saw to it that stores were opened,
schools built, and a government established. A year after the completion
of the mill in 1900, the area was set off from Indian Township No. 3 and
incorporated.
At 19.6 m. the route crosses the eastern boundary of Unorganized Town-
ship No. i, Range 9; although without a name, this area is not without
population during the summer months. Many residents of Millinocket
have built summer homes on the shores of Millinocket Lake (R). Black Cat
Mountain (L) is the most prominent feature of the landscape.
At 23.8 m. the route crosses the southern boundary of Unorganized Town-
ship No. 2, Range 9. Lakes in this area include Pockwockamus Pond at
the western base of Trout Mountain (alt. 1440), and Bottle Pond to the
south; Rum, Tea, Mink, and Rat Ponds drain through a boggy area into
Togue Pond.
At 27.7 m. the route swings left.
At 30.2 m. the route swings right to a narrow, winding road to pass Abol
Pond (R) at the foot of Abol Mountain (alt. 2306).
The southwestern boundary of the Katahdin State Game Preserve (no hunt-
ing permitted] is crossed at 32.8 m. This reservation covers Township 3,
Ranges 9 and 10, and Township 4, Ranges 9 and 10, and includes Baxter
State Park, in which is Mt. Katahdin (alt. 5267), the highest peak in
Maine. In the game preserve are other peaks — North Brother (alt. 4143),
South Brother (alt. 3951), Owl (alt. 3736), Fort (alt. 3861), and several
lower ones. The 144 square miles of wilderness, containing heavy forests
and numerous streams and ponds, is an ideal breeding ground for the
moose, deer, bear, and smaller animals that make northern Maine one of
the outstanding hunting grounds in the eastern part of the United States.
Numerous trails and wood roads cross the area, but it is inadvisable for
those unacquainted with the country to follow them without a guide.
Baxter State Park is reached by the Hunt and Abol Trails (see below; also
Sports and Recreation), and by the Appalachian Mountain Club Trail
from Stacy ville (see Tour 6). The area, containing 9 square miles, was
set aside for public use in 1931-33 by Percival P. Baxter, Governor of
Maine, 1921-25, to be kept unspoiled and unexploited.
Mt. Katahdin (Ind.: 'highest land,' or 'high place') has had particular
attraction for many people, in part because of its grandeur and in part be-
cause of its wilderness setting. Thoreau, who hated community life and
TOUR 7: From Medway to Greenville 313
the spoliation of natural charms, was one of the first to write at length
about the mountain. He described it as 'a vast aggregation of loose rocks,
as if at some time it had rained rocks, and they lay as they fell on the
mountains, nowhere fairly at rest, but leaning on each other, all rocking-
stones, with cavities between, but scarcely any soil or smoother shelf.'
It is this formation that makes it one of the most difficult peaks to climb
in the East. So far as is known, Charles Potter, a Boston surveyor, who
managed to reach the top in 1804, was the first white man to stand on the
summit. Forty- two years later, Thoreau wrote of the view from that
point : ' The surrounding world looked as if a huge mirror had been shat-
tered, and glittering bits thrown on the grass.'
The mountain always had a special fascination for the Indians, who wove
many stories about it. According to one of them, the home of the Moun-
tain King and his lovely but dangerous daughter Lightning was within it ;
they were served by the Thunders, fierce, giant warriors. Kinaldo, the
hero, fell in love with the Mountain King's daughter, after having seen
her beautiful face on the storm clouds, and left his tribe to seek her. At
last he found her in the terrible depths, and she, returning his love,
prevailed on her father to hold a great feast for him in his hall; during the
feast she gave Kinaldo a potion that made him forget his former life. For
a time they lived happily together, but one night he was wakened from his
sleep by the tears of his favorite sister Winona, who had not ceased to
pray for his return. Both the king and the mountain princess tried to
prevent his leaving, but he persisted. At last the king gave him permission
to go, but angrily warned him that those who had tasted the wine of
Katahdin could no longer live long among men. Lightning bade her lover
farewell, saying, ' Go, but tomorrow at sunset I come and thou wilt not
forsake me.' Kinaldo made his way down over the rocks and at length
reached his home village ; he thought he had been away only a short time,
but he found many changes had taken place and Winona was already
a woman. In spite of his joy over seeing his friends and kinsfolk again,
he was restless and uneasy. As evening came a storm began to gather
over Katahdin and he heard the mutter of the Thunders, which did not
add to his peace of mind. The Thunders came closer and a terror seized
him; but suddenly he saw his loved one among the thunderheads. A
blinding streak of lightning seemed to reach out and seize Kinaldo.
When the storm cleared, Katahdin was bathed in glittering light and the
dead warrior lay as asleep at the foot of the mountain.
Another story, a favorite of the Abnaki women, was of a girl who loved
the mountain, imagining that it was a strong, handsome young man and
praying that he would some day come to her. One day she went blueberry
picking alone and failed to return; three years later she came into camp
with a beautiful baby boy in her arms, who was marked by eyebrows of
stone. Despite the gossip of the village, she gave no explanation of her
absence and would not name the father of her child. The boy grew in
beauty and stature and gradually the village people discovered that he had
miraculous power; if he pointed his finger at bird, fish, or animal, it cUed.
314 High Roads and Low Roads
He rarely exercised this power, however, until one terrible winter when
there was little game and what there was was fleet and hard to kill. The
miracles of hunting accomplished by the small boy set the tongues
wagging afresh; night and day the women, old and young, teased the
mother and such was their curiosity about the boy that they forgot how
much they owed to his prowess and made insinuations about his paternity.
Tired and angered by their cruelty and ingratitude, the mother at last
burst forth : ' Fools, your folly kills you ! You must have known from his
eyebrows that this was Katahdin's son, sent to save you.' And she took
her god-child and departed forever; from that time on the Abnakis were a
doomed race, the white men stealing their hunting grounds and in time
exterminating them.
At 33.6 m. (R) is the entrance to the Abol Trail (see Sports and Recreation}.
At 37.4 m. (R) Hunt Trail (see Sports and Recreation) begins at Camp Bax-
ter (camp site).
At 46.2 m. stands the Sourdnahunk Depot Camp of the Great Northern
Paper Company. In summer the large number of horses pastured here,
grazing and resting, are the only indication of the great lumbering activ-
ities of the region. The method of lumbering has been modernized, but
tractors and other machinery have not entirely replaced horses.
At 58 m. the route crosses the eastern boundary of Unorganized Town-
ship No. 3, Range 12, and swings south.
At 59.3 m. is the Ripogenus Dam, 92 feet high, across the head of the deep
Ripogenus Gorge. Although recent construction in various parts of the
country has vastly exceeded this water storage in size, at the time it was
built (1915-17) Ripogenus was hailed as a great engineering feat. It stores
between 20 and 30 million cubic feet of water, which is released into the
West Branch of the Penobscot River.
At 59.8 m. is the gate to the private road of the Great Northern Paper
Company.
At 63.6 m. the route crosses the southeastern boundary of Unorganized
Township No. 3, Range 12, near the deadwater of Chesuncook Lake (R);
weathered driki, densely packed, rises in masses above its surface.
There are fine views up the lake, which extends 18 miles to the north.
After a long stretch of woods the highway passes the southern end of
Ragged Lake; due west is a splendid view of craggy Spencer Mountain
(alt. 3035).
At 76.5 m. is the southern gate to the Great Northern's private road
through the big woods.
KOKADJO (Ind.: 'Kettle Mountain') (Unorganized Township of
French town, pop. 10), 81.3 w.., has a boarding-house and filling station.
A large sign reads: 'This is God's country — Why set it on fire and make
it look like hell? ' In this township is First Kokadjo Lake, 6 miles long.
LILY BAY (alt. 1040; Unorganized Township of Lily Bay, pop. 5),
87.9 m., has a lumberman's hotel, and a filling station.
TOUR 8: From West Enfield to Bingham 315
South of Lily Bay the route borders the southeastern shore of Moosehead
Lake (see Tour 9).
At 89.2 m. the route enters Gore A, No. 2. Forest-garbed Baker Mountain
(alt. 3589) rises above the eastern part of the township and Prong Pond
forms a blue patch on the southern boundary.
GREENVILLE (alt. 1040, Greenville Town, pop. 1614) (see Tour 9), 95
m., is at the junction with State 15 (see Tour 9). The East Branch
(Penobscot River) and Allagash River Canoe Trips (see Sports and
Recreation: Canoeing) have their starting-point at Greenville.
TOUR 8 : From WEST ENFIELD to BINGHAM, 81.1 m.,
State 11, State 155, and State 16.
Via Rowland, Milo, Dover-Foxcroft, Guilford, and Kingsbury.
Good blacktop roadbed, with a short stretch of gravel through Kingsbury.
THIS route through woods and fields follows the winding course of the
Piscataquis River, passing broad, tranquil ponds and large, prosperous
farms extending to the outskirts of trim little towns.
The people of this section enjoy a comparatively steady, comfortable
living, free from sudden booms and deep depression. Lumbering was
begun here after the reckless boom period that left depleted forests and
dead mill towns in its wake : production, now on a scientific basis, is kept
at a constant level, thus providing regular employment.
WEST ENFIELD (alt. 140, Enfield Town, pop. 1138), 0 m. (see Tour 4),
is at a junction with US 2 (see Tour 4).
HOWLAND (alt. 150, Howland Town, pop. 1605), 1.4 m., entered from
the east over a bridge spanning the Penobscot River, is an industrial and
agricultural village at the confluence of the Penobscot and Piscataquis
Rivers. Settled in 1818, it has grown up around large paper mills; cor-
poration-owned houses are characteristic. In spring the rivers rise sud-
denly and the swirling waters toss logs and pulpwood high into the air.
Many log jams result from this spectacular display.
LAGRANGE (alt. 310, LaGrange Town, pop. 468), 14.1 m., lies in a fertile
farming country, well adapted to cultivation. Since LaGrange was first
settled, about 1823, the inhabitants have depended upon the soil for their
livelihood, farm properties being handed down from one generation to
another.
At LaGrange the route turns right on State 155.
BO YD LAKE (alt. 287, Orneville Town, pop. 284), 17.3 m. A few houses
316 High Roads and Low Roads
grouped on the highway at the point nearest the lake constitute this little
settlement. This obscure town was once the home of the Maxim family,
two sons of which played a not insignificant part in the destiny of mankind.
Hudson Maxim, brother of Sir Hiram Maxim, machine-gun inventor,
was born here in 1853. He was an inventor in his own right. Smokeless
cannon powder, a shock-proof high explosive for guns of large caliber,
gun cartridges, and a new system for discharging high explosives from
ordnance were among his contributions. He was paid $50,000 by the U.S.
Government for his production of 'Maximite,' an explosive fifty per cent
more powerful than dynamite, that could propel a projectile through
heavy armor plate.
He was also deeply interested in the technique and scope of poetry. He
published a weighty volume, ' The Science of Poetry and the Philosophy
of Language.' Although, like his brother, he resided in England for many
years, he was a frequent visitor to the United States. On one visit he was
guest of honor of the Poetry Society of America; his remarks on that
occasion are recalled for their scientific erudition.
For the first 18 years of his life he was known as Isaac, having been named
for his father, who was also an inventor. Disliking the name, he had him-
self called Hudson.
MILO (alt. 295, Milo Town, pop. 2910), 25.3 m., an industrial, com-
mercial, and farming community, stands at a point where the Sebec
River forms a junction with the Piscataquis, the combined waters
furnishing power for several manufacturing concerns. With the estab-
lishment of a large spool mill in 1901, and the building of the Bangor and
Aroostook Railroad car shops in 1905 at Derby (see below), the population
of the town more than doubled between 1900 and 1910.
The American Thread Company (permit at office), employing nearly 400
people in full time, uses many cords of white birch in the manufacture of
spools and box snooks. Other products manufactured in Milo are
worsted yarn, and paper and excelsior made from the wood of poplar trees.
In towns like Milo, set in a heavily wooded area, the populace is in
constant dread of that menace of the timberlands, the forest fire. Know-
ing that entire townships as well as thousands of acres of valuable timber
may be laid waste, every able-bodied man, woman, and child springs into
action when the first shrill scream of the fire siren pierces the hum of the
mills. A moment's delay and the flames, leaping from undergrowth to
treetops, may be caught by the wind and fanned quickly into a blistering,
roaring inferno, hurtling through the resinous upper branches of the ever-
greens. Flames sometimes leap 30 feet into the black pall of smoke hang-
ing above the crackling treetops.
As the trees crash to earth in a shower of flames and flying sparks, blazing
embers are caught up on a current of acrid smoke and borne far in ad-
vance of the fire. Where each spark falls, a new blaze springs up, and in an
incredibly short time the fire has reached conflagration proportions.
Every means, from bucket brigades to backfiring, is employed to prevent
such disasters.
TOUR 8: From West Enfield to Bingham 317
Here is a junction with State 221 (see Tour 8A).
1. Right from Milo on an improved road is Schoodic Lake, 8.3 m., site of the
former village of Lakeview where the American Thread Company once operated a
spool mill. The view of the lake, noted for its trout fishing, is exceptional, with
Mt. Katahdin looming darkly in the background.
2. Left from Milo on a tarred road is DERBY (alt. 280, Milo Town), 1.6 m. The
large Car Shops (not open) of the Bangor and Aroostook Railroad are the center of
this community. The entire village is well landscaped with lawns and shrubbery
around the plant, in front of residences and in the small parks receiving exacting
care from company gardeners. The corporation houses are both comfortable and
distinctive, and a playground with tennis courts and swimming pool has also been
built by the railroad. This modern village, including marked and numbered park-
ing spaces, is a surprising example of a planned municipality 'way up in Maine.'
SEBEC CORNER (alt. 440, Sebec Town, pop. 357), 31.7 m.
DOVER-FOXCROFT (alt. 330, Dover-Foxcroft Town, pop. 3742), 40 m.
This enterprising mill town is made up of Foxcrof t on the north side of the
picturesque Piscataquis River and Dover on the south. The two com-
munities, settled and developed separately, became one town in 1922.
The water-power of the river is utilized in the manufacture of woolen
goods in two mills owned and operated by the American Woolen Com-
pany which employs most of the population.
Dover-Foxcroft was the home of John Francis Sprague (1848-1926),
prominent in historical research in Maine. Many Maine schools use his
' Journal of Maine History ' as a standard authority. His writings appear
among the collections of the Maine Historical Society (see PORTLAND),
and among his published works are 'Sebastian Rasle,' 'Backwoods
Sketches,' 'The Northeastern Boundary Controversy,' and 'The Aroos-
took War.'
Mrs. Lillian M. N. Stevens (1844-1914), president of the Women's
Christian Temperance Union from 1898 until the time of her death, was
born in Dover. She was instrumental in forming both the national and
State organizations, and was likewise president of the latter from 1877 on.
John Colby Weston, first Maine man to enlist in the Civil War, was a
native of Foxcroft.
Here is a junction with State 7 (see Tour 9).
At 40.6 m. is the junction with State 153.
Right on State 153 to Sebec Lake, 4.5 m., popular for salmon, lake trout, and bass
fishing.
At 47.4 m. is the junction with State 24.
Left on State 24 is SANGERVILLE (alt. 440, Sangerville Town, pop. 1225), 0.5
m., a manufacturing and agricultural village, the birthplace of Hiram, later
Sir Hiram, Maxim (1840-1916), the inventor of the machine gun which bears his
name. At the age of 14 he started out to make his fortune, first by working in a
carriage shop, then in the shop of a maker of 'philosophical instruments' in Boston,
later in a shop in Montreal, Canada. He then turned his attention to applied
science, and invented a smokeless powder, an automatic gas headlight for loco-
motives, a gas-generating apparatus, automatic steam pump, vacuum pumps,
feed-valve heaters, engine governors, and many other devices.
31 8 High Roads and Low Roads
In 1881 certain of his electric patents were put into 'interference' with Edison's,
and in four trials, decisions were in Maxim's favor. The Maxim gun was com-
pleted only after he had acquired a fortune from other inventions following the
establishment of his own factory in England. In the course of time the Prince of
Wales (Edward VII) and other members of the nobility became convinced that the
device was practicable. After a demonstration in Switzerland, the government of
that country gave him an order, with Italy, Austria, and then England following
suit. The gun with which he gave his demonstration in England is now in South
Kensington Museum.
In the United States the gun was not accepted until the war with Spain (1898). It
was used by many nations during the World War. Factories in Spain, Portugal,
Sweden, England, and the United States were owned by Maxim for the manu-
facturing of a torpedo boat which he also designed. For his contributions to
effective warfare, the inventor received honors and decorations from nearly every
sovereign of Europe. He spent a great part of his life in England and was knighted
by the British Government in 1901.
GUILFORD (alt. 430, Guilford Town, pop. 1735), 48.7 m., spreading on
both sides of the Piscataquis River, is an active industrial town chiefly
engaged in the manufacture of woolens and wood products.
In 1803, a handful of men settled in what is now known as Guilford with
'a determination to admit on their part no person as a settler who was
not industrious, orderly, moral, and well-disposed.' In 1806, the men
residing in the township living so harmoniously together were called ' the
seven wise men of Guilford.'
ABBOT (alt. 450, Abbot Town, pop. 524), 53.1 m., is at junction with
State 15 (see Tour 9).
KINGSBURY (alt. 520, Kingsbury Plantation, pop. 50), 66.3 m. This
tiny village at the east end of Kingsbury Pond, guarded by an archway
of tall pines, is engaged in lumbering operations in winter and is a small
fishing resort in summer. For 50 years after Moosehead Lake became a
sporting center in 1836, mail was brought south over Russell Mountain by
pack-carrier to the Kingsbury Post Office.
At 78.4 m. the highway passes over a section of Johnson Mountain (alt.
1620), with a fine panoramic view of the Bigelow Range and the broad
Kennebec River in the foreground.
BINGHAM (alt. 355, Bingham Town, pop. 1590) (see Tour 10), 81.1 m.,
is at a junction with US 201 (see Tour 10).
TOUR 8 A : From MILO to KATAHDIN IRON WORKS,
20.5 m.t State 221 and unnumbered road.
Via Brownville.
Tarred roadbed to Brownville Junction; wide gravel to airport; then one-lane
gravel road.
Accommodations include, besides a small hotel at Brownville Junction, sporting
camps reached by buckboard or hiking from Katahdin Iron Works where
reservations can be made and transportation arranged by telephone.
THIS route reaches a heretofore inaccessible hunting and fishing country.
At 0 m. State 221 branches north from Milo (see Tour 8).
BROWNVILLE (alt. 350, Brownville Town, pop. 1911), 5 m., lies on
both sides of Pleasant River near a dam.
On the far bank of the river north of the village, and visible from the high-
way, are long heaps of slate that show where quarrying was done until 20
years ago. Brownville slate won first prize at the 1876 Centennial Ex-
position in Philadelphia as the finest roofing slate in the country.
At 6.1 m. (L) is the Maine Forest Station of the Pleasant River District.
At 8.6 m. is the junction with a tarred road.
Left here to BROWNVILLE JUNCTION (alt. 390, Brownville Town), 0.5 m.,
which has a small hotel and the farthest north gas station on this road.
At 14.2 m. (R) is Brownville Prairie Airport.
At 14.7 m. the highway crosses a bridge of unusual construction. The
floor consists of a long log on each side spanning the stream, with shorter
logs fastened crosswise to them by rather loosely tied wire cable. Under-
neath is another cross-tied group of logs.
Towering pines of great beauty crowd close to the road north of the rolling
log bridge ; shorter hardwood and conifers, spruce predominating, mingle
with the pines.
KATAHDIN IRON WORKS (alt. 580, Unorganized Township of
Katahdin Iron Works, pop. 42), 20.5 m. A deposit of bog iron ore, a
variety of hematite, was discovered about 1843 in the northern part of this
town at the foot of Ore Mountain, and the development of the mine and
the construction of the smelting mill were started. The property has
changed hands several times. Because of lack of shipping facilities little
work has been done in recent years.
Other valuable mineral deposits, including pigments and copper, can be
mined but not profitably, because of the inaccessibility of the area. A
large deposit of asbestos, said to be of excellent quality, has been surveyed
but no attempt has been made to mine it.
32O High Roads and Low Roads
Some of the old buildings of the Iron Works at the southern end of Silver
Lake are now used as base headquarters in the lumbering operations of
the Pleasant River Lumber Company.
The Gulf, also known as Little Jaws and the Grand Canyon of the East, on
Pleasant River, is about 4 miles northwest; it cannot be visited except by
trail. Houston Pond and Indian Pond are visited by canoes and trails.
Little Wilson and Pleasant Rivers, noted for their beautiful waterfalls
and cascades, canyons, deep gorges, and rugged profiles, are easily acces-
sible by marked woodland trails. Trout fishing in the various waters is
excellent.
TOUR 9 : From WATERVILLE to CANADIAN LINE (St.
Zacharie, P.Q.\ 168.9 m., State 11, State 7, and State 15.
Via Benton, Pittsfield, Newport, Dover-Foxcroft, Greenville, Rockwood, and
Pittston Farm.
Cement and tarred roadbed between Fairfield and Greenville; gravel and im-
proved between Greenville and Rockwood; improved private road of Great
Northern Paper Company between Rockwood and Canadian Line.
No filling stations and only fire-patrol telephones northwest of Rockwood;
limited accommodations in same area.
THE southern section of this route runs through a country in which
farming, quarrying, and some manufacturing are carried on. North of
Greenville the route skirts the western side of Moosehead Lake, then runs
through the broad forest lands owned by the Great Northern Paper
Company, the scene of lumbering operations in winter.
WATERVILLE (alt. 95, pop. 15,454) (see WATERVILLE), 0 m., a point
touched on the Lower Kennebec Waters and Belgrade Lakes Canoe Trips
(see Sports and Recreation: Canoeing), is at the junction of US 201
(see Tour 10). Between Waterville and Fairfield US 201 and State 11
are one route.
State 11 branches east from US 201 (see Tour 10) at FAIRFIELD, 2.9 m.
At BENTON (alt. 130, Benton Town, pop. 1156), 3.4 m., the highway
swings northeast.
At 5 m. is the junction with an improved road.
Right on this road, which follows the eastern bank of the Sebasticook River, is
BENTON FALLS (alt. 130, Benton Town), 1 m., the oldest village in the area.
. The David Reed House (L), an inn of the post-road days, though vacant, is in a fair
state of repair. The ell, which contains a kitchen with an old-fashioned brick oven,
was built in 1813, a few years before the present two-storied main structure, which
is square with a gabled roof. In the early days this place was a welcome sight to the
TOUR 9: From Waterville to St. Zacharie 321
tired and thirsty travelers in the sparsely settled region. During the periods of
militia training, the tavern was headquarters for the out-of-town men, who met at
the bar to exchange gossip, elect officers, and conduct initiation ceremonies.
The Asher Hinds House (private), next to the Reed House, was built in 1830 by
Hinds, a storekeeper who had been an early settler and was of some importance in
local politics. The one-and-a-half-story house, an unusually attractive structure
for the region and period in which it was built, has a recessed doorway.
The Congregational Church, built more than a century ago, contains a fine bell said
to IDC the last sold from the Revere foundry in Massachusetts. This heavy bell,
which had been brought by schooner from Boston without mishap, while being
transferred to a scow for the last few miles of the journey, slipped off the planks
into the river, where it lay for several days, to the distress of the settlers who had
made considerable investment in this crowning glory for their church. The im-
mersion did it no harm, however, and its tone is clear and mellow.
CLINTON (alt. 140, Clinton Town, pop. 1354), 9.2 m., has a woolen mill
and a refrigerator factory.
BURNHAM (alt. 155, Burnham Town, pop. 664), 14.6 m., is on the
Maine Central R.R. at the junction with the western terminus of the
Belfast and Moosehead Lake R.R.
Right from Burnham on a good local road to WINNECOOK, 4 m., small summer
resort overlooking Unity Pond. The No. i fairway of the Golf Course (greens fee $1)
parallels an Abnaki Indian migration trail; part of the hazard of No. 6 fairway is a
large meteor.
PITTSFIELD (alt. 210, Pittsfield Town, pop'. 3075), 21.7 m., busy trad-
ing place for the surrounding agricultural section, includes among its
local industries a small woolen mill, a shoddy mill, and a shoe factory.
Maine Central Institute (L), South Main St., was founded in 1869, and its
first class had one member. It is a college preparatory institution.
Llewellyn Powers, Governor of Maine from 1897 to 1901, Carl E. Milliken,
Governor from 1917 to 1921, and Hugh Pendexter (1875), poet and novel-
ist, were born in this town.
NEWPORT (alt. 200, Newport Town, pop. 1731) (see Tour 4), 29.2 m., is
at a junction with US 2 (see Tour 4). State 11 north of this point is united
with State 7.
Governor Lewis O. Barrows (1937- ) is a native of Newport.
CORINNA (alt. 350, Corinna Town, pop. 1485), 35.6 m.,'a compact
settlement with two woolen mills, a small lumber mill, and a cannery, is
the birthplace (1866) of Gilbert Patten, who, under the nom de plume
Bert L. Standish, wrote the Frank Merriwell series of boys' books.
The route swings north on State 7 at Corinna.
DEXTER (alt. 480, Dexter Town, pop. 4063), 43.5 m., an industrial
community, lies on a hillside sloping down to the southern shore of
Wassookeag Lake.
Dexter is the birthplace of Ralph 0. Brewster, U.S. Representative
(J935~ ) and Maine's 5ist governor (1925-28).
Wassookeag School (R), on High St., a private college preparatory institu-
tion using modern teaching methods, has one teacher for every three
pupils.
322 High Roads and Low Roads
The Amos Abbott Company Mill (open to public), opened in 1820, has re-
mained under the management of the same family for four generations.
It was built in the wilderness when machinery and supplies were brought
from Boston to Bangor in sailing vessels and then hauled by ox teams
over rough logging roads to this place.
Between DOVER-FOXCROFT (alt. 330, Dover-Foxcroft Town, pop.
3742) (see Tour 8), 56.8 m., and ABBOT (alt. 450, Abbot Town, pop.
524), 69.2 m.} State 15 and State 16 are one route (see Tour 8). The route
swings left in Dover-Foxcroft and at Abbot State 15 turns right.
On State 15 is MONSON (Monson Town, pop. 1181), 76.6 m. Dense
woods encircle this village perched high on a slate ridge, its hillsides cut by
deep, slate-walled quarries, in which for 70 years the pit method of
quarrying was carried on. The shaft method, operating with compressed
air, has been used for the past five years. The ridge under the town, and
for miles north, has a base of slate of the finest quality. Exhaustive ex-
periments have demonstrated that the slate, because of its small mineral
content, is better than any other for use in the manufacture of electrical
goods.
Many brooks and streams near Monson afford excellent trout fishing.
At 83.1 m. is the junction with an improved road.
Left on this road is SHIRLEY MILLS (alt. noo, Shirley Town, pop. 197), 2 m.,
the birthplace of Bill Nye, the humorist, who was born in 1850 and christened
Edgar Wilson Nye. His family moved to Wisconsin three years later. From about
1878 until his death in 1896 his amusing letters and whimsical comments on the
social and political life of the times gained him nation-wide fame. He traveled
extensively through the United States, Canada, and Europe as a lecturer. The
house in which he was born has burned; the site of the house is south of the post
office.
GREENVILLE (alt. 1040, Greenville Town, pop. 1614), 90.5 m., where
guides are available, is the sporting center for the southern antler of the
Moosehead region. Fishing, hunting, camping, canoeing, and mountain
climbing (see Sports and Recreation) are the sports for which the settle-
ment acts as a starting-point and supply base.
The village has hotels, sportsmen's camps, overnight cabins, and tenting
space (cap. 2000, reservations essential), is on the Canadian Pacific and
Bangor and Aroostook R.R.s, and has steamboat service (variable
schedule, apply at wharf) to all points on Moosehead Lake.
Moosehead Lake (see also Sports and Recreation), greatest of all New
England lakes, cuts through the almost trackless wilderness for a stretch
of about 35 miles, hemmed by rugged mountains and flanked by the
virgin forest. It is from i to nearly 20 miles in width, with a shore line of
about 350 miles, and lies 1028 feet above the sea. The air is particularly
invigorating. Since the first lake steamer was launched in 1836, it has
been a famous recreational center. Many visitors have been enthusiastic
about this primitive country; the poet, Whittier, wrote 'To a Pine Tree'
after he had visited Moosehead and its forests.
In the center of the lake Mount Kineo (see below), an abrupt peak of
TOUR 9 : From Waterville to St. Zacharie 323
flint, rises out of the deep waters. North of Kineo the lake is bordered by a
plateau of densely covered wild land. Below Kineo the southern shore is
dominated by Lily Bay, Baker, and Big and Little Squaw Mountains.
Near the middle of the lower bay are the 2200 wooded acres of Deer
Island and the sprawling expanse of Sugar Island.
Moosehead is a breeding ground of squaretailed trout, salmon, and
togue ; as the fishing season draws to its close, the bright scarlet of hunters'
caps are but little brighter than the flaming autumn leaves dropping into
the water along the shore, for Moosehead is as renowned for its plentiful
game as for the excellence of its fishing.
GREENVILLE JUNCTION (Greenville Town), 92.3 m., is the meeting
point of the Canadian Pacific and Bangor and Aroostook R.R.s; it is on
the southern shore of Moosehead Lake.
UNORGANIZED TOWNSHIP NO. 2, RANGE 6 (alt. 1600), 95.7 m.,
with a hotel and camps (guides available), is commonly called Big Squaw
Township and embraces an area of primitive beauty, in which some
lumbering is carried on. The hotel and camps are headquarters for
hunters and fishermen.
Big Squaw Mountain (alt. 3267), the chief landmark of the township, rises
above the southern antler of Moosehead. There is an Indian legend that
long ago Kineo, a great warrier of such bad disposition that he constantly
quarreled with his fellow tribesmen and eventually left them to sulk, in
time reached the mountain that now bears his name, rising between the
two antlers of the lake. There he took up his abode, hunting each day in
the neighboring forests, but always returning at night to his mountain.
Resentment against the tribesmen who had scorned him increased as he
grew more lonely. One evening as he sat looking down over the black
waters of the lake he saw a bright blade of flame on what is now called
Squaw Mountain; the next day he started south to investigate it secretly.
Arriving at the summit at dusk, he found the embers of the fire and be-
side it his exhausted old mother, who had followed him to bring him back
to his kinsmen; as she died she begged him to return. Kineo buried her
by her fire and, grief stricken because he had been the cause of her death,
obeyed her request. Since then, the Indians have called the mountain by
the name it now bears officially.
At 98.7 m. (L) is a State Fish Hatchery (open), where, in more than 3 miles
of runs and breeding pools, hundreds of thousands of landlocked salmon
(salmo Sebago) are annually raised for distribution in various fishing
waters.
UNORGANIZED TOWNSHIP NO. i, RANGE 7 (alt. 1050, pop. 5),
entered at 107.4 m., is commonly called Sapling. Numerous small streams
mirroring the delicate tracery of white and yellow birch,vand affording
excellent fishing, cut through this heavily wooded township on the
western shore of Moosehead Lake and the banks of the Kennebec River.
MISERY GORE (alt. 1500), 110 w., an unpopulated area 25 miles long
and less than 0.5 mile wide at its widest point, is a sliver of land left by
324 High Roads and Low Roads
corrections of early surveys of township boundaries; it is not included in
any township.
The southeastern boundary of UNORGANIZED TOWNSHIP OF
ASKWITH (alt. 1400, pop. 56) is crossed at 110.6 m. ; the area is popularly
called West Outlet, but is also known as Taunton and Raynham. This
township is renowned for its hunting and fishing, much game being found
in the vast expanse of timber land, and the clear streams offering unusual
opportunities for fishing. The west outlet of Moosehead Lake here forms
the northern boundary of a State Game Preserve (no hunting allowed)
which extends south through two townships to Squaw Brook.
ROCKWOOD (alt. 1050, Unorganized Township of Rockwood, pop.
315), 115.1 m., sometimes known as Kineo Station, with hotels, camps,
and cottages, has steamer service (variable schedule, apply at wharf) to
points on Moosehead Lake (see above), on whose western shore the village
lies. Just north of the settlement the road follows the shore of the lake,
with excellent views to the north.
Across the lake which at this point is only about i mile wide, Mount Kineo
(alt. 1806) thrusts itself above the waters and far-flung forests of the lake's
eastern shores. This mountain, a round peninsula connected with the
mainland by a narrow neck, is composed of flint. At the foot, broken
and incomplete stone implements from early Indian workshops have been
found. Many of the New England tribes came here for flint and it is be-
lieved that this mountain was also the source of the iron pyrites used by
the Red Paint People (see Earliest Inhabitants) for fire stones.
At its southern base, on the lake shore, is the Kineo House, long a favorite
with sportsmen and with lovers of primitive lake and mountain scenery.
The UNORGANIZED TOWNSHIP OF TOMHEGAN is entered at
118.2 m.; it lies between Moosehead and Brassua (bras'-a-wa) Lakes, in
both of which are excellent fishing. Game abounds throughout the area,
though hunters must not enter the State Game Preserve to the south.
At 138.6 m. is a junction with a gravel road.
Right on this road, which follows the southern shore of Seboomook Lake, much of
which is dead water, to SEBOOMOOK (Unorganized Township of Seboomook,
pop. 24), 10 m., a tiny, buried settlement of guides and woodsmen on the extreme
northern shore of Moosehead Lake (see above).
From Seboomook extends the 3-mile Northwest Carry to the Penobscot River
(West Branch), a terminal of the Allagash River Canoe Trip (see Sports and
Recreation: Canoeing).
Pittston Farm, 139.6 m., surrounded by broad fertile fields, at a junction
of the northern and southern branches of the Penobscot River, holds a
collection of large, white buildings; it is one of the several isolated farms
maintained by the Great Northern Paper Company for the care of horses
in summer and the raising of produce to supply logging camps during
winter lumbering activities.
At 140.2 m. is the junction with a local road.
Left on this road to the deep-cut (40 feet) Canada Falls, 2 m.; about i mile north of
the falls, along a trail, is Grand Pitch, another waterfall,
TOUR 10: From Brunswick to Quebec 325
At 149.5 m. is the entrance to a trail.
Right on this trail 6 m. to the Green Mountain Fire Station from which is a fine
view over the great level plateau, a vast expanse of forest land and dead water.
At 152 m. is a Log Storehouse and Stable of the Great Northern Paper
Company.
At 153.1 m. is the junction with a local road.
Left on this road is Penobscot Lake, 5 m., a forest-rimmed sheet of black water,
across whose surface echo the calls of waterfowl and woods birds.
DOLE (Township 3, Range 5), 153.6 m., with a residence and supply base
of the Great Northern Paper Company, is almost buried in the dreary
stretches of swamp land covering a considerable part of the township.
Around Dole Pond, Long Pond, and Penobscot Lake, the forest struggles
against the dead water overflow.
Boundary Cottage, 168.9 m. (R), 5 miles southeast of St. Zacharie, Que.,
is a customs office, near the entrance to a private road (open 7-8) of the
Great Northern Paper Company, and is a headquarters for wood crews
during the winter.
The mills and headquarters of the Great Northern Paper Company are
at Millinocket and East Millinocket; the company conducts lumbering
operations in all parts of the north country, and is particularly active in
this section. When a cutting operation is started, tote roads are laid out
through the forest for the transportation of the logs to the nearest point of
shipment. These roads are simply slashes through the forest with the
stumps often left in the ground. Snow covers the stumps and rough base
in winter, packing down to a smooth sledding surface. Horses and oxen
provided the early hauling power, but of late years tractors have been used
in their stead.
TOUR 10: From BRUNSWICK to CANADIAN LINE
(Quebec, P.Q.), 168.4 m., US 201.
Via Topsham, Gardiner, Hallowell, Augusta, Vassalboro, Winslow, Waterville,
Fairfield, Skowhegan, Norridgewock, Madison, Anson, Bingham, Jackman, and
Moose River.
Two-lane, hard-surfaced road-bed; in winter often impassable north of Madison.
BEAUTIFUL river scenery characterizes the southern part of the route
which follows the course of the Kennebec, past several power plants, then
on through lumbering regions and fish and game country. Historic as well
as scenic, the route also offers diversion at inland resorts.
BRUNSWICK (alt. 30, Brunswick Town, pop. 7604) (see BRUNS-
WICK), 0 m., is at a junction with US 1 (see Tour 1, sec. a).
326 High Roads and Low Roads
TOPSHAM (alt. 50, Topsham Town, pop. 2111), 1.1 m., settled in 1730,
rises above the Androscoggin River just before it empties into Merry-
meeting Bay. Its history and industrial development is closely associated
with that of Brunswick (see BRUNSWICK).
The Aldrich House (about 1800) (private], 26 Elm St., one of the master-
pieces of the local builder, Samuel Melcher, has an unusually beautiful
doorway.
Right from Topsham on State 24, to a fork at 0.7 m.\ right here to Merrymeeting
Bay, Qm.,a, favorite resort of duck hunters. Great numbers of wild fowl stop here
on their long migratory flights in the spring and fall (see Sports and Recreation:
Hunting).
At 21.5 m. (R) is Peacock Tavern, a square frame two-story building, built
about 1 790 and still offering accommodations to travelers.
GARDINER (alt. 90, pop. 5609), 25.9 m. By a series of land grants under
a system whereby the proprietor retained 500 out of every 900 acres of
land, Dr. Sylvester Gardiner (1708-86), for whom the city is named,
came into possession of 100,000 acres of land in the Kennebec country and
applied himself with great zeal to its settlement and development as a
feudal manor. He meant to give ownership of every foot of ground for
miles around to his descendants, which would have made it possible for
them to regulate the community as they chose; this dream was shattered
by the Revolution.
Gardiner developed through the years, however, and by 1850 had become
an industrial city. Shoe factories, paper mills, and woodworking estab-
lishments lie along Maine Ave. and Bridge and Water Sts., while the
residential district covers the hills rising from the flat land along the
Kennebec, and Cobbossee Stream. The area also developed culturally,
contributing substantially to the world of letters (see The Arts). Shortly
after his birth at Head Tide, Edwin Arlington Robinson (1869-1935)
came with his family to Gardiner. A quiet boy, outstanding, it seemed,
only for the brilliance of his great brown eyes, he lived and worked here,
except for a short period given to study at Harvard, until his middle
twenties, when he went to New York City. Robinson's ' Tilbury Town ' is
Gardiner and in his poems he has portrayed many of the village scenes and
characters. In the fall of 1936 his admirers erected a simple Granite
Monument on the corner of the Green to his memory.
Among other Gardiner authors is Mrs. Laura E. Richards, who at eighty-
seven is still actively at work, her published works numbering more than
seventy novels, biographies, and collections of poems and short stories.
Several of her novels have Maine settings and characters; her 'Captain
January' was made into a motion picture in 1936.
Kate Vannah (Letitia Katherine Vannah), prominent in literary and
musical circles, is among the artists who have made their homes in
Gardiner.
Oakland's (private), at the southern end of Dresden Ave., is the country
home of former Governor William Tudor Gardiner, a direct descendant
TOUR 10: From Brunswick to Quebec 327
of Dr. Sylvester Gardiner. The somewhat grim, ivy-clad, 45-room granite
structure is suggestive of an English manor of the Tudor period. The
estate, one of the finest in Maine, extends along the Kennebec River.
In Gardiner is a junction with State 27 (see Tour 12).
FARMINGDALE (alt. 80, Farmingdale Town, pop. 1044), 26.9 m.
HALLOWELL (alt. no, pop. 2675), 30.1 m., legally a city in spite of its
small population, is in a natural amphitheater formed by hills facing a
bend in the Kennebec River. Its charm is not apparent from the high-
way.
Settled in 1754, it was named for Benjamin Hallowell, one of the pro-
prietors of the Kennebec Purchase, who with Dr. Sylvester Gardiner
(see above) owned the contiguous tracts of land now occupied by the cities
of Gardiner and Hallowell. The city appears to have withdrawn from the
waterfront at its feet where ships and wharves once clustered along the
river, and streets were alive with traffic and commerce. Today industrial
life is limited to the operation of two shoe factories and a few lesser
establishments.
The Vaughan Mansion (private), at the southern end of Second St., a
large, square two-story structure in spacious grounds, was the home of
Dr. Benjamin Vaughan (1751-1836) who came to live here in 1797 and
was influential in Hallowell's early commercial and cultural development.
The Smoking Pine, a huge tree on the southern bank of Vaughan's
Stream, is said to give off a thin vapor under certain atmospheric condi-
tions. It was Indian tradition that Assonimo's pipe of peace would
continue to smoke so long as the Bombahook continued to flow into the
Kennebec.
Old Hallowell Academy, Middle St., now a primary school, was the
Academy at Hallowell Hook, the second institution of its kind to be
established in the District of Maine (1791).
Worster House, a yellow-brick building on the corner of Second and
Winthrop S ts. , is a hostelry built in 1 83 2 . Its guests have included William
Lloyd Garrison, President James Polk, Horace Greeley, Ralph Waldo
Emerson, and Daniel Webster.
The Hubbard House (private), 52 Winthrop St., a neat one-and-a-half-
story frame structure built in 1830, was the home of Dr. John Hubbard,
Governor of Maine 1850-53. An attractive doorway with mullioned side-
lights gives entrance to an interior preserved as it was in the doctor's day.
Left from Hallowell on Winthrop St. to the State School for Girls, 0.7 m. (R). In
1871 nearly a thousand Portland women petitioned the legislature to make
provision for the reform of young female delinquents; a private association was in-
corporated to administer the proposed institution for which, in 1872, Mrs. Mary
H. Flagg offered $100,000 in money and Mrs. Almira C. Dummer contributed land.
The first building was erected in 1875, and in 1899 the school was placed wholly
under State control.
Hallowell Granite Quarries, 2.5 m. (L), which now produce paving blocks, have
produced granite of exceptional quality which has been used in many public build-
328 High Roads and Low Roads
ings throughout the country. Hallowell granite is clear gray with a minimum of
mica; it bears black tourmaline pinpoint markings.
AUGUSTA (alt. 120, pop. 17,198) (see AUGUSTA), 32.3 m., is at the
junction of State 27 (see Tour 12), State 9, and State 11 (see Tour 13),
and State 17 (see Tour 17).
At 40.8 m. (R) is the Birthplace of Holman F. Day (1865-1935), poet and
author. ' Up in Maine,' ' Pine Tree Ballads,' and ' King Spruce ' are among
his works.
VASSALBORO (alt. 120, Vassalborough Town, pop. 1815), 43.7 m.,
settled about 1750 by immigrants from Cape Cod, was chiefly populated
after 1780 by Quakers from New York.
Oak Grove Seminary (R), easily recognized by its castle-like main build-
ings, was established about 1844 by members of the Society of Friends
and is still directed by Quakers. On the 330-acre campus, which over-
looks Kennebec River from a hill, is the Natanis Wild Life Sanctuary,
named for the Indian portrayed in Kenneth Roberts' novel 'Arundel.'
In 1933, France awarded a medal to the school, now a college preparatory
institution for girls, for the excellence of its French department.
WINSLOW (alt. 100, Winslow Town, pop. 3917), 50.1 m., on the eastern
bank of the Kennebec at its confluence with the Sebasticook River is
closely connected industrially and historically with Waterville (see
WATERY I LLE) across the river.
The Lithgow House, north of the public library on Lithgow St., was built
by Captain William Lithgow, first commandant of Fort Halifax (see
below), and has been occupied constantly since 1754.
The Blockhouse (L), on the north bank of the Sebasticook River is all that
remains of Fort Halifax, which was erected in 1754 by order of Governor
Shirley of Massachusetts as the last in a series of defenses built along the
Kennebec during the French and Indian Wars. No evidence has been
found of its having been attacked by Indians, or the French. Two years
before the close of the war, Captain William Lithgow (see above} was in
command with a force of 130 men. Captain Ezekiel Pattee followed
Lithgow as commander, and after the Peace of Paris in 1762, the fort was
abandoned.
This structure, like others of its time, was designed in the manner of the
old English forts. A stockade formed a square enclosure, in the south-
western and northeastern corners of which stood blockhouses; a row of
barracks extended along the eastern side and there was a sentry box at the
southeastern corner. The officers' quarters, a storehouse, and armory
were housed in a two-story building with dormer windows, which ex-
tended east from the northeast corner. Two small blockhouses stood on
the hill at the rear of the fort; both were enclosed by stockades, and one
overlooked Ticonic Falls on the Kennebec.
The remaining weather-beaten blockhouse, built of hand-hewn timbers
fastened together with wooden dowels, is typical of such structures used
TOUR 10: From Brunswick to Quebec 329
during the Indian wars. The upper story, with musket and lookout holes,
overhangs the lower one, thus enabling the defenders to fire through the
loopholes before the enemy could reach the door to force it in or get close
enough to set the blockhouse on fire.
Winslow is within the boundaries of a former large village of the Ticon-
nets, and many Indian relics were unearthed on the western bank of the
Sebasticook before the land was inundated in the building of Fort
Halifax Dam.
In Fort Hill Cemetery, Halifax St., which dates from 1772, is the Grave of
Richard Thomas, an early settler, who wrote the epitaph for his own
gravestone :
'A Whig of seventy-six
By occupation a cooper
Now food for worms like
An old rum puncheon
Marked, numbered, and shocked
He will be raised again
And finished by his creator.'
Another epitaph in this plot reads:
' Here lies one Wood,
Encased in wood.
One Wood within another.
The outer wood is very good,
We cannot praise the other.'
From a Red Paint Cemetery, near the Fred A. Lancaster mill on Clinton
Ave., have been taken ancient artifacts, including a number of finely
finished hexagonal slate spearheads, a spearpoint of banded stone, and a
large number of sheet-copper beads.
The large buildings (R), on the bank of the river are the Hollingsworth
Whitney Company Mills (permit at office}, manufacturing wood pulp and
paper.
Ticonic Falls (R), which furnishes water-power for the mills, is visible
from the bridge.
The highway here crosses to the western bank of the Kennebec.
WATERVILLE (alt. 95, pop. 15,454) (see WATERVILLE),51.5 m.,is
at a junction with State 11 (see Tour 9), which is united with US 201 be-
tween this point and Fairfield.
FAIRFIELD (alt. 115, Fairfield Town, pop. 5329), 54.3 m., a manufactur-
ing center of pulp, pulp-fiber products, and woolens, stretches along the
west side of the Kennebec River. Here, in 1774, a few hardy pioneers
settled iii what was then a vast wilderness, paving the way for the busy
industrial town of neat homes which long since have supplanted the first
rude cabins.
One-half mile north of the business section, on the river bank, is a Granite
Seat indicating the spot where Benedict Arnold and his men (see Tour 11)
landed to repair their boats.
330 High Roads and Low Roads
The Keyes House (private) (L), built in 1905, is probably the most fan-
tastic architectural structure to be found along the route. Its turreted
central section resembles the Castel Sant' Angelo at Rome, with turret
and walls on either side crenelated in the manner of a medieval castle. It
was formerly the home of Martin L. Keyes, founder of the Keyes Fibre
Company.
State 11 branches right here (see Tour 9).
At 55.6 m. (L) is the entrance to the Central Maine Sanatorium, estab-
lished in 1915 for the treatment of persons with advanced tubercular in-
fections.
At 61.3 m. (L) is Good Will Farm (open weekdays), founded in 1889 by the
Reverend George W. Hinckley. This institution has a three-quarter-
million-dollar endowment, and receives no State aid. Its 40 buildings
spread over 2600 acres, providing a home for deserving boys and girls
from 9 to 20 years of age. In addition to receiving the usual secondary
education, Good Will boys and girls help to operate the institution and
are trained in various manual occupations.
Good Will Museum contains collections of minerals, flora and fauna,
Indian relics and Red Paint artifacts, old and curious farm implements,
and Colonial furniture.
At 69.1 m. is the junction with US 2, on the southern outskirts of Skow-
hegan (see Tour 4), and State 147 (see Tour 4), an alternate and shorter
route between this point and Solon (see below). From this junction point
US 2 and US 201, united, swing west, following the western bank of the
Kennebec.
NORRIDGEWOCK (alt. 190, Norridgewock Town, pop. 1478) (see Tour
4), 74.4 m., is at a junction with US 2 (see Tour 4), which here branches
west.
At 75 m. is a junction with a dirt road.
Right here to Danforth Tavern (private), 0.1 m. (L), a large frame structure painted
yellow with green blinds. Built in 1807, it has undergone little alteration. Its hewn
timbers are still held together with hand-wrought nails. There are more than 30
rooms and 1 2 fireplaces. A long central hall on the first floor has an arched ceiling.
Sophie May House, 75.1 m. (L), a red-brick structure with white columns,
now a tourist home, was built in 1845 by Cullen Sawtelle (U.S. Rep-
resentative 1845-47; 1849-51). It was the home of Rebecca Clarke
(Sophie May) and Sarah Clarke (Penn Shirley), well-known 19th-cen-
tury writers of juvenile stories. One of the most attractive homes in the
vicinity, it has remained unaltered except for the redecoration of the walls
and the remodeling of the kitchen. The hall has a graceful staircase with
hand-carved ornamentation. The false floor in the attic, leaving a five-
foot air space, is unusual in this State.
At 80.7 m. (L) about 100 yards from the road, is the Father Rasle Memorial
(see below), an 1 8-foot granite obelisk, erected 1833.
At 81.1 m. is the entrance (L) to Old Point. Here, in a beautiful pine
OLD HOUSES AND
OLD CHURCHES
EARLY Maine residents, when they could afford it, lavished
their wealth freely on their buildings, but they were governed
by an artistic restraint in so doing which was as much a part of
their way of living as it was an esthetic ideal. The Lady Pep-
oerell Mansion and 'Montpelier,' the reproduction of General
Knox's Thomaston manor house, are examples of the very
best in Colonial design. 'Montpelier,' inspired by Jefferson's
'Monticello,' is perhaps exceptional in its elegance, but both
houses reflect a style and a society, that of the time im-
mediately preceding the Revolutionary War, which is almost
as significant as was ante-bellum feudal magnificence in the
South. Churches, too, reflected the social ideal, and they
stand today, more than do the great houses perhaps, as re-
minders of the period when even utilitarian structures were
made to be lovely and when to create beauty was an enduring
way of worship.
Good living and well-designed building were not limited to
wealthy individuals and communities, however. Such hos-
telries as Burnham Tavern are today not at all uncommon in
the State, and such fine simplicity as that of the Surry Church
may be found in any little town in Maine.
CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH
KENNEBUNKPORT
SECOND PARISH UNITARIAN
CHURCH, SACO
if TT i
LADY PEPPERELL MANSION AT KITTERY POINT
CHURCH AT PHIPPSBURG
McINTIRE GARRISON HOUSE, YORK
SWINGING SIGN OF BURNHAM TAVERN, MACHIAS
BURNHAM TAVERN, MACHIAS
ANDREW HOMESTEAD, SOUTH WINDHAM
FIRST PARISH UNITARIAN CHURCH, KENNEBUNK
WHITE CHURCH NEAR SURRY
I! I 111 111
i mi
I
MONTPELIER, THOMASTON
TOUR 10: From Brunswick to Quebec 331
grove, is a public camping ground (picnic tables, stone fireplace, spring
water}.
This broad level stretch of land is the site of the Abnaki Indian village,
Nanrantsouak, or Norridgewock. It lies on the Kennebec-Chaudiere
River route, long used by the Indians traveling between Maine and the
Quebec region. As early as 1633, when the English were struggling to
settle along the coast, Capuchin missionaries from Chaleur Bay were
coming up the Kennebec River. After their visits to this section, the
Norridgewock Indians asked the Jesuit mission in Canada for missionaries.
By the middle of the iyth century the Jesuits had made numerous friends
among their converts in the Quebec area, and the help they gave the
Indians in various ways had gained them a wide reputation as desir-
able friends; as a result of reports of Abnakis who had come in contact
with them at Quebec, they were invited to establish a mission at Nan-
rantsouak. Father Gabriel Druillettes undertook the task in 1646, leaving
Quebec with some Abnakis, who led him up the Chaudiere and down the
Kennebec to the village, where he remained a few months and built a
chapel. Later he went down the Kennebec to visit the Capuchin mission
at Castine, stopping at the present Augusta, where he met John Winslow,
the Pilgrim trader; Winslow, often alone with the Indians and in need of
friendly relations with them, had gradually developed a friendly interest
in them, and he and Father Druillettes had earnest discussions on the
possibilities of converting them all to Christianity and civilization. The
Jesuit returned to Canada in 1647.
At this time the leaders of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, determined to
ignore the quarrels between Great Britain and France, which were harm-
ful to business, were making overtures to the authorities at Quebec for a
free-trade agreement. The French-Canadians, also bored by European
quarrels, were prepared to make the agreement and hoped to form an
alliance with the Massachusetts colonists against the militant Iroquois.
Because the Abnakis surrounding the Pilgrim post on the Kennebec were
the spiritual charges of Father Druillettes, he was selected to conduct the
negotiations; he set out over his former route in September, 1650. After
visiting Nanrantsouak he continued to Winslow's post, where he ar-
ranged to have Winslow accompany him to Plymouth and Boston. His
negotiations there were not successful, in part, perhaps because the tight-
fisted colonists did not see any particular reason for spending hard-
earned money to help protect the Canadians from a menace that did not
at the time worry them. He returned to take up his work among the
Abnakis with whom he lived until 1657.
Several well-known Jesuits were stationed here at one time or another,
including Father Joseph Aubry and Father Sebastian Rasle; the latter
was in charge from 1691 until 1724. Father Rasle brought ornaments and
vessels from Quebec for the Indian chapel, made candles for it from bay-
berries, and trained a choir of 40 young Indians, whom he dressed in
garments of the type used in French Catholic churches.
In 1701, the English authorities ordered the French missionaries to leave.
332 High Roads and Low Roads
Colonel Winthrop Hilton's expedition went to Norridgewock in 1704-05,
and burned all the church property. Father Rasle used a temporary bark
chapel during the construction of a new church, which was not completed
until 1718. During this period he broke both legs and was taken by canoe
to Canada. On his return he learned a price had been set on his head. In
1722, Captain John Harmon and 200 men swooped down on the village
while the warriors were hunting. The partly crippled priest and the old
men of the camp hid while the party pillaged the church and the priest's
dwelling, carrying off the dictionary of the Abnaki language on which
Father Rasle had been working for years. Two years later Father Rasle
met his death at the hands of a force under Captain Jeremiah Moulton
who pillaged and burned the village. Finding themselves continually
attacked, the Norridgewocks left, part of them going to Canada, many
joining the Penobscots at Old Town.
Benedict Arnold on his Quebec expedition of 1775 (see Tour 11) followed
in reverse the route down which came Father Druillettes in 1646. He and
his men spent nearly a week at Old Point, preparing for the carry around
Norridgewock Falls, about a mile north of Old Point. At the time of his
visit all that remained of the settlement were ruins of an old Indian fort,
a chapel, an old grave surmounted by a cross, and a covered passageway
to the river.
According to a legend, Waban (' the morning ') , son of a great chief and the
first Norridgewock, was born at Old Point. Waban taught his people
much, gave them food in abundance, cleared their streams and paths, and
was kind to all creatures of the forest and stream. Although fierce and
brave, he spared the birds, talked the language of all wild things of the
woods, and became the greatest chieftain of them all. So great was his
power that he did not die, but walked through the forest to the Great
Spirit, and continued to clear the paths of his people for many genera-
tions.
MADISON (alt. 290, Madison Town, pop. 3956), 82.7 m., named for
President James Madison, is a manufacturing town, its chief products
textiles and paper. The industrial development of the town did not begin
until 1875, though Sylvanus Sawyer, first settler, cleared land near Old
Point in 1773.
ANSON (alt. 290, Anson Town, pop. 2237), 83.1 m., is a residential dis-
trict for employees of the woolen and paper mills at Madison, directly
across the Kennebec.
NORTH ANSON (alt. 295, Anson Town), 87.7 m. The route crosses the
bridge over the Carrabassett River here, with views of the Falls (L) and
the rocky river bed. The rocks, chiefly of slate schist, have been strangely
carved by the water's action.
SOLON (alt. 395, Solon Town, pop. 852), 95.4 m., is at the junction
with State 147, a short-cut (see above) between this point and Skowhegan
(see Tour 4).
Left from Solon on a gravel road to the railroad station, 0.4 m., beyond which (200
TOUR 10: From Brunswick to Quebec 333
yards south) is Caratunk Falls, best viewed from the railroad bridge spanning the
river. Extending V-shaped for 30 or 40 yards on either side of a point of land under
the bridge, the falls drop 36 feet, sending up a cloud of spray and mist as the waters
strike the jagged rocks below.
On the eastern bank of the river below the falls, an old road runs a few hundred
yards to Arnold's Landing. Here in a quiet little cove, on a ledge near the water's
edge, is an Arnold Trail Marker, surmounted by a flagstaff, with a tablet com-
memorating this as the spot where Benedict Arnold and his army landed October 7,
1775, remaining overnight prior to the carry around Caratunk Falls.
BINGHAM (alt. 355, Bingham Town, pop. 1590), 103.6 m., is now
generally identified with Wyman Dam (see below), which has caused a
complete economic change in the town since its completion in 1931.
Although the workmen that were here in the construction days have left,
business activity is still on the upswing with the influx of tourists, who
come each year to view the dam.
Bingham was first settled in 1785. The Bingham Purchase (see Tour 1,
sec. c) was made up of two tracts of land, each of 1,000,000 acres, secured
by William Bingham, a wealthy and influential Philadelphia banker in
1786, when the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, holding title to most of
the unsettled land in Maine, undertook to dispose of a large area in the
eastern part of the Province by lottery. Mr. Bingham drew several
townships and bought others. General Henry Knox (see Tour 1, sec. b),
already a large proprietor by reason of his acquisition of the remainder of
the Waldo Patent, had secured a contract for a large piece of Maine's
wild land, but his duties as Secretary of War under President Washing-
ton required his full attention, and he turned the contract over to Bing-
ham, who had been active in financial matters during the Revolutionary
War. This resulted in the purchase of the second Bingham tract.
At Bingham is a junction with State 16 (see Tour 8).
At 104.9 m. (L) is the combination earth-fill and concrete Wyman Dam,
with a hydro-electric plant. The dam raises the level of the river 135 feet
and has a total storage of eight billion cubic feet of water. The dam, 155
feet high and 2250 feet long, has created an artificial lake which provides
water storage for the headwaters of the Kennebec, including Moosehead
and Brassua Lakes, Indian Pond, and various other small bodies of water.
The dam was completed after a two-year construction period by the
Central Maine Power Company, and was named in honor of the com-
pany's president, Walter Scott Wyman.
At 113.7 m. a boulder with a tablet is the northernmost Arnold Trail
Marker in the Kennebec section, and indicates the spot near which
Benedict Arnold (see Tour 11) left the Kennebec River in October, 1775.
The boulder, originally standing on the river bank, was moved to this
point when the waters of artificial Wyman Lake flooded the lower slopes.
CARATUNK (Ind. :' rough and broken ') (alt. 560, Caratunk Plantation,
pop. 169), 118.6 m., lies near the Kennebec River not far from Moxie
Mountain (alt. 2925). Near Caratunk the road runs close to the Kennebec
River, with steep slopes covered with large boulders rising (R) above.
(Beware of falling rocks.)
334 High Roads and Low Roads
THE FORKS (alt. 576, The Forks Plantation, pop. 136), 126.3 m., is at
the confluence of the Dead and Kennebec Rivers. A quantity of red
ocher (see Earliest Inhabitants) was found in this vicinity in 1935 when
stone was blasted away for road construction. In the rocks were found
two small openings leading into caves, which contained small quantities of
the pigment; when the caves were further opened up, a pit holding great
quantities of the material was found.
The Upper Kennebec Waters Canoe Trip (see Sports and Recreation:
Canoeing) touches at The Forks.
Right from The Forks on a dirt road to Lake Moxie and Mosquito Mountain (alt.
2230), 5 m.
At 129.1 m. (L) is an old tote (lumber) road, unfit for motor travel, leading
to Spencer Stream, Spencer Lake, and the Dead River region, a popular
hunting and fishing area 15 miles distant (see Sports and Recreation).
At 137.3 m. an entrance marker indicates a foot trail.
Left on this trail to a fire warden's house, 2.5 m., from which a steep trail leads to
the Fire Lookout Station (open), on Coburn Mountain (alt. 3718). From the tower
can be seen lakes and mountains to the north and west.
The Parlin Pond Camps, 141 m. (R), are the largest in this area on the
main route where accommodations are widely scattered.
At 151.2 m. US 201 passes over Owl's Head Mountain (alt. 2380).
JACKMAN (alt. 1170, Jackman Plantation, pop. 1094), 152.3 m., on the
shore of Wood Pond, reaches its peak of activity as a resort center in the
fall during the hunting season; in the winter it is a busy supply center for
the lumber industry.
The U.S. Immigration Station (must be visited by every person entering from
Canada), is just north of the tracks of the Canadian Pacific R.R.
Jackman is one of the terminals of the Attean Lake Canoe Trip (see
Sports and Recreation. Canoeing)-.
MOOSE RIVER (alt. 1170, Moose River Plantation, pop. 277), 154.6 m.
First settled in 1820 by Captain Samuel Holden, Moose River today has
but one inn, Holden House, built in 1842 and now owned by one of the
Captain's descendants. In the past many cattle were driven through here
on their way from Boston to Quebec, and the drivers looked forward to a
stop at this inn; it is now popular with lumberjacks.
At some distance from the highway, on either side, lumbering operations
are in progress, though not as extensively as some years ago. Once operating
in this region were the rugged, lusty lumberjacks who were supposed to
' sleep in trees and even eat hay if sprinkled with whiskey.' These were the
woodsmen who never took off their red flannels from the time they hit camp
in the fall until they came out in the spring; who never shaved; who
chewed great hunks of tobacco, could spit 15 feet into a head wind and hit
the mark, and roll off a lusty hair-raising stream of profanity.
Horse-play, stunts, story- telling, and singing of such chanteys as 'Little
Brown Bull' constituted the social life of the old boys who sometimes
TOUR 10: From Brunswick to Quebec 335
worked in the snow to their armpits, and who could stand upright on a
rolling log in midstream as few can today.
Each spring the lumberjacks left camp and swaggered into the quiet
villages to show the outside world what he-men were. They yelled for
strong liquor and swore they'd leave no maid along the Kennebec. There
were fights a-plenty, gory and bloody; when a man wore the imprints of
a lumberjack's calked shoes, he was marked for life as a fighter.
Real ' bean-hole beans' were important in the 'feed' of lumber camps.
Pots full of pork and beans were kept all night over rocks placed in the
ground and brought to white heat. These were eaten with biscuits made
by the camp cook or cookee who rose or fell on the quality of his output.
Lumbering today is no longer a pioneer adventure; it is an organized
industry. Tractors, hauling logs over well-built roads, have replaced the
oxen. Modern machinery has decreased employment. The keen spirit of
competition has gone from the river drivers who once prided themselves
on their strength, speed, and agility. Theirs was the job of following the
drive of logs down the rivers to untangle the jams. Crawling across the
logs in their calked boots until the key log was found and loosened, and
then making their way back to shore as the logs started again, was no feat
for the timid.
The lumberjack now lives more comfortably and the vigorous lumber-
camp days are over. Even tobacco chewing is rare, for cigarettes, which
formerly marked the user as worse than dandified, are preferred. White
crockery, instead of tin plates and iron forks, is on the table, and the radio
has replaced the fights and howling choruses that were the entertainment
of the past. The camps, formerly as barren of femininity as a man-of-war,
now furnish quite comfortable homes for women and children.
At 157.1 m. is a free camp site.
At 158.3 m. is the U.S. Customs Office (all automobiles entering from
Canada must stop for inspection}. From here is obtained the northern-
most view of the chain of lakes that stretches through Jackman to
Moosehead Lake.
At 168.4 m. US 201 crosses the International Boundary, 93 miles south-
east of Quebec, Canada. The two Line Houses, serving food and liquid
refreshments, were among the popular borderline resorts in motoring
weather during Prohibition days, liquor being served in the Canadian
half of the buildings.
TOUR 11: From NEW HAMPSHIRE LINE (Dover) to
CANADIAN BOUNDARY (Quebec), 218 m., State 4.
Via S. Berwick, N. Berwick, Sanford, Alfred, Gorham, S. Windham, Gray,
Auburn, Turner, Farmington, Rangeley, Eustis, and Arnold Pond.
Two-lane macadamized road-bed between the New Hampshire Line and
Rangeley; graveled and narrow dirt road-bed between Rangeley and the
Canadian Boundary, not recommended in wet weather.
Accommodations scarce north of Rangeley.
STATE 4, roughly spanning the southwestern part of the State in a
roundabout course, offers a wide range of scenery. The southern section
traverses attractive villages having many old houses set on broad lawns;
the northern section runs through the forested hills of the Rangeley
Lake country, providing the chief highway approach to that popular
hunting, fishing, and canoeing area. For a few miles the highway follows
the route used by Benedict Arnold and his men on their unfortunate
march to Quebec in 1775. North of Eustis the narrow road breaks
through the wilderness relieved infrequently by camp sites.
State 4 crosses the New Hampshire Line, 0 m., 3.7 miles east of Dover,
N.H.
SOUTH BERWICK (alt. no, South Berwick Town, pop. 2650), 0.6 m.,
is an attractive old village near the home of Gladys Hasty Carroll, con-
temporary novelist, who uses New England as the locale of her stories.
A dramatization of her novel, ' As the Earth Turns' (1933), is presented
in summer by the townspeople.
The Sarah Orne Jewett House (open in summer, adm. 25fi, NE. cor. Main
and Portland Sts., built about 1780 by John Haggins, is now owned by
the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities, to whom it
was bequeathed by Miss Jewett's nephew, Dr. Theodore Eastman.
Several years after the house was erected, it was purchased by Captain
Theodore Jewett, Miss Jewett's grandfather. This two-and-a-half-story
clapboarded house with dormer windows is notable for its well-propor-
tioned Doric portico and fine raised-panel door. The portico, with fluted
columns that are reeded in the lower third and have simple stone block
bases, is topped with a classic entablature and pediment. The door has
dark louvered shutters and is framed with a delicately moulded and fluted
architrave. It is probable that the portico was added in the early part of
the i gth century.
From the center hall, considered one of the most beautiful in New
England, rises a staircase of particularly fine design and detail; the raked
dado on the stair wall is noteworthy. A large window of fine flowered
glass illuminates the landing.
TOUR 11: From Dover to Quebec 337
Books and folios fill the finely furnished library; old engravings, minia-
tures, carved ivory, and old silver ornament the parlor; old glass and rich
dark mahogany fill the dining-room; and fine old willowware lines the
cupboards of the kitchen, which has an open fireplace and rows of old
kettles and pots. Four bedrooms, containing old mahogany four-posters
with testers and valances, open off the upper hall. In the guest room, a
narrow door opens into a hidden staircase that winds from cellar to attic.
In Sarah Orne Jewett's room is the low desk on which a number of her
books were written.
Sarah Orne Jewett was born in this house on September 3, 1849. Her
greatest pleasure as a child came from accompanying her father, a
country physician, on his rounds which took him into many remote farm
homes. As the child sat in rural kitchens, while her father helped to bring
babies into the world and tried to keep men, women, and children from
leaving it, she saw much homely drama and tragedy, and heard many
stories of the past; and as she and her father jogged along the back roads
he talked with her constantly, telling her what he had learned in schools
and elsewhere. Miss Jewett early began to write stories, her first being
published in the Atlantic Monthly when she was only 20 years old. Eight
years later, her first novel, 'Deephaven,' really a collection of episodes
centering about one person, was published. 'A Country Doctor,' in which
she portrayed her father's experiences, appeared in 1884, and her best-
known volume, 'The Country of the Pointed Firs,' in 1896. In 1901,
'The Tory Lover,' a story of Berwick during the Revolution, brought her
increased popularity and the degree of Doctor of Letters from Bowdoin
College, her father's alma mater, the first honor conferred by that institu-
tion upon a woman. Miss Jewett's popularity was based on warmly
sympathetic and often humorous portrayals of common people, which
first appeared at a time when most writers of fiction were busy with
scenes and people alien to the average citizen. Sarah Orne Jewett died
at South Berwick, June 24, 1909.
On Portland St., just north of the Jewett House, is the Eastman Commu-
nity House (open), which at times was occupied by Miss Jewett; it also
was bequeathed by her nephew to the Society for the Preservation of
New England Antiquities.
Right from South Berwick on Academy St. to Berwick Academy, 0.4 m. (L), one of
the oldest preparatory schools in Maine. Its charter, granted by the General Court
of Massachusetts, bears the signature, among others, of John Hancock. Samuel
Moody, the first master of the academy, was paid an annual salary of £60, with the
addition of sixpence a week for each pupil. The school, co-educational since 1828,
now has about 150 pupils.
At 2.1 m. (R) is the unoccupied Simpson House, a large, plain two-story structure,
believed to be one of the oldest houses in Maine.
On the opposite side of the road is the Goodwin House (private), a large two-and-a-
half-story structure that was the home of General Ichabod Goodwin, commander
of the Berwick company during the Revolutionary War. At one time a band of
thieves lived in the near-by Negutaquit Woods. A favorite local folktale tells how
the General left for church one Sunday morning with an admonition to his small
daughter, who was remaining at home with a servant, to be courteous to any guests
High Roads and Low Roads
who might arrive during his absence. Shortly after his departure, the thieves ap-
proached, and the child, unaware of their identity and mindful of her father's orders,
importantly assumed her role as hostess and asked the maid to prepare food for
them. The visitors accepted the hospitality without comment, eating their fill;
then they began to collect the family silver and other valuables, packing them in
bundles. The child was puzzled and frightened, torn between a suspicion that some-
thing was wrong and a fear of violating the laws of hospitality; after she had seen
one treasured object after another snatched up, she came forward timidly, offering
her own silver cup as a substitute for her mother's possessions. The leader stared at
her, abruptly told his men to leave the bundles, and led them away. The story is
that sometime afterward, when the thieves had at last been jailed, the General, in
talking with them, asked the leader why he had failed to take anything of value
from the Goodwin home; the answer, according to the old wives, was that he could
not do it after the little one had treated him ' for the first time in his life like a
gentleman.'
The Jonathan Hamilton House (private), also on the left, and reached by a half-
mile curving driveway, is a frame structure with hip roof, dormer windows, and
four large chimneys. This house, in which Admiral John Paul Jones was a frequent
guest, was built in 1788, by Colonel Jonathan Hamilton, and is mentioned in
Sarah Orne Jewett's 'Tory Lover.'
At 2.3 m. (R), is an Old Cemetery, actually a group of family burial places where the
oldest legible inscription is dated 1728.
NORTH BERWICK (alt. 230, North Berwick Town, pop. 1540), 7.3 m.,
is a village with tree-shaded streets and with landscaped lawns surround-
ing substantial old homes, some looking as they did when built and others
remodeled. The town lands, settled shortly after 1630 as part of Kittery,
and later included in the town of Berwick, were in 1831 set off as a
separate unit and incorporated. Furs were dressed here in early days and
the manufacture of plows was begun more than 100 years ago. Plows are
still manufactured here, as are woolens, toboggans, and sleds.
Berwick sponge cake, familiar to many old-time travelers, originated
here. When the railroad was built in 1842, William C. Briggs, a cripple,
set up what he called a 'restorator,' a forerunner of today's station lunch
counter. His wife, a cook of local fame, made a cake of such excellence
that it became known over a wide area by the name of the town. All
trains had a lo-minute stop at North Berwick and passengers would rush
from the cars to the ' restorator ' to buy large portions of the cake. Charles
Dickens, the author, once stopped off to obtain some of the cake for a
little friend accompanying him; she was Katie Smith, later Kate Douglas
Wiggin.
At 12.1 m. (R) is Bauneg Beg Country Club (open May-Nov.; greens fee
$1.50, with member $1; Sat., Sun., holidays, $2) with a g-hole course. The
course lies on the eastern side of Bauneg Beg Pond, a beautiful small body
of water on the shores of which are stands of second-growth pine.
SANFORD (alt. 310, Sanford Town, pop. 13,392), 17.2 m., an industrial
center, lies in the Mousam River Valley near the foothills of the White
Mountains. The town, first known as Phillipstown in honor of Major
William Phillips of Boston, original proprietor of land in this vicinity, was
incorporated in 1768 and named for Major Phillips' stepson, Peleg San-
ford, Governor of Rhode Island (1680-83).
TOUR 11: From Dover to Quebec 339
Although the first mill was built in 1739, it was in 1867 that the town's real
industrial development began with the establishment of a factory for the
manufacture of carriage robes and kersey blankets.
The Goodall Worsted Company Factory (open), High St., manufactures
Palm Beach cloth.
The Sanford Mills (open), High St., manufacturing mohair-plush fabrics,
supply a large part of the automobile upholstery used in the United
States.
Many of the residents of Sanford are descendants of early English im-
migrants, and some are French-Canadians who came in the last few
decades to work in the mills and the two shoe factories.
Left from Sanford on State 109 is SPRING VALE (alt. 320, Sanford Town), 2 m., a
village occupied chiefly by people employed in the Sanford mills.
Nasson College for Women, near the corner of Main and Oak Sts., was established
as a vocational school for girls in 1912. It received its charter as a college in 1935,
and confers the degree of Bachelor of Science in secretarial work and domestic
science.
Northwest of Springvale on the northern bank of Mousam River is Indian's Last
Leap, two great boulders jutting out into the river from opposite banks. According
to legend, an early settler, fleeing from a band of Indians led by Chief Nahanda,
jumped from one boulder to the other — a distance of about 20 feet — clearing the
stream in one leap. Chief Nahanda fell short in his leap, and, striking his head
against the cliff, fell into the river and was drowned.
ALFRED (alt. 340, Alfred Town, pop. 883), 21.8 m., is a typical New
England village with quiet streets and dignified houses. The territory
that includes Alfred was acquired in 1664 by Major William Phillips (see
above), who bought a large tract of land from the Indian sagamore, Cap-
tain Sunday. This purchase was not recorded, but another deed signed in
1668 by Captain Sunday and preserved among the court records, con-
veyed 20 square miles of land, between Great and Little Ossipee and the
Saco Rivers, to Francis Small of Kittery in exchange for two large
blankets, two gallons of rum, two pounds of powder, four pounds of
musket balls, 20 strings of beads, and several other articles. Captain
Sunday's signature was the picture of a turtle. The first white settlement
was made in 1764, nearly 100 years later. Alfred was the North Parish of
Sanford until 1794, when it was incorporated, and its Indian name,
Massabesic, changed to the one it now bears, given in honor of Alfred the
Great. With the town of York, the original county seat, Alfred became a
half -shire town in 1802. In 1832 records were removed from York and
Alfred remained the shire town. It developed as a farming and lumbering
community, and has changed little in the past half century.
The Whipping Tree, a large oak (R), on State 4 north of the junction
with State 111, was used between 1800 and 1830 for the public flogging of
certain types of offenders.
The Courthouse (R), cor. of Kennebunk and Main Sts., holds complete
court records from 1636 to the present.
The Holmes House (open), opposite the village green (L), was built in 1802
for John Holmes, one of the first two United States Senators from Maine
34-O High Roads and Low Roads
and chairman of the committee that drafted the State of Maine constitu-
tion. The most interesting feature of the exterior is an iron balustrade
with a design of bows and arrows that rises from the eaves of the house.
Among the traditions regarding this decoration is one that Senator Holmes
had the pattern used to indicate his friendliness toward the Indians;
another that it was his reply to those who believed he had Indian blood in
his veins; and still another that it had romantic significance, the house
having been built for Holmes and his bride.
At 23.5 m.j high on a hill overlooking Shaker Pond, formerly called
Massabesic Lake, is the Institute de Notre Dame, a Catholic school for
boys, housed in the buildings of a former Shaker settlement. For many
years men of the former colony tilled the i5oo-acre farm and cared for its
herd of dairy cows, and the highly respected, primly bonneted ladies built
up a profitable business selling baskets, knitted goods, and other wares.
In 1931, the remaining members of the colony sold their holdings and
joined the Shaker colony at New Gloucester (see Tour 14) . The old build-
ings have been restored and new ones added since the estate came under
the present ownership.
EAST WATERBORO (alt. 290, Waterboro Town, pop. 914), 29.7 m., is
at the junction with State 5 (see Tour 15).
HOLLIS CENTER (alt. 250, Hollis Town, pop. 1034), 34.7 m., was the
home of Freeman Hanson who invented the locomotive turntable, and
Silas G. Smith who invented the locomotive snow plow.
BAR MILLS (alt. 150, Buxton Town, pop. 1574), 37.1 m.
Right from Bar Mills on an unmarked road following the east bank of the Saco
River across the Salmon Falls Bridge to SALMON FALLS (alt. 120), 1.3 m. The
village lies on both sides of the river, about equally divided between the towns of
Hollis and Buxton.
Right from the bridge on the Hollis side is Quillcote, third house (L), for many
years the summer home of Kate Douglas Wiggin (1859-1923), who wrote 'Rebecca
of Sunnybrook Farm,' 'The Birds' Christmas Carol,' and other books popular
among little girls at the beginning of the 2oth century. The property was auctioned
in 1937. Kate Smith, born in Philadelphia, was brought to Hollis as a child; later
her family moved to California, where she became a pioneer in kindergarten work.
In 1881 she married Samuel B. Wiggin and, after his death, George C. Riggs, but
having acquired a literary reputation as Mrs. Wiggin she continued to use that
name. The Quillcote house, a large two-and-a-half-story clapboarded structure
built about 1805, stands well back on a lawn shaded by maples, elms, and apple
trees, its gable end to the street. The wide pine boards were cut on the banks of the
Saco. One of the five bedrooms was known as the 'painted room' because the walls
were decorated by an itinerant young French artist who early in the i9th century
did such work in a number of Salmon Falls homes. Two of the murals, depicting
tropical scenes, were restored a few years ago. This room was occupied by Mrs.
Wiggin's sister, Miss Nora Smith, until her death in 1934.
The old Quillcote barn was transformed into an assembly hall, the interior deco-
rated with autographed pictures of well-known writers and actors who were friends
of Mrs. Wiggin and with drawings illustrating her books. The gilded weathervane
represented a quill pen. The estate, owned by Mrs. Wiggin's niece, was main-
tained by the local Dorcas Society which she founded. Many well-known persons
have lectured and presented entertainments in the hall for the benefit of local
charities and other enterprises,
TOUR 11: From Dover to Quebec 341
South of the bridge is Indian Cellar, a large recess in the steep, rocky bank of the
Saco, from which Indians are said to have attacked enemies passing along the river
in canoes.
At 37.7 m. is the junction with State 112 at Emery Corner.
Right from Emery Corner on State 112 is Tory Hill Meeting-House (1822), 0.5 m.
(R). This fine old white church of simple Georgian-Colonial architecture was
erected on the site of the first frame church (1761). It has a rather high steeple and
square belfry. Because the first pastor, the Reverend Paul Coffin, who came to
Buxton early in the i8th century, was a Royalist as were many of his parishioners,
the section became known as Tory Hill.
This church and the neighborhood provided the locale of Mrs. Wiggin's 'The Old
Peabody Pew,' a dramatization of which is presented here annually in August.
In the churchyard, with its far-reaching view of the Saco Valley and distant White
Mountains, is an imposing Celtic Cross marking the lot in which were buried Mrs.
Wiggin, her second husband, her sister, and her mother. The cross bears the words :
'The song is never ended.'
At 43.6 m. (L) is Narragansett Park where the Gorham Fair is held
annually in August.
GORHAM (alt. 220, Gorham Town, pop. 3035), 44.6 m., first called
Narragansett No. 7, was granted in 1728 to men, or heirs of men, who had
borne arms in the Narragansett War in 1675. The first clearings were
made here by Captain John Phinney, who, with his son, paddled up the
Presumpscot River and settled on Fort Hill (see below} .
The Baxter Museum (open Wed., Sat. afternoons in summer; free), on
South St., contains relics of the Colonial, Revolutionary, Mexican, Civil,
Spanish, and World Wars; it also has some Indian artifacts and a col-
lection of rare coins. The museum, built in 1808, was the home of Percival
P. Baxter, Governor of Maine 1921-24; it was presented to the town by
his father, the Hon. James Phinney Baxter.
Western State Normal School (1805), in the square on a hillside (L), has a
i2-acre campus shaded by many kinds of trees. William Corthell was
principal of the school when it was known as Gorham Academy, and Kate
Douglas Wiggin was at one time a student. Russell Hall (1934), a brick
auditorium and gymnasium, designed in a modified Tudor style, re-
sembles an old fortress.
The Old Brick House (private), 120 Fort Hill Rd., was built in 1773 by
Hugh McLellan and his sons. The bricks were made near-by; the frame-
work is held together with wooden pegs and hand-wrought nails. Many
of the original furnishings have been retained and preserved, including
some Hitchcock chairs. Elijah Kellogg mentioned this home in 'Good
Old Times.'
On Fort Hill (L) is the Site of Fort Gorhamtown, erected in the first half of
the 1 8th century as a defense against Indian attacks; the spot where the
fort stood is marked by a large boulder. The hilltop provides a sweeping
view of distant mountains.
The Smith House (R), on Main St., built in 1765, has been remodeled
into a multiple dwelling. It still has the original raised-panel door and
beautiful staircase; every room is paneled.
342 High Roads and Low Roads
The Crockett- Jewett-Broad House (private), 129 Main St., built in 1765, is a
well-preserved structure with large central chimney, roughly hewn, ex-
posed corner-posts and wide granite entrance steps. The small-paned
attic windows have the original glass and the cellar contains a large rain-
water cistern.
In Gorham is the junction with State 25 (see Tour 19).
SOUTH WINDHAM (alt. 155), 49.1 m., an industrial village, lies in two
townships; the business section and most of the residences are in Gorham
and the two major factories and the post office are in Windham.
On Depot St. is (R) the Birthplace of John Albion Andrew (private),
Governor (1860-66) of Massachusetts; he was born in 1818.
At 49.7 m. is a junction with the River Road.
1. Right on this road to the two buildings (R) of the Stale Reformatory for Men,
1 m., established in 1919.
Horsebeef or Mallison Falls, on the Presumpscot River, in the rear of the reforma-
tory, received the name from an incident that is said to have occurred while the mill
and dam were under construction in 1740. Among the food supplied to the workers
was a barrel of beef, which the men thought to be of a fine quality until the day
the cook produced a pair of horse's hoofs from the bottom of the barrel. The re-
maining meat was dumped into the river.
At 2.6 m. (L), is the Parson Smith House (private), a two-and-a-half-story structure
built in 1764 by the Reverend Peter T. Smith, one of the early settlers. There are
two large chimneys providing a fireplace in every room, the one in the kitchen being
10 feet wide.
The Smith House is on the site of Old Province Fort, built so hastily that the first
church was partly torn down to supply material for it; settlers lived within the
stockade almost constantly between 1744 and 1751, a period in which Indian raids
were frequent. After a few years of peace the raids began again; Ezra Brown,
Ephraim Winship, four other men, and four boys went out to work in Brown's lot;
Brown and Winship, who were at some distance from the others, were fired on and
scalped by a band of 20 Indians led by Chief Poland. Four of the party hurried
back to the settlement for help and in the fighting that followed Poland was killed.
In Smith Cemetery (R) is the John Anderson Tomb (1807). Its door resembles that
of a bank vault and is fastened by a lock, the combination of which is known by
few, if any, now living.
2. Left on the River Road is NEWHALL (alt. 225, Windham Town), 0.5 m. In
1818, two Massachusetts men built a powder mill here by Gambo Falls; they later
sold it to George G. Newhall for whom the settlement was named. The Russian
government, while engaged in the Crimean War, placed huge orders with this mill.
At 52.3 m. (L) is the Friends Meeting-House (1849). Quakers began
settling in this region in 1774.
WINDHAM CENTER (alt. 250, Windham Town, pop. 2076), 53.1 m.,
is a small agricultural community.
FOSTER'S CORNER (alt. 210, Windham Town), 54.2 m., is at a
junction with US 302 (see Tour 18).
GRAY (alt. 310, Gray Town, pop. 1189), 61.5 m., settled in 1762 as New
Boston and incorporated in 1778, has a small, compact business and
residential section, surrounded by well-kept and prosperous farms on
elm-lined highways. Farming and canning have replaced manufacturing
TOUR 11: From Dover to Quebec 343
as the principal means of livelihood here. A woolen mill, one of the first in
the United States, was erected in North Gray about 1770 by Samuel
Mayhall.
Pennell Institute (R), on Main St., opened in 1879 and endowed by Henry
Pennell, now serves the town as a high school.
In Gray is a junction with State 26 (see Tour 14).
At 65.6 m. is a junction with a dirt road.
Right on this road to Opportunity Farm (open to visitors), 1 m., with 260 acres of
land, on a high hill overlooking most of Cumberland County. This home and
school for boys between the ages of 8 and 15, was opened in 1912 and is supported
by public subscription.
UPPER GLOUCESTER (alt. 340, New Gloucester Town, pop. 1866),
69.6 m.j is the center of a township granted to 60 inhabitants of Gloucester,
Mass., in 1736. Eight years later Captain Isaac Eveleth came to advance
the interests of the proprietors, who were offering £10 to one-year settlers,
£20 to two-year settlers, and £30 to three-year settlers. A garrison
erected on the high ground in 1753-54 was used by the settlers for the
following six years.
AUBURN (alt. 210, pop. 18,571) (see AUBURN-LEWISTON), 78 m.,
is at a junction with State 11 (see Tour 13).
At 81.1 m. (L) is Lake Auburn (bathing prohibited; fishing and boating
permitted), a clear, sparkling lake fed by springs that is the water
supply for the cities of Auburn and Lewiston. To guard this from pollu-
tion, the Auburn Water District is steadily taking over adjoining lands.
Along the shores are beautiful birch and maple trees, and an occasional
pine grove. Lake Grove, on the eastern shore, flourished as a resort in
the early iSgo's; families came here by horse-car from the near-by cities
for Sunday picnics or to attend the open-air theater on week days.
Many large fish have been taken from these waters, including landlocked
salmon weighing up to 15 pounds. The 1 2-mile drive around the lake is
picturesque and delightful.
TURNER (alt. 290, Turner Town, pop. 1362), 89.2 m.
Right from Turner on a gravel road is TURNER CENTER (alt. 95, Turner Town),
2 m., which was known for many years for its dairy products.
Leavitt Institute (R) is a small preparatory school.
At 95.4 m. is a junction with State 219.
i. Right on State 219 is NORTH TURNER (alt. 280, Turner Town), 0.4 m.
At HOWE'S CORNER (alt. 407, Turner Town), 3.6 m., exact directions or a guide
should be secured in the general store (R) for the hike to Devil's Den, 5.1 m.
Dungarees and water-proofed shoes are essential in making this trip, as low, boggy
land is crossed en route and the climb up the cave is rough.
The Devil's Den is entered by a low aperture not easily discovered. The climber
must 'inch' his way (R) and (L) over boulders to climb the cave whose four levels
extend deep into a hill around a central passage extending upward 100 feet. When
this place was first discovered some years after the town was settled, it was com-
paratively free of the soil that has since gradually obliterated the outlines of the
different rooms. In the lower rooms there is some seepage that forms ice on the
stone wall even in summer. The wall of the central staircase formed by great boul-
344 High Roads and Low Roads
ders is always damp, while the accumulated soil in the rooms, with the exception of
the lowest level, has a meal-like dryness. The central opening emerges onto the
flat top of a great ledge from which the Androscoggin River, 2 miles east, is visible.
Legends of Indian occupation of these caves are surprisingly lacking, undoubtedly
owing to the fact that the Indians retired from this area before the coming of the
settlers.
2. Left on State 219 to Bear Pond Park (open June 1 to Labor Day; boats for hire)
(R), 1.5 m., an amusement resort in a long pine grove on the southern shore of Bear
Pond. A casino (roller skating), hotel, cottages, and bath-houses are here.
LIVERMORE (alt. 504, Livermore Town, pop. 1113), 98.3 m., is the
corporate center of a farming town of several small villages in a fertile belt
where orcharding and dairying are carried on.
At 99.3 m. is a junction with a wide gravel road.
Right on this road to the Washburn Homestead (private), 3 m., a large two-and-a-
half-story yellow house, built by Israel Washburn, father of seven sons — Israel,
Representative from Maine (1851-61), Governor of Maine (1861-62); William D.,
manufacturer, railroad builder, Representative from Minnesota (1879-85), Senator
from Minnesota (1889-95); Samuel, captain of a Union ship during the Civil War;
Charles, U.S. Minister to Paraguay, and author of a history of that country;
Cadwallader, banker, lumber and flour manufacturer, Representative from Wis-
consin (1855-61 ; 1867-71), major general in the Union Army during the Civil War,
Governor of Wisconsin (1872-74); Elihu, Representative from Illinois (1853-69),
Secretary of State in Grant's Cabinet, U.S. Minister to France (1869-77); and
Algernon, a merchant and banker of note.
LIVERMORE FALLS (alt. 390, Livermore Falls Town, pop. 3148),
106.1 m., is a busy paper-mill settlement and shopping center for the
farmers in the environs. A large part of the population is French-
Canadian by birth or descent.
The International Paper Company Plant (open to visitors) produces 540
tons of ground wood every 24 hours.
CHISHOLM (alt. 380, Jay Town), 106.6 m., is a densely populated in-
dustrial settlement, with large pulp and paper mills.
JAY (alt. 415, Jay Town, pop. 3106), 108.6 m. The business section lies
(L) off State 4.
NORTH JAY (alt. 450, Jay Town), 111.8 m., is famed for its white
granite, the blocks for Grant's Tomb being among the many large pieces
cut here. The Stone Sheds and Quarries are on the side hill (R).
WILTON (alt. 600, Wilton Town, pop. 3266), 114.6 m., is at the junction
with US 2 (see Tour 4).
FARMINGTON (alt. 420, Farmington Town, pop. 3600) (see Tour 4),
122.7 m.9 is at the junctions with US 2 (see Tour 4) and State 27 (see Tour
12).
BACKUS CORNER (Farmington Town), 124.6 m.
Right from Backus Corner on a dirt road a short distance to (R) the Birthplace of
Lillian Nordica (adm. 25^), 0.7 m. The one-and-a-half-story cottage contains her
collection of operatic scores and autographed pictures, and many personal effects.
Lillian Norton was born in 1859 of music-loving parents; when her musically
promising sister, Wilhelmina, died suddenly, Lillian, then 15 years old, went
secretly to have her voice tested, hoping to be able to achieve the success her ambi-
TOUR 11: From Dover to Quebec 345
tious mother had anticipated for her older daughter. Though her high voice was
light and unusually sweet, she was slow in reaching her goal, owing to both
European and American prejudice against American-born musicians; she assumed
the name of Giglia Nordica to disguise her nativity. Her early training was re-
ceived in Boston; later, she studied under Sangiovanni, in Milan. She had a varied
matrimonial career, the first marriage ending dramatically, after divorce papers
had been filed, with the disappearance of her husband, an inventor, who had sailed
off in a balloon. She died in Java in 1914 as the result of exposure suffered after a
shipwreck off Thursday Island.
At 125.2 m. is a junction with State 27 (see Tour 12).
At 132.6 m. (R) is the Birthplace of Elizabeth Akers Allen (private},
identifiable by a Victorian summer house. In this gazebo Mrs. Allen
(1832-1911), newspaper woman and author, did much writing in her later
years. She was thrice married, her second husband being Benjamin Paul
Akers, a sculptor.
STRONG (alt. 505, Strong Town, pop. 877), 133.6 m., the business center
of this viUage lies (R) off State 4.
Maine's Republican party was founded in this town on Aug. 7, 1854, with
temperance and opposition to slavery as the two specific planks in its
platform.
At 138.5 m. (L) is Mount Blue (alt. 3187).
PHILLIPS (alt. 550, Phillips Town, pop. 1143), 140.8 m., on picturesque
Sandy River, is a large village surrounded by wooded hills. This area was
virgin forest until lumber interests bought the timber. As the trees were
cut and the lumbermen gradually moved northward leaving behind a
stump-covered area, settlers came in who cleared the land and farmed it.
The village, the cultural and commercial center of the sparsely settled
country to the north, manufactures wood novelties. In the hills through-
out the township are silica deposits.
MADRID (alt. 845, Madrid Town, pop. 207), 147.7 m., is a small village
on the fast-flowing western branch of Sandy River.
Right from the village center in Chandler Mill stream is lovely Small's Falls, while
a few hundred feet away in Sandy River, just before its junction with the Mill
stream, is another series of cataracts.
At 153.5 m. is a junction with a local road.
Right on this road, and then on a trail to Saddleback Lookout Station, 4 m. (see
Sports and Recreation: Hiking and Mountain Climbing).
RANGELEY (alt. 1545, Rangeley Town, pop. 1472), 162.9 *»., is a
trading center in the widely known Rangeley hunting and fishing area.
It has seven hotels and numerous lodges and camps (registered guides
available for hunting and fishing} ; steamboat service (variable schedule,
apply at wharf} to points on Rangeley Lake (seaplane base}. The three
golf courses in the environs are 2000 feet above sea level.
Rangeley, within sight of beautiful Rangeley Lake, lies deep in the heart
of a forest region that reaches across the Canadian border. Within a
radius of 10 miles, 40 sparkling trout- and salmon-filled lakes and ponds
346 High Roads and Low Roads
lie between rugged evergreen-clad hills and mountains. This wilderness
is the natural habitat of big game and many other kinds of wild life.
Rangeley Township, the village, the broad lake, and even the adjacent
countryside, the Rangeley Region, received their name from Squire
Rangeley, an Englishman from Yorkshire. Soon after his arrival here in
1825, he began the establishment of a great estate patterned after those of
his homeland. He asked no price for his land, giving extensively of his
acres to new settlers. He built a sawmill and a gristmill and constructed a
ten-mile stretch of road through the wilderness to connect the settlement
(and its great product, lumber) with the outside world. While developing
his holdings, he made his home at Portland, where he had built a mansion
on State Street, the city's 'Gold Coast' (see PORTLAND). For reasons
now unknown, the Rangeley family did not remain in Maine, but took up
residence in Virginia, where the Squire is said to have held vast acreage in
what is now Henry County.
DALLAS (Dallas Plantation, pop. 211), 163.9 m. The highway is crossed
by an old narrow-gauge railroad, no longer in use. Only a few years ago
there was a network of these roads through the southern part of the State ;
trains hauled by miniature locomotives stopped at every cowpath. In
this region in addition to the passenger service there was a heavy freight
business, the small locomotive being able to pull 100 cars of lumber.
Green's Farm (Coplin Plantation) is right, 176.3 m.', on it is a massive
two-story house with cupola, built about 1875. For a quarter of a century,
Green's Farm and Maine hunting and fishing were synonymous to hun-
dreds of out-of-State sportsmen, there being few lodges catering to this
type of visitor.
At STRATTON (alt. 1170, Eustis Town), 181.5 m., is a junction with
State 27 (see Tour 12).
At 182.5 m. the road enters the southern end of the tract known as Cathe-
dral Pines, a beautiful stand of tall Norway pines covering several square
miles on both sides of the road. The northern end of the grove was the
Site of One of Benedict Arnold's Camps, during his ill-fated expedition to
Quebec in 1775.
The expedition led by Arnold was a quixotic project of the early days of
the Revolutionary War. A few of the Colonial leaders believed that the
French of Quebec, who had been under English rule since 1763, would be
eager to join the revolt against the Crown; it was decided that Arnold
should take uoo men up through Maine and meet a force of equal size
led by General Richard Montgomery, who would go north by way of Lake
Champlain. Arnold and his men, who were poorly equipped and hastily
assembled with little training, left Cambridge on September 13, 1775, and
six days later had entered the Kennebec, Arnold planning to follow a
route that had been explored and reported on by English officials.
Progress up the river was slow, because of the time required to construct
the boats necessary for the shallower waters, and the autumn rains had
begun; many of the men became ill and had to be left behind. On October
TOUR 1 1 : From Dover to Quebec 347
19, the diminishing band finally reached Eustis. From there they went
up the northern branch of Dead River; on the 23d they lost several
scowloads of provisions, which sank in the river. The weather increased
in severity and many of the undisciplined Revolutionary heroes decided
that they would go no farther. Arnold crossed the present international
boundary line on October 25, and after the stragglers caught up with him,
went down the Chaudiere River. When Montgomery and Arnold met
near Quebec, the former had 500 men left, the latter 510. The attack
took place during a December snowstorm, and, though the troops entered
the town, they were driven out with heavy losses; Montgomery was
killed and Arnold was wounded.
At 184 m. is a junction with a dirt road.
Left on this road to EUSTIS RIDGE (alt. 1460), 2 m., from which there is a
splendid view of the mountains, including Sugar Loaf (alt. 4237).
At 184.6 m. is a junction with State 149, a dirt road.
Right on State 149 is FLAGSTAFF (alt. 1115, Flagstaff Plantation, pop. 179), 6
m. Lumbermen's homes occupy the cleared area of the high northern bank of
Dead River. A tablet opposite the post office marks the Site of one of Benedict
Arnold's Camps during his march through Maine. On arrival here, a party of men
was sent to the summit of Mt. Bigelow to view the country beyond through which
they were to pass. They erected a flag, and from this incident the town of Flag-
staff received its name. Arnold found the cabin of Natanis, sometimes spelled
Satanis, an Indian, on the site of the present village.
DEAD RIVER (Dead River Plantation, pop. £2), 12.4 m. Near this point Ar-
nold's expedition reached Dead River after making a portage from the Kennebec
River.
EUSTIS (alt. n85,Eustis Town, pop. 601), 186.3 w., in a heavily wooded
area, is a frontier village.
At 190.9 m. (R) is Alder Stream Camp Site (public), near which, on Alder
Stream, Arnold lost supplies (see above).
At 195.7 m. (R) is Sarampas Falls Camp Site (public), the most northerly
of a series of State Forestry camp sites in the area, which lies in a birch
grove near a pebbly beach on Sarampas Stream; the camp is about 200
yards above the small falls mentioned by Arnold in his letters.
The route now crosses the southern boundary of CHAIN OF PONDS
TOWNSHIP. Silvery birch and glossy green maple stand out among
the dense evergreens here, and occasional ponds, traversed by Arnold,
gleam through the silent darkly-green wilderness.
At 196.7 m. (L), on the side of Bag Pond Mountain, are what appear to be
dumped carloads of bituminous coal, but are in reality deposits of broken
slate.
At 197.2 m. is a watershed ridge (alt. 1360) where the road widens through
a beautiful growth of white birch. The highway now cuts into the ledge
(R) of Mt. Pisgah and Mt. Sisk, for about 5 miles, limiting the outlook to
forest and rough ledge, with an occasional magnificent view (L) across
deep gorges to the lovely Chain of Lakes shimmering against the wild
rugged background of Round, Snow, Indian Stream, and Bag Pond
Mountains.
348 High Roads and Low Roads
At 206.5 m. is visible, to the rear and through the highway aisle, towering
Mt. Pisgah (alt. 3325).
MOOSEHORN (alt. 1400, Unorganized Township of Coburn Gore, pop.
50), 217.9 m., an apparent extension of Arnold Pond, is a new modern
lumber-mill settlement replacing a settlement destroyed by fire in May,
1936. About 20 unpainted houses are grouped about the Mill (L), near
the fragrant piles of freshly sawed lumber that lie drying in the sun.
At ARNOLD POND, 218 m., State 4 crosses the Canadian Boundary,
137 miles south of Quebec. Arnold Pond, a sub-station of the Holeb-
Jackman port of entry, is on the boundary, which follows the watershed of
a low range of mountains whose green-mantled slopes stretch out for mile
upon mile in either direction, the only visible gap being directly west. It
was at Arnold Pond that Arnold's expedition is believed to have crossed
the height of land. The Customs and Immigration Station (L) was erected
in 1931.
TOUR 1 1 A : From RANGELEY to HAINES LANDING,
9 m., State 16.
Tar-surfaced roadbed, soft shoulders.
THIS route skirts four of the six Rangeley Lakes — 13 -mile Mooselook-
meguntic, 7 -mile Rangeley (Oquossoc), Molechunkamunk, and Cupsup-
tic. The Rangeley region, with its beautiful lakes and streams full of
trout and salmon, and its forested mountains and valleys rich in game, is a
semi-wilderness of a kind very attractive to many sportsmen and difficult
to match in the eastern part of the United States. Hunters and fishermen
who come to this area need not live any more primitively than they care
to, and can vary their days with golf, water sports, climbing, and other
outdoor and indoor recreations.
Because the region is an important natural resource in a State deriving an
increasing part of its income from visitors, the State is developing and
protecting it. Fish hatcheries have been established at Oquossoc and
other points for the breeding of salmon and trout, which are released
annually to replenish the supply depleted by sportsmen. The Rangeley
Game Preserve covers unorganized townships 5, Range 5, and 4, Range 6,
and the southern half of 3, Range 5; to the northeast is the Bigelow
Preserve.
At 0 m. State 16 branches west from State 4 at Rangeley (see Tour 11).
At 0.5 m. is the junction with an improved road.
Right on this road, 4.5 m., is a resort called LOG VILLAGE, established in 1889,
the buildings of which are constructed of logs in a style suitable to the region.
TOUR 12: From Wiscasset to Stratton 349
At 2.5 m. is a junction with a bituminous-topped road.
Left on this road 0.7 m. to the Rangeley Lakes Country Club (open to public}, with
an i8-hole golf course, which has mountain and lake views in all sections; the lake
breezes and the altitude (about 1600) make it a particularly popular course in
summer.
Near-by is a Riding Academy where mounts may be hired for following the many
miles of lakeside and mountain trails that wind through groves of birch and pine.
At 7 m. is a junction with a dirt road.
Right on this road, which soon becomes a tote road wandering along the northern
shore of the Lakes and eventually enters New Hampshire. This road can be
followed by car in mid-summer though the riding is rough; the opportunities for
fishing compensate for this inconvenience.
OQUOSSOC (alt. 1510, Rangeley Town), 7.7 m., is passed on the Range-
ley Lakes Canoe Trip (see Sports and Recreation). This is the head-
quarters of the dog-sled postal service maintained in winter when many of
the roads of the region are impassable for automobiles. Three times a
week the team of Baffin Land huskies mushes through the woods carrying
mail to Kennebago and Grant's. Although only 100 people are served, the
average weight of the cargo is 400 to 500 pounds because of the mer-
chandise sent in by parcel post.
HAINES LANDING (alt. 1490, Rangeley Town), 9 m.t has steamboat
service (inquire at wharf for schedule) with other settlements on the lake.
The village has a hotel that is surrounded by private camps and summer
homes designed to fit the setting; it also has a general store and a store
specializing in sport goods. The hotel and estate grounds have been land-
scaped with native shrubs and trees.
The paved motor road ends here, but rough roads and trails branch off
along the heavily wooded shores of Lake Mooselookmeguntic.
TOUR 12: From WISCASSET to STRATTON, 117.8 «.,
State 27.
Via Pittston, Randolph, Gardiner, Augusta, Belgrade, Kingfield, and Bigelow.
Two-lane hard-surfaced roadbed.
BETWEEN Wiscasset and the Kennebec River, State 27 traverses a
gradually rising terrain, then crosses the Kennebec and runs along the
western bank; at Augusta it swings northwest past the Belgrade Lake
chain, and runs through the valley of the Carrabassett River. There are
many opportunities for canoeing, climbing, hunting, and fishing along
this route.
35° High Roads and Low Roads
WISCASSET (alt. 50, Wiscasset Town, pop. 1186) (see Tour 1, sec. b),
0 m., is at the junction with US 1 (see Tour 1, sec. b).
DRESDEN MILLS (alt. 70, Dresden Town, pop. 629), 8.5 m., is a small
elm-shaded settlement on the southern bank of Eastern River.
At 10.6 m. is a junction with State 128.
Left on this road to Pownalborough Courthouse, 2.8 m. (R), a large three-story white
building built in 1761 as the seat of government for Lincoln County, which had
been incorporated in the previous year. It stands within the limits of the former
parade grounds of Fort Shirley, built in 1754 and first called Fort Frankfort. The
court room is on the second floor; the lower floor has always been used as a dwelling.
In Revolutionary days the records of the court were swollen by 'Tory trials' and
proceedings involving the care and disposition of confiscated estates of absentee
Loyalists.
At 16.2 m. is (L) the well-preserved Major Reuben Colburn House, built in
1765 by four Colburn brothers who came with their four sisters from
Dunstable, Mass., in 1761. The plain structure, now painted white with
green shutters, contains many of the original furnishings, including a
brass-studded cradle, in which the children of the family were rocked.
Colonel Benedict Arnold (see Tour 11), and his officers were entertained
by Major Colburn, September 21-23, 1775, in this home, while the
soldiers built their own shelters on the grounds during the transfer of the
army of noo men to 220 batteau built by Major Colburn for the ex-
pedition to Quebec.
The Money Holes, 16.6 m. (R), are the result of the usual legend of vast
treasure buried by Captain Kidd. Thousands of tons of earth have been
turned over, leaving several holes, one 80 feet deep, though not a single
coin or jewel has ever been uncovered.
PITTSTON (alt. 55, Pittston Town, pop. 893), 17.1 m., is a scattered
group of houses on both sides of the road. In 1676 the first settler in the
town, Alexander Brown, was killed by Indians. Dr. Sylvester Gardiner
(see Tour 10), resident proprietor and manager of the Kennebec Purchase,
lived here and was visited by Benedict Arnold.
From 1848 to 1900 enormous ice houses here were filled each winter and
during the 'ice-boom' (1870-95) 15 to 20 vessels were often seen at one
time loading ice for delivery to the cities farther south.
RANDOLPH (alt. 175, Randolph Town, pop. 1377), 19.1 m., is a compact
settlement on the eastern bank of the Kennebec. The town is a residential
district for many persons employed in Gardiner's factories.
GARDINER (alt. 90, pop. 5609) (see Tour 10), 19.3 m.
Between Gardiner and Augusta State 27 and US 201 are one route (see
Tour 10).
AUGUSTA (alt. 120, pop. 17,198) (see AUGUSTA), 25.7 «., is at a
junction of US 201 (see Tour 10), State 9 and State 11 (see Tour 13), and
State 17 (see Tour 17).
At 31.1 m. (R) is a Rifle Range, used occasionally for target practice with
light ordnance. Extending north for 3 miles is Sidney Bog, beyond which
TOUR 12: From Wiscasset to Stratton 351
is a mile or two of wild land. Although the Bog has an abundant blue-
berry crop, it is left untouched because of the presence of ' duds ' — un-
exploded shells from the rifle range — that lie hidden in the moss.
BELGRADE (alt. 255, Belgrade Town, pop. 978), 37.7 m., is the small
commercial center of a lake region. On the southwestern outskirts of the
settlement is the Minot House, birthplace in 1872 of John Clair Minot,
author and the literary editor of the Boston Herald since 1919.
BELGRADE LAKES (alt. 260, Belgrade Town), 44.8 m., is a lake resort
settlement on the eastern shore of Long Pond, a glistening sheet of water
between beautifully wooded shores along which are scattered fine cottages
and summer hotels.
The six large lakes of the Belgrade chain, connected by streams, provide
opportunities for excellent fishing as well as for easy canoe trips suitable
for the amateur canoeist and arduous journeys with 2o-foot canoes for the
paddle-hardened. In the waters of these lakes are landlocked salmon,
lake trout, black bass, pickerel, and white perch, all gamey fish, valued by
the visitors who throng this area during the fishing season.
ROME (alt. 530, Rome Town, pop. 398), 48.3 m., a 'four corners,' is in the
most rugged and least settled section of the Belgrade Lakes area, a
heavily wooded and hilly country with several lakes. As the first green
buds appear on damp brown branches in the spring, the woods here be-
come alive with the songs of birds; scarlet-breasted robins and bluebirds
usher in the spring days, and as the grasses grow higher, the humming of
the locust and chirping of crickets blend with the soft calls of the Peabody
bird, the meadow lark, and the chickadee. Later the raucous cries of blue
jays and kingfishers echo over the surfaces of the lakes, whose tranquillity
is occasionally broken by the splash of fish jumping for flies. As summer
shadows lengthen and grow black near the marshlands, a chorus of frogs
is heard, punctuated by the notes of whippoorwills and the laughs of
loons.
Winter, in this region, has its own charms; the soft thud of snow falling
from over-burdened pines, the deep, long-drawn-out boom made as the
lakes finally freeze, and the faint vibration of ' northern lights' streaming
to the zenith on clear cold nights, like a bright rainbow over a white
world.
At 55.9 m. is a junction with US 2 (see Tour 4). Between this point and
Farmington, State 27 and US 2 are one route (see Tour 4) ; also between
Farmington and 70.1 m., State 27 and State 4 are one route (see Tour 11).
NEW VINEYARD (alt. 610, New Vineyard Town, pop. 447), 78.9 m.,
has an active sawmiU and a woodworking mill.
In the northwestern section of this township are 4 ponds in lowlands sur-
rounded by heavily wooded hills. Numerous small streams (good fishing)
cut through the hillsides, and the few roads traversing the area are closely
shut in by the luxuriant foliage of towering trees whose bases are buried
deep in masses of tall, lacy ferns.
352 High Roads and Low Roads
This is one of the Franklin County towns to which many of the early
settlers came from the Kennebec River Valley. Going from the Massa-
chusetts Bay Colony, or directly from England, to the Kennebec River
Valley, their means were sufficient > for proving their claims under the
requirements of the Kennebec Purchase. After fulfilling the legal re-
quirements there, they found themselves faced with a sizable levy, one of
the impositions of lawless land agents; this they were unable to meet, and
it forced them to push on to the Sandy River Valley.
NEW PORTLAND (alt. 507, New Portland Town, pop. 818), 85.5 m., is
the center of a township given to the people of Falmouth, now Portland
(see PORTLAND), by the General Court of Massachusetts to indemnify
them, in part, for their loss through the destruction of that town by the
British fleet in 1775.
KINGFIELD (alt. 565, Kingfield Town, pop. 1024), 92 m., with its
cement bridges, wide streets, and modern stores and offices, a distinct
surprise in this great woods area, is on a narrow intervale in the valley of
the Carrabassett River. The Carrabassett, rapid at this point, created
water-power for several mills when lumbering was an important industry
here.
A heavily wooded grade rises sharply beside the river (R) north of Kingfield.
A boulder, opposite the Universalist Church, marks the Site of the Resi-
dence of Governor William King, who was the proprietor of this region, and
Maine's first Governor.
Holiness Church, with headquarters in Kingfield, is a sect of militant
conservatives, the older members of which belonged to various denomina-
tions and combined to preserve the old forms of worship. Their creed is
evangelical and they interpret the Bible literally. The annual Holiness
Camp Meeting is held in the neighboring town of Salem during the last
week of August.
CARRABASSETT (alt. 842, Unorganized Township of Jerusalem, pop.
185), 102.3 m., a small settlement on the edge of an unusually wide
bottom-land by the Carrabassett River, is surrounded by deep forests.
Several log houses have been built here because of the good protection
they give against the severe cold that settles over the region in early fall.
At 109.2 m. is the entrance to a foot trail.
Left on this trail, over rocky terrain in a forested country, to Sugarloaf Mountain
(alt. 4237), about 4 m. and Crocker Mountain (alt. 4168), about 5 m. These two
peaks are in the Bigelow Game Preserve (no hunting allowed], a vast wooded area
taking in parts of Bigelow and Dead River Plantations, as well as parts of Town-
ship 4, Range 3, Crockertown, and Jerusalem. Here the big game, game birds, and
smaller animals native to Maine roam unmolested by man.
BIGELOW (alt. 1305, Unorganized Township of Crockertown, pop. 10),
109.5 m., formerly Bigelow Station, was a terminus of the Sandy River and
Rangeley Lakes (narrow gauge) R.R. Except during midwinter lumber-
ing operations, when the resounding chop of axes, the shouts of lumber-
jacks, and the aroma of bacon and beans fill the air, this settlement of a
dozen log houses is a tiny ghost town.
TOUR 13 : From Hampden to Naples 353
At 116.7 m. is an entrance to a foot trail.
Left on this trail, through hilly country, to Hedgehog Hill (alt. 2087), 1.7 m., an
irregular tree-clad eminence in a hunting region frequented by residents of central
Maine.
STRATTON (alt. 1170, Eustis Town, pop. 601), 117.8 m. On the north-
western edge of the settlement is the junction with State 4 (see Tour 11).
TOUR 13: From HAMPDEN to NAPLES, 123 m., US 202
(State 9, State 3) and State 11.
Via Augusta, Winthrop, Lewiston, Auburn and Mechanic Falls.
Two-lane macadamized and cement roadbed.
THIS inland route runs for the most part through thinly settled farm-
lands. In summer, cottage colonies are seen around the lakes passed at
intervals.
HAMPDEN (alt. 80, Hampden Town, pop. 2417) (see Tour 1, sec. c)fQ m.,
is at a junction with US 1 (see Tour 1, sec. c).
HAMPDEN CENTER (alt. 234, Hampden Town), 2.2 m.
WEST HAMPDEN (alt. 168, Hampden Town), 4.9 m.
NEWBURGH CENTER (alt. 256, Newburgh Town, pop. 551), 9 m.
At 13.2 m. the highway crosses a southern extension of Pickard Mountain
(alt. 1221), locally known as Peaked Mountain because of its cone-like
shape. The timber having been cut from its slopes, it is now a barren
landmark visible over a wide area.
At 15.3 m. is a view (R) of a long range known as the Dixmont Hills.
Near-by (L) is Mount^ Harris (alt. 1233), its timber-stripped slopes suit-
able only for the grazing of sheep.
DIXMONT (alt. 543, Dixmont Town, pop. 538), 16.3 m., is at the junc-
tion with State 7.
Left 2.7 m. on State 7 to the crest of The Cliff (alt. 980), on Mt. Harris. This
precipice drops sheerly (R), and from a small parking space (L) is a view over an
attractive valley below to the distant Camden Hills.
At 6.7 m. the highway crosses Great Farm Brook, meandering across the Great Farm
which lies on both sides of the road at this point.
From Thorndike Hill (alt. 740), 7.9 m., is a comprehensive View of the Great
Farm, its original 1200 acres, now subdivided into 2oo-acre farms] extending
across a narrow valley between the hills. Israel Thorndike (1755-1832), a wealthy
Boston merchant, came into possession of the tract in 1806. He cleared the land,
built a mansion of the Bumnch type and created a beautiful country estate with
354 High Roads and Low Roads
broad lawns and large barns. He stocked the farm with imported Hereford cattle
and merino sheep, and set out an orchard of 500 apple trees. Daniel Webster was
one of the many distinguished guests who came from Boston by coach-and-four for
the hunting and fishing at Mr. Thorndike's country place. One barn is all that
remains of the original buildings, the others having been destroyed by fire.
TROY (alt. 474, Troy Town, pop. 651), 20.5 m., is in a township pur-
chased about 1800 by General Bridge of Chelmsford, Mass, for its timber.
Pine was cut, sent down the Sebasticook and Kennebec Rivers and sold
in Gardiner, at a time when 1000 feet of lumber could be sawed for one
dollar. After the land was cleared, Indian corn, wheat, oats, and barley
were raised on it, and several gristmills were operated on the ponds and
streams.
UNITY (alt. 231, Unity Town, pop. 892), 27.1 m., on the Belfast and
Moosehead Lake R.R., is a small but active commercial center in this
large, sparsely settled area. Before the establishment of trading centers
such as this, the populace was dependent upon itinerant peddlers who
during the last half of the igth century walked about the country carrying
packs of tinware, cotton goods, stationery, pictures, and dishes, as well as
the latest news.
Frederic Hale Parkhurst (1864-1921), a native of Unity, arose from a sick
bed for his inauguration as Governor of Maine and died 18 days later.
ALBION (alt. 305, Albion Town, pop. 923), 35.3 m., is a settlement of
well-built homes on a narrow fertile level plateau in a township notable
for little hills and ravines of unusual shapes, believed to have been carved
by receding glaciers.
East of Albion Corner, the old trees shading both sides of the road are
known as the Rum and Water Elms because of an incident that occurred
during the temperance agitation of 1845. Members of the village Wash-
ingtonian Society, a temperance group, and the anti-prohibitionists agreed
to plant rows of elm trees on opposite sides of the road; the group whose
elms made the finer showing was to be considered the one favored by
Providence. The Washingtonians selected the south side of the street and
the anti-prohibitionists planted along the north side. The 'rum elms'
grew larger and today give broader shade than do the 'water elms.'
At 36.6 m. (R) is Lovejoy Pond, a small body of water with groves of
silvery birch along its shores.
At 38.6 m. is the junction with a dirt road known as the Pond Road.
Right on the Pond Road to the Site of the Lovejoy Homestead, 1.4 m. on the southern
shore of Lovejoy Pond. Here was born Elijah Parish Lovejoy (1802-37), anti-
slavery leader, and pioneer in defense of freedom of the press. Graduating with
honors from Colby College (see WATERY I LLE), he went to St. Louis, Mo., where
he became interested in the ministry, and in freedom for the slaves. After attending
Princeton Theological Seminary in New Jersey, he returned to St. Louis to preach
and continue his fight against slavery. In 1833 he began to edit a religious paper
called the St. Louis Observer, in which his anti-slavery views found expression. In
Missouri, a slave State, his articles met with opposition, but this did not lessen his
determination to gain freedom for the slaves. The opposition became so strong
that he was forced to move across the river to Alton, 111., to continue his work.
Mobs attacked him and on several occasions his presses were destroyed, but he
TOUR 13: From Hampden to Naples 355
procured new ones and demanded protection, as an American citizen, to carry on
his work. While defending his press against a mob he was killed.
On a 93-foot granite shaft topped with a bronze statue of Victory, erected to his
memory in Alton, 111., are these words: 'As long as I am an American citizen, and
as long as American blood runs in these veins, I shall hold myself at liberty to
speak, to write, and to publish whatever I please on any subject, being amenable to
the laws of my country for the same.'
CHINA (alt. 222, China Town, pop. 1164), 40.6 m., is a well-shaded
little village of old homes at the northern end of China Lake.
In 1818, when the town was incorporated and the name changed from
Harlem to China — for a favorite old hymn — there was much contro-
versy over boundaries. The postmaster, J. C. Washburn wrote: 'My
house was in Winslow, my store across the road in Albion, and my potash
works 40 rods S. were in Harlem.'
Between China and South China the road winds along the eastern shore of
China Lake, 8 miles in length. The clear blue water of the lake, well below
the level of the highway, lies in a long hollow between the hills. All along
this attractive section of the route are farm houses and summer homes.
At 44.3 m. (L) is the old Friends' Meeting-House. Although the once
active congregation is now widely scattered, Friends still gather together
here at least once a year, the men on one side of the room and the women
on the other, each person communing in silence with the Spirit and, if
moved, rising to pray or address his brothers and sisters.
The Summer Home of Rufus M. Jones, 46.3 m. (R), Quaker minister and
long a president of Haverford College, is on a hill sloping to the shore of
China Lake, and commanding one of its finest views. The large pines that
border the farm are 125 years old, and were planted by his ancestors.
From the hill are seen Vassalboro and China Lakes with their small
islands and to the west, the distant Kennebago Mountains. Rufus Jones,
a descendant of Quaker missionaries, is the author of more than 40 books
on ethics and on Quaker history.
SOUTH CHINA (alt. 209, China Town), 48.3 m., is a small resort village
at the southern end of China Lake. It has a public library that has been in
existence 106 years.
At South China is a junction with State 3 (see Tour 16).
Left from South China on State 32 to the Site of the Birthplace of Leroy S.
Starrett (1836-1922), 1.3 m., (L), inventor-manufacturer, who secured patents
in 1865 for a meat chopper, a washing machine, and a butter worker. After
three years of selling these, which were manufactured for him by the Athol
Machine Co., he purchased controlling interest in the company and during the
next 10 years as superintendent, invented a number of hand tools such as cer-
tain types of calipers, gauges, levels, and other precision instruments.
AUGUSTA (alt. 120, pop. 17,198) (see AUGUSTA}, 59.8 m., is at the
junction of US 201 (see Tour 10), State 27 (see Tour 12), and State 17
(see Tour 17).
MANCHESTER (alt. 205, Manchester Town, pop. 492), 65 m. The two
large old structures (R), somewhat remodeled, were inns from 1800 to
356 High Roads and Low Roads
1850. Before the advent of the railroad, Hallowell, 4 miles east, was a
busy river port and commercial center. The settlers of Winthrop, Read-
field, and even those of Sandy River valley drove or rode horseback to
Manchester, then known as The Forks, putting up in one of these inns at
night. Early the next morning they would go on to Hallowell for trading,
spending a large part of the day hauling their purchases up the two mile-
long hills on their return journey. Stopping their second night at The
Forks, they were ready for an early morning start over more level roads
to their homes.
Right from Manchester on State 17 is Monk's Hill Cemetery, 2.6 m. (R), overlooking
Lake Cobbosseecontee; here are buried the early Baptists of this section of the
town of Readfield. In the cemetery is a monument to ' Elder Isaac Case, born in
Rehoboth, Mass., Feb. 25, 1761, was ordained a Baptist preacher in 1783; came to
Maine and gathered the first church in Thomaston, 1784, and was its pastor 8
years; came to Readfield 1792, gathered a church and officiated as its pastor till
1800. Died Nov. 3, 1852.'
Carlton Pond, 3.4 m. (L), less than 2 miles long and 0.5 mile wide, and almost
hidden by hardwood and pine growth, is the source of water supply of the City of
Augusta.
The Methodist Meeting-House, 4.3 m. (R), a plain white church with spire, over-
looking Lake Maranacook, was the first Methodist meeting-house in Maine; it was
dedicated in 1795 by the handsome and courtly Methodist clergyman, Jesse Lee
(1758-1816), who traveled about on horseback. Lee, known as the 'apostle oi
Methodism' was born in Virginia, and from 1809-15 was Chaplain of Congress.
The New England Conference of Methodists, with an attendance of 1500, was held
in this sparsely settled community August 29, 1798.
Lake Maranacook, 7.7 m. (L), 7 miles long, with a heavily wooded shoreline,
provides beautiful scenery as well as fishing and boating.
READFIELD (alt. 260, Readfield Town, pop. 88 1), 9.8 m., a hill-top settlement, is
the birthplace of two Maine governors, Jonathan G. Hunton (1781-1851) and Dr.
John Hubbard (1794-1869). Governor Hubbard (see Tour 10) was known as the
Father of Prohibition, having in 1851 signed Maine's first law prohibiting the sale
and manufacture of intoxicating liquors in any part of the State.
The Kennebec Agricultural Society, formed here in 1787, was active for 30 years.
In 1819 the society compiled statistics concerning the production of cider, the first
recorded compilation of agricultural statistics in the State. Since 1856 its fair,
known as Kennebec County Fair, has been held here annually.
KENT'S HILL (alt. 545, Readfield Town), 12.6 m., overlooks Torsey Pond and
the hills of Mount Vernon.
The Maine Wesley an Seminary (L), commonly called Kent's Hill, overlooking a
number of lakes in the surrounding valley is a co-educational preparatory school,
founded in 1824 and fostered and largely supported by the Methodist Episcopal
Church. As early as 1832 women were attending the seminary; in 1859 an act of
Legislature authorized establishment of 'a female collegiate Institute.'
Right from Kent's Hill on State 134 is MOUNT VERNON (alt. 335, Mount
Vernon Town, pop. 755), 20.1w., a lovely spot lying among hills and near lakes. Near
the village is the Elizabeth Marbury House, now a rest home for working women.
Elizabeth Marbury (1856-1933), a play-broker, was long active in social, theatrical,
and charitable affairs. After the World War she was decorated by the Belgian,
French, and Italian Governments for her services during the conflict. In 1925 she
bought the Higgins-Slocum farm of 68 acres and remodeled the house, furnishing it
in old New England style. Her will dedicated the farm to its present use.
Not far from Marbury House is Maine Chance (visited only by special permission),
the property of Elizabeth Arden, the owner of beauty parlors and the manu*
TOUR 13: From Hampden to Naples 357
facturer of cosmetics. She has developed a resort open each summer to women who
can afford to pay for an intensive course of physical training and treatment; the
place is luxurious, with gay cabanas on the shore of a lake, with fencing and riding
teachers, beautiful flower gardens, and various recreational facilities. Fresh
vegetables are raised on the adjoining farm.
At 65.7 m. (L) are the grounds of the Augusta Country Club, with a club-
house, tennis courts and an i8-hole golf course (greens fee $1, $1.50, $2);
the latter lies on both sides of the road.
At 66.4 m. (L) is the entrance to Island Park on Cobbosseecontee Lake
(launch trips around the lake 25^: swimming and boating facilities) . The
park was developed 30 years ago as a trolley resort with hotel, outdoor
theater, dance pavilion, and picnic grounds in a pine grove at the water's
edge. Today there are many summer homes on the island.
Lake Cobbosseecontee (Ind.: 'place of abundant sturgeon')? is a popular
summer and winter playground (see Sports and Recreation). The Win-
throp Regatta is held here annually in August. Among other islands in
the lake is Lady's Delight, about i mile from shore, where a small light-
house (1908) is kept lighted in summer. The lake is a base for the State
Forestry and privately owned seaplanes.
At 68.4 m. is a junction with an unmarked road.
Left on this road is BAILEYVILLE (alt. 260, Winthrop Town), 1.2 m., a settle-
ment made by members of the Society of Friends in 1780.
Ezekiel Bailey, a Quaker, began the manufacture of oilcloth by hand here about
1830. The business expanded into several factories and flourished until 1921 when
the oil-soaked buildings burned.
The Baileys were active members of the Society of Friends, contributing much to
the Quaker churches and schools in the State, notably Oak Grove Seminary (see
Tour 10). Regular services are still held in the Meeting-Hotise (R).
At 2 m. (L), in a pine grove on the hilly shore of Lake Cobbosseecontee, is a Young
Men's Christian Association Camp. Six lodges are maintained under the auspices of
the State organization for boys from 8 to 18 years of age. A leadership conference
held here annually in the last week in June is an institution that originated in
Maine and has been duplicated in other States.
WINTHROP (alt. 200, Winthrop Town, pop. 2234), 71 m., is a compact,
thriving settlement on low land between Lake Maranacook (N) and Lake
Annabessacook (S). The town, first settled in 1765, was called Pondtown
Plantation, probably because of the numerous bodies of water in the area;
many lilies grow on the smaller lakes.
Shoes made by hand in Winthrop between 1800 and 1850 were sent as far
south as New Orleans, and were also much in demand in 1849-50 among
the men starting toward the California gold fields. Daniel Noyes Carr of
Newburyport, Mass., came to Winthrop about 1809 and in 1820 opened
one of the first temperance hotels in the State.
Oilcloth and woolen mills employ the year-round residents of this com-
munity, which is in summer a trading center for cottagers and campers
living near the lakes.
At the Bonafide Mills (permit at office) (L), near the railroad tracks, more
than 2 million square yards of felt-base oilcloth are made annually.
358 High Roads and Low Roads
Right from Winthrop on State 133 at 6.5 m. in WAYNE (alt. 300, Wayne Town,
pop. 464), is (L) the Birthplace of Annie Louise Gary (1842-1921), opera star, who
lived here until her eighth year. Her voice developed a range running from low
F to B above the staff and its purity was notable.
Left sharply at the Gary house on a dirt road to Morrison Heights (alt. 680), 8.3 m.,
a picnic ground with a spectacular view over the surrounding countryside. An
expanse of ledge on the hilltop furnishes numerous natural fire-places. Although
the elevation of this conical hill is only about half that of several of the Kennebec
County hills, the width of the surrounding valley makes possible a panorama.
Androscoggin Lake stands out among the numerous bodies of water dotting the
landscape. The trees in this area — birch, maple, sumac, and evergreen — are
particularly beautiful in autumn.
At 77 m. is a junction with a tarred road.
Left on this road to Monmouth Academy, 0.1 m. (R), a large brick building housing
a preparatory school founded in 1803.
MONMOUTH (alt. 285, Monmouth Town, pop. 1344), 1 m., in the center of the
Kennebec County apple belt, is a residential and commercial settlement on the
eastern shore of Cochnewagan Pond.
The Town Hall (L), known as Cumston Hall, an ornate cream and white building
with minarets and other Turkish architectural features, was designed by Harry
Cochrane (1860- ), a local muralist and writer. Mr. Cochrane has decorated
many churches and public buildings throughout the State, and written 'The First
Crusade,' a cantata, and 'History of Monmouth and Wales.'
Lorettus Sutton Metcalf (1837-1920), managing editor of the North American
Review and founder and editor of Forum, and Benjamin Shaw, inventor of a
machine for knitting hosiery, were natives of Monmouth.
Cochnewagan Pond (Ind.: 'the place of praying Indians,' or the 'place of battle') is
said to have been the scene of a battle between the Mohawks of eastern New York
and the Abnakis. The Mohawks made periodic journeys to Mt. Katahdin for flint,
and in passing through the section that is now Monmouth, they killed much game
that the Abnakis considered their property. Finally the Abnakis met the Mo-
hawks in a sanguinary battle near Cochnewagan Pond. No one seems to know the
date of the battle, but Indians, old when the first settlers came, were fond of telling
of it.
Bears were troublesome to white settlers of the locality as late as 1810-15, but as
most of the settlers were young, they not only survived these and other difficulties
but managed to have good times as well. There are records of corn huskings with
singing, dancing, and refreshments of brown bread, beans, and pumpkin pie.
At 79.3 m. (L), on a hill from which sunsets are particularly beautiful, is
Highmoor Farm (open), an Agricultural Experiment Station conducted
by the University of Maine. The modern white farm buildings include a
house and office for the manager, several barns, and a cold storage plant
capable of holding 7500 boxes of apples. The 305-acre tract is principally
given over to an orchard with about 2500 trees. Some fields are used for
experiments with corn, potatoes, and other vegetables.
The first farm in the tract was purchased through an Act of Legislature in
1909 and according to law it should 'conduct investigations in orcharding,
corn and other farm crops.' In 1925 an adjoining 3o-acre tract was
bought for a demonstration orchard.
A national egg-laying contest is conducted annually hi the large, well-
equipped Poultry House (R). The contest, open to poultry owners all
over the country, was inaugurated in 1930 and competitors usually
TOUR 13: From Hampden to Naples 359
number about 1000. In September, 1936, a Rhode Island Red, owned by
Phillip Steele of Biddeford made the national record for consecutive egg-
laying with 214 eggs in 214 days.
GREENE (alt. 295, Greene Town, pop. 784), 83.6 m., was named for
General Nathanael Greene.
At 89.2 m. is a junction with a tarred road.
Right on this road, which follows the eastern bank of the Androscoggin River, to
Gulf Island Dam, 2 m. (L). This dam, harnessing the Androscoggin River for
hydro-electric generation and distribution, takes its name from an island that
originally divided the Androscoggin at this point into two channels, but that now
forms a part of the middle section of the dam. The valuable power project com-
pleted in 1927 was built by the Central Maine Power Company at a cost of about
$5,000,000, and is operated by the Union Water Company at Lewiston.
The plant has three turbines of 9000 horse-power, each under a head of 50 feet.
LEWISTON (alt. 196, pop. 34,939) (see LEWISTON- AUBURN),
91.7 m.
AUBURN (alt. 210, pop. 18,571) (see LEWISTON -AUBURN), 92.2 m.,
is at a junction with State 4 (see Tour 11).
At Auburn State 11 swings west from US 202.
MECHANIC FALLS (alt. 280, Mechanic Falls Town, pop. 2033), 102.2
m., is the center of a town with paper mills on the Little Androscoggin
River. Paper-making was introduced here in 1850. Freeland O. Stanley,
an inventor, was principal of the town's first high school, and early engines
of the Stanley Steamer, one of the first automobiles, were built here.
Buffalo Bill, Kit Carson, Jr., and Texas Jack gave marksmanship exhibi-
tions in the village, when it was the seat of the Evans Rifle Co.
An Indian Totem, unearthed on the river banks in this vicinity, is in the
Poland Spring museum (see Tour 14).
Between 105.3 m. and 106.2 m. State 11 and State 26 are one route (see
Tour 14).
TRIPP LAKE (alt. 320, Poland Town), 107.8 m., is a popular summer
resort in a long pine grove on the eastern shore of Lake Tripp (bathing,
boating, and picnicking).
At 109.8 m. is a junction with a dirt road.
Right on this road is WEST POLAND (alt. 359, Poland Town), 0.5 m., on the
southern shore of Lake Tripp. Stores here are patronized by several boys' and
girls' camps near the lake.
Left sharply from West Poland on a dirt road to Agassiz Village (open), 2.3 m.,
on a wooded hillside at the southern end of Thompson Lake. This large camp
for boys conducted on the village plan by the Burroughs Newsboys Foundation of
Boston, Mass., is on property donated by Mr. and Mrs. Max Agassiz, in memory
of Mr. Agassiz' grandfather, Dr. Louis Agassiz (1807-73), the scientist.
At 121.2 m. is a junction with US 302 (see Tour 18). Between this point
and Naples, State 11 and US 302 are one route (see Tour 18).
NAPLES (alt. 280, Naples Town, pop. 641) (see Tour 18), 123 m.
TOUR 14: From PORTLAND to NEW HAMPSHIRE LINE
(Errot), 100.3 m., State 26.
Via Gray, Sabbathday Lake Village, Poland, South Paris, Bethel, and Upton.
Two-lane macadamized roadbed; in winter sometimes impassable between
Bethel and Upton.
BETWEEN Portland and Norway, State 26 follows very closely the trail
blazed by trappers and Indians between Canada and Portland; it extends
through the beautiful mountain and lake counties of Androscoggin and
Oxford, and affords interesting side trips to historic villages in Maine's
'back woods/
PORTLAND (alt. 80, pop. 70,810) (see PORTLAND), 0 m., is at the
junction of US 1 (see Tour 1, sec. a), US 302 (see Tour 18), and State 25
(see Tour 19).
GRAY (alt. 310, Gray Town, pop. 1189) (see Tour 11), 17.4 m., is at a
junction with State 4 (see Tour 11).
State 26 swings left at Gray.
DRY MILLS (alt. 300, Gray Town), 20.5 m.
Right from Dry Mills on a gravel road to the Dry Mills Fish Hatchery (open), 1 m.,
a State-operated brook-trout hatching plant, the largest in Maine. Water supply
and water temperatures are the most important factors in raising fish, and the
supply at Dry Mills, said to be the finest for the purpose found in Maine, main-
tains a remarkably even temperature. Nearly all the brook trout used for restock-
ing in the southern half of Maine, and breeders sent to other sections of the State
and to 9ther States, are produced at this hatchery. Fifteen million eggs, with less
than eight per cent loss in hatched trout, were produced here in 1936.
Adjoining the hatchery is the State of Maine Game Farm (open}, the only farm of
this type in the State, comprising 130 acres of land on a high hill; here ring-necked
pheasants are bred for release throughout the State as game birds, open seasons
on which are to be designated. More than 4000 birds are reared each year, and
10,000 eggs are annually distributed to persons interested in raising pheasants.
Other types of pheasants less suited to the Maine climate are being bred experi-
mentally; various types of native animals and birds are on exhibition.
SABBATHDAY LAKE VILLAGE (alt. 300, New Gloucester Town,
pop. 1866), 25.3 m.t is one of the few remaining Shaker settlements in the
country. The central brick building serves as dormitory, living quarters,
and dining-hall, with a chapel in one wing. There are several large barns
and a number of small workshops. The colony, established in 1793, de-
clined in numbers during the last half of the igth century; in 1931 the re-
maining members of the Shaker colony at Alfred (see Tour 11) joined the
colony here. This small community adheres to the tenets of the faith and
engages in farming and small industries such as woodworking, preserving,
and needlecraft.
The Shakers, members of the United Society of Believers in Christ's
TOUR 14: From Portland to Errol 361
Second Appearing, originated in England around the middle of the i8th
century when a group of spiritualists and Quakers formed a society called
the New Lights. 'Mother' Ann Lee, a leader of the movement, came to
America in 1774 after suffering much persecution in England. With a few
believers, she established a colony near Albany, N.Y., and in 1793 colonies
were organized in Maine at this place and at Alfred.
Originally called the Shaking Quakers because of their dancing move-
ments during religious services, the Shakers have met little understanding.
Their principles include the practices of religious and economic commu-
nism, purification of sin by confession, some practice of spiritualism, prac-
tice of complete celibacy, and the Quaker opposition to war and violence.
The Shakers interpret the Divine Spirit as of dual nature, male and female.
They believe that Christ represented the male principle, and that 'Mo-
ther ' Lee, the female principle, manifested the second coming of Christ.
Men and women share equally in the work, offices, possessions, and
religious practices of the colony. New members, now rare, turn over all
they possess upon entering the society, and this, as well as all property
descending by inheritance, belongs to the community as a whole. Married
converts must separate themselves from their mates. In the past orphans
were often adopted by the society and educated in its beliefs. The reli-
gious meetings are marked by singing and dancing, for which the Shakers
find justification in the Scriptures. The dancing is not as frenzied as
formerly, the ' shaking ' being confined principally to marching with sway-
ing bodies, and to a slight waving of hands. By means of the latter, the
Shakers believe they shake out sin. Goodness is received from above on
upturned palms.
The men wear long clerical coats and broad felt hats; the women, very full
skirts and tight bodices of gray wool; sometimes the women also wear
wide collars of the kind used in the i7th century.
Formerly a variety of woolen and wooden articles were manufactured and
sold by the colonists, as well as fine basketry; most of the packing cases for
Poland Spring water were made here. Today chocolate candy, preserves,
jellies, and needlework are sold to visitors.
From the top of Shaker Hill, 26.7 m., is a fine view of the surrounding
country. The bleak four-story, square Stone Building (R) was once a
Shaker community house. Near-by is (L) the old Shaker Meeting-House.
Poland Spring, 28.6 m., is little but a cluster of hotels and the homes
of those employed in them. In 1794, Jabez Ricker of Alfred secured
land here from the Shakers of the Sabbathday Lake colony and estab-
lished a home; two days after the Ricker family arrived, two trav-
elers stopped at their door, asking for breakfast. This was the begin-
ning of Jabez Ricker's career as an innkeeper. So many travelers con-
tinued to stop, asking for accommodations, that in 1 796 Jabez and Went-
worth Ricker opened the Mansion House. Near-by was a large spring of
unusually fine water that had some local fame, but was not credited with
unusual virtues until the summer of 1844, when Hiram, a grandson of
362 High Roads and Low Roads
Jabez Ricker, drank copiously of the water while he was haying and in-
sisted that it had cured him of a chronic dyspepsia. The guests of the
hotel, which was by this time something of a summer resort, also sampled
the waters and reported so enthusiastically on its effects that the hotel
owners began to see the possibilities of commercial exploitation, this being
the period in which the fashionable world of Europe and America was
resorting to 'waters' for all ailments of the flesh. Poland Water is one of
the few bottled waters that has continued to maintain a popularity.
The present Mansion House and the large Poland Spring House stand on
the top of Ricker Hill (alt. 580), from which is a wide-spreading view of
hills and lakes particularly beautiful at sunset. A part of the original
Mansion House is incorporated in the present sprawling structure. Near
the hotel is the State of Maine Building, erected in 1893 on the grounds of
the Chicago World's Fair, and later brought here; in it are a library and,
at intervals, exhibitions of paintings and other objects.
At 29.4 m. (L) is Middle Range Pond, the center of a group of five ponds,
where is excellent fishing (boating and bathing facilities on eastern shore).
POLAND (alt. 310, Poland Town, pop. 1503), 31.2 m., is in a town that is
noted for its mineral springs; it spreads over seven prominent hills.
Between 32.2 m. and 33.1 m. State 26 is united with State 11 (see Tour
13).
At 38.8 m. (L) is the Center Meeting-House, a plain structure serving both
as an interdenominational church and as a town hall.
Near the Meeting-House is a junction with State 121.
Left on State 121 , which crosses an old covered bridge over the Little Andros-
coggin River, to OXFORD VILLAGE (alt. 248, Oxford Town, pop. 1125), 1.5 m.
The first settlement here on the northern shore of Thompson Lake was made in
1794. The Woolen Mill built in early days is still in operation. Near-by and
directly opposite the post office is an old dwelling (R), long known as Craigie's
Tavern. During stagecoach days, this was the village inn, famed as having the
finest bar in a large area.
At 45 m. is the junction with State 117.
Left on State 117 is NORWAY (alt. 387, Norway Town, pop. 3145), 0.5 m., on the
southern end of Lake Pennesseewassee, a manufacturing center for shoes, snow-
shoes, skis, sleds, moccasins, and totem poles. In summer the large colony on the
southern sHore of the lake is a place of much colorful social activity. The town has
had a brilliant military history since the first regimental muster of Oxford County
was held here; three Norway companies were sent to the War of 1812, one to the
Aroostook War, eight to the Civil War, one to the Spanish-American and one to the
World War. Major General George L. Beal and General Benjamin B. Murray of
Norway served in the Civil War.
In the center of the village is the Weary Club (R), founded by Fred W. Sanborn,
editor and proprietor of the Norway Advertiser-Democrat. The club is designed to
take the place of the now vanishing old-fashioned general store where village
philosophers could gather by the cracker barrel, to practice their arm with 'ta-
baccy' juice and whittle the hours away. The Weary Club today is a glorification
of the old country store, even to the pot-bellied stove and the cracker barrel.
Members are supplied with pungent cedar sticks for whittling.
Beyond the club is the Norway Advertiser-Democrat Office (L), where the humorist,
Artemus Ward (see below) , learned the printer's trade. Hannibal Hamlin (see below)
was as a lad a chore-boy in the same office.
TOUR 14: From Portland to Errol 363
Directly opposite the Advertiser office is the former Home of Syhanus Cobb, Jr.,
author of 'The Gunmaker of Moscow' and many novelettes and short stories; it is
now a filling station.
Among authors who live or have lived in Norway are Charles Asbury Stephens,
writer of juvenile fiction; the later Don C. Seitz, former editor of the New York
World', and Hugh Pendexter, author of many historical novels, who first came to
Norway as a school teacher.
Mellie Dunham, who was selected by Henry Ford as the champion old-time fiddler,
was a native of Norway; here he made the snowshoes used by Robert E. Peary on
his trip to the North Pole.
Left from the Norway Advertiser office, about 1 m. on a local road, to Pike's
Hill (alt. 870), overlooking Lake Pennesseewassee (alt. 398). Outstanding
among the 115 peaks in seven ranges visiblelby telescope from Pike's Hill are
Old Spec, Mt. Washington, and Mt. Osceola.
At 2.6 m. on State 117 is a junction with State 118. Right here on State 118;
at 7.7 m. the route swings left from State 118 to an unnumbered, improved road.
WATERFORD (alt. 400, Waterford Town, pop. 743), 11.3 m. The third house
(L) beyond the post office is the Former Home of Artemus Ward. The earliest
Yankee humorist in the State was Seba Smith, born in Buckfield; John Neal of
Portland had some laughter in his soul; and 'Bill Nye' of Shirley was a later fun-
maker; but the one who earned the widest and most lasting fame was Charles F.
Browne, best known as Artemus Ward (1834-67).
One of his letters tells this of himself: 'I was born in the State of Maine of parents.
As an infant I abstracted a great deal of attention. The nabers would stand over
my cradle for hours and say, "How bright that little face looks! How much it
nose!"?
After his father's death, he learned the printer's trade, became a wandering
printer and did some writing. Later he became known for his wit and humor in
debating. He began writing as Artemus Ward in 1858. His letters attained im-
mediate popularity and in 1860 he became editor of Vanity Fair. After its failure,
he devoted the rest of his short life to lecturing. He died in Southhampton, Eng-
land, of tuberculosis.
His first letter read thus:
The Plane Dealer
Pitsburg, Jan. 27,
1858
Sir:
i write to no how about the show bisnes in Cleveland i have a show con-
sisting in part of a Calforny Bare two snakes tame foxies & also wax woks
my wax works is hard to beat, all say they is life and natural curiosities
among my wax works is our Saveyer Gen. Taylor and Dockter Webster in
the ackt of killing Parkman. now Mr. Editor scratch off a few lines and tel
me how is the show bisnes in your good city i shal have hanbils printed at
your ofns you scratch my back and i will scratch your back, also git up a
grate blow in the paper about my show don't forgit the wax works.
Yours truly
ARTEMUS WARD
Pitsburg Penny,
ps pitsburg is a i horse town. A.W.
SOUTH PARIS fait. 385, Paris Town), 46.6 m., extends south from the
business square on both sides of State 26. Here large-scale manufacturing
of wood novelties is carried on; the Mason Manufacturing Company
364 High Roads and Low Roads
Factory is one of the largest establishments in the world exclusively de-
voted to making children's toys.
At 48 m. is the junction with an improved road.
Right on this road is PARIS HILL (alt. 803, Paris Town, pop. 3761), 1.5 *»., the
earliest residential section of the township. Today it has a group of beautiful old
homes.
In Courthouse Square is (L) the Old Stone Jail (1828), a thick- walled stone building
with monitor roof built as the Oxford County jail. Its use as a jail was discontinued
in 1895 and it has since been converted into the Hamlin Memorial Library. With
the exception of changes in the roof and the removal of cells from the interior, the
building is in its original form. The heavy iron entrance door, grated windows, and
small low door of the ' solitary' cell with its tremendous iron key, pique the imagina-
tion. There are many local tales of early imprisonment and romantic escape from
this building whose grim walls are now softened by trailing ivy.
Beyond the jail is the Birthplace of Hannibal Hamlin (1809-91), Maine's 23d
governor, a U.S. Senator, and Vice-President of the United States under Abraham
Lincoln. The house has been remodeled as a summer residence.
Lyonsden (private), Main St. at Tremont St. (L), built in 1808, was the home of
the late Rear Admiral Henry W. Lyon, commander of the dispatch boat ' Dolphio '•
in the Spanish-American conflict; it is now the home of his son, Captain Harry
Lyon, the navigation officer in 1929 on the airplane 'Southern Cross' when it made
the first trans-Pacific flight from California to Australia. The house takes its name
in part from the lion's head decoration over the door, the figurehead of the 'Nip-
sic,' first vessel commanded by the Admiral.
Directly across from Lyonsden is the Baptist Church (1803), a fine example of
Greek Revival architecture. It has no spire and much of the interior has been
altered.
The Carter House (private), Main St. (R), built in 1787 and the first frame house
erected in Paris, is a one-and-a-half-story building considerably altered from its
original form by the addition of dormer windows and a Greek Revival entrance.
Just beyond the Carter House is Old Brick (private), a flat-roofed, three-story brick
building with a fan-lighted door, at one time occupied by General William Kim-
ball, prominent in the Civil War, and later by his son, Rear Admiral William W.
Kimball who took command of the first torpedo boat flotilla in the Spanish-Amer-
ican War. John P. Holland, inventor of the submarine, assured Kimball that the
submarine was 'a subject that you must have credit for putting into practical
shape and introducing.'
The Hubbard House (L), a three-story structure, built in 1806, with flat roof and
cupola, was formerly a private residence. It is now an inn.
Right from Main St. about 3.5 m. on a dirt road to Mount Mica which has the most
notable pegmatite exposures in the State. The mine has been the chief source of
tourmalines (see The Nation's Northeast Corner).
Snow Falls, 52.8 m. (L), has a drop of 40 feet to the gorge of the Little
Androscoggin River. The foundation of an old mill is visible on the op-
posite bank.
At 55 m. (R) is the Maine Mineral Store, a museum of Maine gems,
particularly those of the immediate area, and a souvenir salesroom. On
display are beryl and tourmaline crystals in their original state, and
lepidolite, one of a species of mica that indicates likely areas for gem
tourmalines.
Near the store is a junction with State 140.
Left on State 140 is the village of WEST PARIS (alt. 486, Paris Town), 1 m.
TOUR 14: From Portland to Errol 365
Feldspar, chiefly from the Bumpus Mine in Albany, is milled here before being
shipped to potteries out of the State. There are also a spool mill, and manu-
factories of wood novelties, including snowshoes and a great variety of toys.
BRYANT POND (alt. 720, Woodstock Town, pop. 848), 62.5 m. Near
the inn on the southern shore of the pond is a small Mink Farm.
At 65.8 m. is a junction with a gravel road.
Left on this road, which follows the western shores of a series of lakes, to the
Greenwood Ice Caves , 3 m. (L). Several hundred years ago landslides broke away
huge boulders and piled them up in such a fashion as to form large caverns, one of
which, called the Cathedral, is 30 feet in diameter and retains winter ice in its in-
terior as late as July.
LOCKE'S MILLS (alt. 763, Greenwood Town, pop. 548), 66.3 m., is in a
township that was the birthplace of Atherton Furlong, lyric tenor, author,
and artist, some of whose pictures are in the Metropolitan Museum in
New York City; he taught music to Annie Louise Gary (see Tour 13) and
Lillian Nordica (see Tour 11).
BETHEL (alt. 700, Bethel Town, pop. 2025) (see Tour 4), 71.5 m., is at a
junction with US 2 (see Tour 4) and State 5 (see Tour 15). Between this
point and Newry, State 29 and US 2 are united.
NEWRY (alt. 630, Newry Town, pop. 188) (see Tour 4), 78 m., is at a
junction with US 2 (see Tour 4).
NORTH NEWRY (alt. 675, Newry Town), 82.9 m., in an agricultural
area in which feldspar is occasionally mined, is popular for its excellent
fishing and hunting. Poplar Tavern (R), in operation for more than 100
years, was built in such manner that the rear abutted a ledge, affording
rear ground-floor entrances to the second and third stories. The second-
story porch affords a view of the dark bulk of Old Spec Mountain (L) and
Puzzle Mountain (R).
In the woods near-by is Diana Pool (bathing}. The old tavern was a
popular vacation resort in the gay nineties.
At 87.4 m. (L) are Screw Auger Falls, where the swirling waters of Bear
River have worn holes from 6 inches to 25 feet in depth in the solid rock of
the river-bed; the holes look as though they had been made with an auger.
The shallower holes in some instances have small waterfall showers of
their own. The near-by ledges are attractive spots for picnics.
Farther along (R) is the Old Jail, a hole 75 feet deep and about 25 feet
across, which affords fun and exercise for those who are ambitious enough
to crawl down and climb up through to ' escape jail.',, ^ ^
At 89.6 m. is the junction with a path.
Right on the path for a 5-minute walk into the woods to a deep gorge on Bear
River; here is Moose Cave, where broken pieces of rock have fallen from the slope of
Bald Mountain into the river and formed a cave, cold even in the hottest days.
Upward from this point are cliffs cut bare by landslides.
Grafton Notch, 90.1 m., is formed by Old Spec Mountain (alt. 4150) and
Bald Mountain (alt. 3996). On Old Spec is the highest lookout station in
the State.
366 High Roads and Low Roads
At 91.2 m. (L) is a junction with the Mahoosuc Trail, part of the Ap-
palachian Club system of trails (see Sports and Recreation: Hiking and
Mountain Climbing).
UPTON (alt. 1722, Upton Town, pop. 166), 99 m., overlooks Umbagog
Lake, the source of the Androscoggin River, which drains the Rangeley
Lakes region. Camps for sportsmen provide facilities for boating, canoe-
ing, riding, fishing, and hunting (registered guides) .
At 100.3 m. State 26 crosses the New Hampshire Line, 8.7 miles southeast
of Errol, N.H.
TOUR 15: From SACO to BETHEL, 102.9 m., State 5.
Via Waterboro Center, Limerick, Fryeburg and Lovell.
Two-lane bituminous roadbed; gravel roadbed north of Lynch ville.
THIS route passes through a charming area of lakes banked by high hills.
Between Fryeburg and Bethel the road skirts the eastern boundary of the
White Mountain National Forest.
SACO (alt. 60, pop. 7244) (see Tour 1, sec. a), 0 m., is at the junction of
US 1 (see Tour 1, sec. a) and State 9 (see Tour 1C).
At 16.7 m. is a junction (R) with State 4 (see Tour 11) with which this
route unites for about i mile.
WATERBORO CENTER (alt. 285, Waterboro Town, pop. 914), 20.7 m.,
is a cross-roads with a scattering of stores and houses. Near-by Little
Ossipee Lake (N) is a center of attraction for campers.
1. Right from Waterboro Center on a gravel road to the lakeside North Star Camp,
2.5 m., maintained by the Portland Young Men's Christian Association.
2. Left from Waterboro Center on an improved road to a Lookout Station and
Camp Site, 2 m., on Ossipee Mountain (alt. 1050). A ski- trail built down the
mountain-side by the Hockomock Ski Club was the scene of the Maine Inter-
scholastic Ski Meet in 1935.
LIMERICK (alt. 535, Limerick Town, pop. 1199), 29.8 m., settled in
1775, was on the old Pequawket Trail, used by the Sokoki Indians
traveling from the Saco River to their principal village at Pequawket,
now Fryeburg (see below).
The first town meeting was held in 1787 in McDonald Inn (L), a three-
story structure still catering to travelers. Some of the rooms in the inn are
wainscoted with knotless pine, while the walls of others are painted with
land and seascapes created by some unknown artist long ago. The door
and window trim is hand hewn.
TOUR 15: From Saco to Bethel 367
CORNISH (alt. 347, Cornish Town, pop. 753), 40.1 m. A deed at Kittery
dated November 28, 1668, records the sale of territory including Cornish
between the Great and Little Ossipee Rivers for such considerations as
rum, blankets, and beads. The town — originally called Francisboro for
the Indian trader, Francis Small of Kittery, who purchased the land from
the Indian sagamore, Captain Sunday — is one of five townships included
in the sale. After transfer of the property was confirmed by the General
Court of Massachusetts, the first white settlement was made in 1776.
Here is a junction with State 25 (see Tour 19), following the old Pequawket
Indian Trail. The bridge across the Saco River at this point makes a
perfect half-circle and is banked to allow for the curve.
At 42.6 m. is a junction with State 113.
Right on State 113 to the Richard Fitch Tavern, 1 m. (L), built about 1780 and now
a private residence owned by descendants of Fitch. The tavern was the center of
all local gatherings in the early days. The militia in every-day homespun and their
officers in uniform assembled here under Captain Edward Small, to train and later
to start their night's march to general muster at Raymond during the War of 1812.
Just beyond is a dirt road (L) leading to the Pierce Place, a large, well-preserved
square house with mansard roof built in 1787 by Josiah Pierce, an ancestor of the
present owner. A fireplace is in each of the eight rooms which contain many old
furnishings collected locally and abroad.
At 3 m. (L), deep in a field on the Sanborn farm (ask at farmhouse for explicit
directions) is a mammoth white Pine Tree. From its base, 10 feet in diameter, the
dark ridged trunk tapers gradually, to a height of approximately 120 feet. Bluish-
green branches thickly hung with clusters of long cylindrical cones form a broad
irregular head on the lofty old tree.
In WEST BALDWIN (alt. 377, Baldwin Town, pop. 694), 43.6 m., the
largest settlement of the township, is the Burnell House (private), near the
center of the village, a large home erected in 1737. Typical of the period
in which it was built are the windows with six lower and nine upper panes.
At 45.4 m. (L) a small picnic ground provides convenient parking space
for viewing Hiram Falls, one of the attractions of this region. During the
spring floods the falls are nearly obscured by a wall of foam.
HIRAM (alt. 382, Hiram Town, pop. 814), 47.9 m., named for Hiram,
King of Tyre, was settled in 1774 by Gen. Peleg Wadsworth, grand-
father of the poet Longfellow (see PORTLAND).
At the outbreak of the Revolutionary War, several years after his grad-
uation from Harvard, Peleg Wadsworth recruited a company at Kingston,
Mass., and received a captain's commission, which was followed in 1778 by
his appointment as Adjutant General of the Massachusetts militia. In the
next two years he rose rapidly from being second in command in the at-
tack on Castine to the post of commanding officer in the defense of the
coast of Maine. While making his headquarters in Thomaston he was
wounded by the British (see Tour 1, sec. b) and carried captive to Castine,
whence he escaped. After the Revolution, General Wadsworth purchased
15,000 acres of forest land at 13^ an acre in what was known as the Hiram
or Wadsworth Grant.
Left from Hiram on a dirt road to Wadsworth Hall (open; adm. 25 ff), 1 m., a large
368 High Roads and Low Roads
two-and-a-half -story frame building with long ell, built in 1787 for the use of
General Wadsworth's lumbermen. The General soon found it so much to his liking
that he moved his family here. The house with its unusually high first story, was
little changed by remodeling in 1875. The second floor rooms are paneled in white
pine with bead and beveled joints and time has darkened the wood almost to the
color of mahogany. One of the chambers has been preserved as it was when used by
Longfellow. The hall in which the militia drilled during the War of 1812 was
utilized as the first school and meeting-house in Hiram, and the first deed of the
land, dated March 9, 1787, hangs here.
Among the other furnishings of the house are the general's desk, containing many of
his semi-official documents, a braided rug made by his daughter, one of a pair of
candlesticks given to General Wadsworth by General Lafayette, and an old fire set.
Spring's Tavern, 49.7 m. (L), an inn of Colonial days that is a tourist
home, was built in 1796 by Captain Thomas H. Spring. Stagecoaches,
traveling along the post road between Fryeburg and Portland, used to
stop here for a change of horses while passengers and driver refreshed
themselves in the tavern taproom.
EAST BROWNFIELD (alt. 399, Brownfield Town), 55.1 m., is a small
commercial center on the Mountain Division of the Maine Central R.R.
Left from East Brownfield, on State 160, which follows Shepards River, is the
village of BROWNFIELD (alt. 426, Brownfield Town, pop. 688), 2 w., an old-
time community little touched by modern traffic and 20th-century progress. Tall,
graceful elms shade lovely old houses.
At 57 m. is a fine view of Old Spec, Bear River Bald, Goose Eye, and
North Peak Mountains.
FRYEBURG (alt. 429, Fryeburg Town, pop. 1582), 62.6 m., a prosperous
summer resort that is the oldest town in Oxford County, lies on a plain in
the Saco River Valley. Wide, tree-arched streets and large well-kept
residences characterize the village, once an Indian settlement known as
Pequawket, said to have been visited by John Smith in 1614.
Pequawket was the home of Nescambiou, the only Indian knighted by
the French. Nescambiou became identified with the French Colonial
Army under General Iberville during the siege of Fort St. John in 1695.
His leadership and fighting qualities and the desire of the French for an
alliance with the Indians against the English, gained him an invitation
to France in 1705, where King Louis XIV conferred a knighthood upon
him. He returned to America a year later.
At the Registry of Deeds, in a small brick building (R), are copies of deeds
in the handwriting of Daniel Webster, the orator and statesman, who was
employed here in 1802 while he was preceptor of Fryeburg Academy.
It has been said that at the time, Webster gave little promise of the re-
markable career he was later to make for himself. He attended church
with great regularity, was not averse to a draft of rum, and took evident
pleasure in attending village dances, at which he earned a reputation for
gallantry, rather than grace.
Several of his letters written from Fryeburg shed light on his life in this
town. ' Nothing here is unpleasant,' he wrote in one, ' there is a pretty
little society; people treat me with kindness and I have the fortune to find
TOUR 15: From Saco to Bethel 369
myself in a very good family. I see little female company, but that is an
item with which I can conveniently enough dispense.'
Webster resumed the study of law after leaving Fryeburg Academy. His
first case before a court was in defense of the Widow Amhead who had
been sued by John Moss for $15, the price of a heifer she bought from him.
Webster was obliged to plead the case before his own father, Judge
Ebenezer Webster, and becoming completely confused, he closed his case
by addressing the court:
'Your Honor, I never should have taken this case. Only a good lawyer
could have won it. My client owes the $15, but I shall pay the $15 myself
because I've failed the poor woman. The poor woman has toiled as no
man in our hard working community has toiled. I'll pay it because it is
unendurable that any woman should struggle as Mrs. Amhead has
struggled and go down defeated by a mean man's cupidity.'
Moss shouted, 'Dang it! I don't want the money. All I want is an ad-
mission it was owed me. I'm satisfied, but you're the worst lawyer I ever
heard, Dan Webster. All you have is a voice.'
A Soldiers1 Monument (L), in Bradley Memorial Park, is on the first site of
Fryeburg Academy. For a monthly salary of $20 Daniel Webster taught
from January i to September i, 1802, hi the one building of the school, a
log cabin that later burned.
Fryeburg Academy (R), founded in 1791, now has three modern buildings,
and has been endowed by Cyrus H. K. Curtis (1850-1933), head of the
Curtis Publishing Company, and by Colonel Harvey Dow Gibson,
president of the Manufacturer's Trust Company of New York, who is an
alumnus of the academy.
The First Congregational Church (R) on Main St., built in 1850, is an at-
tractive structure with closed belfry, and an entrance portico with fluted
columns.
Opposite the church is a boulder indicating the two Meridian Stones
placed here in 1883 by Robert E. Peary, Arctic explorer, who was once a
resident of Fryeburg. The stones indicate the true north, enabling sur-
veyors to obtain the magnetic variation.
Fryeburg is at a junction (L) with US 302 (see Tour 18) which enters the
village (R) at the northern end.
LOVELL VILLAGE (alt. 439, Lovell Town, pop. 645), 73.3 m., is a
commercial center on an intervale in an attractive resort area.
The township was settled in 1779 and named for Captain John Lovewell,
leader of many expeditions against the Indians. Sabattus Mountain
(alt. 1280) (see below) is the highest of the forest-covered hills near the
village. Just northwest of Lovell Village and to the left of the highway lies
the southern extreme of lovely Kezar Lake, whose pine-clad shores —
which shelter many summer homes, among them a lodge owned by Rudy
Vallee, radio and screen star — stretch between this point and North
Lovell (see below), a distance of about 9 miles.
370 High Roads and Low Roads
The Q-hole golf course of the Lake Kezar Country Club (open to visitors,
greens fee $2) is near the southern end of the lake.
CENTER LO VELL (alt. 530, Lovell Town) , 78.7 m. , consists of two stores,
a gas station, and a half-dozen homes on a high terrace overlooking the
lake. The tourist homes and camps here are screened from the highway by
trees.
Right from Center Lovell on a dirt road 3 m. to a trail up the eastern slope of
Sabattus Mountain. The 1.5 m. trail is rough; a good part of it over a dried bed of a
mountain brook. On the western side is a perpendicular cliff, which the more
venturesome may scale by way of the Devil's Staircase, a peculiar formation of 250
natural rock steps embedded in the mountain side. The mountain appears to be one
huge ledge of micaceous rock.
NORTH LOVELL (alt. 441, Lovell Town), 82.9 m., a small neat village
catering to summer people, has several delightful bridle trails winding
through its environs.
EAST STONEHAM (alt. 629, Stoneham Town, pop. 164), 86.7 m., is the
only settlement in a hilly township, all but a very small section of which is
included in the White Mountain National Forest. Speckled Mountain
(alt. 2877), some miles west, is the highest in the town.
This section of the National Forest, with its superb scenery, is rough
country, particularly attractive to the seasoned mountain climber (see
Sports and Recreation) .
Rattlesnake Mountain and Square Dock Mountain are seen (L) .
At LYNCHVILLE (alt. 555, Albany Town), 92 m., State 5 makes a
sharp (L) turn to the north.
Bumpus Mine (open to public) (R), 94.2 m., is one of the most productive
feldspar mines in Maine; pink and green beryl is also mined here; the
largest beryl crystal in the world was taken from this mine in 1930. The
roughly circular pit with its sheer smooth walls of cream white feldspar
has a ramp entrance on one side. When the more valuable clear pink or
green crystals of beryl are found, they are usually removed at once.
From the beryl is extracted a silver-white metal, stronger and of lighter
weight than aluminum; it is proposed to use beryllium as an alloy in the
construction of airplane motors. Gem beryl is rarely found in this mine.
At 95.3 m. is the town house of ALBANY (alt. 647, Albany Town, pop.
309) , the corporate center of a hilly, wooded township lying in the valley
of Crooked River.
BETHEL (alt. 700, Bethel Town, pop. 2025) (see Tour 4), 102.9 m., is at
the junctions with US 2 (see Tour 4), and with State 26 (see Tour 14).
TOUR 16: From BELFAST to SOUTH CHINA, 32 w.,
State 3.
Via Belmont, North Searsmont, Liberty, and Palermo.
Two-lane, hard-surfaced roadbed.
THE rolling farm lands and woods along this route are broken by still,
deep lakes and small villages whose church towers stand out against the
sky. The woodlands are a mixture of hardwood and pine with an oc-
casional clump of fir or spruce.
BELFAST (alt. 160, pop. 4993) (see Tour 1 , sec. £),0 m., is at a junction
with US 1 (see Tour 1, sec. b).
BELMONT (alt. 398, Belmont Town, pop. 227), 6.6 m.t is a four-corners,
formerly known as Green Plantation. The town was first settled by
squatters who, having no legal right to the land, resorted to a ruse in
thwarting attempts to eject them. When word of the impending arrival of
unexpected visitors reached the settlement, the squatters would im-
mediately don feathers, paint, and moccasins, and, when officers of the
law arrived the little settlement would appear entirely deserted, except for
a few loitering Indians who greeted the baffled visitors with stolid in-
difference. This subterfuge caused the squatters to be called the Green
Indians.
NORTH SEARSMONT (alt. 235, Searsmont Town, pop. 613), 11 m., is
the center of a township in which is the summer home of the novelist, Ben
Ames Williams, and the ' Fraternity ' of his stories is recognizable as the
northern and western half of the township.
LIBERTY (alt. 377, Liberty Town, pop. 516), 15.8 m., on George's Stream
and formerly the site of tanning mills and machine shops, now has no in-
dustries. The township was originally granted under the Waldo Patent,
and early settlers, in order to maintain their rights to land titles, held a
secret meeting and decided to take away the land agent's papers. Swear-
ing themselves to secrecy, they seized the agent, took him to St. George
Lake where they cut a hole in the ice, and threatened to drop him into the
icy waters unless he gave up the papers. This he promised to do but later
his kidnapers were arrested and tried in the old Wiscasset Courthouse.
Before a cemetery was laid out in Liberty nearly all the residents had
private burying grounds in their back fields.
In early days when the nearest post office was in Wiscasset, the mails were
very slow in winter, people in Liberty sometimes waiting weeks for replies
to their letters. Even since the establishment of a rural delivery route 22
years ago, mail carriers have encountered difficulties in getting the mail
through in winter, sometimes being obliged to leave their cars and proceed
on snowshoes with such mail as they could carry.
372 High Roads and Low Roads
Around 1843, a large group of Adventists, who were convinced the world
was about to come to an end, gathered here. One ardent member turned
loose his pigs and cattle and, with a few followers, went up to the top of
near-by Haystack Mountain to await the cataclysm, only to return, dis-
gruntled and sorely disappointed, to the task of collecting his scattered
livestock.
More than a century ago Liberty was the home of Timothy Barrett, who,
finding the village little to his liking, crossed to the opposite shore of
George's Stream, where he laboriously dug a cave for his dwelling and
built a floating garden of logs upon which he raised vegetables. He had
few confidants, and his seemingly inexhaustible supply of money gave
rise to rumors that Barrett was a former buccaneer, possibly a fugitive
from Great Britain. After his death, kettles containing French coins were
dug up near his home and the hollow rail of a near-by fence yielded $100
in gold coins.
Lovely St. George Lake, near-by, provides excellent fishing.
At 23.1 m. lies Sheep scot Pond.
When snow covers the green slopes, glistening against the background of
pines, little red flags flutter on the icy surface of the pond heralding the
arrival of the trap-fishing season. Spring traps, placed in holes cut
through the ice, are attached to short wooden sticks with a tiny two-or-
three-inch square bit of red cloth at the top. When the hungry fish rise to
the bait, the spring snaps and the bright little flag bobs up to signal the
bite. The fishermen are able to control several lines at one time. This
manner of winter fishing is popular not only in this district but throughout
the State.
PALERMO (alt. 345, Palermo Town, pop. 513), 26.9 m., settled in 1778 by
pioneers from New Hampshire, is principally an agricultural community.
SOUTH CHINA (alt. 209, China Town) (see Tour 13), 32 m., is at the
junction with State 9 (see Tour 13).
TOUR 17: From AUGUSTA to ROCKLAND, 45.7 m.,
State 17.
Via South Windsor, Union, and West Rockport.
Two-lane tar-surfaced roads.
STATE 17 passes through peaceful agricultural country with gently
rolling hills and skirts numerous small lakes and ponds.
AUGUSTA (alt. 120, pop. 17,198) (see AUGUSTA), 0 m., is at the
TOUR 17: From Augusta to Rockland 373
junctions of US 201 (see Tour 10), State 27 (see Tour 12), and State 9 and
State 11 (see Tour 13).
At 4.6 m. (R) is the north gate of the U.S. Veterans' Administration
Facility, a reservation containing 1752 acres that was the first institution
established (1866) in the United States for disabled veterans. Though
built as a home for Civil War Veterans, the place is now open to disabled
men of all wars. It is a village in itself, with a number of barracks, a large
modern hospital, an administration building, workshops, a chapel, a
library, a theater, a clubhouse, a store, and officers' homes in landscaped
grounds.
For many years the place was called the National Home for Disabled
Volunteer Soldiers, though it was popularly known as Togus, a con-
traction of the Indian Worromontogus. By 1915, 50 years after the end of
the Civil War, the number of members had been greatly reduced, several
barracks were closed, and the canteen was discontinued. Today the home
has over 700 inmates. The National Cemetery on the hill contains the
bodies of many soldiers.
SOUTH WINDSOR (alt. 300, Windsor Town, pop. 565), 10.6 m., is the
center of a town first called Malta; it was the scene of land troubles be-
tween the proprietors of the Kennebec Purchase and the early settlers,
who were without title. This eventually led to the so-called Malta War in
which a surveyor, Paul Chadwick, was slain by a party of settlers dis-
guised as Indians. Several members of the attacking party were jailed in
Augusta, and troops were called in for six weeks to guard the jail, the
courthouse, and the residences of the proprietors until after the Court
trials.
Windsor shared with Vassalboro the honor of having furnished masts and
spars for the frigate ' Constitution ' which was built at Hartt's Navy Yard,
Boston, and launched October 21, 1797.
Clara Barton (1821-1912), the nurse of Civil War days, who organized
the American National Red Cross (first called the American National
Association of the Red Cross), spent her summer vacations here as a child.
At 14.1 m. is a junction with State 218.
Right on State 218 is NORTH WHITEFIELD (alt. 205, Whitefield Town, pop.
908), 3.1 m. An annual Game Supper is served by the Whitefield Fish and Game
Club in the Grange Hall in mid-October. The supper of venison, rabbit pie,
squirrel pie, partridge, and sometimes coon and bear, is followed by a dance.
The town was settled about 1770, principally by Irish Catholics, who were at-
tracted by the forests, and the streams convenient for floating logs to the sea. The
early lumbering has been replaced by farming.
Here is a junction with State 126.
i. Right from North Whitefield on State 126 is St. Denis Church, 1.5 m. (L), a
brick edifice with Gothic tower built in 1833 on the site of the first log church
(1822). The bricks used in this building and in the abandoned Convent
across the road were made by hand on the church grounds. The history
of this church is closely linked with that of St. Patrick's in Damariscotta Mills
(see Tour 1, sec. 6). In 1818, the Reverend Denis Ryan, first Catholic priest
ordained in New England, was named pastor of the parish.
374 High Roads and Low Roads
Nearly opposite the church is Whitefield Academy and Orphan Asylum (R), a
large ivy-covered brick structure built in 1871, and used until 1887, when the
Sisters of Mercy and the orphans were removed to Portland.
2. Left from North Whitefield on State 126, which winds through an attrac-
tive wooded section to Pleasant Pond, 2.7 m. (L). Opposite the Pond is
Pleasant Pond Cemetery (R), with vaults and granite boundary posts at the
highway level. Laid out on 12 terraces, each about 4 feet above the one below
it, on a steep side, hill, with granite steps leading to the higher levels, this
cemetery presents an unusual appearance. From the top of the hill is a broad
view of Pleasant Pond and the surrounding farms.
The circular Jefferson Cattle Pound, 5.7 m. (R), is 30 feet in diameter with
thick field-stone walls 8 feet high. The pound was built in 1829 by Silas Noyes
at a cost of $28; it has been repaired recently. It was formerly used as a place
to keep stray cattle until the owners came for them and paid for their keep.
From a slight elevation at 6 m. (R) the northern half of Damariscotta Lake, 8
miles long, is seen. This end of the lake is known as Great Bay. The placid
body of water with its small wooded islands attracts many summer visitors.
The First Baptist Church, 7 m. (L), a white edifice with belfry, was built in
1808 and remodeled in 1891. On the lawn is a boulder with commemorative
tablet to the first settlers of Jefferson.
At 7.3 m. (R) is Baptismal Beach, a stretch of shore on Damariscotta Lake,
still used by the Baptists for baptism by immersion.
JEFFERSON (alt. no, Jefferson Town, pop. 888), 8.5 m., is composed of a
group of neat white one-and-a-half-story houses, with comfortable rambling
farmhouses on its outskirts. A number of oxen are used by the farmers in
Jefferson. It is believed locally that the fields are unusually verdant in this
region because the land is plowed deeply with the aid of these beasts.
Crescent Beach (bathhouses, picnic grounds, and playground equipment), 9.5 m.,
at the northern end of Damariscotta Lake, has a gradual slope to deep water
where a moored float, with diving board and tower, permits aquatic stunts.
Damariscotta Lake is frequented by sail boat enthusiasts who cruise among the
numerous islands and enjoy the view of HaskelPs Mountain with its fire
tower, and Bunker Hill with its shining white church and background of fir
and spruce trees. The lake is a breeding ground for pickerel.
North Knox Fairground, 29.6 m. (R), is the scene of Union Fair during the
last week of September.
UNION (alt. 105, Union Town, pop. 1060), 30.2 m., its attractive business
blocks facing three sides of the village green with its Civil War monument
and band stand, is a thriving village far enough from large communities to
be a commercial center in itself. Many of the substantial residences are on
a steep side hill to the north and east. The small industries of the village
include casket manufacturing, the seasonal canning of vegetables and the
manufacture of wooden handles and boxes. A model milk plant has re-
cently been built here for the use of the dairy farmers of the vicinity.
SOUTH HOPE (alt. 390, Hope Town, pop. 464), 35.6 m., between
Grassy and Fish Ponds, is the largest settlement in a hilly town that has
a number of large lakes to the south. There are no special restrictions on
fishing in these waters; ice fishing is permitted for all fish except bass.
At 38.4 m. (L) is Mirror Lake, a small pond at the foot of Ragged Moun-
tain (alt. 1300), which shades it during the early part of the day. The
rugged scenery and its reflections in the lake have been painted frequently
by landscape artists.
TOUR 18: From Portland to Center Conway 375
WEST ROCKPORT (alt. 225, Rockport Town, pop. 1651), 39.9 m.
ROCKLAND (alt. 40, pop. 9075) (see Tour 1, sec. b), 45.7 m., is at a
junction with US 1 (see Tour 1, sec. b).
TOUR 18: From PORTLAND to NEW HAMPSHIRE LINE
(Center Conway}, 58.1 m., US 302, The Roosevelt Trail.
Via Foster's Corner, Raymond, South Casco, Naples, Bridgton, and Fryeburg.
Two-lane cement or macadamized roadbed.
MILE after mile of delightful countryside is visible from this route as it
twists along an almost unbroken chain of clear lakes, dips into broad
valleys and winds through still, fragrant groves; at the western end sweep-
ing suddenly over the crest of a hill it reveals the far-away peaks of the
Presidential Range, which seem to vary in altitude with each atmospheric
change. In summer the thick, dark forests form a somber border around
the rich green of fertile farm lands, and when crisp fall nights bring the
first touches of frost, woodlands flame into color, the scarlet and gold of
their autumn foliage in vivid contrast to the brown fields.
The pretty little villages, grown gray in the shade of gnarled old trees,
drowse peacefully. Every settlement along the way caters to summer
visitors, the larger villages serving as trading centers for cottagers and
campers.
Longfellow Square in PORTLAND (alt. 80, pop. 70,810) (see PORT-
LAND), 0 m., is at the junction of US 1 (see Tour 1, sec. a), State 25 (see
Tour 19), and State 26 (see Tour 14).
At 8.3 m. is a junction with a dirt road.
Right on this road is HIGHLAND LAKE (Westbrook), 0.3 m., a settlement near
the south end of Duck Pond, a pretty little cottage-bordered body of water.
FOSTER'S CORNER (alt. 210, Windham Town), 13.3 m., is at a
junction with State 4 (see Tour 11).
NORTH WINDHAM (alt. 300, Windham Town), 16.1 m.
At 17.1 m. is a junction with a dirt road.
Left on this road is White's Bridge, 1 m., spanning the mouth of an inlet of Sebago
Lake. At this point Chief Poland (Polin) of the Rockameecock Tribe assembled his
warriors for an attack against the settlers who had gathered at Old Province Fort
(see Tour 11). Below the bridge (L), at the mouth of the Presumpscot River and
below the present dam, is an Early Dam built by the Indians.
At the Harry Kennard home (R), is a Collection (open to public) of over 1000 Indian
relics and Red Paint artifacts (see Earliest Inhabitants) including chisels, gouges,
and pieces of pottery. Many of the artifacts are made of a stoog entirely foreign to
376 High Roads and Low Roads
this part of the State and some of them were discovered at an Indian Burial
Ground, about 0.3 m. north on the shore of Sebago Lake, said to be one of the
largest such burial grounds in the United States.
RAYMOND (alt. 295, Raymond Town, pop. 446), 21.8 m., is on beautiful
Jordan Bay of Sebago Lake with Panther Pond forming its northern
border. Neat, well-kept residences line each side of the highway in the
shadows of ancient elm trees.
Right of the highway is the Morton Homestead (private), built in 1765; it
has its original six-panel doors, pumpkin pine flooring and a wainscot
made of a single board 27 in. wide and 13^ ft. long.
Also on the right is the Hayden House (private), similar to the Morton
Homestead in architectural style; it was built in 1786 and has its original
hand-made clapboards.
The Raymond Fish Hatchery, on Panther Run connecting Panther Pond
with Sebago Lake, has various buildings in which are rows of long tanks
filled with water piped from the river. Salmon eggs are hatched in these
vats, and the near-by pools harbor great numbers of fish. As many as
90,000 two-year-old landlocked salmon are released from the hatchery at
one time.
Sebago Lake (Ind.: 'stretch of water' or 'place of river-lake'), with
a length of 14 miles and a maximum width of n miles, in some places
reaches a depth of 400 feet. Several small islands stud the broad sweep of
water, and off the southeastern shore lies the green bulk of Frye's Island.
The lake with its tributaries is the original home of the landlocked salmon
(salmo Sebago), which propagate in great numbers and grow rapidly.
These splendid fighters, often attaining a weight of eight pounds, rise best
in the early months of the year, and in September. Hard hitters at fly or
bait, landlocked salmon give a stiff fight until landed. Also in these waters
are trout, togue, bass, white perch, smelts, pickerel, and an abundance of
cusk that provides excellent catches during winter fishing through the ice.
On the shores of Sebago Lake are many camps where hundreds of tanned
youngsters spend the summer. The drinking water for Portland and its
vicinity comes from this lake. During the summer a boat (variable
schedule, inquire at dock) plies the waters of Sebago from the dock near the
Sebago railroad station (see Tour 19).
At 23.7 m. (R), about 50 feet up from the highway, is Pulpit Rock, a
smooth projection 5^" feet high and equally wide, on which, it is said, the
Devil used to stand when preaching to the Indians. During one of his dis-
courses, according to legend, a rash young chief had the temerity to laugh
in the Devil's face, whereupon the Evil One rose in a passion and, stamp-
ing his foot, caused the ground in front of the pulpit to drop 50 feet.
Nathaniel Hawthorne was very fond of this rock, where he spent many
hours reading.
SOUTH CASCO (alt. 310, Casco Town, pop. 713), 24.7 m., lies on a
narrow strip of land between Thomas Pond (E) and Sebago Lake (W).
Farmhouses comprise the residences of this small settlement, from which
TOUR 18: From Portland to Center Conway 377
well-cultivated lands extend into the hills overlooking Sebago Lake and
the 14 Dingley Islands near the shore.
Left from South Casco on a local dirt road to a large wooden Tower, 0.3 m., with a
bell fire alarm. West of the tower, across the field, is a large Rock and Shell Forma-
tion, about 50 feet high overlooking a fine grove of pine on the shores of Dingley
Bay on Sebago Lake. The variously shaped shelves of this formation terminate in
a large, flat hood-like top shelf beneath which is a cave; in this, it is said, a 14-year-
old girl was held prisoner by the Indians for three years. Her family, finally dis-
covering her whereabouts, led an attack on the Indians and resided her.
At 0.4 m. (R) is the Manning House (private), built in 1810 by Richard Manning,
an uncle of Nathaniel Hawthorne. A large square two-story structure with hip
roof and massive chimneys, it has eight fireplaces with openings ranging from 45 to
56 inches in width. There is a Christian or 'witch' door with five panels, and
the interior is decorated with wall paper 126 years old. All the window glass was
imported from Belgium. In this house, Nathaniel Hawthorne visited for months at
a time before the Hawthorne home (see below) was built. It was Uncle Richard who
taught the budding literary genius the rudiments of mathematics, grammar and
geography.
The frame Murch House (private}, on the left side of the road, was built in 1780 by
Captain Joseph Dingley. It was originally a two-story house, but fire destroyed the
upper part. The ground floor was preserved intact, and the house was later re-
modeled into the present story-and-a-half structure. At the rear of the Murch
House stands an Old Windmill, its gaunt shape in drab contrast with the surround-
ing fields.
Just beyond this house the road crosses a bridge over Dingley Brook, which
separates the townships of Cascp and Raymond. The road continues out onto
Raymond Cape, becoming a scenic shore route along a four-mile strip of wooded
land projecting into Sebago Lake. On the tip of the cape, flint of the quality used
by Indians in making their arrow and spear heads, skinning knives, and tomahawks,
is frequently found.
Just after the road crosses the Dingley Brook bridge, at 0.5 m. (L), is the Haw-
thorne House (open in summer), a remodeled two-and-a-half -story barnlike struc-
ture, now owned by the Town of Raymond and used for public meetings. This
house was erected in 1812 by Richard Manning for his sister, Mrs. Hathorne, the
mother of Nathaniel Hawthorne, who lived here in seclusion after the death of her
husband. The boy, Nathaniel Hathorne, then about seven years of age, roamed
the near-by hills, fished in local streams, and frequently sat on rocks in sunny spots,
engaged in his favorite pastime of reading. One close companion of his boyhood
days was William Symmes, a Negro boy of his own age. As there were few children
in the community, he and Nathaniel would listen together to the tales of the men
who congregated in Manning's store. Extracts from Nathaniel's diary show the
deep interest he took in all he heard: ' Captain Britton from Otisfield was at Uncle
Richard's today. Not long ago Uncle brought here from Salem, a new kind of
potatoes called Long Reds. Captain Britton had some for seed and uncle asked
how he liked them. He answered, "They yield well, grow very long; one end is
very poor and the other good for nothing." I laughed about it after he was gone,
but Uncle looked sour, and said there was no wit in his answer and that the saying
was stale. It was new to me and his way of saying it very funny. Perhaps Uncle
did not like to hear his favorite potato spoken of in that way, and that if the cap-
tain had praised it he would have been called witty.'
Another entry reads: 'A peddler named Dominicus Jordan was today in Uncle
Richard's store telling a ghost story. I listened intently but tried not to seem in-
terested. The story was of a house, the owner of which was suddenly killed. Since
his death the west garret window cannot be kept closed, though the shutters be
hasped and nailed at night; they are invariably found open the next morning, and
no one can tell when and how the nails were drawn.' (This Dominicus Jordan,
under the name of Dominicus Pike, appears in Hawthorne's story, 'Mr. Higgen-
botham's Catastrophe.')
378 High Roads and Low Roads
Nathaniel Hathorne was graduated from Bowdoin College in 1825 and changed his
surname to Hawthorne the same year. College vacations were spent at his Ray-
mond home, and in later years, when a resident of Salem, Mass., he often spoke of
his longing for this place. Another note from Hawthorne's diary of later years
refers to Raymond : ' I have visited many places called beautiful in Europe and the
United States but have never seen the place that enchanted me like the flat rock
from which I used to fish.'
At 2.2 m. in a wooded section of the cape is a Luther Gulick Girls' Camp (Little
Wohelo). The camp directly across the Lake (Wohelo) is the original Luther
Gulick camp, said to be the first summer camp of its kind in the United States.
Luther Gulick (1865-1918), pioneer in physical education, founded the child
hygiene department of the Russell Sage Foundation, contributed a great deal to
the advancement of the Young Men's Christian Association; with James Naismith,
he devised the game of basketball, and with his wife founded the Campfire Girls
organization. Although both Mr. and Mrs. Gulick are dead, the camps are main-
tained and directed by their son, Halsey.
At 4.6 m. is an open lot for parking. About 100 yards (R) near the shore of the lake
is Pulpit Rock, pentagonal in shape and 7 feet high. Two natural steps lead up to
its smooth top from which Chief Poland is believed to have addressed gatherings of
his tribe, the Rockameecocks. Near Pulpit Rock is Frye's Leap (L), a cliff-top high
above Sebago Lake, associated with an incident of pioneer days. After running
several miles with a band of Indians in close pursuit, a Captain Frye came out upon
the cliff. He escaped the Indians by diving into the waters far below, and swam
into a cave formed by an overhanging ledge, in which he remained until nightfall,
when he swam over to a large island, later named for him. In the same cave, the
first chapters of 'The Scarlet Letter' were penned by Nathaniel Hawthorne. On
the vertical faces of the cliff, which is formed of huge boulders 75 to 100 feet high,
are paintings made with pigments in which the red men portrayed Indians, native
animals, and hunting weapons. Once vividly colorful, these examples of Indian art
have mellowed to soft hues, blending beautifully into the rock.
At 29.5 m. is a junction with State 11 (see Tour 13). Between this point
and Naples, US 302 and State 11 are one route (see Tour 13).
NAPLES (alt. 280, Naples Town, pop. 641), 31.2 m., with two golf
courses (open\ is a stopping point on the Songo River boat trip (see
Tour 19).
Naples is entered from the east over an iron drawbridge, which spans a
stream connecting Long Lake (R) and Brandy Pond (L) ; from the bridge
is an exceptionally fine view of Mt. Washington and the surrounding hills,
which seem to rise almost from the northern rim of Long Lake. On wind-
whipped Long Lake, seaplanes and sea-sleds, as well as fast cabin cruisers,
find wharfing facilities.
The people of Naples take their politics so seriously that until a few years
ago the town was openly divided, with two entrances to the public build-
ings, one for the Democrats and the other for the Republicans. In these
buildings the seating plan was so arranged that each party had its own
half of the room. This sharp party line was drawn even in the school-
room, with the children of Republican parents seated on one side of the
room and the children of Democratic parents on the other; the climax
came when it became necessary to assign two teachers to each room to
satisfy the rabid feelings of the parents. When a flagpole was erected on
the village green by the Republicans, the Democrats, not to be outdone,
had a flagpole erected on the same plot, with fitting ceremony. While such
TOUR 18: From Portland to Center Conway 379
open expression of strong political feeling has disappeared to a certain
extent, politics is still of paramount importance in Naples.
Left from Naples on the Lake House Road, at the home of Harold Ridlon, 0.5 m.
(L), is an interesting Collection of Indian Relics (open), consisting of arrowheads,
stone skinning knives, and tomahawk heads, all well arranged and catalogued.
These relics have been collected on the shores of Sebago Lake and are in an excel-
lent state of preservation.
At 31.6 m. (R), in the rear of a cemetery on the shore of Long Lake, rests
the partly exposed hulk of the freighter 'Columbia,' a 6o-ton vessel, later
christened 'The Ethel.' The 'Columbia' was the last of the fleet that
carried lumber down Sebago Lake and along the canal to Stroudwater and
the sea. First rigged as a schooner, she was later steam driven, and made
her last trip in 1904. In the past, as now, the waters of Sebago and Long
Lakes were subject to sudden and severe squalls, and the crews on these
shallow freighters were hard put to keep them on an even keel.
At 32.7 m. (L) is The Manor, now an inn, but built as a home in 1799 by
George Pierce, the first settler of Naples. The front and rear walls of the
two-story, square structure are of wood, the side walls of brick. The
house has four chimneys, a hip roof, and 24-light windows. The interior,
with its original flooring, decorated cornices, wainscotting of single board
width, six fireplaces, and a spacious hall with graceful balustraded stair-
way, retains much of its early appearance. From the Manor is a fine view
of Long Lake and the White Mountains. The mineral spring on this
property supplies excellent water; in 1935 when repairs were being made
on the house, piping of hollow logs was found for conveying water from
the spring to the house.
To the rear of the Manor is Skid Hill and a small group of pines known as
the Perley Pines, some of them marked in pre-Revolutionary days with
the 'broad arrow,' indicating that they were reserved for masts of the
Royal Navy; the 'broad arrows' are still discernible. When Skid Hill was
named, an unbroken forest of white pine stretched to Bridgton. Logs
hauled to the hill were rolled down the hillside across the road and field to
Mast Cove on the shores of Long Lake, there to be loaded on freighters
and carried to the coast.
Seba Smith, one of the first prominent American humorists, recounted the
exploits of a rough-and-ready crew that for many seasons made a festive
occasion of cutting and loading the pine in this region. Smith was born in
1792 in a log cabin in Buckfield, of which his father had been one of the
first settlers. After receiving some instruction at Bridgton Academy in
Bridgton, where the family lived for a time, he obtained a loan for his
education and entered Bowdoin College. An excellent student, he was of
mild nature and inclined to oppose radical changes in the established
order. After his graduation he became assistant editor of the Portland
Argus, later purchasing a half interest. His 'Major Jack Downing
Letters,' on contemporary political issues, first appeared in the Portland
Courier.
At 33 m. (L) is the Hayloft, a house and remodeled barn on land that was
380 High Roads and Low Roads
a Revolutionary War bonus given to a Private Hill. To this veteran and
his wife were born two sons, one of whom became Capt. Charles Hill,
engaged in the clipper ship trade with the Orient. On one of his trips to
China, Captain Hill and his crew are said to have removed several large
idols from a Chinese temple and succeeded in bringing them back to the
United States. Upon close examination, the exceedingly heavy idols were
found to be filled with gold. The sum realized by Captain Hill, as his
share, was around $300,000. With part of the money he added a fine two-
and-a-half-story house to the old homestead, and used the old house as an
ell. The spacious main house, which was built 80 years ago, overlooks
Mast Cove. Chandeliers hanging from decorative ceiling rosettes brighten
the large rooms and scatter shadows on the graceful balustrade and broad
stairway in the wide hall, where for many years two of the huge idols
reposed in odd contrast with the other furnishings.
After building the main house and losing most of the remainder of his
stolen wealth, Captain Hill grew restless. With the hope of recouping his
fortune, he once again set sail for the Far East; he was never seen again
and it is possible that the priests, aware of his sacrilegious plundering,
killed him when he returned to the temple.
BRIDGTON (alt. 360, Bridgton Town, pop. 2649), 40 m., is a trading
center for the many summer and winter visitors of the environs, and has
excellent recreational facilities.
Old elm trees grace the residential sections where well-kept old houses
stand beside those of later architecture.
Bridgton is musically inclined, having a band, Fremstad Music Club, and
church musical societies. Olivia Fremstad, the prima donna, was a
summer resident of the town for several years, and many other musicians
of note have become summer residents.
The Pondicherry Mills (open to visitors) (R) at Pondicherry Square were
named for a French province in the eastern part of India. The mills have
manufactured woolen goods and provided Bridgton with a means of liveli-
hood for many years.
Highland Lake, the southern end of which is within the village limits,
provides fine trout and bass fishing. At the village end of the lake is a
Rearing Pool for trout.
Opposite the rearing pool is the Walter Hawkins House (private), a story -
and-a-half structure built in 1770, but extensively rebuilt in recent years
with the use of much of the old building material such as hand-hewn
timbers and handmade nails. Among the furnishings are many old
Bridgton pieces.
Right from Bridgton on State 117 to Bridgton Academy, 3.6 m. (L), a co-educa-
tional preparatory school of high scholastic standing, first opened in 1808. The
Spratt-Meade Museum (open) on the campus displays Indian artifacts, early
American farm and home implements, butterfly, shell, and mineral collections,
early books and manuscripts, and clothing of an early period.
The village of NORTH BRIDGTON (alt. 370, Town of Bridgton), in which the
academy stands, is a summer resort on the edge of Long Lake along the wooded
shores of which are many estates.
TOUR 18: From Portland to Center Conway 381
In the Glines Neighborhood, 5.8 m. (Bridgton Town), in a neat little cemetery (R)
beside the road, is the Grave of Captain John Haywood, hero of Bunker Hill.
Private Haywood, in that battle, fought bravely and, when his captain fell mortally
wounded, seized the sword from the captain's fingers, and springing upon the
parapet, encouraged his men and directed their activities. Private Haywood be-
came Captain Haywood in the course of time, survived the war, and returned to his
old home at North Bridgton. On the slate stone at Captain Haywood's grave is an
inscription that seems to have appealed to many people in the early days:
'Pause stranger, ere you pass by —
As you are now, so once was I.
As I am now, soon you'll be,
Prepare for death, to follow me.'
At 43.7 m. Pleasant Mountain looms up ahead (left center).
At 45.7 m. a long bridge crosses narrow Moose Pond which extends on both
sides of the bridge as far as the eye can see. This delightful spot where the
green wooded slopes of Pleasant Mountain on the western bank are mir-
rored in the cold, sparkling waters has been little spoiled by the coming of
civilization.
At 49.4 m. is a junction with a dirt road.
Left on this dirt road to a parking space at 1.5 m. where is the entrance to a well-
defined trail leading to the summit of Pleasant Mountain (alt. 2037). This 2.5 m.
trail, following an old coach road a considerable distance, has markers at frequent
intervals and rustic benches at scenic points. Halfway up the trail (L) is a Ranger's
Cabin built in a clearing. Near-by is a cold spring. Above this point the trail is
more precipitous.
The Fire Tower (open), on the mountain summit is always manned by a fire war-
den. The glass-enclosed room, about 8 feet square, permits an unobstructed view
for 30 miles with the naked eye, and 75 miles with glasses. It would be difficult to
count the numerous mountain peaks, broken only by Lake Kezar to the north and
six other lakes. To the southeast unwinds the broad silver ribbon of Casco Bay.
Three other lookout towers, Kearsarge, Ossipee, and Blackstrap, are visible here.
The wind sweeps across the summit of Pleasant Mountain with a velocity close to
50 miles an hour, and sings as it strikes the steel framework of the tower, which
rises 50 feet into the air. The temperature at the top of the mountain is 20 degrees
below that at the base.
At 54 m. is a junction with a dirt road.
Left on this road to a boulder, 0.3 m. (L), at the northern end of Lovewell Pond,
marking the Site of Love-well's Fight, May 8, 1725, when a company of 33 Massa-
chusetts Rangers under Captain John Lovewell battled from dawn to dusk with 80
Pequawkets led by Paugus. During this battle, both the chief and Captain Love-
well were killed and afterward the Indians abandoned their seat at Pequawket and
fled to Canada.
At 55.4 m. (R) is Jockey Cap, a gigantic 2oo-foot boulder near the roadside.
At 56.1 m. is a junction with State 5 (see Tour 15).
FRYEBURG (alt. 415, Fryeburg Town, pop. 1582) (see Tour 15), 56 m.,
is at a junction with State 5 (see Tour 15).
At 58.1 m. US 302 crosses the New Hampshire Line, 4 miles east of
Center Conway, N.H.
TOUR 19: From PORTLAND to NEW HAMPSHIRE
LINE (Freedom), 42.8 m.t State 25.
Via Westbrook, Gorham, Standish, Cornish, Kezar Falls, and Porter.
Two-lane hard-surfaced roadbed.
WEST of the industrial communities of Cumberland Mills and West-
brook, State 25 runs through a farming country with well-kept houses;
crops in this vicinity are raised mainly for home use, with a small surplus
for sale in local markets.
The countryside to the west is well wooded with pine, white birch, and
some hemlock. In mid-April, hiding under dead leaves in the woods, are
quantities of trailing arbutus; a few weeks later appear the pale-green
stems and faint-yellow cup-like blossoms of wild oats, and as the season
progresses, ladyslippers, and benjamins. In June great beds of lilies-of-
the- valley are found near the edges of the woods. Hidden in the grass, yet
spreading their perfume, sweet wild strawberries ripen as June draws to a
close. The broad fields bloom in early spring, first with blue-white
anemones, then with dandelions, buttercups, white daisies and black-
eyed-susans, and in late summer with heavy growths of red clover and
goldenrod.
PORTLAND (alt. 80, pop. 70,810) (see PORTLAND), at Longfellow
Square, 0 m., is at the junctions of US 1 (see Tour 1, sec. a), US 302 (see
Tour 18), and State 26 (see Tour 14).
CUMBERLAND MILLS (alt. 70, Westbrook Town), 5.1 m. The fine
brick buildings extending along the dam and both sides of the Presumpscot
River are the S. D. Warren Paper Company Mills (open to public),
Cumberland St. The plant, established in 1852, has grown from one little
frame building that turned out less than five tons of the finished product
daily, to the present great brick and concrete structure with nearly 60
acres of floor space, holding large, modern paper-making machines having
a combined average daily production of 275 tons.
Right on Cumberland St. to a dirt road; on this road is HALIDON, 2 m., on the
northern bank of the Presumpscot. It is one of several single -taxing communities
founded by Fiske Warren, the paper manufacturer. Mr. Warren has the con-
trolling interest of over 200 acres of the area; the tenants secure 99-year leases, pay
the property tax of the City of Westbrook annually, and turn over the receipt to
the trustees, as the only payment of land rental. Halidon has its own community
meetings six times a year and elects officers; inhabitants of both sexes from the age
of 15 may vote.
WESTBROOK (alt. 85, pop. 10,807), 6.1 m., is an industrial city^with a
large French-Canadian population. In its early days the community was
called Saccarrappa. Westbrook and peering were taken from the town of
Falmouth in 1814 and incorporated in Westbrook Town.
TOUR 19 : From Portland to Freedom 383
The Dana Warp Mills (open to public), 347 Brown St., established in 1866,
is one of the important cotton manufacturing plants of Maine.
The Haskell Silk Mill (open to public), 98 Bridge St., makes both rayon
and high-quality silk goods.
The Bean House (R), on Bridge St. opposite the Dana Warp Mills, a
three-story dwelling built in 1805 and divided into apartments, has a
spiral staircase of great beauty, above which is a domed skylight.
Rudy Vallee, the orchestra leader, was brought to Westbrook when a
young child and lived on Monroe Avenue. His father was the proprietor
of a local drugstore for many years.
Benjamin Paul Akers (see The Arts'), sculptor of the 'Dead Pearl-Diver'
(see PORTLAND), was born here in 1825.
GORHAM (alt. 220, Gorham Town, pop. 3035) (see Tour 11), 10.5 m., is
at a junction with State 4 (see Tour 11).
WEST GORHAM (alt. 247, Gorham Town), 13.5 m.
The Prentiss House (open], in village Center (L), a two-and-a-half-story
structure with hip roof, was the boyhood home of Seargent Smith Pren-
tiss, who was born in Portland in 1808, and became a lawyer. He went to
the South in 1832 and formed a partnership with John I. Guion; this firm
attained a national reputation, in part because of Prentiss' oratorical
ability.
On the edge of the village, left of the highway, is Homeland Farms (open),
with a fine group of white painted buildings; cattle of this dairy farm were
imported from the Isle of Jersey.
STANDISH (alt. 415, Standish Town, pop. 1317), 17.7 m., a pretty
village, settled in the late 1750*3, was named in honor of Miles Standish.
It lies in an area principally devoted to orcharding.
The Marrett House (private), next to the post office on the south side, a
large two-and-a-half-story white house, built in 1789, became the home of
the Reverend Daniel Marrett, on his appointment to the parish after
ordination. During the War of 1812 when it was feared that Portland
would be taken by the British, the coin from Portland banks was hauled
by six oxen to Parson Marrett's house, where it was stored in a room the
foundation of which had been strengthened for the purpose. The heavy
locks, placed on the doors of the house at this time to protect the treasure,
are still in place.
The frame Unitarian Church (R), built in 1806, is an example of the sim-
plicity of early church architecture in Maine. It is now painted brick red,
and has a square towered belfry and old-fashioned box pews. .
Right from Standish on a good dirt road to Sebago R.R. Station, 3 m., the starting
point for a delightful boat trip through Sebago Lake (Ind.: 'a stretch of water')
and the Songo River into Long Lake.
Leaving the dock near the Sebago R.R. Station, the small boat swings north
toward the broader section of Sebago Lake (see Tour 18). On all sides tree-clad hills
climb abruptly from rocky shores; Rattlesnake Mountain gradually looms into
384 High Roads and Low Roads
view (R). Toward the west the scenery becomes more rugged, with the Saddleback
Mountains plainly visible. On a clear day, the sometimes snow-capped summits of
the White Mountains are outlined in the distance.
After an hour's ride the boat swings into the waters of the Songo (Ind. : ' the outlet ')
River, rounding sharp bends, and pushing through reeds among which are often
seen the sleek, brown bodies of muskrats, darting swiftly past the boat's prow. On
either side, the river banks slope gently to the hills covered with pine and hemlock.
The boat passes through several locks during the i*^-hom run. After a trip up this
river, many years ago, Longfellow wrote his poem, 'Songo River':
'Nowhere such a devious stream,
Save in fancy or in dream,
Winding slow through bush and brake,
Links together lake and lake.'
Entering Long Lake, a charming body of water with cottages, hotels, and summer
camps scattered along its shores, the boat stops at NAPLES (see below).
A fork of roads at 19.7 m. is known as Two Trails. State 25, north of
this point was the Ossipee Trail used by the Indians for travel between
Maine and New Hampshire. The tribes of the two areas, bound by blood-
ties, made frequent inter-tribal visits. The Pequawket Trail (R) was a
short-cut from the lower Saco to the Indian village of Pequawket (see
Tour 15).
At 23.2 m. a bridge spans the Saco River, here wide and turbulent in its
broken rock bed, and a spot where the waters teem with logs during the
spring drives. Only five million logs were driven down the Saco in 1935 as
compared with the 60 million average of former years.
EAST LIMINGTON (alt. 240, Limington Town), 23.6 m.
Left from East Limington on a tarred road to the Little Ossipee River, 0.3 m., on the
northern bank of which is the Site of an Indian Village. Surrounded by woods, this
permanent camp had a plentiful supply of fresh meat, which, with ground corn,
formed the basic food stuff of the Indians. They stretched and tanned animal pelts
for clothing, retaining the fur on their outer winter garments. The squaws set
snares for smaller animals, and in spring collected maple sap in bark containers,
boiling it down to sugar in much the same manner as is done today. After planting
their corn the whole population went down the river to the sea, where the winter
supply of fish was caught and smoked.
At 0.4 m. (L) is the Chase Sawmill, developed from the first small mill built by
Deacon Amos Chase in 1773 on the same site.
At 0.5 m. (R) is the Chase House (private), deep set in a large lot and reached by a
curving, maple-bordered driveway. The original plans for this large two-story
octagon-shaped house surmounted by an octagonal cupola, which was built in
1810, were drawn by Mrs. Chase on an eight-sided collar box, which was the source
of Captain Chase's inspiration for the house. The builder found it necessary to
change the arrangement of rooms on Mrs. Chase's plans, as she had neglected to
include a staircase in her design. On each of the eight facades of the house are
twin windows in both stories. Captain Josiah Chase, father of the present owner,
was a whaler out of New Bedford, Mass., and the house contains many mementos
of his seafaring days. There are several whales' teeth carved and engraved and
filled with colored inks; a small collection of shells; a reproduction of the Ben-
jamin Russell drawing 'Sperm Whaling'; and photographs of the Maori Chief
Tomati Waka, and of Thakomlan, King of the Fiji Islands.
NORTH LIMINGTON (alt. 310, Limington Town), 24.9 m.
Left from North Limington on State 11 is LIMINGTON VILLAGE (alt. 462,
TOUR 19: From Portland to Freedom 385
Town of Limington, pop. 747), 2.1 m., on high land overlooking (W) a narrow
valley and high wooded hills.
On the Main Street (R) is the Me Arthur House (private), a beautiful two-story
weathered structure with gambrel roof and large central chimney, built in 1797.
Across the front lawn run a row of large elms and a long line of spaced granite posts.
To the rear is a large apple orchard.
The first floor of the interior is finished in black walnut. Among the old furnishings
in the house are: four-poster beds, one of which is canopied with fine old lace; a
small covered cradle that has been in the possession of the McArthur family for
several generations; and a small piano. There is also a collection of rare editions of
old books, some dating back to the i6th century.
Among treasured family possessions are a tomahawk given by Sitting Bull to Mal-
colm McArthur, graduate of West Point, 1865, and a letter from Malcolm to his
mother in which he tells of going on expeditions under General Custer.
General William McArthur in 1861 organized the 8th Maine Regiment, 73 Liming-
ton men enlisting for service in the Civil War. After the war, he retired to his home
to practice law and to cultivate an extensive apple orchard. He would walk
through the fields with a cane and whenever the cane touched the ground, there he
would plant a tree. When the trees were grown, every straight one, to the amaze-
ment of his neighbors, was cut down because, said the General, 'a straight tree is
easier to bring up to bear good fruit than a crooked one.'
CORNISH (alt. 355, Cornish Town, pop. 763) (see Tour 15), 32.7 m., is at
a junction with State 5 (see Tour 15).
KEZAR FALLS (alt. 381, Parsonsfield Town, pop. 897, and Town of
Porter), 36.5 m., a good-sized settlement of neat small homes, is divided
into two sections by Ossipee River. It has a village corporation, though
the residents on opposite sides of the river are taxpayers and voters in
separate towns.
The bustling village centers around the Kezar Falls Woolen Company
Mill (open by permit) (R) along the river, which is wide at this point and
held back by a long, curved Dam (L) .
PORTER (alt. 407, Porter Town, pop. 883), 39 m.
Right from Porter on a dirt road to the Bullockite Church (open last Sun. in May
only), 2 m. (L). In the early iSoo's a religious battle raged in this locality, causing
the Baptist denomination to be split. The dissenters, who were fundamentalists
and led by Elder Jeremiah Bullock and Elder John Buzzell, emulated the example
of the Disciples and for years the rite of washing one another's feet as a mark of
humility was always a part of their services.
The severe simplicity of the large two-story building, which they erected in 1828,
and the bleakness of its rough plastered walls and floor are relieved only by the
beauty of the wainscoting of pumpkin pine, which has grown brown and satinlike
with age. Square box pews, each with a small gate opening on the aisle, divide the
floor of the church and face the high platform at one end. Here beneath the long
fan-shaped window sat the elders, a delicate railing enclosing the benches reserved
for them. When the church was built no provision was made for heat as it was the
old-time belief that the love of God shown in the fervor of the congregation was
sufficient to raise the temperature to a comfortable point. Later on the warmth of
the meetings must have waned for a stove was set up downstairs and now many
lengths of pipe twist along the ceiling under the gallery.
At 42.8 m. State 25 crosses the New Hampshire Line, 2.3 miles east of
Freedom, N.H.
ISLAND TOURS
OF ALL Maine's physical attractions, perhaps her islands hold the
greatest share of scenic riches. Thousands in number, they border her
coast in a long fringe of interdependent but individual units, each with
distinct features that make it stand out by itself. They have always
been prosperous with the bounty of the sea, and many of them are still
important fishing and lobstering centers. Others have achieved fame as
shipping ports, or for some peculiar product of their own — as for
example, the granite of the Penobscot Bay islands. Today they are
principally summer resort centers, and from Casco Bay to Passama-
quoddy Bay they are frequented by city folk who desire temporary re-
treat from the stress of modern living to the simplicity, privacy, and in-
dependence of insular life. More and more generally, artists and writers,
yachting and fishing enthusiasts, sufferers from hay fever and other ail-
ments, are acquiring summer homes on the coastal islands of Maine.
The tours described below may conveniently be taken from leading
mainland points, and include some of the larger insular population centers,
prominent summer resorts, and islands of special scenic, historical, or
legendary interest. While numerous sunset or moonlight sails may be
taken out of Portland and other ports, the following daylight cruises were
selected as providing opportunity during the leisure of the voyage to
enjoy some of the great body of descriptive material and native lore
relating to almost every island. One should make inquiry at the various
wharfs regarding steamboat schedules, as the service is variable.
TOUR 1: PORTLAND to THE ISLANDS OF CASCO BAY
A. To Orr's Island, via Peak's, Little and Great Diamond, Long, Little and
Great Chebeague, and Cliff Islands, South Harpswell, and Bailey Island.
Time: about 2>£ hours.
B. To Gurnet, by same route as above to Bailey Island. Time: about 3 hours.
C. To Birch Island, via Cousin's and Bustin's Islands. Time: about 2 hours.
Casco Bay Lines. Custom House Wharf, Commercial St. (see PORTLAND}.
The mainland shore of Casco Bay stretches from the end of Cape Eliza-
beth on the south to Bald Head at Cape Small on the north. These two
points are more than twenty miles apart in a direct line; and between
them, the lighthouse at Halfway Rock marks the center of the bay's
outer border. The island-dotted waters of the bay coyer an area of
approximately 200 square miles. Geologists say that this was once the
mouth of the Androscoggin River, and that the sandy inner islands were
Portland to Orr's Island 387
built up of sediment brought down by the stream and deposited upon
jutting reefs. Finally blocking up its entire mouth in this fashion, the
river eventually deviated to its present channel, joining with the Kenne-
bec at Merrymeeting Bay. Steamers, ferries, small motor and sail craft
ply the channels that weave among Casco's many islands, most of which
are heavily wooded, with wild cliffs and crescents of smooth beach. Al-
though any native of the bay region will say that the islands number 365,
one for every day in the year, by official count there are actually but 222
'big enough for a man to get out and stand on'; and of these only 138
have sufficient acreage to be classed as good-sized islands. Besides those
counted, there are, of course, innumerable rocks and ledges, shoals and
' knobs ' — so many, in fact, that the eastern end of the bay is considered
one of the most difficult sections of the entire coast to navigate. Single
islands were generally named after early settlers, or they have retained
their Indian designations. A few names, however, attest to the originality
and imagination of the first inhabitants — as for example, Junk of Pork,
Pound of Tea, Stepping Stones, Brown Cow, and Goosenest. Many of the
names are used more than once : there are four Ram Islands, two Gushing
Islands, two Crow Islands, and several Pumpkin Knobs.
These islands abound in pirate lore, Indian legends, and stories of the
struggles between early colonists and the red man. The tales of Casco
Bay have added their bright coloring to the tapestry of American litera-
ture. Whether the scene of a bloody battle or the former habitation of a
famous chief, the site of an early settlement or a place of buried treasure,
nearly every island can boast some exciting history of its own. And all
possess in varying degree the rugged and sparkling beauty peculiar to the
northern shores. Upon the larger islands there are summer colonies,
summer hotels, and the villages of year-round inhabitants, most of them
fishermen.
A . Portland to Orr's Island
This is a smooth-water trip of 44 miles, with stops at nine islands and
opportunity to enjoy a memorable shore dinner at one of the hotels near
the steamboat wharf.
From Custom House Wharf the steamer swings out into the water traffic
of Portland Harbor, leaving behind it the activity of the water front —
the busy docks, the noise of Commercial Street with its trucks and trains,
and over all the shrill cries of the scavenging gulls. Soon the boat passes
HOG ISLAND (L) with its formidable-looking Fort Gorges, in a com-
manding position on a reef, guarding the upper harbor entrances as well
as the main ship channel. Completed about 1865, this bleak fortress has
not been garrisoned for many years, for its short range guns made its
period of usefulness a brief one.
Toward the right is HOUSE ISLAND, on which stands Fort Scammell,
another old and abandoned harbor defense. As early as 1661, House
Island was known by its present name, and an early blockhouse was
erected here. During the rebuilding of the island fortification, early in the
388 Island Tours
Civil War, the original blockhouse, topped by a carved wooden eagle with
extended wings, was replaced by the present fort — named for Colonel
Alexander Scammell, a gallant soldier of the Revolution.
Rising in the background, beyond House Island, is the seamed granite
shore of GUSHING ISLAND. Its history dates back to 1623, when Cap-
tain Christopher Levett took possession of its wild tree-covered area and
built a strongly fortified house on its northern extremity. Gushing Island
is now the year-round home of many Portland people, and has an active
summer colony.
Several minutes out from Portland, the steamer docks at PEAK'S
ISLAND (alt. 45, Insular Ward of Portland). With its summer hotels
and cottage inns, churches, a hospital, and stores, this is more densely
populated, both by permanent and by summer residents, than any other
island in the Bay. In the early nineteenth century, Peak's was developed
into one of the most popular recreational centers in the country, and
many nationally known figures have summered here. Its woodland trails,
well cultivated fields, and ledgy shores are colored with a history dating
back to the early days of Falmouth, when the island was owned by
Michael Mitton, son-in-law of Portland's first settler, George Cleeve
(see PORTLAND). Mitton gained renown as a huntsman and fowler,
and was much given to relating in detail the adventures that befell him.
Perhaps the most amazing was his tale of the triton or merman who swam
up and grasped the side of his boat, whereupon he seized a hatchet and
with a single blow severed the hands of the son of Poseidon, who sank
beneath the waves and was seen no more in the waters of Casco Bay.
But the finny hands of the monster remained clinging to the side of the
boat, and it was only with difficulty that Mitton pried them loose and
flung them into the sea.
Longfellow's poem, 'The Wreck of the Hesperus,' is based upon one of the
major tragedies in the annals of Peak's Island. The schooner 'Helen
Eliza,' caught in the great gale of 1869, was driven ashore in the night and
ground to pieces on the jutting rocks. Only one member of the crew of
twelve was rescued — a lad who had previously been the sole survivor of a
vessel which foundered in a hurricane off the West Indies. He decided to
tempt fate no further, and retired from the sea to a farm in New Hamp-
shire. There, ironically enough, he slipped off a log while crossing a small
stream and was drowned.
Leaving Peak's Island, the steamer swings in a northerly direction, to
dock at LITTLE DIAMOND ISLAND (alt. 27, Insular Ward of Port-
land), one of the prettiest islands hi the Bay. It was formerly used as a
part-time station for lighthouse service, and is connected with its larger
sister island of Great Diamond by a narrow sand spit which is covered by
water at high tide.
GREAT DIAMOND ISLAND (alt. 39, Insular Ward of Portland),
formerly known as Hog Island, is the next stopping place. It has a select
cottage colony, which maintains an excellent golf course. Great Dia-
mond's precipitous sea walls fringed about with golden seaweed bound a
Portland to Orr's Island 389
greatly diversified surface — deep ravines, ragged elevations, and green
slopes extending to the shore. On the east side, commanding Hussey's
Sound, is Fort McKinley (open), a sub-post of Portland Harbor defenses,
used as a summer training post by R.O.T.C., O.R.C., and C.M.T.C.
units.
The steamer now enters Hussey's Sound, a water thoroughfare between
the two Diamonds and Long Island. Straight ahead in the distance are
Clapboard, Basket, and Sturdivant, three low-lying isles; while to the left,
in the lee of Great Diamond, is Cow Island.
LONG ISLAND (alt. 40, Insular Ward of Portland), at which the
steamer makes three stops, is one of the larger and most scenic in the
island group. Excellent roads traverse its 1000 acres, which were well
known to the Abnaki Indians long before white men came to the Casco
Bay region. Stone implements, arrow heads of flint, and shell heaps
found here bear testimony to the early red men's occupation. Ragged
coast, sandy beaches, pine groves, and open fields, with shady paths and
excellent roads, make walking a pleasure on Long Island. The hotels and
inns here boast of the medicinal properties of the springs among the
ledges.
Passing along the shoreline (R) of Long Island, the steamer enters the
waters of Chandler Cove to dock at LITTLE CHEBEAGUE ISLAND
(alt. 55, Cumberland Town), whose open fields run down to sandy
beaches. It lies a short distance southwest from GREAT CHEBEAGUE
ISLAND (alt. 70, Cumberland Town), where the steamer usually stops
on its return trip. This, the second largest island in Casco Bay, has
summer hotels, a nine-hole golf course, tennis courts, croquet grounds,
and bathing and boating facilities. Numerous fine white-sand bathing
beaches lie tucked in between its rocky cliffs, and many summer cottages
are scattered over its 2000 acres. Twenty miles of gravel road, bright
with clam shells, wind through fragrant pine and spruce groves, and
through broad fields where many varieties of wild flowers, ferns, mosses,
and berries grow in profusion. From its- occasional eminences, the other
islands of the Bay, with long reaches of water between them, may be seen
stretching away as if in ordered arrangement; and from its western end at
sunset, the reflected coloring in the water forms a striking foreground
for Portland's Munjoy Hill, on the mainland.
Much excitement was once aroused here by the arrival of an old sailor
who claimed to have been one of a pirate crew which many years before
had landed at Chebeague and buried a great treasure. After prowling
around for a time, the old fellow began digging in a secluded part of the
island. Among those who offered to assist him in his excavations was a
young man of the island. When his offer was curtly refused, the latter
leaped over the rope with which the old man had enclosed the spot where
he was digging; whereupon the treasure seeker, in a voice quaking with
anger, cried : ' I cah1 on God and you people to witness that within a year
this young fool will be tied in knots even as I could tie this rope.' No one
remembers now whether any treasure was found, but (as the story goes)
39° Island Tours
in due time the young man received a severe drenching while out fishing,
and was confined to his bed with an agonizing malady which drew up
his arms and legs as if ' tied in knots ' ; and when he died, soon after, it
was necessary to break the bones of his limbs in order to get his body
into the casket.
Leaving Great Chebeague, the steamer rounds the tip of Long Island
(R) to enter Luckse Sound, with the small HOPE ISLAND lying straight
ahead. This latter was purchased in the early part of the present century
by Senator George W. Elkins of Pennsylvania, who built a large mansion
on it, 75 feet above the sea. At present Hope Island is the property of a
private club; the clubhouse may be seen at the southern end of the
island.
CLIFF ISLAND (alt. 38, Insular Ward of Portland), marked by saw-
tooth reefs, great coves, low sand bars, and beautiful pine groves, is an
outlying island resort. Prominent among the legends kept alive here by
year-round residents is the story of Captain Keiff, a notorious smuggler
and pirate, who lived alone on the island in a log hut, and who on stormy
nights would drive a horse with a lantern attached to its neck up and
down the shore to decoy passing vessels into the narrow channel, where
they would be wrecked on the treacherous reefs. From this practice he
salvaged enough of the cargoes to net a considerable income. A grassy
knoll rising above the island road where it turns into a deep ravine is still
called Keifs Garden — the reputed burying ground of the sailors whose
bodies were washed ashore from the wrecks caused by Keiff's false signals.
Close by is JEWELL ISLAND, for years a private estate.
Leaving Cliff Island, the steamer swings northeast. To the right lies
EAGLE ISLAND, where lived the late Robert E. Peary. The Admiral's
residence, a treasure-house of trophies from foreign lands, perches on a
rocky promontory facing the mainland.
Ahead is the long slender bit of mainland known as Harpswell Neck,
where the boat enters Potts Harbor to dock at SOUTH HARPSWELL
(see Tour ID).
From South Harpswell the steamer rounds Potts Point, the tip of Harps-
well Neck, with HASKELL ISLAND lying to the right. A series of
strange events took place on this fertile island about sixty years ago,
when it became overrun by rats. An old lobsterman named Humphrey,
who had .built a shack on the shore, seemed to live amicably enough with
the rats, even though they continually stole the fish from his bait barrel.
But when winter came on, Humphrey's friends warned him of the danger
of living alone with only rats for company. Nevertheless he persisted in
staying. One day, Harpswell fishermen noticed that no smoke was rising
from the chimney of the little shack and they could see no one stirring on
the island, so they rowed out to investigate. When they opened Hum-
phrey's door, they were met by a squealing swarm of rats. Driving them
away, the men entered the cabin — to find that the old lobsterman had
been eaten in his bunk. The horrified citizens of Harpswell and the neigh-
boring islands armed themselves with sticks and clubs and converged
Portland to Orr's Island 391
upon Haskell Island. When they left they were satisfied that every rodent
there had been exterminated. Yet next spring the rats were as numerous
as ever.
But it was not long before Harpswell residents again saw smoke rising
from the chimney of the hut where Humphrey had lived. Two young
fishermen, Wallace and Bruce Mills from North Harpswell, had set up an
establishment on Haskell, bringing with them for companionship and
protection a dozen or more very husky cats. The war began. At first
the cats had the worst of it, but they lived to emerge triumphant. They
were almost as prolific as the rats; and, fed on fish and cared for by the
Mills boys, they and their progeny grew to a size and strength unheard of
among mainland cats. It was not long before the last rat met his fate.
But not only the rats disappeared — Haskell, once a paradise of song-
birds, became silent except for nightly yowls. The cats increased in
number, and Wallace and Bruce were kept more than busy catching
enough fish to feed them. With the young men they were docile enough,
but any visitor who attempted to land on the island would be met by
several hundred spitting and clawing furies.
One day a prospective purchaser from the city approached Haskell; here
in this green and pleasant spot he saw an ideal place to build a summer
home. But he did not land on the island; in fact, he left rather hurriedly.
The owner of the island told Wallace and Bruce that something would
have to be done. They were only squatters, and they and their cats had no
legal right to usurp the island. But the boys would do nothing. Finally,
however, they arose one morning to find an army of dead cats stretched
before the shack. Someone had come in the night and poisoned them.
The Mills boys were broken-hearted. They disappeared, and no one
knew where they went. But never since has a cat been seen on Haskell
Island — or a rat.
The steamer enters Mericoneag Sound to dock at BAILEY ISLAND
(see Tour ID) . Of all the island treasure stories, perhaps the most satisfy-
ing is one told of a farmer-fisherman of Bailey Island, John Wilson by
name. He was an impecunious and not overly ambitious soul, who one
day surprised his neighbors mightily by sailing home from Boston in a
handsome new sloop and buying the finest farm on Bailey. He set him-
self up in generous style, married, produced a fine family, and became a
leader in his community. The reason for this sudden rise in life was
finally revealed by Wilson after many years. He had been out duck-
hunting, and a bird he had shot fell on a distant weed-covered ledge ; as he
went to retrieve it, his feet gave way beneath him, and he sank into a
cavity between two rocks. Investigating this cavity, he found in it a
heavy iron pot filled with pieces of Spanish gold. Wilson immediately
took his find to Boston, and there exchanged it for $12,000 — in those
days a large fortune.
The steamer leaves Bailey Island dock, to enter the waters of Harpswell
Sound, an arm of Casco Bay partially enclosed by the shores of Harpswell
Neck and Bailey and Orr's Islands. These waters are the locale of
392 Island Tours
Whittier's poem, "The Dead Ship of Harpswell,' based on a legend current
among Orr's Island folk.
On ORR'S ISLAND (see Tour ID), which is connected by bridge with
Bailey Island and with the mainland, is the Pearl House, home of the
heroine of Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel 'The Pearl of Orr's Island.'
B. To Gurnet
This cruise follows much the same course as that taken on the trip just
described, but from Bailey Island dock the steamer continues up Meri-
coneag Sound past Orr's Island. Visible between the latter and Bailey
Island in the far distance is RAGGED ISLAND, the summer retreat of
Edna St. Vincent Millay, Maine's famous poet, and locale of the Rever-
end Elijah Kellogg's widely read 'Elm Island Series' of books for boys.
At one time, because of its isolated position, Ragged Island was a rendez-
vous for lawbreakers, in particular for a gang of counterfeiters who made
their headquarters here for several years until finally routed by Federal
agents.
The steamer follows the west shore of Orr's and Sebascodegan Islands for
several miles, turning from Harpswell Sound into Harpswell Cove, then
into Long Reach, and finally arriving at Doughty Cove, where it docks at
GURNET (see Tour ID), so-called from a narrow tide rip where the
waters of the cove merge violently with those of the New Meadows River,
a tidal river extending nearly twenty miles inland on the other side of
Sebascodegan (or Great) Island. The stop-over at Gurnet provides
opportunity for a shore dinner.
C. To Birch Island
A cruise through inner Casco Bay and its islands offers vistas of the main-
land shores and glimpses of many of the islands touched on the Orr's
Island trip. Leaving Portland, the steamer swings in a northeasterly
course past Little and Great Diamond, with MACKWORTH ISLAND
appearing at the left just off a promontory near the mouth of the Pre-
sumpscot River. In 1631, this bit of land was given to Arthur Mack-
worth by the powerful Sir Ferdinando Gorges, who was so favorably dis-
posed toward Mackworth that he later made him deputy of the Bay. In
1808, James Rennie, a Scotsman, bought the island and promptly mort-
gaged it in order to build an elaborate mansion, where he and his charming
wife entertained lavishly. Mackworth Island was occupied by a training
camp during the Civil War; but since 1888 it has been owned by the
Baxter family, whose members include the late James P. Baxter, at one
time Mayor of Portland, and his son Percival P. Baxter, a former Gov-
ernor of Maine. Opposite Mackworth, on the mainland at Martin Point,
are the buildings of the U.S. Marine Hospital.
Continuing northeast, the steamer skirts the mainland shore, where many
fine residences are visible from deck. About ten minutes out from Port-
land, the boat passes long and narrow CLAPBOARD ISLAND (L)
which, twenty-nine years after all the area north and south of it had been
LANDSCAPE AND SEASCAPE
MAINE waters, whether stream, lake, or sea, and Maine's
mountains and her valleys are known widely and speak for
themselves with their own beauty. It is the natural loveliness
of the State, in many places quite unspoiled, which is the chief
cause of the conversion of many visitors to that mystic society
of worshipers who will tell you that east of the Piscataqua
even the very air is 'different/
SCREW AUGER FALLS, ORAFTON
TRANQUILLITY
OFF FOR A CANOE TRIP, MEGUNTICOOK LAKE
AS SHADOWS DEEPEN
*£•
V;:
&&
sh^f.mmt
MOUNT DESERT ISLAND AS SEEN FROM SULLIVAN
••-** J
PARLIN POND, SOMERSET COUNTY
WEST QUODDY HEADLIGHT AT SUNSET
THUNDER HOLE, MOUNT DESERT ISLAND
BAR HARBOR AND FRENCHMAN'S BAY, FROM CADILLAC MOUNTAIN
RIDING THE TIDE, BOOTHBAY HARBOR
PORTLAND HEADLIGHT
SNOW SCENE
»JJ
To Birch Island 393
forcibly annexed by the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1651, was granted
to Walter Gendall by the North Yarmouth Communities in recognition of
his services at the time of the first settlement.
To the right lie LITTLE and GREAT DIAMOND ISLANDS, and not
far beyond them is tiny BASKET ISLAND, with STURDIVANT
ISLAND lying in the background a little offshore from Falmouth Fore-
side (see Tour 1, sec. a). The next stop is at COUSIN'S ISLAND (alt. 29,
Yarmouth Town) . This, like most of the more populous islands of Casco
Bay, has its full measure of blood-stained history. To this wild spot,
known to the Indians as Susquescon, John Cousins came and built his
home in 1645. Other settlers followed, and at Cornfield Point, the north
end of the island, land was cleared and the first crops sown. Game was
plentiful here, especially in the spring, when it was customary for the
colonists to join in an organized hunt of the wild animals which had
crossed over the ice from the mainland, driving them across the island to
Cornfield Point where, unable to escape, they were easily killed. During
the Indian Wars, the few settlers who escaped the tomahawk fled to the
mainland or to the refuge of island blockhouses. But the island was
gradually resettled as soon as hostilities ceased, Rowland Hamilton,
brother of Chebeague Island's first settler, being the first to return.
A cove adjacent to Cornfield Point has borne the name of Dead Man's
Cove since the night, many years ago, when the sea cast ashore at this spot
the mangled bodies of three sailors.
Not long ago, during the excavation of a cellar on the south end of the
island, the skeleton of a man of extremely large stature, with an officer's
sword lying across his breast, was uncovered. Both the skeleton and the
sword, probably relics of a clash between French and English, were in a
fairly good state of preservation, due to the dryness of the spot where
they were found.
Cousin's is connected by a bridge with neighboring LITTLEJOHN
ISLAND (alt. 30, Yarmouth Town), which is also a steamer stop. Little-
john has been known by several different names, and has changed owner-
ship many times. The east end of the island, with its numerous shell
heaps, was long an Indian camping ground. Many fine Indian relics now
in the possession of the Maine Historical Society were unearthed on
Littlejohn.
To the north, after leaving the dock at Littlejohn, the mouth of the
Harraseeket River is visible, with rocky Wolfs Neck extending out from
its sparkling waters. To the southeast are the WHALEBOATS, two
islands lying off the shore of Harpswell Neck, which rises in the back-
ground. Almost directly ahead is GREAT MOSHIER ISLAND, little
changed since Hugh Moshier, a gallant adventurer, left the tarnished
artificialities of London in the i64o's to settle here, where peace is broken
only by the booming of white surf on rocky shores and the occasional cry
of gulls. West of Great Moshier is LITTLE MOSHIER, a narrow
isle which is the site of an early Indian burying ground. Northwest of
Little Moshier is LANE'S ISLAND; here during the Indian Wars, when
394 Island Tours
the hillsides echoed with blood-curdling yells of the painted red men, two
white victims were horribly tortured to death.
BUSTIN'S ISLAND (alt. 28, Freeport Town), where the steamer next
docks, is believed to have been the site of a mysterious lead mine where
many years ago a person known as ' Swindler ' Ransom procured a metal
which he asserted could be transmuted into silver. Ransom appeared on
the island out of nowhere, and succeeded in duping a respectable Portland
silversmith and others into believing his claims. Finally one of the in-
vestors in his enterprise became suspicious and discovered that the black
rod with which Ransom was accustomed to stir the ore while muttering
strange incantations was really the source of the little ball of silver
eventually produced. The finding of a thin rolled silver coin concealed in
the hollow end of the black wand brought about Ransom's arrest, but his
escape and disappearance were as sudden and mysterious as had been his
appearance in this region.
An amusing tale is told on Bustin's Island of one Charles Guppy, an early
resident, who conceived a novel plan to eliminate the labor of rowing to
South Freeport for his weekly supplies. With the assistance of a neighbor,
Guppy constructed a huge red kite which they tied by a heavy string to
the bow of his dory, and set out from the mainland. Part way across to the
island, a fierce gale of wind caught the kite and the dory's bow rose out of
the water, while the panic-stricken inventors clung for dear life to keep
from being tossed out of the craft. But they somehow managed to keep
sailing in the direction of Bustin's; and before either had recovered
sufficiently to reach the bow and cut away the kite, they went skimming
up the beach, a full boatlength into the grass. Guppy and his friend
thereupon decided that rowing had its advantages.
The steamer route passes (R) UPPER and LOWER GOOSE ISLANDS,
lying end to end, and the GOSLINGS, tiny islets at the southern tip of
Lower Goose. To the north are the waters of Maquoit Bay (pronounced
M'kwate) with the shores of Freeport (see Tour 1, sec. a) rising in the
background.
BIRCH ISLAND (alt. 41, Harpswell Town), the last boat stop, was so
named because of its abundance of silver birch trees. Walter Merriman,
ancestor of all of the Merriman name in Harpswell and its vicinity,
emigrated from Ireland and became Birch Island's first settler. Several
years after Merriman's arrival, a flourishing colony sprang up here, and
the island wilderness soon became a little community of well-cultivated
farms and comfortable homes, supporting a school with forty-eight pupils.
In 1849, nearly fifty years after the inception of the settlement, most of
the farmers abandoned their fields and orchards to join the great Califor-
nia gold rush. Today yawning cellar-holes and gnarled old apple trees
scattered about the island are all that is left of the abandoned farms.
During the Indian wars, a sentinel was stationed on the steep hill on the
west side of the island; and with the approach of the red men by water, a
signal was given to the lookout at Harpswell, who spread an alarm which
Boothbay Harbor to Squirrel Island 395
warned the settlers to take refuge in the blockhouse on near-by Shelter
Island.
TOUR 2: BOOTHBAY HARBOR to SQUIRREL ISLAND
Ferry service. Virginia Landing, Townsend Ave. (see Tour 1G). Time: about
20 minutes.
Leaving the wharf, the boat emerges from among the small craft that
crowd the waterfront of Boothbay Harbor, to speed through the open
water of the outer harbor.
SQUIRREL ISLAND (alt. 40, Southport Town), connected by steamer
with Boothbay Harbor and Bath, is the oldest summer settlement in the
Boothbay region, and the scene of much social and recreational activity.
The island is like a small city during the summer months; in the winter it
is inhabited only by caretakers.
Squirrel was among the first points visited by early explorers along the
Maine coast. Captain Waymouth stopped here in 1605, when he made
his voyage to Maine, and undoubtedly Captain John Smith visited the
island during his trip to Monhegan in 1614. Some of the early pirates who
played havoc with shipping in Maine waters made use of Squirrel Island.
On the east coast is Kidd's Cave, a curious tunnel-like cavern extending
back into the solid rock 150 to 200 feet; it is so called because of a local
belief that the privateer, Captain Kidd, used it as a hiding place for loot.
Before Squirrel became a summer resort it was owned by a local 'squire,'
who sold it to a group of business men in Auburn and Lewiston. These
men formed an association from which the present Squirrel Island Colony
was developed. An interesting local story is connected with the death of
Squire Greenleaf, the early owner, who moved to Boothbay Harbor after
selling the island. He had always expressed a desire that when he died his
body should be buried in sand from Davenport Cove, an inlet on the
island's shore line. After his death a crew of men was sent over with a
scow to Squirrel to get the sand for filling the Squire's grave. However,
instead of going around the point and into the cove, the men decided that
as long as the sand came from any part of Squirrel, it would meet the
requirements; so they went ashore at a more convenient place, loaded the
scow, and started back toward Boothbay Harbor. Almost immediately a
storm came up, the harbor waters were churned into foamy waves, and
several of the crew asserted that they saw a shadowy figure, vaguely re-
sembling a wildly gesticulating Squire Greenleaf, walking on the water.
Overcome by fear, the men shovelled every pound of sand overboard.
Not until the scow was completely unloaded did the storm abate. They
then went to Davenport Cove, reloaded their scow, and in perfect
weather returned to Boothbay Harbor with the load of sand for the
Squire's grave.
The founders of the summer colony realized that to secure desirable
municipal 'improvements it would be necessary to form some sort of
organization to collect taxes. Since no member of the colony, made up as
396 Island Tours
the latter was of temporary residents, had a vote in the town meetings of
Southport, it would not be easy to induce the town to appropriate money
for improvements on the island. A plan was evolved, therefore, from
which grew the Squirrel Island village corporation, the forerunner of all
village corporations within the towns of Maine. In this first corporation
the right to vote was restricted to property owners, whether men or
women. Thus, at Squirrel Island women's suffrage was given an early
trial.
One of the outstanding achievements of the village corporation is the
system of cement sidewalks threading the island, an improvement brought
about by women's votes and bearing directly on the economic develop-
ment of the island. There are no delivery wagons or trucks on Squirrel,
and when housewives shop for supplies they trundle their purchases home
in wheeled carts, which when not in use may generally be seen standing
before the residences. Smooth walks nowadays make shopping easy on the
island. It is not unusual for the Boothbay steamer to have a long line of
carts aboard, when islanders sail for a day's shopping on the mainland.
TOUR 3: BOOTHBAY HARBOR to MONHEGAN ISLAND
Thomaston & Monhegan Steamboat Co. Eastern Steamship Co. Wharf,
Townsend Ave. (see Tour 1C). Time: about 2 hours.
From Boothbay Harbor a little steamboat runs outside into deep water,
bucking waves and swift currents on a 2o-mile ocean voyage to the
natural harbor of Monhegan Island (reached also from Thomaston and
Port Clyde}.
MONHEGAN ISLAND (alt. 40, Monhegan Plantation, pop. 109) has
three summer hotels. Monhegan, about 2>£ miles long and i mile wide,
with a fishing village, and the adjacent islet of MANANA, both with
steep, ragged cliffs, attract many visitors.
Unusual marks on the ledges of Manana Island, scratches 4 feet long and
6 inches wide, have been used to support the beliefs of those who think
that Norsemen visited the island about A.D. 1000.
Fishing furnishes the livelihood of the residents of Monhegan, and fishing
brought the first visitors. It is thought that Basque, Portuguese, Spanish,
and Breton fishermen may have been taking rich cargoes of codfish from
these waters at the time Columbus discovered America. John and
Sebastian Cabot circled the island in 1498. David Ingram, who walked
from the Gulf of Mexico and through this region in 1569, gave the first
description of Monhegan, 'a great island that was backed like a whale.'
Captain George Waymouth visited the island in May, 1605, naming it St.
George's Island; and Champlain saw it later that summer. Captain John
Smith landed here in 1614.
A temporary settlement existed on the island in 1626. Another settle-
ment was made in 1654, serving as a refuge for settlers from the mainland
until destroyed by the French, under Baron de Castin, in 1689. It was re-
occupied by fishermen about 1720. In 1717 the pirate Paulsgrave, some-
Boothbay Harbor to Monhegan Island 397
times known as Paul Williams, who was preying upon the shipping along
the New England coast, sailed north to Monhegan, where he erected
dwellings and a prison. Using the island as his base, he cruised the Maine
waters for several weeks, capturing a number of vessels at sea and at
Matinicus and Pemaquid. Although a man-of-war and an armed sloop
were sent out from Boston to capture him, they were unsuccessful; he
disappeared that year and was not heard of again. This pirate occupa-
tion has been the cause of much futile digging for treasure here.
During the Revolution and the War of 1812, privateering was carried on
in neighboring waters. The battle in which the American privateer
* Enterprise' defeated the British brig 'Boxer,' September 5, 1813,
occurred between Monhegan and Pemaquid Point.
All summer long, fishing smacks unload cargoes of green lobsters along the
Monhegan waterfront. ' Cheap-livin' fish, lobsters are,' an old fisherman
explained. 'Kin eat barnacles, seaweed, mud, anything. Even live in the
well of a smack five or six months an' come out all right, 'less they chaw
each other up, an' they're mostly doin' that. Don't seem to hurt much,
though. I've found lots o' claws broke off in fights, an' they grow back
just as good agin.'
Most of the lobsters caught average lo^ inches in length, which is con-
sidered the standard market size; but occasional prodigies turn up to de-
light their captors. The largest lobster caught along the Maine coast,
taken in Casco Bay about 50 years ago, weighed 36 pounds. Baby lob-
sters a few inches long are often seen scuttling for safety under their
mothers' tails, and at times are found stranded in shells into which they
have crawled near the shore. As they increase in size, their hard shells
split up the back and are sloughed off, to be replaced by new ones.
During the time of these periodical sheddings, the lobsters take refuge in
crevices under stones or in the heavy eel grass. Though unwieldy in ap-
pearance and given little credit for velocity, the lobsters move rapidly, by
preference backward. The large anterior claws, used to crack clams, are
strong enough to take off a man's finger.
The island is covered by a network of trails. Cathedral Woods and Burnt
Head are favorite spots with visitors. Boar's Head, one of the most un-
usual formations on the Maine coast, has the appearance of a fat neck and
a triple chin beneath a snub nose.
Monhegan's art population is internationally known, Rockwell Kent
being credited with having popularized the island as a resort for artists.
He brought a group here, and started Monhegan's first art class on Horn
Hill. Among the well-known artists who summer here are A. Bogdanove,
Frances Cochrane, Alice Stoddard, Mr. and Mrs. Sears Gallagher, Mrs.
William Clark Mason, and Frederick Dorr Steele.
The present Monhegan Island Light, near the center of the island built in
1850 of granite blocks, replaced a light erected in 1824. The top of the
tower, which has a revolving light, is 178 feet above the water. On the
western side of Manana Island is a trumpet fog signal that can be heard
about 15 miles at sea.
398 Island Tours
TOUR 4: ROCKLAND to VINALHAVEN ISLAND
Vinalhaven & Rockland Steamboat Co. (Vinalhaven Line). Tillson Ave.
Wharf (see Tour 1, sec. b). Time: about i^4 hours.
The steamer swings out of Rockland Harbor past the Rockland break-
water (L), jutting far out from Jameson Point and tipped by a lonely
lighthouse. To the right, a rocky and heavily wooded peninsula stretches
out into the Atlantic, to terminate at Owl's Head with its slender white-
towered Lighthouse (see Tour 1, sec. b). Taking a southeasterly course,
the steamer enters an open section of Penobscot Bay. Ahead lie numerous
small tree-covered islands. About half an hour out from Rockland, the
boat passes HURRICANE ISLAND, green with scrub pine, the locale of
Harold Vinal's poem 'Hurricane/ Swinging around the northern tip of
this island, the steamer enters the waters of Hurricane Sound, formed by
several small islands and the western shore of Vinalhaven Island. Ahead
lies the bleak Deadman Ledge, while to the left is tiny POTATO ISLAND.
Entering Carver's Harbor the steamer docks at Vinalhaven.
VINALHAVEN (alt. 40, Vinalhaven Town, pop. 1843) has a number of
year-round and summer hotels and camps, with airplane as well as
steamer service to the mainland. The long irregular eastern shore, end-
lessly pounded by ocean waves, is little populated, the island folk choosing
to live in and near the village of Vinalhaven, on the hilly shores of Carver's
Harbor. This village is at once a commercial, industrial, residential, and
resort center. Fishing, largely monopolizing the waterfront, is the main-
stay of existence. Sails are manufactured here; and because of its fine
harbor in a long stretch of open sea, coastal vessels call here for supplies
and equipment.
An irregular and much indented island, Vinalhaven has a maximum
length of about eight miles. Except for the settlement at the south-
eastern end, it consists of wild rocky land, heavily wooded with scrub
spruce and pine. It was named for its early colonizer, John Vinal, a
Boston merchant. Near the center of the island is Round Pond, an at-
tractive miniature lake, where lily pads float on the placid waters.
Natives look forward to another boom in Vinalhaven granite, which in the
past has been quarried here in large quantities. The blue-gray granite of
the deep Quarry on the northern edge of the village was at one time in
great demand for public buildings; the 120- ton monoliths on three sides of
the choir altar in the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, hi New York City,
were quarried here. At present no stone other than a small amount of
paving material is cut on the island.
Harold Vinal, a descendant of John Vinal and a native of the island, has
embodied much of the beauty of his island home in his poems and other
writings.
Rockland to Swan Island 399
TOUR 5: ROCKLAND to SWAN ISLAND
Via North Haven and Deer Isle.
Vinalhaven & Rockland Steamboat Co. (Swan Island Line), Tillson Ave.
Wharf (see Tour 1, sec. b}. Time: about 3^ hours.
Leaving Rockland Harbor, the steamer passes the breakwater and pur-
sues a northeasterly course across blue Penobscot Bay. The SUGAR
LOAVES (R), a series of brown moss-covered islets, mark the southern
entrance to Fox Island Thorofare, a navigation route between the islands
of Vinalhaven and North Haven — part of a group discovered in 1613 by
Martin Pring. About midway in the 'Thorofare,' the steamer docks at
the settlement of North Haven on North Haven Island.
NORTH HAVEN (alt. 50, North Haven Town, pop. 476) has airplane
as well as steamer service to the mainland, and ferry service to Vinal-
haven. Good roads connect the settlement with those at Bartlett and
North Harbors.
The long irregularly shaped North Haven Island is well known as a
summer resort. Its rugged shore line has many natural harbors, while
little wooded headlands extend out into Penobscot Bay. Summer homes
have been built on many of these headlands; and anchored offshore hi
summer, near almost all of the residences, comfortable cabin cruisers, or
yachts are generally to be seen.
Anne Morrow Lindbergh has devoted a chapter of her book, 'North to
the Orient,' to this town, which for several years was the summer home
of her father, Dwight Morrow, former Ambassador to Mexico. Of her
long flight across the top of the world, she wrote that its ' knotted end is
held fast in North Haven.'
Leaving North Haven Island, the steamer continues east through the Fox
Island Thorofare, past numerous small isles, and enters an open stretch of
Penobscot Bay between the rugged Calderwood Neck (R), on Vinalhaven,
and Deer Isle.
The next stop is at STONINGTON (alt. 50, Stonington Town, pop.
1418). This, the principal settlement on DEER ISLE, is a seaport with
an unpretentious main thoroughfare from which extend short streets of
homes of quarrymen, seamen, and fishermen. The skyline is broken by
several tall derricks used in hoisting granite from the deep pits of near-by
quarries. The entire island rests on a base .of pink granite famous for its
superior quality and unusual coloring. Many well-known buildings
throughout the country are built of this granite; and the work of supply-
ing the stone for New York's Triborough Bridge engaged 200 men for two
years. A huge gang-saw, used here for cutting the granite into blocks, is
said to be the largest in the world.
The fishing industry becomes of prime importance on Deer Isle in the
periods when granite is not being quarried. Then wheeling white gulls
appear out of nowhere to sail over the harbor, swooping down suddenly in
flocks to snatch at fish as the fleets return home with their splashing
4OO Island Tours
cargoes. The North Lubec Canning Company Plant packs large quantities
of sardines here. The fish are sorted for size, and after visceration they
are dehydrated. Uniformed girls then cut them into the required length
and pack them in tins, which are placed in machines to receive the proper
quantity of either olive oil or mustard, after which they are sealed and
cooked. About 100 girls and 25 men are employed in this factory during
the packing season, which extends from August to December.
The Eastern Penobscot Archives Museum, in the center of Stonington's
business section, is a structure of long granite blocks, built against a high
granite ledge. This museum was founded and is owned by Dr. B. Lake
Noyes, who has spent thousands of dollars and devoted many years of
research in making an extensive collection of geologic and historic relics,
early documents, and antiques of the Penobscot Bay region.
Deer Isle, nine miles long and five miles wide, lying in Stonington and
Deer Isle township, is very jagged in outline and nearly divided in two by
deep inlets of Penobscot Bay. A narrow neck known as the Haulover con-
nects the northern and southern sections. About 100 miles of hard-sur-
faced roads wind through the island's woods and fields, joining a number
of little hamlets and twisting along the shore. Across stretches of sand or
shingle beach, long reaches of ocean sweep towards distant Bluehill (see
Tour 3) and the undulating hills of Camden (see Tour 1, sec. b).
The island is rich in legends of sea captains who made fortunes in slave-
running and smuggling, and of the lawless adventures of roustabouts and
human derelicts. In the old cemeteries are tombstones in memory of sea-
faring men who died on the coast of Africa or lost their lives at sea in the
China and East India trading days. In recent years many of the palatial
yachts of millionaires have been manned from cabin boy to captain by
Deer Isle sailors.
From Stonington, a mail boat may be taken to Isle au Haut.
Leaving Stonington, this boat winds among the islands to the south, entering Isle
au Haut Township as it approaches the waters of Merchant Island. As the boat
nears the island, a peculiar haze will be observed hovering over the heights that rise
above the sea.
ISLE AU HAUT (alt. 35, Isle au Haut Town, pop. 89) has two small hotels and
other accommodations. Champlain, upon sighting the island in 1604, named it,
obviously enough, Isle au Haut. Three large and a number of small islands com-
prise the present township. Bold towering cliffs at the northern end of the island
rise to a sheer height of 556 feet above sea level, offering from their summits an
inspiring view of other islands and the peaked hills of the mainland, with Cadillac
Mountain in the far distance.
Near the eastern shore, scarcely 100 yards from the sea, is Turner Lake, with
silver birches, cedars, and green maples fringing its steep banks. This mile-long
lake, the peculiar amber-hued waters of which are fed by subterranean springs,
has long been of interest to geologists.
At Money Cove it is believed that Captain Kidd buried a part of his fabulous pirate
treasure. Many legends have sprung up around this belief, but there has been no
discovery to substantiate them.
Leaving Stonington on the main route, the steamer passes the southern
shores of Deer Isle (L) , with many small islands on the right. After crossing
Jericho Bay, with Naskeag Peninsula (N) in the distance, and passing be-
Belfast to Islesboro Island 401
tween MARSHALL ISLAND (R) and tiny HAT ISLAND (L), the boat
swings north to enter Burntcoat Harbor and dock at Swan Island settlement.
SWAN ISLAND (alt. 50, Swan Island Town, pop. 576), with small hotels
and other accommodations, comprises 5875 acres. It is one of the Burnt-
coat group of islands, whose fine harbors and good anchorage make them
a haven for fishing craft.
Champlain visited these islands more than a century and a half before
their purchase by Colonel James Swan. The latter, born hi Fifeshire,
Scotland, came to America in 1765, and despite hardships and privation
succeeded hi colonizing the Burntcoat group of islands. In 1808, he was
arrested by the French government and confined in the St. Pelagic debt-
or's prison. Since he was not responsible for the debt for which he had
been imprisoned, he remained in prison for 22 years rather than secure his
liberty by accepting the charge and paying the debt. Lafayette, his
close friend, tried to persuade him to the latter course; but it was not until
Louis Philippe ascended the throne of France that Swan, with other im-
prisoned debtors, was released. An old and broken man, he died three
days later.
The early colonists engaged in frequent bloody contests with the Indians.
The final gesture of the aborigines against white possession of their
ancient home came in the famous raid of 1750, when they descended on
the island to perpetrate a cruel massacre. At this tune Captain James
Whidden, who won his commission under Sir William Pepperell, was liv-
ing on the easterly end of the island with his wife and two sons. A daugh-
ter, Agibail Noble, with her husband and seven children, was visiting
them. Early in the morning of September 8, a party of Indians slipped
through the unlocked palisade gate and entered the house. Whidden and
his wife escaped by taking refuge in the cellar, but the rest of the family
and two servants were taken captive, carried up the Kennebec to Canada,
and sold into slavery to the French at prices varying from $29 each for the
adults to almost nothing for the thirteen months old Frances Noble. The
forlorn condition of the baby appealed to a young French couple, who
bought the child for a trifle and adopted her as their own. Baptized
Eleanor in the Catholic Church, the little girl was carefully educated hi a
Canadian convent, and when finally taken away by agents from Massa-
chusetts she left her foster parents with tears and protestations. Brought
to new scenes and a new language on the Kennebec, she found that her
mother was dead and her father reduced to poverty. It is known that
she became a teacher and that she was twice married — first to Jonathan
Tilton of New Market, later to John Shute. Her story is related in
Drake's 'Tragedies of the Wilderness.'
TOUR 6: BELFAST to ISLESBORO ISLAND
Belfast to Castine Service. Eastern Steamship Wharf, Front St. (see Tour 1,
sec. 6). Time: about 20 minutes.
Leaving Belfast, the steamer takes a leisurely course to the southeast,
with (R) the heavily wooded and rocky shore line of the mainland forming
4O2 Island Tours
a striking setting for several small summer resorts. Rounding Turtle's
Head, a headland marking the north end of Islesboro Island, the steamer
passes by North Islesboro and the narrow neck of land that separates it
from South Islesboro, to dock at Islesboro on Hewes Point.
ISLESBORO (alt. 40, Islesboro Town, pop. 697), with summer hotels and
an island bus service, is the center of an exclusive resort region that in-
cludes several smaller islands. A nine-hole golf course, tennis courts, and
excellent facilities for sailing, swimming, and fishing make the region a
popular one with sports enthusiasts. There is steamer service to Prospect,
Belfast, Camden, and Lincolnville.
Islesboro Township consists of North and South Islesboro (connected by
a narrow neck of land to form Islesboro Island), Seven Hundred Acre
Island, Job Island, and several small near-by isles. It was originally a part
of the Waldo Patent, and was visited by the Church Expedition of 1692
in a campaign directed against the Indians. Islesboro Island, however,
was not settled until 1769. During the War of 1812, when the British
occupied near-by Castine (see Tour 3), the inhabitants of Islesboro found
neutrality forced upon them. Winter in those early times was of such
severity that the waters of Penobscot Bay froze as far out as Isle au Haut,
and it was not uncommon for sleighs drawn by oxen to cross to the main-
land.
Some farming and fishing is done on the island, but the chief means of
livelihood conies from the many summer estates here. Among the well-
known persons who regularly visit Islesboro are Lady Astor; Ruth Draper,
the monologist; Richard Whitney, president of the New York Stock Ex-
change; and Charles Dana Gibson, the illustrator.
IV. SPORTS AND
RECREATION
SPORTS AND RECREATION
MAINE'S scenic variety and beauty, and its exceptional facilities for
recreation and sport, have been extolled by several generations of writers.
The long line of coast indented by deep bays and flanked by romantic
islands, the vast primeval forests, the innumerable lakes and waterways,
the rich resources of game and fish — all these contribute to attract an
ever^increasing host of those who seek pleasure, adventure, and health.
Hunting in the fall, sports on snow and ice in the whiter, inland and deep-
water fishing virtually throughout the year, and summer recreational
activities of every kind — boating, swimming, mountain climbing, hiking,
horseback riding, etc. — can be enjoyed in fullest measure here. Numer-
ous boys' and girls' camps train youngsters in the appreciation and enjoy-
ment of outdoor life; while State-wide tournaments enhance the competi-
tive interest of such sports as tennis, golf, and archery, skeet and trap-
shooting, 'coon' and bird trials.
But along with its many advantages for active sports and recreational
exercise in the open, Maine has its own peculiar charm and stimulus for
the seeker of restorative solitude and for the creative artist in whatever
field, as well as for the nature student and the camera enthusiast. A list
of the artists, writers, musicians, and others, living and dead, who have
habitually spent their summers on the Maine coast would include many
of the most prominent names in American cultural annals.
Although it might be termed the youngest of Maine's industries, the
tourist and recreational traffic has developed with such mushroom-like
rapidity that it now leads all others in the amount of revenue accruing to
the State and its people. It is difficult to say precisely when this became
established as a definite economic factor in Maine. As early as 1654,
the Court at Saco granted one Henry Waddock the right 'to keep an
ordinary to entertain strangers for their money.' Hunters, fishermen, and
nature-lovers have been coming to Maine since Colonial times. Their
numbers grew tremendously during the first half of the nineteenth cen-
tury, and by 1850-60 many boarding-houses and hotels were devoted
exclusively to entertaining them. Old Orchard, with its four-mile beach
skirting the Atlantic, was officially dedicated to the resort business in
1840. Other sections of the Maine coast became popular as resorts well
before the end of the century. Bar Harbor, for example, acquired its
fame and a reputation for exclusiveness during the early iSgo's. In 1920,
it was estimated that the annual income from tourists and summer visitors
was in the neighborhood of $30,000,000.
406 Sports and Recreation
Today, the income from Maine's recreational and tourist traffic pours into
many hands, from the roadside purveyor of fish stews and chowders to
the collector of taxes on huge summer estates. According to the Maine
Development Commission, a State promotional organization, the 1936
recreation trade amounted to $100,000,000, from approximately 1,000,000
visitors.
Because of their importance to the visiting vacationist and in the present-
day economy of the State, a separate section of this Guide is devoted to
detailed information concerning the principal sports and recreations that
Maine affords, and the regions or routes where they may best be enjoyed.
FISHING IN INLAND
WATERS
IT IS literally true that there is good fishing in almost any of Maine's
more than 2200 lakes and ponds and 5000 rivers and streams. Each year
thousands of fishermen take from the fresh waters of the State millions of
fish of a wide variety, chief of which are the Atlantic, chinook, and land-
locked salmon (Salmo sebago and ouananiche) ; brook trout (redspots or
squaretails) ; brown, rainbow, and lake trout (togue) ; small-mouth black
bass; white and yellow perch; pickerel; cusk; and smelts. Others not
generally classed as game fish but good for eating are whitefish, hornpout
(bullheads) , eels, barvel (suckers) , and shiners. Fly-fishing is increasing in
popularity, especially in the quicker water of the thoroughfares and
during the earlier season; deep-water trolling yields better results in the
warmer summer months.
Shad and sturgeon, both formerly fish of value in Maine, are still oc-
casionally taken in Maine waters. Shad is caught with hand nets in
streams near the coast in early spring. Sturgeon, for the past fifty years a
distinct rarity, has begun to be found again in Maine rivers, sometimes
running to as much as 300 pounds in weight. The fisherman is lucky who
brings home a good-sized sturgeon, for its roe, from which caviar is pre-
pared, usually commands a high price in the markets.
Fishing through the ice is popular in all parts of Maine during the winter,
both on inland and coastal waters. Salmon, trout, pickerel, smelts, and
cusk are chief among the varieties caught. Smelt fishing through the ice
of tidal streams with nets and flares at night is known as frost-fishing.
Equipment and fishhouses can be rented from winter sporting camps or
from guides.
The Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Game annually liberates
an average of 6,000,000 landlocked salmon and trout from the State's
thirty-five hatcheries and rearing pools. Other hatcheries are being
built, so that there will be a constant increase in the number of fish planted
each year. Most of the stocked fish are of legal catching length when
liberated.
The State can be roughly divided for the angler's convenience into eight
regions, in each of which the fishing is diversified and good.
Sebago Lake — Long Lake — Oxford County Region: Sebago, Bunganut, Crystal,
Kennebunk, Mousam, Highland, Thompson, Pennesseewassee, Long, and Kezar
Lakes; Peabody, Hancock, Moose, Brandy, Woods, and Thomas Ponds; and a
network of streams and rivers, including the Songo River.
Catch: salmon (Salmo sebago}, cusk, black bass, perch, pickerel, and trout.
408 Sports and Recreation
This southern region is noted chiefly for landlocked salmon and black bass, al-
though it includes many good trout streams. Sebago Lake, one of the four lakes that
were the original home of the landlocked salmon, is the first in the State to open
in the spring. Cusk, usually considered a salt-water fish, is caught in only a few of
the Maine lakes, and in those but rarely.
Rangeley Lakes Region: Rangeley, Mooselookmeguntic, Richardson, Umbagog,
Loon, Parmachenee, Sawyer, and Kennebago Lakes; Quimby, Tim, Jim, Carry,
Rowe Ponds, and Chain of Ponds; and a network of streams and rivers, including
the Dead River and its tributaries.
Catch: trout, landlocked salmon (introduced), black bass, togue, and pickerel.
The Rangeley s are the natural home of the fighting trout, and it is only in recent
years that these lakes have become famous for salmon fishing. The Dead River
region is known for its cold waters, fed by mountain springs; some of the lakes in
this section have an altitude of well over 1500 feet. There is good fishing here in the
summer months, when the trout in warmer waters have become sluggish and no
longer fight.
Belgrade Lakes Region: China, Messalonskee, Cobbosseecontee, Maranacook,
Annabessacook, Androscoggin, Damariscotta, and Megunticook Lakes; North,
East, Great, Long, Webber, Three Mile, Branch, Biscay, St. George, and
Pemaquid Ponds; and many small streams and rivers.
Catch: black bass, trout, salmon, pickerel, hornpout, smelts, yellow and white
perch.
The Belgrade Lakes have been for many years the headquarters for bass fishing.
Only recently has generous stocking made them excellent grounds for trout and
salmon. There is good sport here from the time the ice goes out in the spring until
well into the summer.
Moosehead Lake Region: Moosehead (see below), Brassua, Parlin, Lobster, Ragged,
Kokadjo, Onawa, Sebec, Jo Mary, Seboeis, and Sebasticook Lakes; Long, Wood,
Attean, Holeb, Misery, Pierce, Indian, Moxie, and Pleasant Ponds; the Kennebec
and Moose Rivers and many streams.
Catch: salmon, togue, squaretailed trout, and other game fish.
Moosehead Lake, itself the center of Maine's chief sporting region, is the gateway
to a vast region of almost unbroken wildland stretching to the Canadian border,
where there are many waters which have not yet been explored by fishermen.
Allagash Region: Chesuncook, Allagash, Eagle, Chamberlain, Churchill, Umsaskis,
Chemquasabamticook, Long, Musquacook, Munsungan, and Caucomgomoc
Lakes; Long and other ponds; and Pine Stream and the Allagash, the St. John, and
the West Branch of the Penobscot River.
Catch: squaretailed trout, togue, and salmon.
Ten ponds on the headwaters of Nigger Brook, which flows into the Allagash,
provide the best location for squaretails in Maine, with the possible exception of the
ponds at the headwaters of the Red River. The togue are still biting well in
August in Munsungan Lake, and trout fishing is good throughout most of the
season on the smaller tributaries of the Allagash, some of them still untried by
fishermen.
Katahdin Region: Katahdin, Sourdnahunk, Millinocket, and Ripogenus Lakes;
Kidney, Daicy, Shin, Chimney, and Togue Ponds; and mountain streams.
Catch: squaretailed trout, togue, and salmon.
This country is as rich in trout as it is in glorious scenery. Baxter State Park,
which includes Mount Katahdin, is one of the finest natural fish and game preserves
in existence.
Fish River Region: Long, Mud, Square, Eagle, St. Froid, Big Fish, Frost, Mun-
sungan, and Portage Lakes; ponds along the waters of the Red River and Nigger
Brook; and the Fish, Aroostook, Red, and Machias Rivers.
Fishing in Inland Waters 409
Catch: salmon and squaretailed trout.
From the foot of Long Lake to Big Fish Lake (Township 13 and 14, Range 8), a
distance of nearly 100 miles, perhaps the best salmon fishing offered in the State
may be had from the time the ice goes out to June 15, and again in the fall from
September i to 30; salmon weighing 18 pounds were taken out of these waters in the
fall of 1936. Seventeen small ponds on the headwaters of the Red River, with those
on Nigger Brook, provide unsurpassed squaretail fishing. In August there is good
stream fishing on the Fish, Aroostook, and Machias Rivers.
Grand Lakes and Schoodic Region: Grand, Big, Junior, Sysladobsis, Little Mus-
quash, Meddybemps (see below), Spednic, Mud, East Grand, the Machias Lakes,
and the Schoodic Chain; many small ponds; and Clifford, Amazon, and Grand
Lake Streams, and the South Branch of the Little, the East Branch of the St.
Croix, and the Dennys Rivers.
Catch: salmon, pickerel, trout, togue, black bass, and white perch.
The best bass fishing in Maine is found along the East Branch of the St. Croix
River and on Spednic Lake of the Schoodic Chain. These lakes of eastern Maine
lay claim to being the fisherman's paradise, for they provide not only salmon fishing
(ouananiche, the Washington County salmon), but an abundance of all other kinds.
At Grand Lake, from the time the ice goes out to July i and from September i to
30, there is excellent salmon, trout, and togue fishing; and in Big Lake, three miles
away, there is fishing for salmon, black bass, and pickerel. The streams in this
region offer excellent fly fishing, and many of the lakes give opportunity of fishing
the same waters for trout, togue, bass, salmon, perch, and pickerel.
General open seasons and creel limits are as follows:
Open Season
Lakes and Ponds:
Salmon, trout, togue; from time ice is out to September 30.
Black bass (fly fishing only, limit 3 fish) ; June i to June 20.
Black bass (bait, plugs, etc.); June 21 to September 30.
White perch; June 21 to September 29.
Rivers above Tide Waters:
Salmon, trout, togue; from time ice is out to September 14.
Black bass (fly fishing, limit 3 fish) ; June i to June 20.
Black bass (bait, plugs, etc.); June 21 to September 30.
White perch; June 21 to September 14.
Brooks and Streams above Tide Waters:
Salmon and trout; from time ice is out to August 15.
Togue; from time ice is out to September 30.
Black bass (fly fishing only, limit 3 fish) ; June i to June 2O.
Black bass (bait, plugs, etc.); June 21 to September 30.
White perch; June 21 to August 15.
Creel Limits
Salmon, trout, togue, black bass, and white perch from streams and brooks:
25 fish or lyti pounds, unless individual fish weighs over 7^ pounds or last fish
caught increases the combined weight to more than 7^ pounds.
Twenty-five fish, combined weight 10 pounds, from lakes, ponds, and rivers.
Salmon and togue must be 14 inches or over in length.
Trout must be 6 inches or over in length.
Black bass must be 10 inches or over in length.
White perch must be 6 inches or over in length.
As fishing varies in different localities, so does the equipment required.
It is always advisable to consult a registered guide of the region where the
fishing trip is to be taken about all accessories required and about
accommodations. Guides are not required in every region, but for sports-
men unfamiliar with the country they are a practical necessity.
410 Sports and Recreation
As a variation to the usual breakfast of pan-fried trout or other game fish
with which guides cater to appetites of Gargantuan proportions, a meal of
woods-style planked trout gives a treat only to be realized in the woods.
The bark is cut from a live hardwood tree for about 18 inches above the
ground, and the exposed wood of the tree chipped to make a flat surface.
After cleaning a good-sized trout, it is pegged skin side in on the flattened
surface, and a few strips of salt pork pegged just above it. A fire is built
about two feet from the tree, the heat quickly searing the fish while the
pork serves as basting. Another woods-style method of cooking trout is to
cover the cleaned fish with an inch or two of wet clay and bury it in the
hot ashes of the campfire for an all-night bake. In the morning, when the
clay is broken open, the steaming aroma and the flakiness of the trout
meat provide a treat for which Paul Bunyan would willingly have traded
his celebrated ox.
The following are two of the more popular among the almost countless
fishing trips that it is possible to make in the State of Maine.
DENNYS RIVER FISHING TRIP
From MEDDYBEMPS to DENNYSVILLE, 25 m., 1-2 days.
Over Denny s River.
Accommodations at Meddybemps and Dennysville; camping sites along the
river.
MEDDYBEMPS VILLAGE (see Tour 1, sec. d), a tiny settlement on the
southern shore of Meddybemps Lake, is the starting point for a canoe-
fishing trip over the winding Dennys River, which varies in width from 75
feet to 200 yards between heavily wooded shores.
The canoe is put in at the source of the river on Meddybemps Lake; the
first 10 miles of paddling are through dead water, calm and peaceful as the
surrounding dense woods and spreading meadows. Although lily pads on
this stretch offer tackle hazards, the pickerel fishing is good, as it is along
the whole length of the river. The pickerel, little brother of the pike, has a
voracious nature and hits hard at moving bait. Striking with a savage
rush, it will take flies, feathered lures, perch belly, or pork rind, offering
good sport at seasons when other fish are sluggish. Pickerel run up to 6
pounds in weight.
At 6 m. down-river from Meddybemps, the deep-pooled Dead Stream
empties into the river; this is good trout ground. Trout flies and trout
streamer flies are good magnets for the redspots. Other tributaries flow
into the Dennys for the next few miles of wooded country, where deer and
small game are occasionally seen along the banks. This region is a favorite
nesting place for ducks; they are heard constantly honking among the
reeds and lily pads.
About 10 m. down the river, the slow Dennys suddenly breaks into swift
Fishing in Inland Waters 411
water for a 5oo-yard rip. This thrilling but navigable bit of fast water is
the site of the old Oilman Dam. Deadwater, a splendid place for a fight
with a tough squaretail, lies at the site of the old dam pool. The banks of
the Dennys from this point are higher, ledgy in many places and verging
into sand banks at others. The deadwater stretch continues for more than
i mile, along an extremely winding course, before surging into the Bright
Island Rips, a stretch of white water nearly one-fourth mile long.
Alternating stretches of deadwater and sudden rips, following the winding
contortions of the river, bring the canoe into Dennysville.
DENNYS VILLE (see Tour 1, sec. d), 25 w., with its famous salmon pool,
is one of the two places which offer sea salmon fishing in Maine, the only
State where salmon may be taken with flies, fly spoons, and trolling lures.
The pool here, like the one at Bangor (see BANGOR), swarms with hard-
fighting Atlantic salmon, which may be taken after April i. A battle with
one of them is a memorable experience.
MOOSEHEAD LAKE FISHING TRIP
From GREENVILLE to MOOSEHEAD LAKE REGION.
Accommodations, guides, boats, and live bait available at Greenville and sport-
ing camps on the lake shores.
GREENVILLE (see Tour 9), lying on Moosehead Lake's southern antler,
is the gateway to a sprawling wilderness of thousands of miles of woods,
lakes, and streams. Within this vast wildland area of Piscataquis and
Somerset Counties lie more than thirty of the finest fishing grounds in
the State, within a 5o-mile radius of Greenville; while more than 100
ponds, streams, and rivers form a web of waterways filled with gamey fish.
Moosehead Lake, 1000 feet above the sea, stretches for 40 miles north
of Greenville, With its 300 miles of wooded shores, and its deeply shel-
tered bays, it is ' tops ' with anglers desirous of deep pools and fine trolling
grounds. The fishing swings in with the passing of the ice — usually
around the first of May — for a round of bait fishing and trolling lasting
until the end of the month, when the water temperature rises. Fly fishing
is supreme until the middle of July, and again in September. Moosehead
salmon run from 3 to 10 pounds; togue (lake trout) from 5 to 20 pounds;
and trout from 2 to 7 pounds.
The thoroughfare between Sugar Island and the eastern shore of the lake
is good trolling ground for ' lakers ' (togue). In early spring they will often
take a streamer fly, although best results come from trolling; later on in
the season, ' lakers ' are taken by deep trolling. They like live or preserved
smelts on a single hook, preceded by spoons.
Fly fishing in the pool below the dam across the source of the Kennebec
River, about a third of the way up on the lake's western shore, offers
plenty of thrills in taking out husky trout and salmon. Regular flies are
412 Sports and Recreation
best for salmon, but this pool is a good place to try out some streamer flies
such as black ghost, plumed knight, or welsh rabbit. Trout here have a
special liking for smaller-sized flies.
Many good trout, salmon, and ' lakers ' are taken from the pools just off
the mouth of the Kennebec by flies, and in deep trolling from a boat.
Reached from Greenville, either by steamer, canoe, motor, or hiking, are
such good trout grounds as Attean, Parlin, Rainbow, and Onawa Lakes.
The streams in the vicinity are well stocked with trout (redspots or
squaretail), which range from the six-incher up to four pounds. They bite
worms readily, take trolling baits like the salmon, and rise readily to the
fly. When hooked, they do not leap from the water as frequently as
salmon.
SALT-WATER FISHING
IN THE salt water off the Maine coast, rock cod, cunners, and summer
flounders or plaice are caught from the rocks along the shore; while in
deeper waters are found bluefish, Atlantic salmon, mackerel, cod, cusk,
herring, flounders, haddock, silver hake, chicken halibut, perch, pollock,
sea bass, tuna, bluefins (small tuna), swordfish, porpoise, mackerel sharks,
shad, alewives, and smelts. Of non-edible fish, sculpins and skates are all
too frequently found on the fisherman's hook.
From Kittery to Belfast, offshore salt-water trolling with heavy rods and
reels for the giant tuna or 'horse mackerel,' weighing up to 1000 pounds,
is becoming a popular sport. They are terrific fighters, equal to those
found off Block Island or in California waters. Tuna fishing is a rather
expensive sport, requiring specially constructed rods and reels and boats
equipped with special rigging.
Deep-sea fishing is an old and popular pastime on the Maine coast.
Nearly every fishing viUage has its skipper who specializes in taking
parties out to good fishing grounds, furnishing lines, hooks, and bait, and
providing a real down-East meal of fish chowder at noon. The catch on
these trips usually includes haddock, cod, cusk, hake, halibut, and perhaps
swordfish in season.
A new sport, not usually known elsewhere on the Atlantic coast, is fly
fishing for mackerel. The striped sea bass, a game fish weighing up to 20
pounds or more, is taken close to shore with surf-fishing tackle and in
rivers that empty into the ocean.
Salt- Water Fishing 413
Information about tuna and other deep-sea fishing may be obtained from
the yacht clubs in the various coastal towns. The average charge per
party for a day's tuna fishing is $25; for deep-sea fishing, $15. No
license is required for salt-water fishing. Boats equipped for tuna fishing
are available at Ogunquit, York Harbor, Biddeford Pool, South Portland,
and Portland. Necessary equipment, which may be rented by arrange-
ment with the boatman, consists of large reel (either 9/0, 10/0, or 12/0),
hickory or split bamboo rod with tip of at least i6-ounce weight, 36-
thread line, 1 2-foot leader (of .035 inch piano wire), hooks (Pflueger-
Sobey n/o or 12/0 are good), belt butt-rest, and shoulder harness.
TUNA FISHING OFF OGUNQUIT
For boats and equipment, inquire at Maine Information Bureau, Ogunquit,
for Maine Tuna Club.
OGUNQUIT (see Tour 1, sec. a) is headquarters of the Maine Tuna
Club, membership in which is open to all rod and reel sportsmen.
The specially rigged tuna boat cruises to an area about a mile offshore,
where the ' horse mackerel ' schools begin. Blind trolling brings only dis-
appointment and strikeless hours, but if a school is located the sportsman
is assured of a battle royal. The lure, a one-fourth to one-half pound
mackerel, a squid, or a feathered plug, is skittered along about 30 to 40 feet
behind the boat, which moves ahead between 4 and 6 miles an hour.
Some sportsmen prefer a slower troll. Strong muscles, steady nerves, and
quick movements are of paramount importance in tuna fishing. The fish,
one of the fastest and strongest of salt-water game fish, is moving at
express tram speed when he strikes, and his terrific lunge carries him
partly or completely out of the water. It is in the split second when he
appears above the water that the fisherman must snap back his rod and
set the hook firmly. The setting of the hook accelerates the amazing
struggle of the tuna, whose fight has been likened to the battle of the
Florida kingfish on a heroic scale. Between the short dashes of the fish the
angler must recover his line; and much depends on the man at the wheel of
the boat, who must swing the craft with the circling fish to keep lines from
fouling.
A tuna battle may last from ten minutes to several hours, depending on
the skill of the angler and the size and strength of the individual fish.
Two sportsmen in a launch off Ogunquit one season hooked a tuna esti-
mated to weigh about 1000 pounds, and the ensuing struggle lasted through-
out many hours of a day and night, the fish towing the launch about 50
miles out to sea and back. Almost on the spot where he had taken the
hook, the tuna swished his saw-like tail and cut the line for freedom.
When the fish has been tired, and gradually swung alongside the boat, he
is caught and held on a gaff, a short pole with a large hook at its end, and
414 Sports and Recreation
then roped by the tail. Skillful gaffing and roping are necessary, other-
wise a big fellow may be lost at the moment of apparent victory.
Commercial tuna fishing, as it is practiced by the fishermen and lobster-
men off the coast, is perhaps not so thrilling a sport as that of the rod and
reel, but it requires as great a degree of skill. The fishermen cruise off-
shore looking for the tuna, with one man or even two standing on the tiny
platform built out from the bow of the launch keeping constant watch for
the great fish. As soon as the prey is sighted, the fishermen overtake it
and harpoon it with a specially constructed spear to which is attached a
stout line with a float (usually a small cask) at its end. The tuna usually
darts out to sea, dragging the float, which prevents the fish from going
deeply below the surface and impedes its progress. The fishermen follow
the float wherever it goes, sometimes heading straight to open sea for
hours at a stretch. Eventually the tuna becomes exhausted by its long
struggle and succumbs, or the fishermen overtake and kill it. This form of
tuna fishing is easier and more certain than the rod and reel method, and
the natives using it are far more likely to bring to land fine specimens of
the 'horse mackerel,' which they sell at a good profit, than is a conducted
party of even the most expert sportsmen.
HUNTING
WITH more than 75 per cent of its total area consisting of forestland and
water, Maine offers excellent 'wild land' hunting. The vast acreage of
the State provides a maximum of sport with a minimum of danger. The
hunter is protected by a law passed in 1933 by the State legislature which
stipulates that a hunter who accidentally shoots any person within the
State shall be prohibited from ever hunting in Maine again.
ANIMALS
Moose are plentiful in Aroostook, Kennebec, Penobscot, Piscataquis, and
Somerset Counties, and are to be found in increasing numbers along the
coastal areas of Knox, Lincoln, and Waldo Counties, where they have
become so numerous that an open season of a few days is occasionally
declared on them.
From wardens' reports it was estimated that in October, 1935, there were
Hunting 415
from 100,000 to 125,000 deer in the woods of the six northern counties
alone. The registered deer kill for the State in 1935 was 19,726. Deer are
commonly found near cleared land, tote roads, and abandoned lumber
camps. Early in the season they frequent old cuttings where there are
plenty of raspberry bushes. Later, after the frosts, they take to the beech
ridges early in the day, making for the swamps and thickets around noon-
time. Hunting is best after a light fall of snow. In dry weather, when the
silence of the woods magnifies every sound the hunter makes, it is ad-
visable to find a comfortable seat on a sunny ridge and sit perfectly still,
waiting for the deer to make their appearance. The veteran hunter scorns
' bushwhacking ' (leaving tote roads and woods trails to plow through the
forest). When a deer is sighted and the hunter fires, there is a sudden
crash as the startled animal attempts to flee, and the white flag of its tail
shows over the 'blow-downs.' If the flag drops, it means a hit. When
hunting is poor, it is best to head for almost inaccessible high land, for the
big bucks travel from one ridge to another, resting spasmodically, and
make for vantage points where they can command views of the surround-
ing country. One of these beautiful bucks with many-pointed antlers is
well worth the difficult climb.
Black bear are numerous in Aroostook, Oxford, Piscataquis, Somerset,
and Washington. Many sportsmen prefer shooting bear to deer, for it
takes a skilled hunter to stalk and bring down one of these crafty beasts.
Slow-moving by nature except when startled, and painfully near-sighted,
it is astonishing how well they are able to take care of themselves. A
running bear can sprint for more than 100 yards, especially on an up-
grade where his powerful hind legs propel him over the ground at top
speed. Accused of being sheep-killers, there was a bounty on them for
years, and it is only recently that they have been classed as a game-
animal, with a closed season. Bear meat, when properly prepared, is
excellent eating, with a flavor much like that of pork. Bear liver is a real
delicacy.
Bobcats are common. As they are a natural menace to deer, a consider-
able bounty has been placed on them ($15 in 1935).
Fox-hunting is popular in Maine, the cunning animal being found in
abundance in every part of the State except Knox County. Foxes have
fixed habits, and the best way to make sure of one is to learn his runways
and then wait until he comes along. They are as destructive as they are
elusive, destroying partridge eggs and chicks, and playing havoc with
rabbit colonies. The number of foxes in this State is increasing steadily.
Raccoons are also increasing in number, and are plentiful in every county
except Aroostook, Franklin, Knox, Penobscot, Piscataquis, Sagadahoc,
and Washington Counties. They are usually hunted at night with dogs.
Nearly all of the hounds used for this sport are imported from the South,
a good coon dog costing $100 or more. But native dogs can be developed
into good coon hunters; one Belfast dog has 500 raccoons to his credit in
13 years of active field work. In contrast to the southern raccoons, which
are considered of good size if they weigh 20 pounds, Maine raccoons of 30
41 6 Sports and Recreation
pounds are not at all uncommon — one caught at Sebago Lake weighed
35 pounds and measured 51 inches in length.
Many persons consider rabbit hunting a fine sport, and most persons agree
that rabbits make very good eating. Maine rabbits keep to the surface of
the ground, and do not ' hole in ' like the smaller species found in most
other States. They usually live in the low evergreen growths, but cold
weather or lack of food in the heavily wooded areas often forces them to the
swamplands, where they take to brush piles in old cuttings. It is said that
there are more rabbit hounds in the Kennebec valley than in any other
section of New England. These dogs, baying in sorrowful tones, find the
rabbit and chase it in circles back to its starting place. The hunter needs
only to stay where he first started the rabbit, and wait for it to arrive.
At one period, Maine white hares suffered from tularemia; but in 1935
they were once more admitted into Massachusetts for restocking pur-
poses, the disease apparently having run its course.
Gray squirrels are now protected by law, but there is an open season on
them each year.
BIRDS
Duck shooting is a very popular sport in Maine, and the shooting at
Merrymeeting Bay is conceded to be the best anywhere on the Atlantic
coast. The number of wild ducks in Aroostook County, and in the
Machias region, has increased greatly. The common mallard and black
duck are the most popular game birds of Maine, particularly the black
duck, which is found in abundance, generally weighing about three
pounds. A dozen or more varieties breed on the cool waters of the north-
ern part of the State, and the hunter can be sure of finding sheldrakes,
teal, pintails, and bluebills. There is no open season, however, on buffle-
heads, ruddies, wood ducks, snow geese, or Canada geese. The open
season on ducks and geese is controlled entirely by the Federal Govern-
ment; in addition to the Maine hunting license, it is necessary to have
a Federal duck stamp.
Excellent hunting for woodcock is found anywhere along the coast, for the
birds in flight stop to rest at every natural feeding place. Native wood-
cock are found inland, especially in central and western Maine. They are
a shy bird and a real test for any bird dog. A dog is necessary for wood-
cock hunting, as the birds lie so close in the thickets that they are rarely
flushed unless nearly stepped upon. For the best shooting conditions
several heavy frosts must have been felt, since woodcock do not have to
resort to eating worms in marshy runs while the foliage is heavy and food
plentiful. When forced out of the thick woods, they are generally found
in alder and birch runs with blackberry tangle beneath, or on sunny ridges
with a brook below.
Hunting 417
The partridge (ruffed grouse), so-called king of all North American game
birds, is native to Maine and protected by law. In 1935, there were grouse
covers near every Maine city, although the shooting becomes progres-
sively better toward the north. They are common in old apple orchards,
blackberry bushes, and in open birch and alder growth.
The pheasants liberated in Maine every year are well able to withstand
the winter cold, and many of them are found nesting in a wild state.
Since many pheasants have appeared in Piscataquis County, where none
have been liberated in recent years, it is clear that they are coming in
from territory to the south and spreading throughout the State. Both
black and ring-necked pheasants are found in Maine.
GAME AREAS
In order to list Maine's game resources, the State can be roughly divided
for convenience into four sections, as follows:
SW. Section: York, Cumberland, Androscoggin, Sagadahoc, Oxford, Lincoln,
Franklin, and Kennebec Counties, as well as portions of Waldo, Knox, Piscataquis,
and Somerset Counties.
Game: moose, deer, bear, raccoon, fox, rabbit, woodcock, partridge, duck, and
pheasant.
Moose are, as a general rule, continually protected by law, although in 1935 an
open season of three days (November 28, 29, 30) was declared on bull moose in
Knox, Lincoln, and Waldo Counties.
Bears are found in the northern portions of Franklin, Oxford, and Somerset
Counties of this section.
Rabbits are hunted as a popular sport in all townships of Kennebec County. They
are found in every part of the State.
Good woodcock hunting is common near Damariscotta.
A very famous duck-shooting ground is Merrymeeting Bay in Sagadahoc County,
where the wild rice planted by Capt. Sam Nickerson has been attracting great
hordes of the waterfowl since 1890. Planting the rice is now supervised by the
State's Inland Fish and Game Commission. Lakeshore duck-hunting is excellent
in the Belgrade Lakes region.
Flocks of pheasants abound in the vicinity of Damariscotta. The State Game
Farm at Gray raises ring-necked pheasants, about 3000 of which are annually dis-
tributed throughout the State by the Inland Fish and Game Commission.
NW. Section: Somerset, Piscataquis, and Aroostook Counties.
Game: deer, bear, bobcat, lynx, fox, mink, otter, fisher, partridge, woodcock,
snipe, duck (black duck, mallards, sheldrakes), and geese.
Moosehead Lake is not only the gateway to the big-game country but is a center
for game-bird hunting. The woodcock found here are reported as being much
larger and better than those found along the coast.
Partridge are shot here with rifles rather than shotguns.
NE. Section: northern Penobscot, eastern Piscataquis, northern Washington, and
parts of Aroostook Counties.
41 8 Sports and Recreation
Game: deer, bear, fox, rabbit, bobcat, lynx, otter, fisher, mink, woodcock, partridge,
duck, and geese.
There is excellent woodcock hunting in alder swamps near Machias.
Popular duck-hunting grounds are found in the Grand Lake region and along
Grand Lake Stream.
SE. Section: Hancock, parts of Waldo and Knox, most of Washington, and south-
ern Penobscot Counties.
Game: moose, deer, bear, fox, raccoon, rabbit, woodcock, partridge, and duck.
Raccoon is particularly plentiful in Hancock County.
Woodcock flock near Ellsworth along the coast, and partridge and pheasants
abound in the warmer regions near the coast.
A good duck-hunting ground is Pocamoonshine Lake in Princeton, Washington
County.
At one time there was only one Fish and Game Association in Maine, and
this was State-wide in scope. In recent years, many county and city
organizations have been formed, all of them with large enrollments. Their
purpose is not to encourage fishing and hunting, but to co-operate in the
conservation of fish and game. This is accomplished by seeing to it that
protective laws are passed, and then aiding in their enforcement.
Open seasons on game vary in different sections of the State and the game
laws are frequently changed, so that it is always advisable to have a copy
of the Maine Hunting Laws. This may be obtained from the Maine
Publicity Bureau in Portland, together with a complete list of hunting
camps, hotels, and farm inns. With judicious planning, the hunting
season may be prolonged by moving from one part of the State to an-
other; for example, with the varying seasons on deer in different sections,
it is possible for a hunter to change his location so that he may hunt con-
tinually from October 16 to December 15.
CANOEING
FOR the experienced canoeist, there is no better way of becoming ac-
quainted with the heart of Maine than by following any one of the
courses that have been laid through the great maze of inland waterways
penetrating the forests of the State. Hunting, fishing, hiking, and moun-
tain climbing, all important features of Maine's outdoor life, can easily be
made side issues to a leisurely but exciting journey by canoe over some
one chain of Maine's lakes and streams. The hardships of the trip —
aching muscles at the day's end, wet weather, insects — are far out-
weighed by the thrill of shooting rapids, the pride felt by the successful
Canoeing 419
fisherman or hunter, the wholesome knowledge gained from association
with the men of the woods, and the simple joys of life in the wilds.
Four of the most popular of Maine's long canoe trips, with approximate
mileages, are given here in tour form. These trips require guides ($6-$8
per day}, who will provide canoes and arrange for supplies.
ALLAGASH RIVER CANOE TRIP
From EAST SEBOOMOOK to FORT KENT, 156.5 m., 8 days to 4 weeks.
Via Allagash and St. Francis, over the waters of the West Branch of the Penob-
scot River, several lakes, the Allagash and the St. John Rivers. 6 carries.
Guides and equipment obtainable at Greenville. Sporting camps and camp
sites at intervals. Supply stores at settlements.
There are miles of quick water to challenge the sportsman's skill with the
shod pole on this trip over forest waterways threading unbroken stretches
of natural scenery still unspoiled. There are almost limitless opportunities
for hunting and fishing; stirring rapids and lovely waterfalls tumbling
into deep pools where great cream-bellied trout strike savagely at the fly;
shallow side streams arched overhead with thick black spruce and
pungent fir leading to still caverns and tiny lakes where wild game gather
to feed and drink, and to sunlit glades in which deer are caught browsing.
The starting-point at East Seboomook (see Tour 9) is usually reached
from GREENVILLE (see Tour 9) by steamer, a 40-mile trip up Moose-
head Lake.
EAST SEBOOMOOK, at the end of one of Moosehead's arms, is a small
lakeside settlement with a general store and several sporting camps.
From here, dunnage and canoe are toted overland via Northwest Carry to
the deadwater below Seboomook Dam. At 3 m. the canoe is put in on the
West Branch of the Penobscot River, and the trip is actually begun.
Lobster Stream, 7 m. (R) , affords a pleasant side trip for hunting and fish-
ing through a heavily wooded waterway, where ducks, partridges, bear,
and deer are frequently seen.
Lobster Lake, 4 w., at the end of Lobster Stream, is a secluded basin well known for
its trout and salmon fishing. Wild game along its shores offer good opportunities
for the huntsman and the camera enthusiast.
The canoe must now be snubbed down with the pole through several
short rapids. The guide stands in the stern of the canoe, and, with quick
deft movements of his pole (never a paddle), keeps the slender craft off
the rocks. In the smooth water below the rapids, trout rise eagerly to the
fly, and trolling brings gratifying results.
Half Way House, 13 m. (R), is an excellent camping site. Here the guide
sets to, and in a short time the piny air is filled with the tang of campfire
smoke and the aroma of broiling trout, fresh from the stream. After a
42O Sports and Recreation
rare meal and an hour by the flickering fire, sleeping bags and blankets are
very welcome. The peaceful quiet of the great woods prevails until the
guide's call, ' Come and get it,' awakens the canoeist to the good morning
smells of fresh-made coffee and sizzling bacon.
The second half of the course on the West Branch passes Moosehead,
Ragmuff, and Pine Streams, all good fishing waters. The West Branch
flows into Chesuncook Lake near its northwest end, about i mile below the
junction of Caucomgomoc Stream with the lake waters.
Chesuncook Lake, 23 m., about 20 miles long, is surrounded by wilderness
and hemmed in by the Katahdin and Sourdnahunk Mountain ranges.
The fishing is good in the streams flowing into the lake, with an abundance
of trout, salmon, togue, and whitefish — the latter, a particularly sweet-
fleshed fish, running usually about a pound in weight. Flood waters on
the lake, however, caused by the Ripogenus Dam, have diminished its
attractions for sportsmen. The shores, lined with dead timber and sand
banks, provide no suitable camp sites, and it is a dangerous place in which
to be overtaken by dusk.
Caucomgomoc Stream, 24 m., follows a northwesterly course to the lake of
the same name. It is marked by quick water and running rapids, and
gives a strenuous workout to the most hardened paddle-swinger.
Caucomgomoc Lake (Ind.: 'Gull Lake'), 35 m., is a long body of water
between high wooded ridges. Salmon is plentiful here. Just north of
Caucomgomoc Stream is a fine camp site near the entrance to Ciss
Stream, narrow, and winding, which leads 2.5 miles to Round Pond.
At Round Pond Carry, 43 m., on the opposite shore, an old-time 'jumper
sled ' is provided for hauling the canoe to Allagash Lake. This is a log sled
having a high crosspiece on which one end of the canoe is supported while
it is being dragged over the tote road through the woods. There is an
excellent camp site at the Allagash end of the Carry.
Allagash Lake, 46.5 m., offers fine fishing and hunting in the shadow of
Allagash Mountain. Deer are plentiful; and if he is fortunate, the trav-
eler may catch a glimpse of a moose in the low marshy ground at the
lake's edge.
Allagash Stream, 49.5 m., is entered from the northeast end of the lake.
Allagash Falls, 53.5 m., requires another carry. The shores of the pool be-
low the lovely little falls provide a pleasant site for noon camp, where
bird songs are accompanied by the music of falling waters. Berries are
abundant in season near this spot, and a hatful of raspberries, quickly
gathered, tops off the meal as no prepared dessert could.
Chamberlain Lake, 56.5 m., is one of the most attractive bodies of water on
the trip, with fine views of distant blue mountains in all directions and
plenty of fat trout waiting to be caught. Here the State has developed
pleasant camp sites, and provided conveniences for the camper.
Chamberlain Lake Dam, 62.5 m., is directly across the lake. There is a 10-
rod carry to the southwest shore of Eagle Lake, rich in trout, salmon,
Canoeing 421
togue, and whitefish, and on its banks berries in abundance are found in
season. The northern end of the lake narrows to a thoroughfare leading
to Churchill Lake.
Main Water Thoroughfare, 72.5 m., is entered from the southwest.
Churchill Lake, 74.5 m., offers a wide blue vista, with water-lilies floating
placidly in the foreground.
Chase Carry, 79.5 m., lies at the north end of Churchill Lake. There is a
tote here of approximately i mile to the Allagash River.
The Allagash River, 80.5 m., is swift and full of rapids. The trip here
becomes strenuous and exciting, as the canoe is poled through roaring
swash past banks dark with evergreen. In a tight bad place in short
rapids the canoes are sometimes 'roped down,' but the guide more often
resorts to the pole and the art of ' snubbing her down.' Old-timers say that
skill at snubbing down is fast vanishing from the Maine woods, and guides
now prefer the less dangerous tenderfoot practice of roping the canoes
down through the steeper pitches of water.
Umsaskis Lake, 81.5 m., is entered from the southeast. There is a 5-mile
paddle up-lake and through a narrow thoroughfare to Long Lake. Um-
saskis provides excellent camp sites, and the fishing is good. When the
canoeist takes more than he can eat at a single meal, he can keep his catch
overnight by cleaning the fish, wrapping them in paper or leaves, and
burying them in the ground.
Long Lake, 86.5 m., is dammed at its lower end. Here is a lo-yard carry,
after which the canoe is again put into the Allagash.
The Allagash River, 91.5 m., is again quick with rapids and made danger-
ous by small falls for a distance of about 10 miles. It is not unusual to
startle deer or bear drinking at the edge of the stream.
At 101.5 m. the Allagash broadens into Round Pond, the second body of
water of that name on this trip. There is excellent fishing here, and good
camp sites, one of which is provided and cared for by the State. The
Allagash River is re-entered from the north end of Round Pond. The
tempestuous waters soon become placid, and water-lilies on all sides float
on the deadwater. Several streams, especially Musquacook, draining into
the deadwater, offer good fishing; many of them, wandering through miles
of unbroken forests, have never been tried by fishermen.
The Allagash Falls, 118.5 m., shaded by some of the largest cedars in the
country, are famous for their beauty. Their drop is more than 30 feet.
There is a short carry around the Falls. The rapids below the Falls, a
particularly turbulent pitch, is called the Horse Race. Again expert
handling of the canoe is called into play.
ALLAGASH (Allagash Plantation, pop. 438), 130.5 m., a frontier village
settled by the English, but now largely inhabited by French-speaking
people of Acadian descent, has grown up near the confluence of the St.
John and Allagash Rivers. There is a small hotel here, and bus service to
St. Francis. Canoeists often make this the terminus of the trip, but the
latter may be continued to St. Francis by way of the St. John River.
422 Sports and Recreation
At ST. FRANCIS, 142.5 m. (see Tour 1, sec. e), a Bangor and Aroostook
train can be taken to Fort Kent.
FORT KENT, 156.5 m. (see Tour 1, sec. e), is the terminus of the present
trip. However, if desired, the canoeist may continue to Van Buren (see
Tour 1, sec. e), nearly 50 miles down the St. John.
EAST BRANCH CANOE TRIP
From GREENVILLE to GRINDSTONE, 141 m., 2-3 weeks.
Via Kokadjo, Ripogenus Dam, Chesuncook Dam, Whetstone, Burntland, and
Grindstone Falls, over several lakes, Umbazooksus Stream, and the East Branch
of the Penobscot River. 12 carries.
Guides, equipment, and supplies available at Greenville. Trucking charges
from Greenville to Ripogenus Dam, about $10 per canoe; Chesuncook Lake
motorboat transfer, $6-$8; Mud Pond Carry charge, $$-$7 per canoe.
For those who want an exciting voyage through the wilderness, the East
Branch canoe trip is suggested. The journey is so difficult, with its carries
and rapids, that few guides care to make it; some persons consider it the
wildest canoe trip in the Maine woods. The start is usually made at
Greenville, although the canoe is not put into the water until Urnba-
zooksus Stream is reached.
GREENVILLE (see Tour 9). Here canoes and dunnage are loaded on a
truck for the 4o-mile drive over a good gravel road to Ripogenus Dam on
the SE. shore of Chesuncook Lake.
KOKADJO (Ind. : 'rippling waters '), 20 m. (see Tour 7) is a village on the
shore of Kokadjo Lake, where there is good fishing.
Grant Farm, 32 m. Near here is Ragged Stream.
Ragged Stream, winding through virgin timber, leads to Ragged Lake, 3 m., which
offers excellent fishing and hunting in season.
Ripogenus Dam, 40 m. (see Tour 7), across Ripogenus Gorge, is at the
southeast shore of Chesuncook Lake. Here supplies and canoe are trans-
ferred to motorboat for the trip up the lake. It is not advisable to attempt
to paddle Chesuncook Lake because of choppy waters and headwinds.
Chesuncook Dam, 58 m., necessitates a short carry. Canoes are put in on
Umbazooksus Stream for the mile run into Umbazooksus Lake, which is
used principally as a thoroughfare.
Mud Pond Carry, 60 m., is equipped with wagon and horses to haul canoes
and dunnage to Mud Pond. The latter is a difficult thoroughfare to
paddle because of its shallowness, and much dragging of canoes and
wading are necessary to reach the small outlet leading into Chamberlain
Lake. With the exception of this stretch, the going is all easy paddling
over quiet water, with good camp sites always at hand and a variety of
splendid scenery.
VACATIONLAND
THESE, too, are speaking pictures. They show some of
Maine's advantages in the long-enjoyed but only recently dis-
covered recreational resources of which resident and visitor
alike are taking greater advantage every year. There is no
season of the year in Maine which does not offer some exciting
and vigorous sport; there is no time when the Maine landscape
does not present some new and striking scene.
DREAMING OF A DUCK HUNT
.~S5«C3S
ON THE BANK OF SOURDNAHUNK
TROTTINO RACE ON THE ICE AT CAMDEN
WINTER SCENE, NEAR FRYEBURG
«5r:«afcx
MORNING PADDLE ON MOOSEHEAD, MOUNT KINEO IN THE BACKGROUND
SAILS IN THE SUN
ALMOST IN THE NET, PLEASANT RIVER, GRAY
ICE FISHING, SEBAGO LAKE
AUTUMN TRAIL
HUNTING PARTY AT CAMP, KOKADJO
CAMP SITE NEAR MOUNT KATAHDIN
POPHAM BEACH
Canoeing 423
At Chamberlain Lake, 63 m., the canoe is headed southeast to reach Three
Mile Thoroughfare, an easily managed passage to Telosmis Lake, with
splendid views of the Sourdnahunk, Katahdin, and Wassataquoik moun-
tain ranges. Telosmis is best covered in a leisurely fashion, for it offers
excellent fishing and some of its tributaries are fine trout streams with
deep pools and small ponds caused by beaver dams.
At 73 m. the canoe enters the north end of Telos Lake. There is an old
camping ground in a sheltering grove about halfway down the lake on the
southeast shore. To the northeast, the general direction of the course, are
Telos Lake Dam and Canal. The canal was built more than 100 years ago
to prevent logs from going out of Maine by the Allagash and St. John
Rivers into Canada. The short carry around the dam brings the canoe to
the canal. This latter presents a thrilling shoot over white water that
spills and wrecks craft not guided by skilled hands. Owing to the differ-
ence in the levels of Telos and Webster Lakes, whose waters it connects, the
canal has become a roaring swash, capable of shooting a canoe the
distance of three-fourths mile in less than two minutes. In such difficult
waters some prefer to rope down their canoe, but most guides use the
shod pole and snub the canoe down with sureness and great dexterity.
From this point all the way down the East Branch, there is abundant
opportunity for watching the guide work the fast-moving canoe among
rocks and rapids, with never a mis-stroke or a smash — which would end
the voyage then and there. The relief from poling to paddling comes in
passing through the quiet and beautiful waters of the lakes. And from
the passage in fast water, the contrast is sharp with the slowness of the
carries, which must be made with leg and back power.
The Telos Canal drops the canoe into Webster Lake, 76 m. Tote roads
leading to abandoned lumber camps, now almost buried in the thick
underbrush of the forest, start from the shores of this lake, once an active
waterway in lumbering days.
Webster Lake Dam, 79 m., necessitates a short carry to Webster Stream.
Left from Webster Lake Dam on a rough road is Co/alos Pond,'2 m.; here one can
stand in the fields which border the pond and snap a fly into quiet pools where lurk
fine trout waiting to break the surface the moment the lure lands on the water.
Webster Stream is followed for nearly 10 miles to Indian Carry, an over-
land trip that is most difficult even under favorable circumstances. With
canoe carriage lacking, this shift of more than 3 miles must be made by
man power, and has been known to take a full day with all hands hauling.
The canoe is put in at Second (or Matangamonsis) Lake, where there is
always good fishing and a fine choice of pleasant camp sites along the
shore.
Three Mile Thoroughfare, 93 m., winds to Grand (or Matagamon) Lake,
which affords many fine views of Mount Matagamon and the Traveler
Mountain Range. This is the last lake passed on the present trip. There
are excellent camp sites along the shores, and the fishing is good.
At 100 m. the canoe enters the East Branch of the Penobscot River, and
the traveling becomes even more interesting and varied than before.
424 Sports and Recreation
Stair Falls, 106 m., a beautiful cataract, makes a short carry necessary.
From here through the four pitches of Pond, Grand, Hulling Machine,
and Bowling Falls, and along the 15 -mile run to the mouth of Wassata-
quoik Stream, the waterway runs through good deer and bear country.
The traveling is continuously exciting, and the scenery is lovely beyond
description. Camp sites are available in places of breath-taking beauty,
the finest of all being in a pine grove on the bluff above Hulling Machine
Falls. In this land of early frosts, the late August and September voyager
enjoys a pageant of color in the variegated foliage.
HaskelVs Rock Pitch, 108 m., requires an arduous carry.
Bowling Falls, 112m., can be run at times, although it is safer to make a
carry.
The mouth of the Wassataquoik Stream, 127 m., marks the beginning of
a stretch of white water, variously named Whetstone Falls, Burnt Falls,
and Grindstone Falls. This stretch can be run, but in rush water it is best
to make a long carry.
GRINDSTONE, 141 m. (see Tour 6), is the terminus of the trip.
DEAD RIVER AND MOOSEHEAD WATERS CANOE TRIP
From STRATTON to ROCKWOOD, 87 m., 8-14 days.
Via Flagstaff, Dead River and Jackman, over Dead River, Spencer Lake, Fish
Pond, Attean Lake, Wood Pond, Moose River, Brassua and Moosehead Lakes.
8 carries.
Guides and equipment obtainable at Stratton; sporting camps and sites at
intervals'; supply stores at settlements.
This is an easier trip, through somewhat safer waters, than those with
courses laid to the northeast. Part of this trip covers streams followed by
Arnold's men (see Tour 11) on the ill-fated expedition to Quebec. The
region throughout is famous as a sportsman's country, and some of the
biggest and most impressive of Maine's mountains can be seen to ad-
vantage from this course.
STRATTON (see Tour 11). The canoe is put in on Dead River, north of
the village, near the forks of Stratton Brook and the South Branch of the
Dead River. Pickerel fishing is good here, but bigger and more exciting
quarry await the fisherman farther on.
FLAGSTAFF, 4 m. (L) (see Tour 11), is passed.
At 8 m. (R) is DEAD RIVER POST OFFICE (see Tour 11). The waters
are quiet here and the paddling easy. From this point there is a trail (R)
to Mt. Bigelow Fire Tower.
Bog Brook, 9 m., where the Arnold expedition made its passage between
West Carry Pond and Dead River, is at the right.
Long Falls, 12.5 m., a series of cataracts extending about 1.5 miles, re-
Canoeing 425
quires a long carry. Below the falls, the journey continues along a twisting
course through low bog land and swamps to Grand Falls.
Grand Falls (also known as Great Falls), 17.5 m., leaps from a broad ledge
to plunge into a boiling misty cauldron below. A carry, made on the west
bank of the river, is necessary at this point. A half-mile farther on, at the
mouth of Spencer Stream, the Dead River bears east on its way to join the
Kennebec at The Forks. At the junction of the Dead River and Spencer
Streams are The Norways, an exceptionally fine stand of pine.
Little Spencer Stream, 19.5 m., is entered; but because it is shallow and
very rocky, many canoeists prefer to carry around it to Spencer Lake, or
from Big Spencer Stream.
Spencer Lake, 23.5 m., is surrounded by a heavy growth of towering pine
and hemlock. Above the forest tower Tumbledown, Spencer, Hedgehog,
Hardscrabble, and Hardwood Mountains. The lake is teeming with fish,
and the surrounding country is full of game. A paddle of 7 miles to the
north end of the lake brings the canoeist to Bratten's Camps, where
horses may be hired to haul the canoe and dunnage across a carry of 6.5
miles, through a dense growth of cedar and fir to Moose River.
At Moose River, 37 m., the canoe is put in the water to follow a course
north through Fish, Chub, and Whipple Ponds, and Beaver, Horse, and
Moose Brooks, to Attean Falls, where a short carry brings the traveler
into Attean Lake.
Attean Lake, 48 m., provides good fishing for the canoeist, who follows its
east shore past three small wooded islands and the Attean Lake Camps
and under the Canadian Pacific Railroad bridge to Wood Pond. After a
paddle of 3.5 miles to the north end of Wood Pond, the canoe is headed
into the Moose River to follow a 3 -mile course beneath the Jackman
Bridge and through the center of Jackman Village (see Tour 10) to Long
Pond.
Long Pond, 62.5 m., has many wooded bays and coves, along the shores of
which game of all sorts is plentiful. Trout and salmon fishing is good here.
Long Pond Dam, 72.5 m., requires another short carry. The canoe is again
put in on Moose River waters, where it enters a fast run, Long Pond Rips,
the most exciting section of the entire trip.
The 3-mile length of Little Brassua Lake, 76.5 m., is crossed directly to
Brassua Lake, which is entered on its west side. The course turns right
here, and follows the southeast shore to Brassua Lake Dam, where- a
short carry must be made. The canoe is again put in on Moose River,
which from here continues in a comparatively straight and unbroken
course to Moosehead Lake.
Moosehead Lake, 85.5 m. (see Tour 9), is entered from the west. The
canoeist follows the west shore south past Mount Kineo (L) to Rock-
wood.
ROCKWOOD (Kineo Station), 87 m. (see Tour 9), is the terminus.
426 Sports and Recreation
RANGELEY LAKES CANOE TRIP
From RANGELEY VILLAGE to UPTON, 49.5 w., i week.
Via Oquossoc and Haines Landing, over Rangeley, Mooselookmeguntic, Upper
Richardson, and Umbagog Lakes.
Guides necessary; camping equipment recommended, although good accommo-
dations are available along the route.
Traversing waterways in the scenic Rangeley region, this trip passes
through several of the larger lakes of the Rangeley group.
At RANGELEY VILLAGE (see Tour 11), the canoe is put in on the
east shore of Rangeley Lake, to follow westward along the north shore.
At OQUOSSOC, 8 m. (see Tour 11,4), at the west end of Rangeley Lake,
the canoe comes out for a carry to Haines Landing.
HAINES LANDING (see Tour 11,4), 9.5 *»., is at the north end of
Mooselookmeguntic Lake. Here the canoe is put in, and the journey con-
tinued along the west shore to Upper Dam, where there is a short carry to
Richardson Lake. In front of the dam is the well-known Upper Dam trout
and salmon pool. About one-fourth mile out from the dam in the lake is
Dollar Island, on which is a camp site. Metalic Island, about 4 miles
from the dam, offers a fine camp site for a few days' fishing stop.
At Middle Dam, 33.5 m., another carry must be made before continuing to
Sunday Cove over Rapid River. Unless the pitch of water is right,
numerous carries are necessary over this river.
Sunday Cove, 41.5 m., is on the northeast shore of Umbagog Lake. The
course follows south from here.
UPTON, 49.5 m. (see Tour 14), is the terminus of the trip.
OTHER SELECTED CANOE TRIPS
WEST BRANCH TRIP. From RIPOGENUS DAM to NORCROSS, 36
m., 4-10 days. Over the swift water of Upper Umbajackamegus, through
Sourdnahunk Deadwater, West Branch of the Penobscot River, Ambaje-
jus and Pemadumcook, and North Twin Lakes. Guides necessary.
ST. CROIX RIVER TRIP. From DANFORTH to CALAIS, 108 m., 10
days~3 weeks. Over Spednic Lake and St. Croix River. Guides necessary.
FISH RIVER CHAIN OF LAKES TRIP. From ST. AGATHA to
FORT KENT, 65 m., 1-3 weeks. Over waters of Cross, Square, and Eagle
Lakes, and Fish River. Guides necessary.
UPPER KENNEBEC WATERS TRIP. From THE FORKS to BATH,
120 m., 1-2 weeks. Over waters of Dead River, Wyman Lake, and Kenne-
bec River. Guides not necessary.
Hiking and Mountain Climbing 427
LOWER KENNEBEC WATERS TRIP. From GARDINER to
GARDINER (loop trip), 100 m., 8 days~3 weeks. Over Cobbossee Stream,
Pleasant and Horseshoe Ponds, Cobbosseecontee, Annabessacook,
Maranacook, and Messalonskee Lakes, and Kennebec River. Guides not
necessary.
BELGRADE LAKES TRIP. From WATERVILLE to OAKLAND,
40-100 m., 4 days-2 weeks. Over waters of East, North, Great, Ellis,
McGrath, and Long Ponds, Belgrade Lakes, Belgrade Stream, and Snow
Pond. Guides not necessary.
SACO RIVER TRIP. From FRYEBURG VILLAGE to LOVEWELL'S
POND, 17 m., 1-3 days. Over Saco River. Guides not necessary.
GRAND LAKE-MACHIAS WATERS TRIP. From PRINCETON to
WHITNEYVILLE, 75 m., 2-4 weeks. Over Big, Grand, and Dobose
Lakes, and Machias River. Guides necessary.
SEBAGO LAKE TRIP. From PORTLAND (Riverton) to HARRISON,
60 m., 4-10 days. Over Presumpscot River, Sebago Lake, Songo River,
Brandy and Long Ponds, and Highland Lake. Guides not necessary.
PEMAQUID TRIP (fresh and salt waters). From DAMARISCOTTA to
DAMARISCOTTA (loop trip), 70 m., 3-7 days. Over Damariscotta
River, Damariscotta Lake, Muscongus Bay, Pemaquid River, Boyd
Pond, John's Bay, and Christmas Cove. Guides not necessary.
HIKING AND MOUNTAIN
CLIMBING
THERE are more than 100 mountains 3000 feet or higher in the State of
Maine. Few natives and fewer visitors realize that these mountains exist,
and that they have so important a place in the list of the State's natural
resources. With the wild forest land in which they are set, they form a
vast and natural State park, where the nature-lover, the hiker, and the
mountain climber may find nearly every type of trail, the challenge of
rugged mountain peaks, meandering paths along forest-bordered streams,
and panoramic views of mountains, lakes, and timber lands.
The Maine State Forestry Commission has built and marked trails from
the principal State highways to lookout towers on mountain peaks and
high hills. It has also constructed camp sites in those areas where
private accommodations are lacking. These camp sites are situated near
428 Sports and Recreation
pure drinking water, and contain stone fireplaces, shelters with tables,
and other conveniences. The Maine State Highway Commission map
shows the location of these camp sites throughout the State.
Many of the shorter trails hi Maine, especially those hi the south where
there is a more even distribution of population and an occasional village,
follow dirt roads and abandoned county highways. Other trails start
from small villages or from the main highways.
The longest and best known trail in the State is the Appalachian, com-
prising the first 265 miles of the 2054 mile continuous hiking trail from
Mount Katahdin in Maine to Mount Oglethorpe in Georgia. The
Appalachian Trail in Maine was the last part of the total route to be
undertaken and was not completed until 1935, when the work of building
it was finally adopted as a Civilian Conservation Corps project. The
Maine section was the most difficult to build because its way lay through
utter wilderness, far removed from centers of population, and there
were no outing or mountaineering clubs in the State to aid in its con-
struction. Nevertheless, the trail is today an easy, well-marked route.
Throughout its distance the way is conspicuously marked by an unbroken
line of white paint blazes facing the direction of travel. As the in-
signia of the route, this marking is further supplemented by metal
markers which bear the A monogram and the legend l Appalachian
Trail — Maine to Georgia.' The paint used in the marking has a lumi-
nous quality which helps travel in the evening hours. A further helpful
device is that known as the 'double blaze,' one blaze placed above an-
other, which calls attention to a turn. This is the only blaze symbol
adopted for uniform use on the entire Trail. Cairns — piles of stones
built so as to appear obviously artificial — and paint on rocks also indicate
the route where other marking is impossible. All side trails are marked by
blue-paint blazes, and large wooden signs indicate the route and distances
at important intersections. The Trail traverses a series of mountain
peaks in a general southwest-northeast direction, and it has been so
located that comfortable accommodations can be found at the interval
of a moderate day's journey. Two of the trails treated in this section are
part of the Appalachian system. (For full information, see ' Guide to the
Appalachian Trail in Maine,' The Appalachian Trail Conference, 901
Union Trust Building, Washington, D.C.)
The following trips, selected for their scenic beauty, range from difficult
climbs for the experienced to easy hikes for the novice. It should be
understood that the mileages given are only approximate, as floods and
frost may change the trails from season to season.
Sporting camps are fairly frequent in lake areas and small villages, and
game and fire wardens will supply specific information on accommoda-
tions, communication facilities, and trail changes. There are telephones
at all fire lookouts.
Hiking and Mountain Climbing 429
HUNT TRAIL
From BAXTER CAMP to BAXTER PEAK (alt. 5267), 5.2 m., i day, blazed
trail (part of Appalachian system). Via the Gateway and Thoreau Spring.
Caution advised, but no guide necessary. Trail markers are of three types:
Appalachian A white paint blazes on rocks and trees, and cairns (small piles
of stones). Area is State Game Preserve; no hunting.
Wending into the vast game area of Katahdin State Game Preserve and
Baxter State Park, to reach Mount Katahdin, which Thoreau described as
'a vast aggregation of loose rocks,' the Hunt Trail leads into a district
filled with the lore of woods and mountains and colored with legends of the
Indians, to whom Katahdin was the home of the Mountain King, his sons
the Thunders, and his beautiful swift daughter Lightning. Climbing the
west side of the mountain, the trail affords spectacular views over the
forest-rimmed bowl of the game preserve.
Baxter Camp (see Tour 7), a State camp, with custodian on the grounds all
year, is the starting point of the trail, which leads through a growth of
spruce, pine, and hardwood, with Katahdin Stream (R) visible at inter-
vals. The trail crosses a rustic bridge at 1 m., and bears left to follow the
stream for some distance, before ascending to an altitude of about 1800
feet.
Seven Pennies Shelter, 2 w., is a camper's lean-to just beyond which there
are several steep bits of ground known as The Pitches; these are very
slippery in wet weather.
The Cave, 2.6 m., a huge slab of rock projecting from the mountain-side,
offers shelter for a party of not more than six, and is a good stopping place
for luncheon. From this point the trail becomes rocky, even the stunted
growth of timber finally vanishing, and edges its way through the Boul-
ders, a desolate stretch of huge granite rocks marked only by white paint
blazes.
The Gateway, 3.6 m., is the entrance to the plateau or tableland of Katah-
din, a generally level stretch carpeted with several inches of moss.
Thoreau Spring, 4.2 m., in a setting of tall grass and moss, lies at the end of
the plateau. A bronze marker at the spring records the naming of the
water supply in 1932. From here to the summit is a gradual climb of 300
yards.
At Baxter Peak, 5.2 m., the end of the trail, a sign bears the legend:
'Terminus of the Appalachian Trail, A Mountain Footpath 2054 Miles
Long to Mount Oglethorpe, Georgia.' The mile-high point of vantage
affords an unexcelled panorama of Maine's lakes, streams, forests, and
mountains.
430 Sports and Recreation
SADDLEBACK MOUNTAIN TRAIL
From SADDLEBACK POND to SUMMIT OF SADDLEBACK MOUNTAIN
(alt. 4116), 3.5 m., i day. Marked trail; no guide necessary. Inquire at Range-
ley (see Tour 11) for local road to the Saddleback Camps on the west side of the
pond, where boats may be hired for the trip across the pond; or the old logging
road that runs from the camps may be used to reach the trail entrance. Trail
marked by horsehoe sign.
This short climb, along a rocky path bordered by pine and spruce, makes
a gradual ascent to Saddleback summit, from which the view is especially
attractive.
The Ranger's Cabin, 3 m., a log building with porch, marks the first open
ground on the trail. Near-by is a spring, and campers may use the open
fireplace for cooking.
From this point the trail becomes steep and rocky, following an old stream
bed that is slippery when wet. With the higher altitude, the ff ees beside
the trail grow smaller and more wind-twisted, finally disappearing alto-
gether about 200 yards from the summit.
The Summit, 3.5 m., is barren rock relieved only by a few blackberry
bushes and moss. Crowning the summit is a 75-foot Observation Tower,
affording a fine view of the Rangeley Lakes and distant mountains.
SQUAW MOUNTAIN TRAIL
From SQUAW MOUNTAIN INN to SUMMIT OF SQUAW MOUNTAIN
(alt. 3262), 3 m., 1 day. Marked trail; no guide necessary.
Traversing an area rich in scenic beauty, this trail climbs to the summit
of the peak which according to legend was named Squaw Mountain by
Kineo, a mighty Indian warrior, because his mother died here (see Tour 9).
Starting from Squaw Mountain Inn, 2 m. north of Greenville Junction
(see Tour 9), the trail skirts the east base of Squaw Mountain for i mile,
then gradually ascends.
The best spot for rest and luncheon is near the top of the mountain, where
there are a fire warden's cabin and a spring. The Fire Lookout Tower, a
short distance above the warden's cabin, affords a view of Moosehead
Lake, numerous smaller lakes and streams, and Mount Kineo and
Spencer Mountain.
MOUNT BLUE TRAIL
From WELD VILLAGE to SUMMIT OF MOUNT BLUE (alt. 3187), 1.8 m.,
1| hrs. Marked trail; no guide necessary.
Hiking and Mountain Climbing 431
Trail entrance may be reached by motor by turning right at four corners in
Weld Village (see Tour 4) and continuing 2 miles to the base of the mountain.
The first stage of the trail is a moderate climb of a half mile to a fire
warden's cabin, near which a spring of cold clear water bubbles from the
rocks. The remainder of the trail is steep. The summit, a flattened crest
with outcropping ledges covered with scattered evergreen growth, is
crowned with a Fire Lookout Tower.
OTHER SELECTED MOUNTAIN TRAILS
MOUNT ZIRCON (alt. 2240) from Rumford. 0.7 w., 45 min. Marked.
No guide necessary; water at foot of trail.
RUMFORD WHITECAP MOUNTAIN (alt. 2197) from Rumford. 2m.,
1J hrs. Unmarked. No guide necessary; no water.
OLD SPEC MOUNTAIN (alt. 4150) from Grafton Notch (see Tour 14).
1.5 m., 2J hrs. Marked (over section of Mahoosuc Trail of the Appa-
lachian System). No guide necessary; water at warden's camp.
OSSIPEE MOUNTAIN (alt. 1050) fromE. Waterboro (see Tour 11). 0.3
m., 20 min. Marked. No guide necessary; no water; fire lookout tower.
BALD MOUNTAIN (alt. 2572) from Carthage. 3.5 m., 3i hrs. Marked
by cairns on ledges. Start at Hill's Pond; no guide necessary; no water.
PLEASANT MOUNTAIN (alt. 2007) from Denmark. 1.8 m.t 1J hrs.
Marked. No guide necessary; brook near trail.
SABATTUS MOUNTAIN (alt. 1280) f rom LoveU (see Tour 15). 1.5 w.,
1 hr. Unmarked. Guide advised; no water.
TUMBLEDOWN DICK MOUNTAIN (alt. 1740) from Gilead (see Tour
14). 1m., I hr. Unmarked. No guide necessary; no water. Ascent must
be made without trail, over steep ledges.
STONE MOUNTAIN (alt. 1580) from Brownfield (see Tour 15). 1.5 m.,
1 hr. Unmarked. No guide necessary; no water.
CARIBOU MOUNTAIN (alt. 2828) from Mason. 3.5 m., 2% hrs. Un-
marked. Guide unnecessary; water near-by; shelter near summit.
STREAKED MOUNTAIN (alt. 1770) from Buckfield. 1 m., 45 min.
Unmarked, but well defined. Guide unnecessary; no water.
BEAR MOUNTAIN (alt. 1207) from North Turner (see Tour 11). 1 m.,
1 hr. Marked. Guide unnecessary; no water.
AGAMENTICUS (alt. 692) from Wells (see Tour 1, sec. a). 0.5 m.,
20 min. Marked. Guide unnecessary; picnic facilities at mountain base.
MOUNT KINEO (alt. 1806) from Rockwood (see Tour 9). 0.3 m.,
45 min. Marked. Guide unnecessary, but dangerous climbing (no guard
rails) ; no water.
432 Sports and Recreation
DOUBLETOP MOUNTAIN (alt. 3520) from Bradeen's Camps at Kid-
ney Pond. 4.5 w., 4 hrs. Marked. Guide necessary; no water.
TUMBLEDOWN (alt. 3600) from Weld (see Tour 4). 3 m., I day. Un-
marked. Guide unnecessary; water.
MOUNT BATTIE (alt. 800) from Camden (see Tour 1, sec. b). I m.,
1 hr. Marked. Guide unnecessary; water; stone observation tower.
CHAMPLAIN MOUNTAIN (alt. 1060) from Bar Harbor (see Tour 2).
1 m.y 1 hr. Marked. Guide unnecessary; water; National Park Service
(Acadia National Park).
BIGELOW MOUNTAIN (alt. 4150) from Dead River (see Tour 11).
4.5 m., 3 hrs. Marked (via section Appalachian System).
COB URN MOUNTAIN (alt.37i8) from Township 3, Range 6 (Upper En-
chanted). 4 m., 3 hrs. Marked. Guide necessary; water at warden's
cabin en route.
RIDING
HORSEBACK riding has come into its own in Maine within the past few
years. The Maine Development Commission and the Maine Horse
Association are completing a system of saddle trails which thus far covers
more than half the State. The trails, marked by orange boards bearing a
black horseshoe encircling the trail number, have been planned to utilize
abandoned roads, old trolley-line beds, tote and dirt roads, avoiding as
far as possible hard-surfaced highways and heavy traffic.
Experienced riders as well as beginners will find many interesting trips in
Maine. The trails wind past mountains and lakes, traverse meadows and
woods, follow rivers and streams, and pass through pastoral villages.
Whether he is on the road one day or a week, the horseman will find
adequate accommodations along the way. Visiting riders are offered the
courtesies of numerous riding clubs throughout the State.
The two bridle path trips outlined here are representative of opposite
types of terrain and scenery encountered by the horseman in Maine.
The first, leaving a thriving city behind, strikes into the wilderness, and
is never far from the lakes, mountains, and forests of northern Maine.
The second passes through regions which are definitely rural, mountains
and forests forming only distant impressive backgrounds to the quiet
countryside.
Riding 433
SADDLE TRIP OUT OF BANGOR
From BANGOR to CHESUNCOOK VILLAGE, 136 *»., 8-10 days. State Trail
No. 1.
Via Bradford Center, Lakeview, Brownville, Katahdin Iron Works, and
Kokadjo.
Well marked and clearly denned trail after leaving Bangor city limits.
Eleven lunch and night stops (advance reservations should be made for ac-
commodations for rider, and hay, grain, and tieup for horse) ; ample tieups at
night stops; mounted guide service between Grant's Farm and Chesuncook
Village obtainable at Grant's Farm.
Leaving Bangor, the trail wanders through a rural area gradually revert-
ing to thick woods from the once fertile agricultural land of northwestern
Penobscot County. The central section of the trail touches small villages
which once bustled with activity as the trading centers of a prosperous
farming area, but which now quietly drowse except during the hunting
seasons, when red-capped gunners fill all available accommodations. The
northern section, after leaving Katahdin Iron Works, follows tote and
corduroy roads through the timber area north of Brownville Junction,
where splendid lakes, well stocked with fish, lie gem-like in the vast dim-
ness of great pine and spruce forests.
At 0 m. the trail starts from the Bangor Fair Grounds (see BANGOR) to
follow Fair Grounds fence for 300 yards, then left on dirt road one-fourth
mile to fork; left at fork on dirt road for one-fourth mile to junction with
side road, then bear right and continue three-fourths mile to turn right
on Webster Ave. Left from Webster Ave. to Silver Rd.; continue on
Silver Rd. to Hammond St., then left across fields to dirt road paralleling
car tracks for 1.5 miles. Bear left across field to large green barn and
cross Union St. to follow stone wall one-fourth mile. Bear sharp right on
Ohio St. and continue to red barn, then left for one-half mile to turn right
on Finson Rd. Continue on Finson Rd. for 3.3 miles to join Broadway;
right on Broadway for 200 yards, then left on Milo Rd. to cross railroad
tracks (watch for trail markers).
DAVIS FARM (red barn), 19 m.
Lunch accommodations for any number. Stable for 15 horses.
Continue on Milo Rd. to U.S. Bench Mark 172 i/BM, and straight
ahead through woods to BRADFORD CENTER, a small village that is
principally a trading center for the surrounding farming area. There is
fine fishing in Mohawk Stream (L) near State 221, along which the trail
follows on leaving the village.
DOW FARM, 28 m.
Ten bedrooms. Stable for 10 horses. Telephone.
For the next 10 miles, the trail passes through a former agricultural area.
434 Sports and Recreation
Many of the homesteads are decaying and iincared for, while the once
rich farmland is gradually growing up to second-growth hardwood.
Occasional small garden plots contrast with the neglected area surround-
ing them.
DEAN CAMPS, 40 m.
Four bedrooms (2 beds each), one cottage (3 beds), 2 stalls, tieup for 6 horses,
hay and grain. Telephone. Lunch accommodations for 20 riders.
From Dean Camps, the trail swings through the outskirts of MILO (see
Tour 8), an industrial, commercial, and farming community in a heavily
wooded area near the junction of the Sebec River with the Piscataquis
River. The trail follows Highland Ave. to cross a bridge, then first street
right, and first road left.
The next few miles are through a heavily wooded section, where the
menace of forest fire constantly lurks. Thousands of acres of valuable
timber have been laid waste in areas such as this. Care should be ex-
ercised, for a lighted match or live cigarette carelessly dropped into the
underbrush may be fanned by a slight breeze and cause a blazing inferno.
LAKEVIEW, 52 m.
Lakeview House: 20 bedrooms, 10 double stalls, 20 straight stalls, hay and
grain. Telephone.
Once the site of a large mill of the American Thread Company, Lake-
view is now almost a deserted village. Sprawling along the west shore of
the long Schoodic Lake (noted for its excellent trout fishing), with the
dark peak of Mount Katahdin looming in the background, are the dis-
mantled mill property and the empty dwellings of its one-time employees.
Leaving Lakeview by returning over the Milo Road for 2 miles to take the
second road right, the trail leads into BROWNVILLE (see Tour 8A), a
small village lying on both sides of Pleasant River. The trail follows
State 221 from Brownville.
ARBO HOME, 66 m.
Four stalls, 4 tieups, hay and grain. Telephone.
From Arbo's the trail runs straight through deep woods for 6 miles.
Deer and other wild animals are occasionally seen along this road.
KATAHDIN IRON WORKS, 72 m.
Mrs. A. L. Green: 3 bedrooms main house, i cottage (5 beds), 16 stalls, hay and
grain. Telephone.
Once the site of a bog iron mining venture, this small settlement is now
used as base headquarters in the lumbering operations of the Pleasant
River Lumber Co. Four miles northwest of here, and reached only by
hiking, is The Gulf, a spectacular rocky canyon through which rushes
Pleasant River. Near-by are several waterfalls and lakes (see Tour &4).
Leaving Katahdin Iron Works over the Pleasant River bridge, the trail
leads through splendid forest growth to the Hermitage, a private camp in
a grove of towering pines. About i mile from the Hermitage, over a foot
Riding 435
trail, are the Screw Auger Falls on Gulf Hagas Brook, a series of cascades
with a zigzag descent of 125 feet.
MACLEOD CALL CAMP, 84 m.
Six cabins (2-5 bunks in each), stabling for 20 horses, hay and grain. No
telephone.
There are no lunch stops or stables for 18 miles beyond this camp, and
arrangements should be made here for a buckboard to carry luncheon and
hay and grain along for the noon rest-stop.
KOKADJO, 102 m. (see Tour 7).
Inn: Accommodations for 20 persons, stable for 20 horses, hay and grain.
Telephone.
Take first left road after leaving Kokadjo, then straight ahead for 12
miles.
GRANT'S FARM, 114 m.
Accommodations for 25 persons, stable for any number of horses, hay and grain.
Telephone. Mounted guide service.
From Grant's to Chesuncook Village, the trail traverses an area densely
covered with big timber. Winding through narrow aisles beneath fragrant
balsam and along crystal-clear brooks which suddenly hurtle over rocky
beds in a mass of foam and spray, with here and there beautiful vistas
across wide lakes, the trail affords opportunity for seeing a part of Maine
little known to the average rider.
CHESUNCOOK VILLAGE, 136 m.
Inn: Accommodations for 25 persons; stable for 25 horses in village.
This isolated settlement deep in the woods nestles on the shore of Chesun-
cook Lake, a popular fishing area and the starting place of many canoe
trips. Sporting camps scattered along its pine-fringed shores are served
by steamer.
SADDLE TRIP OUT OF AUGUSTA
From AUGUSTA to JEFFERSON, 24 m. State Trail No. 13.
Via North Whitefield.
Well-marked trail. Reservations for overnight accommodations for riders and
stabling for horses at Del Andrews Camps in Jefferson should be made before
leaving Augusta.
Following along a back road, with little motor traffic, this route winds
through an area of diversified farming, where pastoral vistas over broad
fields and rolling hills vie with views of blue lakes and wooded hillsides.
At AUGUSTA, the starting point, the trail follows US 201 from Water St.
across the Kennebec River bridge. To the left is the dam at the head of
navigation on this river, while (R) stands Fort Western, with its stockade
436 Sports and Recreation
and blockhouse of hand-hewn logs, built in 1754. The route continues
straight ahead up Cony St., turning at the top of the grade to Stone St.
(State 17).
At about 1 m., the trail leaves Stone St. to follow Hospital St. At the right
is the Augusta State Hospital, with the granite buildings of the former
United States Arsenal, on a side hill of the grounds. Farther along is a
splendid view (R) of Augusta's west side, with the State House in the fore-
ground, backed by the wooded expanse of Ganeston Park. Hallowell
(see Tour 10) lies to the southwest.
At about 2 m., the trail joins State 226, and a left turn is made on a gravel
road leading to the United States Veterans Administration Facility at
Togus (see Tour 17).
Leaving Togus by the North Gate, the trail swings right on State 17, a
hard-surfaced road which is followed 2.5 m. to the junction with a gravel
road (R), on which it continues up Nolan Hill to join State 126 on Jay
Ridge. The next few miles are through an area of wooded and farming
country.
At about 13.5 ~m. (R) stands St. Denis Catholic Church (see Tour 17),
erected in 1833 on the site of an earlier log church.
NORTH WHITEFIELD is reached at 15 m. (see Tour 17). In mid,
October the Whitefield Fish and Game Club serves an annual game sup-
per here, consisting of venison, rabbit pie, partridge, and sometimes
raccoon and bear.
Leaving North Whitefield, the junction of State 126, State 218, a local
road is reached. Following the local road southeast over Jones' Hill
for 4 miles to the junction with a dirt road, the trail turns left on this latter
and follows along the west shore of Dyer Long Pond for 2 miles, to rejoin
State 126. It then bears right on State 126 for a 2-mile stretch through
woods, to the junction of State 126 and State 213.
Swinging right on State 213, the trail follows along a ridge overlooking
Damariscotta Lake, to reach its destination at Del Andrews Camps in the
town of Jefferson, 24 m.
OTHER SELECTED SADDLE TRAILS
From NORTH POWNAL to WATERVILLE, 71.5 m., 3-4 days, Trail
No. 3. Via Wales, Winthrop, and Augusta. Seven lunch and night
stops.
From BRUNSWICK to AUGUSTA, 36 m., 1-2 days, Trail No. 4. Via
Gardiner and Hallowell. Two lunch and night stops.
From INTERSECTION OF TRAIL NO. 3 to WATERVILLE, 34.5 m.,
2-3 days, Trail No. 5. Via Readfield Depot, Rome, and South Smith-
field, Three lunch and two night stops.
Yachting 437
From BRUNSWICK to WEST AUBURN, 54 m., 2-3 days, Trail No. 9.
Via Lisbon Falls, Webster, and Lewiston. Three lunch and night stops.
From EAST RAYMOND to HACKETT'S MILLS, 18 m., 1-2 days,
Trail No. 14. Via Poland Spring. Three lunch and night stops.
From NORTH RAYMOND to RANGE HILL, 20 m., 1-2 days, Trail
14- A. Via Webb's Mills. Two lunch and night stops.
YACHTING
MAINE'S many islands, providing almost continuous shelter for small
sailing vessels, together with a variety of scenic beauty and an abundance
of good harbors, have made the Maine coast a mecca for the yachtsman.
Most of those who live on these shores during the summer months spend
many of their waking hours in boats; and yacht racing — whether of
small i2-footers in the juvenile class or of sea-going vessels handled by
salty professionals — has become one of the important sports of the
State.
Formal races are staged at the York County resorts several times during
the season, especially at Kennebunkport, York Harbor, and Biddeford
Pool; and there are, in addition, many impromptu events. Interest in
small-boat racing at Portland is not so great as in former years; but several
of the minor resort regions, such as the New Meadows River Basin, have
formed their own regattas and hold regularly scheduled races. Boothbay
Harbor has an annual program of weekly yachting events, which includes
at least one ocean race during the summer.
At Camden there is a large class of so-called HAJ boats, identical in form
and rig, all 3o-footers, built in Finland several years ago and exported to
this country. Semi-weekly races of these boats are held by the younger
group of yachtsmen. Two series of races are arranged here each summer,
and special events in connection with the Rockport Carnival and Regatta
include a captains' race, a Labor Day race, and an overnight cruise.
Competition in these races is keen; and the course, laid outside Camden
Harbor, is a difficult test of the sailing ability of the young skippers, many
of whom are girls.
At Dark Harbor on Islesboro Island there is equally enthusiastic racing
activity. Several classes of one-design boats, principally 1 2-f ooters and 1 7-
footers, participate in an annual series of summer races. A similar fleet at
North Haven, farther out in Penobscot Bay, confines its activities chiefly
to the sheltered reaches between North Haven and Vinalhaven.
43$ Sports and Recreation
The resorts farther east also have their fleets of one-design boats. At Bar
Harbor and Northeast Harbor, the yachts are fewer in number but larger
in size than in the Penobscot region and on the lower coast. Boats of the
'Bull's Eye' class are especially prominent in the Bar Harbor region.
The principal, yachting event of the year in Maine is the annual Monhegan
Island race, staged by the Portland Yacht Club. This attracts entries
from as far south as Marblehead, Mass., and from all sections of the Maine
coast. The boats race over a loo-mile course from Portland Head to Cape
Porpoise, thence to Monhegan Island and back to Portland, usually fin-
ishing within 30 hours under favorable weather conditions.
Small regattas and regularly scheduled races are held on some of the
larger lakes, particularly at Sebago and Moosehead, although in general
motor boating is a more popular sport on fresh water.
WINTER SPORTS
FOR nearly a century ice skating, tobogganing, fishing through the ice,
and harness racing on ice have been the chief winter sports in Maine.
More recently, ice hockey has been developed from the original game
played by the American Indians on dry land, and many teams rep-
resenting Maine's schools, colleges, and private athletic organizations
compete with each other and with groups from other States and from
Canada in this brilliant, fast-moving sport. Yet not until the past few
years has Maine become aware of the unusual facilities for winter sports
available in various parts of the State. The leading colleges and schools,
of course, have for many years presented programs of winter sports, but
these activities are limited locally and only few persons are able to com-
pete in them. But now most of the leading cities and towns — Lewiston,
Bath, Augusta, Waterville, Bangor, Rumford, Camden, Fryeburg, North
Berwick, Bar Harbor, Houlton, and Presque Isle — have their ski trails
and jumps, toboggan runs, snowshoe trails, and skating rinks; and a
winter carnival, with an ice palace and a carnival queen, is held in each of
these communities. The more ambitious of the carnivals have horse and
iceboat racing, even dog-sled competitions. There are always breath-
taking exhibitions of skill on skates or skis, but there is a generally
prevailing spirit of good-natured competition rather than the more bitter
partisanship of strenuous athletic contests.
Maine's topography — rolling mountain slopes and high hills — the con-
sistency of its snows, warm sunshine, good transportation, and the
Winter Sports 439
availability of accommodations are its chief attractions as a winter
sports country. Civic developments of natural facilities are adding
greatly to this list. Railroads operate 'snow trains' from Portland to
Fryeburg, Rumford, Greenville, and other sports centers, and each winter
finds Maine's highways in better condition.
Fishing through the ice is possible on many of the countless Maine lakes
and ponds, or on the rivers (see Hunting and Fishing). Frost-fishing
(smelting) is a remunerative sport enjoyed at night on tidal streams near
the coast.
Harness racing on ice, an early sport in the State, is being revived at some
of the winter carnivals. The straight course, laid on lake or river, has an
advantage over the oval dirt tracks of the summer fairgrounds in that it
gives opportunity for achieving greater bursts of speed and affords more
favorable views of the race to the spectators. Horses are equipped with
caulked shoes, and drivers are heavily dressed. Otherwise, the races,
thrilling and fast as they are, are no different from those of the various
county fairs held throughout the country through the summer and fall
months. The same horses are run, and the regulation sulkies are used.
Betting is unofficial and illegal.
Iceboats, run by sail or by propeller, are raced on many of the larger lakes
and rivers. At Island Park on Lake Cobbosseecontee (see Tour 13) , an ice-
boat'regatta has been held for many years, the local residents competing
in the fast and exciting races with vessels of individual design and manu-
facture. This regatta has become semi-official although there is at present
no organized iceboat racing in Maine. Lake Cobbosseecontee contin-
ues as a center for the sport, certain of the iceboats raced there having
been in use each season over a period of twenty-five years. Moosehead
Lake is also becoming well known for its ice-sailing. There are several
reasons why iceboating should grow in popularity in Maine. It is fairly
inexpensive; the boats themselves are simple enough to build from easily
obtainable materials. The only parts that cannot be produced by home
manufacture are the steel runners (skates or 'shoes'). Even with the most
modest craft it is possible to attain a high rate of speed — sixty miles an
hour is not unusual. And in the open cockpit of the boat, with ice shavings
flying from the runners and gleaming islands or wooded shore streaming
by, the wind whipping the faces of the passengers, the sensation is one of
really great speed, much greater of course than that which the boat
actually attains. Even with the possibility of great speed, the sport can-
not be considered a dangerous one. Being thrown from a fast-moving ice-
boat seldom brings more than a few bruises.
Dog-sled racing is another sport that is rapidly attaining prominence in
the State. The races at Poland Spring have formerly drawn contestants
from as far away as Alaska, and the events were given much publicity.
Although some of the winter carnivals, notably Rumford, have featured
dog-racing, Poland Spring has been most outstanding for the sport
in Maine. Lotal racers, however, travel with their dogs into New Hamp-
shire, New York, and Canada each winter to compete with enthusiasts
44° Sports and Recreation
from all sections of the northern part of the continent. Many Maine
residents are breeding and training racing dogs; some of the animals come
from Husky strains, some are Norwegian or Siberian dogs, some are of
well-known hunting breeds, such as setters, and others are just mongrels.
Often the fastest dogs have wolf blood in them. Chief among Maine's
breeders and racers has been Mrs. E. P. Ricker of Poland Spring, the only
woman champion dog-sled racer of the State.
The following is a selected list of a few of the winter sports offered in some
of Maine's communities.
ANDOVER (see Tour 4).
Available facilities: Ski jumps.
BANGOR (see BANGOK).
Available facilities: Skating. Ski trails — Bald Mountain No. i, 0.5 m. long, 20-25
ft. wide, 720 ft. vertical descent, 25° maximum grade, class in upper part is expert,
class in lower part is intermediate; — Bald Mountain No. 2, 0.25 m. long, 20-40 ft.
wide, 480 ft. vertical descent, 28° maximum grade, class is intermediate; — Ryder's
Bluff, 0.5 m. long, 300 ft. wide, 20° maximum grade, class is intermediate and
novice; — Graystone Farm Slope, 0.25 m. long, 150 ft. wide, 18° maximum grade,
class is intermediate and novice; — Paradise Park, 0.37 m. long, 450 ft. wide, 28°
maximum grade, floodlighted, class is intermediate and novice.
BAR HARBOR and ACADIA NATIONAL PARK (see Tour 2).
Available facilities: 50 miles of rolling carriage roads for cross-country skiing on
island. Ski trails — South Face Trail on Western Mountain, 0.75 m. long, 15-45 ft.
wide, 750 ft. vertical descent, 20° maximum grade, S. exposure, 6-12 in. snow, class
is intermediate, lean-to shelter and parking space; — West Side McFarland's Hill,
0.37 m. long, 15-35 ft. wide, 350 ft. vertical descent, 28° maximum grade, SW. ex-
posure, 8 in. snow, class is novice to intermediate; — Stemwinder on McFarland's
Hill, 0.25 m. long, 10-60 ft. wide, 350 ft. vertical descent, 18° maximum grade. E.
exposure, 8 in. snow, class is novice to intermediate; — The Loop on McFarland's
Hill, 0.5 m. long, 10-60 ft. wide, 350 ft. vertical descent, 18° maximum grade, S.
exposure, 8 in. snow, class is novice; — Open Slope on McFarland's Hill (20 acres),
75-600 ft. wide, 200 ft. vertical descent, 15° maximum grade. Ski tows — on
McFarland's practice slope, 800 ft. long, 200 ft. vertical descent, 15° maximum
grade.
BRIDGTON (see Tour 18).
Available facilities: Ski trails — several, information available locally.
CAMDEN (see Tour 1, sec. &): Camden Winter Carnival, dates tentative annually.
Available facilities: Ice boating, skating, hockey, harness racing on ice, Lodge
House, and Hosmer Pond Snow Bowl (said to be the only permanent winter sports
area of its kind in New England) for athletics. Ski trails — Spring Brook, 4 m.
long, 8-12 ft. wide, 600 ft. vertical descent from apex 2 m. on either side, 15°
maximum grade, N. by NE. exposure; — Cameron Mountain (from W. side Bald
Rock Mountain on Spring Brook Trail to Zeke's Lookout), 1.75 m. long, 8-10 ft.
wide, 500 ft. vertical descent, 23° maximum grade, NW. by W. exposure; — Zeke's
Lookout (Spring Brook Valley up Mt. Megunticook, northwest along ridge to
Zeke's Lookout, northeast to midpoint on Spring Brook Trail), 2.25 m. long, 8-12
ft. wide, 500 ft. vertical descent in 0.5 m., 22° maximum grade, NE. by E. exposure,
class is intermediate and expert; — Mt. Megunticook Slope, 2 m. long, 8-10 ft.
wide, 400 ft. vertical descent in 0.5 m., 20° maximum grade, NE. exposure, class is
novice to intermediate; Cross Country Trail, 4 m. long, 7-12 ft. wide, 15° max-
imum grade. Ski jumps — practice. Ski tow — i electric, 900 ft. long, 186 ft.
vertical ascent, slope flood-lighted for night use. Toboggan chute.
Winter Sports 441
CARIBOU (see Tour 1, sec. e): Caribou Winter Carnival, dates tentative annually.
Available facilities: Skating on Aroostook River, dog-sled and horse racing, shooting,
and other sports. Ski trails — 3; open slopes — 3; ski jumps — i; ski marathon
from Bangor to Caribou (longest ski race in the United States).
FORT FAIRFIELD (see Tour 1, sec. e): Fort Fairfield Winter Carnival, dates
tentative annually.
Available facilities: Skating, horse racing on Aroostook River, dog-sled racing, ski-
joring, and sleighing. Ski trails — i cross country (30 miles long) ; open slopes — 2 ;
ski jumps — i. Snowshoe trails — i.
FRYEBURG (see. Tour 15) : Winter Sports Carnival, dates tentative annually.
Available facilities: Ski trails — Stark's Hill No. i, 0.75 m. long, 15-60 ft. wide, 26°
maximum grade, class at top is expert, class at bottom is intermediate; — Stark's
Hill No. 2, 0.75 m. long, 18-62 ft. wide, 30° maximum grade, class at top is expert,
class at bottom is intermediate; — North Chatham Trail, now under construction
(1937), will be for experts and intermediate, class at bottom is novice. Ski tow at
Jockey Cap, 500 ft. long, 100 ft. vertical ascent. Snowshoe trail. Toboggan chute.
GREENVILLE (see Tour 9).
Available facilities: Toboggan chutes. Skating.
LEWISTON (see LEWISTON— AUBURN).
Available facilities: Skating rink. Ski trails — Sabattus Mountain, 0.25 w. long,
10-30 ft. wide, 1 200 ft. vertical descent, 34° maximum grade, class at top is expert,
class at bottom is novice; open slopes — large number undeveloped. Ski jump.
NORTH BERWICK (see Tour 11).
Available facilities: Ski trails, open slopes, and a ski tow under construction (1937).
PRESQUE ISLE (see Tour 1, sec. e): Winter Sports Carnival, dates tentative
annually.
Available facilities: Ski jumps, skating rinks, toboggan runs, and snowshoe trails.
RUMFORD (see Tour 4): Rumford Winter Carnival, dates tentative annually.
Available facilities: Skating rink. Ski trails — Chisholm Trail, 1.5 m. long, 15-50
ft. wide, 1 100 ft. vertical descent, 35° maximum grade, class at top is expert, class at
bottom is novice; — Town Trail, 0.5 m. long, 10-20 ft. wide, 900 ft. vertical descent,
24° maximum grade, class is intermediate and novice; — Paxton Trail, 0.5 m. long,
12-18 ft. wide, 1500 ft. vertical descent, 24° maximum grade, class is intermediate
and novice; — VVoodrow Trail, 0.75 m. long, 15-40 ft. wide, 22° maximum grade,
class at top is intermediate, class at bottom is novice; open slopes — 4; cross-
country ski trail (12 miles long). Ski jump (1935 eastern Championship 60-
meter jump). Snowshoe trails — 15.
WATERVILLE (see WATERY I LLE): Winter Sports Competitive, dates tenta-
tive annually.
CHRONOLOGY
iooo-io (ca.) The Norsemen, first Europeans known to have visited North
America, probably explore coast of Maine.
1492 Era of active exploration in western hemisphere begins with Colum-
bus' voyage.
1497-99 Explorations of John and Sebastian Cabot along entire coast of New
England, forming basis for all future English claims to this region.
1524 Giovanni da Verrazzano, in service of France, explores to 35° N. Lat.
First to give Aranbega (Norumbega) as a definite locality.
1525 Estevan Gomez, a Portuguese exploring fer Spain, names the Penob-
scot Rio de los Gamos or 'river of stags,' because of many deer there.
1569 David Ingram and two other English sailors, marooned by Sir John
Hawkins, make overland journey from Gulf of Mexico to Nova Scotia.
Ingram later wrote account of their adventures, telling of splendors
of mythical city of Norumbega on Penobscot River.
1580 John Walker, sailing for Sir Humphrey Gilbert, leads expedition into
Penobscot River region.
1602 Bartholomew Gosnold, in bark ' Concord' out of Falmouth, England,
takes back furs, sassafras, and cedar from Maine coast, his voyage
causing renewed interest in New World.
1603 Martin Pring, sent by merchants of Bristol to trade with Indians,
makes careful survey of Maine coast from the Piscataqua to the
Penobscot, naming islands in Penobscot Bay 'Fox Islands.'
Henry IV of France appoints Sieur de Monts Lieutenant- General of
La Cadie, giving him seignorial rights to territory between 40° and
56° N. Lat.
1604-05 Sieur de Monts with company of gentlemen-adventurers establishes
colony on St. Croix Island (near present-day Calais); Samuel de
Champlain makes extensive explorations and detailed maps of islands
and coastline of Maine; colony disbands after hard winter and re-
moves to Nova Scotia.
1605 Captain George Waymouth, in the 'Archangel,' lands at Monhegan
Island; he trades with Indians, finally kidnaping five of them, whom
he takes back to England.
1606 James I of England grants two charters 'to colonize Virginia'; one
company, known as the London Company, being granted right to
colonize 'Southern Virginia' (34° to38°N.); the other, known as
West of England Company (or Plymouth Company), given right
to colonize 'Northern Virginia' (41° to 45° N.); the intermediate terri-
tory being open to either colony after having settled its original area.
1607 Sunday, August 9, at Allen's Island, colonists from the 'Gift of God'
and the 'Mary and John' listen to sermon of Thanksgiving, first
English service on New England soil.
/} /| 4 Chronology
Popham Colony, called St. George, planted on HunniwelPs Point at
the end of Sagadahoc Peninsula, by the mouth of Kennebec.
1608 A ship of 30 tons, 'Virginia of Sagadahoc/ first vessel constructed
by English hands in New World, launched into the Kennebec at
Popham Colony.
Popham colonists give up their settlement and return to England.
1609 Henry Hudson, in the 'Half Moon,' during his search for a North-
west Passage, puts into Casco Bay to repair his storm-battered vessel
after a tempestuous voyage.
Father Pierre Biard, Jesuit priest, accompanies French traders into
Maine and establishes first Indian mission at Indian Island on the
Penobscot, beginning spread of Christianity among Maine Indians
and friendly relations between them and the French.
1613 St. Sauveur, a mission and settlement, established by French Jesuits
at entrance to Somes Sound on Mt. Desert Island; its colonists
are shortly expelled as trespassers on English soil by Captain Samuel
Argall of Virginia, who sets them adrift in open boats.
1614 Captain John Smith visits Monhegan Island and deserted Sagadahoc
colony, sounds 'about 25 excellent harbors' on Maine coast, and
makes map of region from Cape Cod to Nova Scotia, which he calls
New England.
1616-17 Captain Richard Vines and crew of 16 men spend winter at mouth of
Saco River to prove Maine climate not too severe for Europeans;
names site Winter Harbor.
1620 Pilgrims land at Plymouth from the 'Mayflower/ Great Patent of
New England, covering territory from Philadelphia to Gulf of St.
Lawrence, issued by King James. Territory placed under a council at
Plymouth, England.
Permanent settlement established on Monhegan Island.
1622 Land between Merrimac and Sagadahoc (Kennebec) Rivers granted
to Sir Ferdinando Gorges and Captain John Mason by Great Council
of New England.
1623 First successful settlement on the mainland in Maine begun at Saco
by Richard Vines and others; marks beginning of active settlement
along coast west of Penobscot Bay.
First sawmill in America in operation on the Piscataqua.
Gorges attempts to establish general government for New England,
sending Robert Gorges to Maine for this purpose, but is unsuccessful.
Christopher Levett builds home on what is believed to be House
Island in Portland Harbor; here he plans to erect city with funds
from collection in churches throughout England on proclamation
issued by the King. Although Levett fails, proclamation calls wide
attention to possibilities for colonization in Maine.
1626-28 Trading post established at Pentagoet (later Castine) on the Penobscot
by Pilgrims.
Contention begins between British and French over Acadia-in-Maine,
region between Penobscot and St. Croix Rivers.
1629 Plymouth Colony of Massachusetts granted territorial and trading
rights to 'all that tracte of lande . . . adionethe to the River of Kene-
beke . . . the space of 15 English miles on each side of the river.'
Chronology 445
Trading post established at Machias by Pilgrims; soon captured by
the French.
Pilgrims are able to pay most of debts incurred by 'Mayflower' ex-
pedition with furs from Kennebec region.
Mason and Gorges divide their province: Mason takes land west of
the Piscataqua and names it New Hampshire; Gorges takes land east
of the Piscataqua and names it New Somersetshire.
1630-31 Plymouth Council (England), perceiving that its own authority may
soon pass, grants eight patents to New England lands, including
Kennebec, Lygonia, Waldo (or Muscongus), and Pemaquid grants.
1632 French raid English trading house at Pentagoet. Fort at Pemaquid
attacked and demolished by notorious English pirate, Dixey Bull.
English cede Acadia to France by Treaty of St. Germaine-en-Laye.
1635 Pilgrims remaining at trading post at Pentagoet driven out by French
under De Charnisay.
French claim as far west as Pemaquid and occupy to Penobscot River.
Council of New England surrenders its charter to the King, who has
become suspicious of liberties allowed colonists.
Sir Ferdinando Gorges made Governor- General of all New England;
sends his nephew, William Gorges, to colonies as deputy-governor.
1639 William Gorges organizes government of New Somersetshire, with
first legally organized court in Maine held at Saco under his jurisdic-
tion; returns home in same year.
Gorges obtains charter from Charles I for region incorporated as 'The
Province and County of Maine.'
Thomas Purchase, first settler of Pejepscot on the Androscoggin (now
Brunswick), assigns to Governor Winthrop of Massachusetts 'all the
tract at Pejepscot.'
1640 Thomas Gorges appointed Deputy-Governor of Province of Maine.
'First general court' (legislative assembly) under Maine charter
established at Saco.
1641 Gorgeana (York) chartered as first English city in America under
feudal tenure of Gorges.
1646 Father Gabriel Druillettes establishes Indian mission in the Norridge-
wock territory.
Court of law upholds grant of Province of Lygonia as separate from
Province of Maine.
1647 Sir Ferdinando Gorges dies. Parliament declares his grant invalid.
Thomas Gorges nevertheless appoints Edward Godfrey deputy-
governor.
Piscataqua Plantation formed, including present towns of Kittery,
North and South Berwick, and Eliot.
Kittery, settled 1623, incorporated as town.
1650 (ca.) Maine in great confusion as result of contradictory grants, Indian
raids, pirates on coast, and lack of organized government.
1651 Massachusetts claims all Maine land south of lat. 43° 43' 12" with
eastern point on Upper Clapboard Island in Casco Bay.
Sir William Phips born at Woolwich.
446 Chronology
1652 Province of Maine comes under jurisdiction of Massachusetts Bay
Colony in spite of inhabitants' protest; Massachusetts General Court
appoints commissioners to settle northern boundary of colony.
York (formerly Gorgeana) incorporated as town.
1653 John Wincoln of Kittery and Edward Rishworth of York, representa-
tives from Maine, seated in Massachusetts General Court.
Wells, Saco, and Cape Porpoise (Kennebunkport) made towns.
1654 French lose control of all territory in Maine.
1655 Acadian Province confirmed to English, who hold it 13 years.
1658 Scarborough (settled 1630) and Casco (settled 1632) incorporated as
towns.
Isles of Shoals and all territory north of the Piscataqua to the Penob-
scot (belonging to Massachusetts) made County of Yorkshire.
1660 Re-establishment of monarchy in England under Charles II results
in tightening of Colonial government.
1662 First Quaker meeting in Maine held at Newichawannock.
1663 Strong feeling manifested between people of Maine and those of
Massachusetts; Robert Ford of York County is fined by Massachusetts
General Court for saying, 'John Cotton [of Boston] is a liar and has
gone to hell.'
1664 Ferdinando Gorges, grandson of original proprietor, obtains royal
order restoring his Province of Maine; Massachusetts judges expelled
from province.
Charles II, planning an American empire, grants royal province to his
brother, Duke of York, including region between the St. Croix and
Pemaquid, to be called County of Cornwall.
Royal commissioners set up independent government in Maine.
1667-70 Treaty of Breda and supplementary articles give France disputed area
east of the Penobscot, with Nova Scotia.
Baron de St. Castin, French fur trader, comes to New England.
1668 Four commissioners from Massachusetts convene at York, command-
ing people of Province of Maine to yield obedience to Massachusetts
Colony. Royal agents forcibly ejected from Maine.
1672 Massachusetts formally extends its jurisdiction to Penobscot Bay.
1673 Dutch seize French fortifications at Pentagoet.
1674 Region between Kennebec and Penobscot Rivers organized as County
of Devonshire.
New royal patent issued to Duke of York; Sir Edmund Andros be-
comes Governor of New York and Sagadahoc (County of Cornwall).
1675 King Philip's War begins in Maine; emboldened by conflict in Massa-
chusetts, Maine Indians attack English settlements; Scarborough and
Casco completely destroyed.
1676 Charles II decrees that Massachusetts does not have 'right of soil' in
Maine and New Hampshire.
Dutch again capture fort at Pentagoet, but English drive them out.
Indian warfare continues; many settlements attacked and burned.
1677 Province of Maine purchased from Gorges' heirs by Massachusetts
for £1250 sterling (about $6000).
Chronology 447
Indian hostilities continue. Governor Andros, fearing French aggres-
sion in Duke of York's Sagadahoc Province, dispatches a force from
New York to Pemaquid.
1678 Commissioners from Massachusetts negotiate peace with Indians at
Casco.
1680 Provincial government established by Massachusetts; Thomas Dan-
forth appointed 'President of Maine.'
1685 James II replaces Charles II on English throne; Massachusetts Charter
annulled.
1686 Sir Edmund Andros appointed Royal Governor of New England
Colonies, and immediately starts aggression on Maine frontier.
1688 Baron de Castin, enraged by English attacks, organizes Maine In-
dians; many settlements along the coast destroyed. James II de-
throned and replaced by William of Orange.
Andros attacks Penobscot and sacks stronghold of Baron de Castin,
thus precipitating King William's War.
1689 People of Massachusetts imprison Governor Andros, and Danforth is
restored as provincial president of Maine.
1690 French and Indians from Canada sweep Maine until only four settle-
ments remain inhabited.
Sir William Phips takes Port Royal in Nova Scotia.
French capture Fort William Henry at Pemaquid, vantage point of
eastern coast.
1691 Massachusetts obtains its second charter; Province of Maine now
becomes District of Maine, including Colony of Sagadahoc between
the Kennebec and the St. Croix.
Sir William Phips appointed Royal Governor of Massachusetts Bay
Colony, helped by Cotton Mather and his faction.
1697 Treaty of Ryswick establishes peace between France and England;
Acadian boundary remains undetermined, France claiming all land to
the Penobscot.
1699 Mere Point (Brunswick) Treaty with Indians marks end of King
William's War.
1703-13 Queen Anne's War (third Indian war). Only remaining settlements in
Maine are Kittery, Wells, and York.
1722 Lovewell's War (fourth Indian war) begins with sudden raids on
towns of southwestern Maine.
1724 English sack Norridgewock Indian village at Old Point, killing Father
Sebastian Rasle, missionary-teacher.
1725 Colonial soldiers from Massachusetts defeat Pequawket Indians at
battle of Lovewell's Pond, Fryeburg.
1726 Dummer's Treaty at Falmouth with 40 Maine chiefs brings better
feeling and establishment of government truck houses for Indian
trading.
1732-33 Massachusetts offers Maine land to settlers free to increase immigra-
tion into Maine. Resettlement definitely under way.
1739 Boundary with New Hampshire fixed by King George II and Council.
1743 Population about 12,000.
448 Chronology
1744-48 King George's War (fifth Indian war) begins, causing temporary
exodus of many settlers to other Colonies.
1745 Louisburg captured by English soldiers and Colonial forces commanded
by William Pepperrell of Kittery.
1754 Sixth Indian war; Indians of Maine now struggling against complete
extermination.
1755 Acadians dispersed throughout American Colonies; many later settle
along St. John River in Maine.
1759 Quebec falls to the English. Massachusetts takes complete possession
of Penobscot region.
1760 Peace made with remnants of Maine Indians at Fort Pownal.
Cumberland and Lincoln Counties established.
Definite efforts made by land proprietors to attract settlers from other
Colonies, British Isles, and Germany.
1763 Peace of Paris; New France ceded to Great Britain.
1764 Census is taken; population about 24,000.
1774 Show of resistance to Parliamentary taxation in Maine towns, notably
Saco, Falmouth, and Machias.
1775 Benedict Arnold leads expedition from Augusta to Quebec by bateau
and on foot.
Falmouth burned by British under Captain Henry Mowatt.
British vessel 'Margaretta' captured by Colonials at Machias — first
naval engagement of Revolution.
Maine's first post office established at Falmouth.
1776 Declaration of Independence; General William Whipple of Kittery
a signer for New Hampshire.
1777 Ship 'Ranger' launched at Kittery under command of John Paul
Jones.
1778 John Paul Jones sets sail for England in 'Ranger,' beginning his great
naval career.
Continental Congress divides Massachusetts into three electoral
districts, of which northernmost, including York, Cumberland, and
Lincoln Counties, is called District of Maine.
1779 British take Castine and build Fort George there; revolutionists fail
to take fort. Other coast towns of eastern Maine occupied or can-
nonaded by British forces.
1780 Constitution of Massachusetts adopted, giving Maine eight senatorial
representatives.
1781 Cornwallis surrenders at Yorktown; end of hostilities.
1783 Treaty of Versailles; England recognizes independence of United
States. St. Croix River set as eastern boundary of country.
1784 Canadian Province of New Brunswick established, and long boundary
dispute in the Aroostook begun.
1785 Question of separation from Massachusetts arises, causing establish-
ment of Falmouth Gazette, first newspaper in Maine, as organ to aid
in agitation for separation.
1786 Portland (formerly Falmouth, once Casco) incorporated as town.
Chronology 449
1787 On adoption of United States Constitution, Maine is made a repre-
sentative district, having 93 towns and plantations.
1788 Slavery abolished in Maine and Massachusetts.
1789 Hancock and Washington Counties established.
1790 Population 96,540.
1791 Portland Head Light, today the oldest lighthouse on Atlantic coast,
established at Cape Elizabeth; Joseph Greenleaf, first keeper, ap-
pointed by George Washington.
1793 French Revolution; much political partisanship in America. The
Clough House at Edgecomb (near Wiscasset) prepared as a refuge for
Marie Antoinette.
Federalist and Democrat-Republican Parties formed in United States.
1794 Bowdoin College receives its charter from Massachusetts General
Court; officially opens in 1802.
1795 General Henry Knox takes up residence at ' Montpelier,' his mansion
in Thomaston.
1799 Kennebec County established.
The Portland Bank, first bank in Maine, opened.
1800 Population 151,719.
1801 Maine's first free public library founded at Castine.
1805 Oxford County established.
1806 Portsmouth Navy Yard built at Kittery.
1807 Embargo Act on foreign commerce passed by National Government;
causes severe economic depression in New England. Much smuggling
in Maine, centering around Eastport.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow born at Portland, February 27.
District votes 9404 to 3370 against separation from Massachusetts.
Farmington Academy, later first State Normal School, incorporated.
1809 Embargo Act repealed.
Somerset County established.
Hannibal Hamlin, Vice-President of U.S. 1861-65, born at Paris
(Maine), August 27.
First cotton mill in Maine established in Brunswick at falls of the
Androscoggin.
1810 Population 228,705.
Great internal development in Maine resulting from Embargo Act.
England increases impressment of American sailors.
1812 War between United States and Great Britain seriously affects shipping
on Maine coast. Smuggling between Canada and Maine practiced
on large scale.
1813 American brig ' Enterprise ' captures British brig 'Boxer' off Pemaquid
Point.
Maine Literary and Theological Institute, now Colby College, es-
tablished.
Corporal punishment totally abolished in Massachusetts and Maine.
1814 British seize and occupy Maine coast from the St. Croix to the Penob-
scot; Eastport on Moose Island declared to be part of New Brunswick.
45° Chronology
Treaty of Ghent brings peace between United States and Great
Britain.
1815 Foreign occupation of Maine soil ended.
Beginning of western migration, known as 'Ohio Fever,' which con-
tinued until about 1870, causing alarming decrease in Maine's popula-
tion.
1816 Penobscot County established.
Year of the great cold, known as 'eighteen-hundred-and froze-to-
death.'
1818 Waterville (Colby) College opened; obtained charter in 1820.
1819 Convention for framing State constitution meets at Portland, October
ii.
1820 Maine admitted as a State to the Union; capital at Portland; William
King elected first governor.
Population 298,335.
1825 Lafayette given enthusiastic reception on visit to Maine.
1827 Augusta chosen as site for State capital.
Waldo County established.
1830 Population 399,455.
Cumberland and Oxford Canal opened.
James G. Blaine, famous Maine statesman, born in Pennsylvania,
January 31.
1831 Maine refuses compromise boundary solution offered by King of
Netherlands.
1832 State capital removed from Portland to Augusta.
1834 Charles Farrar Browne ('Artemus Ward'), noted humorist, born at
Waterford, April 26.
State Anti-Slavery Society formed.
State Prohibition Convention held at Portland.
1836 Bangor, Old Town, and Milford Railroad completed, first hi State and
one of earliest in country.
1838 Franklin and Piscataquis Counties established.
Earthquake felt throughout New England, vibrations lasting for 20
days after; chimneys and lighthouses thrown down.
'Aroostock War' begins. Serious hostilities between Maine and New
Brunswick citizens avoided by mediation of General Winfield Scott.
1839 'Aroostock War' ends, and Aroostock County established.
Thomas Brackett Reed, noted statesman, born in Portland, October
18.
1840 Population 501,793.
Hiram Maxim, inventor of modern machine gun, born at Sangerville,
February 5.
1842 Webster- Ashburton Treaty fixes northeastern boundary at last.
1846 Four-mile ice jam on the Penobscot floods Bangor and terrifies its
inhabitants.
Sale of spirits forbidden in Maine except for medical or mechanical
purposes.
Chronology 45 1
1847 Maine's first child labor law enacted.
1849 Bangor afflicted by cholera, causing 151 deaths; Mayor William
Abbott dies in office.
Sarah Orne Jewett, author of 'The Country of the Pointed Firs/ born
at South Berwick, September 3.
Maine adventurers sail in Maine ships around the Horn to California
gold fields.
1850 Population 583,169.
Edgar Wilson (Bill) Nye, humorist, born at Shirley, August 25.
1851 Prohibition enactment, known as 'the Maine law/ framed by Neal
Dow, prohibits manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquors in any
part of State.
1854 Androscoggin and Sagadahoc Counties established.
Anti-slavery Whigs and Free-Soilers unite throughout country to
form the Republican Party, which at once becomes very strong in
Maine.
1856 Maine State Seminary, now Bates College, incorporated.
1857 Lillian Norton (Madame Giglia Nordica), noted prima donna, born
at Farmington, December 12.
1860 Population 628,279.
Knox County established.
1861-65 Civil War, to which Maine contributed 72,945 men and $18,000,000.
1862 Maine State College of Agriculture and Industrial Arts (now Univer-
sity of Maine) established.
1863 Confederates seize the 'Caleb Gushing' from Portland Harbor and
put to sea, pursued by other Portland vessels; having no ammunition,
they burn the boat and are taken prisoners.
1864 Bates College receives charter.
1865 Civil War ends.
1866 Great Portland fire of July 4 and 5 destroys 1800 buildings, with loss
of over $6,000,000; aid rushed from all parts of country.
1869 Edwin Arlington Robinson, poet, born at Head Tide in Alna, Decem-
ber 22.
1870 Population 626,915.
State colonization venture brings about establishment of New Sweden,
with importation of Swedish colonists.
Maine's popularity as summer resort region begins to be felt
Railroad transportation by this time well established.
1873 State legislature passes law providing State aid for free high schools.
1875 Compulsory education bill passed by legislature.
1876 Death penalty abolished in Maine.
1879 Freak snowstorm in Portland, July 4.
1880 Population 648,936.
Economic decline in rural areas begins to be marked.
1890 Population 661,086.
1892 New constitutional amendment requires education qualifications for
voting.
452 Chronology
1893 Severe economic depression, continuing to 1895, widely felt in Maine.
1898 Battleship 'Maine' blown up in Havana harbor; followed by Spanish-
American War, to which Maine furnishes one volunteer regiment of
1717 men.
1000 Population 694,466.
1907 Widespread economic depression.
Largest dam of its tune in New England built at Ellsworth.
1910 Population 742,371.
Resettlement of northeastern boundary controversy with Great
Britain.
Democratic State victory for first time in 32 years; Frederick W.
Plaisted of Augusta, elected Governor.
1911 Bangor fire causes more than $3,000,000 damage.
Direct primary adopted; initiative and referendum law passed.
1914 Outbreak of World War. ' Kronprinzessin Cecilie,' North German
Lloyd liner with cargo of gold, interned at Bar Harbor.
Maine Public Utilities Commission created.
1915 Workmen's compensation law adopted.
1917 United States enters World Wrar; Maine legislature passes emergency
act providing for $1,000,000 in State bonds for war purposes.
Ripogenus Dam completed, great engineering feat in wilderness.
1918 End of World War, to which Maine contributed more than 35,000
men and more than $116,000,000.
1919 Lafayette National Park (renamed Acadia National Park in 1928)
created by act of Congress.
1920 Centennial year. Maine receives new impetus toward forest conserva-
tion, permanent roads, and publicity for its vocational facilities.
Celebration in Portland.
Population 768,014.
1921 Consolidation of leading Maine newspapers.
1923 City Manager-Council form of government established in Portland,
resulting in adoption of plan by many other towns and cities of State.
1924 Winter port of English steamers changed from Portland to Halifax,
N.S., because of tax on imported goods.
1929 Stock market collapse marks beginning of depression years; effects
not felt immediately in Maine.
Popular vote on power question prohibits exportation of hydro-
electric power from State.
1930 Population 797,423.
Wyman Dam at Bingham completed.
1931 State Administrative Code consolidates departments and agencies
of Maine's government under five commissions.
Mt. Katahdin State Park given to State by ex-Governor Percival P.
Baxter of Portland.
1932 Waldo-Hancock toll bridge dedicated.
Portland and Boston steamer service discontinued.
Pari-mutuel betting on horse racing legalized.
Chronology 453
1933 Nation-wide bank failures cause general suffering in Maine's rural
areas. Ninety-eight of Maine's 109 banks eventually reopen after
moratorium.
Ellsworth fire causes $1,250,000 damage.
Maine ratifies repeal of i8th amendment.
1934 State prohibition amendment repealed.
1935 Construction begun on Passamaquoddy Tidal Power Project.
Eastern Steamship Lines, Inc., discontinue service between Boston
and Bangor and Penobscot River ports.
1936 Maine suffers most disastrous floods in its history; $25,000,000 loss.
Eastern Steamship Lines, Inc., discontinue service between Portland
and Bar Harbor and New York.
Construction on Passamaquoddy Tidal Power Project abandoned.
SELECTED READING LIST
THE following titles are chiefly those of relatively recent publications intended
in most cases for the general reader rather than the specialist. For further
references, the latter should consult Joseph Williamson's Bibliography of the State
of Maine, from the Earliest Period to 1891 (2 volumes, Portland, 1896), together
with the briefer and in many cases more up-to-date bibliographies contained in
various specialized publications about the State of Maine.
GENERAL DESCRIPTION
Coe, Harrie B., editor. Maine: Resources, Attractions, and Its People. In 5
volumes, illustrated. New York, 1928-31.
Coffin, Robert P. Tristram. Kennebec: Cradle of Americans. Illustrated. New
York, 1937. (In 'The Rivers of America' series.)
Dole, Nathan Haskell, and Gordon, Irwin L. Maine of the Sea and Pines.
Illustrated. Boston, 1928.
Drake, Samuel Adams. The Pine-Tree Coast. Illustrated. Boston, 1891.
Dunnack, Henry E. The Maine Book. Illustrated. Augusta, 1920.
Hueston, Ethel. Coasting down East. Illustrated. New York, 1924. (Describes
a motor trip through Maine.)
Nutting, Wallace. Maine Beautiful. Illustrated. Framingham, Mass., 1924.
Stanton, Gerrit S. Where the Sportsman Loves to Linger. Illustrated. New York,
1005. (A narrative of the most popular canoe trips in Maine.)
Thoreau, Henry D. The Maine Woods. Boston, 1864, and many later editions.
Thoreau, Henry D. Canoeing in the Wilderness. Edited and illustrated from
photographs by Clifton Johnson. Boston, 1916. (The latter half of Thoreau's
classic account of 'The Maine Woods.')
Verrill, A. Hyatt. Romantic and Historic Maine. Illustrated. New York, 1933.
HISTORY
Burrage, Henry S. Beginnings of Colonial Maine. Illustrated. Portland, 1914.
Burrage, Henry S. Gorges and the Grant of the Province of Maine, 1622. Illus-
trated. Augusta, 1923.
Burrage, Henry S. Maine at Louisburg in 1745. Illustrated. Augusta, 1910.
Burrage, Henry S. Maine in the Northeastern Boundary Controversy. Illustrated.
Portland, 1919.
Dunnack, Henry E. Maine Forts. Illustrated. Augusta, 1924.
Elkins, L. Whitney. The Story of Maine: Coastal Maine. Illustrated. Bangor,
1924.
Hale, Robert. Early Days of Church and State in Maine. Brunswick, 1910.
Hatch, Louis Clinton, editor. Maine: A History. Centennial edition. In 5
volumes, illustrated. New York, 1919.
Holmes, Herbert E. The Makers of Maine: Essays and Tales of Early Maine
History. Illustrated. Lewiston, 1912.
Maine Federation of Women's Clubs. Maine in History and Romance. By
members of the Federation. Illustrated. Lewiston, 1915.
Maine Historical Society. Documentary History of the State of Maine. In 24
volumes, illustrated. Portland, 1869-1916.
Selected Reading List 455
Spencer, Wilbur D. Pioneers on Maine Rivers. Illustrated. Portland, 1930.
Sprague, John F. Sebastian Rasle: A Maine Tragedy of the Eighteenth Century.
Illustrated. Boston, 1906.
Starkey, Glenn W. Maine: Its History, Resources, and Government. Revised
edition. Illustrated. Boston, 1930.
Sylvester, Herbert M. Maine Coast Romance. In 5 volumes. Illustrated.
Boston, 1904-09. (Deals with Maine pioneer settlements, 1605-90.)
(See also Proceedings and Collections of the Maine Historical Society, Portland.)
BIOGRAPHY
Gay, Maude Clark. Five Women: Little Romances of Early Maine. Illustrated.
Wiscasset, 1930.
Little, George T., compiler. Genealogical and Family History of the State of
Maine. Illustrated. New York, 1909.
Moulton, Augustus F., compiler. Memorials of Maine: A Life Record of Men and
Women of the Past. Illustrated. New York, 1916.
Scales, John, editor. Piscataqua Pioneers, 1623-1775. Dover, N.H., 1919.
Spencer, Wilbur D. Maine Immortals. Augusta, 1932.
GOVERNMENT AND LEGISLATION
Dunnack, Henry E. Manual of Maine Government. Illustrated. Augusta, 1921.
Gordon, Ernest. The Maine [Liquor] Law. New York, 1919.
Hormell, Orren C. Maine Towns. Illustrated. Brunswick, 1932.
Hormell, Orren C. Sources of Municipal Revenue in Maine. Illustrated. Bruns-
wick, 1918.
MacDonald, William. The Government of Maine: Its History and Administration.
New York, 1902.
Maine Register, State Year-Book, and Legislative Manual. (Published annually
since 1870.) Portland, 1937.
Whitin, Ernest S. Factory Legislation in Maine. New York, 1908.
ARCHAEOLOGY AND THE INDIANS
Eckstorm, Fannie Hardy. Handicrafts of the Modern Indians of Maine. Illus-
trated. Bar Harbor, 1932.
Moorehead, Warren K. A Report on the Archaeology of Maine. Illustrated.
Andover, Mass., 1922.
Moorehead, Warren K. Ten Years of Archaeological Research in the State of
Maine. Andover, Mass.
Smith, W. B. Indian Remains of the Penobscot Valley and their Significance.
Orono, 1926.
Smith, W. B. The Lost Red Paint People of Maine. Bangor, 1930.
Starbird, Charles M. The Indians of the Androscoggin Valley. Lewiston, 1928.
Willoughby, Charles C. Prehistoric Burial Places in Maine. Illustrated. Cam-
bridge, Mass., 1898.
GEOLOGY
Bastin, Edson S. Geology of the Pegmatites and Associated Rocks of Maine.
Illustrated. Washington, 1911.
Bastin, Edson S., and Davis, Charles A. Peat Deposits of Maine. Illustrated.
Washington, 1909.
Dale, Thomas N. The Granites of Maine. Illustrated. Washington, 1907.
456 Selected Reading List
Tebbetts, Leon H. The Amazing Story of Maine. Illustrated. Portland, 1935.
(Relates to the State's geological history.)
Toppan, Frederick W. Geology of Maine. With map. Schenectady, N.Y., 1932.
Williams, Henry S., and Breger, Carpel L. The Fauna of the Chapman Sandstone
of Maine. Illustrated. Washington, 1916.
FLORA AND FAUNA
Fernald, Charles H. The Grasses of Maine. Illustrated. Augusta, 1885.
Fernald, Merritt L. The Portland Catalogue of Maine Plants. Second edition.
Portland, 1892.
Knight, Ora W. The Birds of Maine. Illustrated. Bangor, 1908.
Miller, Olive Thorne. With the Birds in Maine. Boston, 1904.
Rand, Edward L., and Redfield, John H. Flora of Mount Desert Island, Maine.
Cambridge, Mass., 1894.
Ricker, Percy LeRoy. A Preliminary List of Maine Fungi. Orono, 1902.
Scribner, F. Lamson. The Ornamental and Useful Plants of Maine. Illustrated.
Augusta, 1875.
Tower, Gordon E. Forest Trees of Maine and How to Know Them. Illustrated.
Augusta, 1908.
Wilkins, Austin H. Forests of Maine. Illustrated. Augusta, 1932.
(See also Proceedings of the Portland Society of Natural History.)
COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY
Chadbourne, Walter W. A History of Banking in Maine, 1799-1930. Orono,
1936.
Chase, Edward E. Maine Railroads: A History of the Development of the Railroad
System. Illustrated. Portland, 1926.
Wood, Richard G. History of Lumbering in Maine, 1820-1861. Illustrated.
Orono, 1935.
(See also annual reports and miscellaneous publications of the State Department
of Agriculture, Department of Labor and Industry, and Department of Sea
and Shore Fisheries.)
WATER POWER AND RESOURCES
Barrows, Harold K. Water Resources of the Kennebec River Basin, Maine.
Illustrated. Washington, 1907.
Barrows, Harold K., and Babb, Cyrus C. Water Resources of the Penobscot River
Basin, Maine. Illustrated. Washington, 1912.
Clapp, Frederick G. Underground Waters of Southern Maine. Illustrated.
Washington, 1909.
Pressey, Henry A. Water Power s of the State of Maine. Illustrated. Washington,
1902.
SHIPS AND THE SEA
Lubbock, Alfred Basil. The Down Rasters: American Deep-Water Sailing Ships,
1869-1929. Illustrated. Boston, 1929.
Rowe, William H. Shipbuilding Days in Casco Bay, 1727-1890. Illustrated.
Yarmouth, 1929.
Sterling, Robert T. Lighthouses of the Maine Coast, and the Men Who Keep
Them. Illustrated. Brattleboro, Vt, 1935.
Wasson, George S. Sailing Days on the Penobscot: The River and Bay as They
Were in the Old Days. With a record of vessels built there, compiled by
Lincoln Colcord. Illustrated. Salem, Mass., 1932.
Selected Reading List 457
RACIAL GROUPS
Collins, Charles W. The Acadians of Madawaska, Maine. Boston, 1902. (Pub-
lications of the New England Catholic Historical Society.)
Lawton, R. J., compiler. Franco-Americans of the State of Maine. Illustrated.
Lewiston, 1915.
New Sweden, Maine. The Story of New Sweden. Illustrated. Portland, 1896.
BALLADS AND FOLK-SONGS
Barry, Phillips; Eckstorm, Fannie Hardy; and Smyth, Mary W., editors.
British Ballads from Maine. Frontispiece. New Haven, Conn., 1929.
Day, Holman F. Pine Tree Ballads: Rhymed Stories of Unplaned Human
Natur' up in Maine. Illustrated. Boston, 1902.
Eckstorm, Fannie Hardy, editor. Minstrelsy of Maine: Folk-Songs and Ballads
of the Woods and the Coast. Boston, 1927.
Gray, Roland P., editor. Songs and Ballads of the Maine Lumberjacks, with
Other Songs from Maine. Map. Cambridge, Mass., 1924.
EDUCATION
Chadbourne, Ava H. Beginnings of Education in Maine. New York, 1928.
Chadbourne, Ava H., compiler. Readings in the History of Education in Maine.
Bangor, 1932.
Hall, Edward W. History of Higher Education in Maine. Illustrated. Washing-
ton, 1903.
Stetson, William W. Study of the History of Education in Maine and the Evolution
of Our Present School System. Augusta, 1901.
Survey of Higher Education in Maine. By the University of Maine, in co-opera-
tion with Bates, Bowdoin, and Colby Colleges. Maps. Orono, 1931.
(See also annual reports and miscellaneous publications of the State Department
of Education.)
RELIGION
Allen, Stephen, and Pilsbury, William H. History of Methodism in Maine, 1793-
1886. Illustrated. Augusta, 1887.
Clark, Calvin M. History of the Congregational Churches in Maine. In 2 volumes.
Portland, 1926.
Dow, Edward F. A Portrait of the Millennial Church of Shakers. Orono, 1931.
Randall, Daniel B. A Statistical History of the Maine Conference of the M.E.
Church, from 1793 to 1893. Illustrated. Portland, 1893.
ARCHITECTURE
Loomis, Charles D. Port Towns of Penobscot Bay. Illustrated. St. Paul, 1922.
(In the 'White Pine Series of Architectural Monographs.')
Nason, Emma Huntington. Old Colonial Houses in Maine. Illustrated.
Augusta, 1908.
Walker, C. Howard. Some Old Houses on the Southern Coast of Maine. Illus-
trated. St. Paul, 1918. (In the 'White Pine Series of Architectural Mono-
graphs.')
Music
Edwards, George T. Music and Musicians of Maine. Illustrated. Portland,
1928.
458 Selected Reading List
THE PRESS
Fassett, Fredrick G., Jr. A History of Newspapers in the District of Maine,
1785-1820. Orono, 1932.
Griffin, Joseph. History of the Press of Maine. Illustrated. Brunswick, 1872.
GUIDES AND RECREATIONAL HANDBOOKS
Appalachian Mountain Club. The A.M.C. Guide to Paths on Katahdin and in the
Adjacent Region. Folding map. Boston, 1933.
Bangor and Aroostook Railway. Atop Katahdin. Illustrated. Bangor, 1922.
Bangor and Aroostook Railway. In the Maine Woods: The Vacationist's Guide-
book. Illustrated. Bangor, 1937.
Clifford, Fred H. Haunts of the Hunted: The Vacationer's Guide to Maine's Great
North Country. Illustrated. Bangor, 1903.
Clifford, Fred H. In Pine-Tree Jungles: A Handbook for Sportsmen and Campers
in the Great Maine Woods. Illustrated. Bangor, 1902.
Emerson, Walter C. When North Winds Blow. Illustrated. Lewiston, 1922.
(Descriptive of the Maine Lake country.)
Emerson, Walter C. The Latchstring to Maine Woods and Waters. Illustrated.
Boston, 1916.
Maine Appalachian Trail Club. Guide to the Appalachian Trail in Maine.
Folding maps. Augusta, 1936.
Maine Automobile Association. Maine Automobile Road Book and Pine Tree
Tour of Maine and the White Mountains. Illustrated. Portland.
Maine Development Commission. Maine, the Land of Remembered Vacations.
Illustrated. Augusta, 1936.
MISCELLANEOUS
Barry, William E. A Stroll Thro' the Past. Illustrated. Portland, 1933. (Em-
bodies much early Maine history and lore, especially of Kennebunk Village
and adjacent region.)
Boardman, Samuel L., compiler. Agricultural Bibliography of Maine, 1850-1892.
Illustrated. Augusta, 1893.
Brooks, Annie Peabody. Ropes' Ends: Traditions, Legends, and Sketches of Old
Kennebunkport and Vicinity. Illustrated. Kennebunkport, 1901.
Coffin, Robert P. Tristram. Lost Paradise: A Boyhood on a Maine Coast Farm.
Illustrated. New York, 1934.
Day, Clarence P., and Meyer, William E. The Port of Portland and its Hinter-
land. Illustrated. Portland, 1923.
Hasse, Adelaide R., compiler. Index to Economic Material in Documents of
Maine, 1820-1904. Washington, 1907.
Maine State Planning Board. Report of 1934-35. Augusta, 1936.
McCorrison, A. L. Letters from Fraternity. With Introduction by Ben Ames
Williams. New York, 1931. (Descriptive of life on a Maine farm.)
Varney, George J. Gazetteer of Maine. Illustrated. Boston, 1 88 1.
(Of those novelists and poets who have written about the Maine scene and
character, the more prominent are mentioned in the Literature section of the
article on 'The Arts,' printed elsewhere in this volume.)
INDEX
Italic figures indicate the main references of the items concerned
Abbot, 318, 322
Abbott Company Mill (Dexter,) 322
Abbott, Jacob, 96
Abbott, John S. C., 96, 140
Abnaki Indians, 24-27, 213, 220, 331, 358;
crafts, 26; dress of, 25; economic status of,
25; elections of, 26; miscellaneous references,
213, 331, 358; nomadic life of, 27
Abolitionists, 43, 168
Academy of Arts and Sciences (Thomaston), 222
Acadia, 130, 234, 239, 248, 281, 290
Acadia National Park, 281-83, 284, 440
Acadians, 37, 74~75, 241, 247
Accommodations, xxii
Adams, G. J., Rev., 83, 233
Adams Hall (Brunswick), 146
Adventist Camp Meeting Grounds (Princeton),
241
Adventists, 372
Agamenticus (see York)
Agassiz Village, 359
Agriculture (see Farming)
Agriculture, U.S. Department of, 113, 245
Air Lines, xxi
Airports: Augusta, 129; Bar Harbor, 282;
Brown ville, 319; Caribou Municipal, 246
Akers, Benjamin Paul, 103, 183, 383
Akers, Elizabeth (see Allen, Elizabeth Akers)
Albany, 370
Albion, 354-55
Alden, John, 118
Alder Stream Camp Site (Eustis), 347
\ldrich House (Topsham), 326
Alexander, 307
Alfred, 82, 339-40
Alfred Courthouse (Alfred), 339
Allagash, 421
Allagash Falls, 420, 421
Allagash Region, 408
Allagash River Canoe Trip, 419-22
Allefonsce, Jean, 29
Allen, Elizabeth Akers, 98; birthplace of
(Farmington), 345
Allen, John, 278
Allen, William Henry, 187
Alna, 219
American Thread Co. (Milo), 316
American Woolen Co. (Dover-Foxcroft), 317
Amherst, 305
Anderson, Lieutenant, 122
Andover, 303, 440
Andrew, John Albion, birthplace of (South
Windham), 342
Andros, Edmund, Sir, 33, 34, 291
Androscoggin County Courthouse (Auburn),
163
Androscoggin Falls (Brunswick), 144; (Rum-
ford), 301
Androscoggin Mill (Lewiston), 159
Anemone Cave (Bar Harbor), 284
Anspn, 332
Anti-liquor law riot, 171
Anti-masonry, 43
'Antiquities of the New England Indians'
(book), 22
Apartment House (Bath), 216
Appalachian Trail System, 310, 312, 366,
428-29
Appleton Hall (Brunswick), 147
Arbo Home, 434
Archeological Remains, 20
Architecture: architects, 92; character of, 86;
Classic Revival, 92-93 ; early structures, 86-
87; French and Indian Wars, effect of, 87;
manor houses and mansions, 89-91 ; modern
period, 93; public buildings, 91; stone build-
ings, 91; typical 18th-century house, 87-89
Argall, Samuel, Capt., 286
Arnold, Benedict, 329, 246-47, 350; camp
sites: Eustis, 346; Flagstaff, 347; Skowhegan,
299; expedition, 119, 348, 424; Trail Markers,
333
Arnold Pond, 348
Arnold's Landing (Solon), 333
Aroostook County, 65
Aroostook Country Club, Ltd., 246
Aroostook Farm (Presque Isle), 245
'Aroostook War,' 42, 121, 151, 240
Arrowsic, 262-63
Arrowsic Town House (Arrowsic), 262
Art: collections, 104, 183; Colonial, 102; early,
characteristics of, 101; modern, 103-04; I9th
century, 102-103; woodcarving, 101
Arts (see Literature, Art, Theater, Music)
'Arundel' (book), 128
Ashland, 309
Askwith, Unorganized Township of, 324
Aspinquid, 26
Asticou, 284
Atlantic and St. Lawrence Railway, 180
Aubry, Nicolas, 82
Augusta, 117-29; development, 119-20; early
settlement, 118-19; fur trading, 118; govern-
ment of, 117-18, 120; population, 117, 120;
racial groups, 117; social groups, 117
Augusta Country Club (Manchester), 357
Augusta Lumber Co. (Augusta), 122
Augusta State Hospital (Augusta), 436
Aurora, 305
Backus Corner, 344-45
Bacon, Daniel, Rev., 44
Badger, Joseph, 102
Bagnall, Walter, 165
Bailey, Ezekiel, 357
Bailey Island, 212, 258, 391
460
Index
Bailey Island Bridge, 258
Bailey ville (Town), 241
Baileyville (Winthrop), 357
Bald Head Cliffs (York), 205
Baldwin, 367
Bangor, 129-38, 440; architecture, 132-33;
early history, 130-31; industry, 131-32;
land speculation, 132; shipping, 132; War of
1812, 131
'Bangor' (ship), 72, 132
Bangor House (Bangor), 137
Bangor Salmon Pool (Bangor), 138
Bangor Theological Seminary (Bangor), 81, 136
Bangs, John Kendrick, 99
Bapst, John, Rev., 44
Baptists, 42
Bar Harbor, 282-84, 440
Bar Mills, 340-41
Baring, 241
Barn Raising, 293
Barney's Point (Jonesport\ 233
Barrel, Sally Sayward, 94-95
Barrett, Timothy, 372
Barrow, Lewis C., Gov., 321
Bartlett House (Castine), 291
Barton, Clara, 373
Baskahegan Lake, 242
Bates, Arlo, 98
Bates College (Lewiston), history, 81, 157-58;
buildings, 159-62
Bates Manufacturing Company Buildings
(Lewiston), 158
Bath, 215-16
Bath Iron Works (Bath), 216
Bauneg Beg Country Club (North Berwick),
338
Baxter Boulevard (Portland), 188
Beaches: Bristol, Pemaquid, 268; Harpswell,
Cundy's Harbor, 258; Jefferson, Baptismal,
374, Crescent, 374; Kennebunk, Kennebunk,
253; Old Orchard, Old Orchard, 256; Wells,
Wells, 206; York, Long, 253
Beal, Barney, 233
Beal, Harriet Elaine, 126
Beal, Manwaring, 233
Beal, Peggy, gravestone of (Jonesport), 233-34
Beals Island, 233
Bean House (Westbrook), 383
Bear Clan, 26
Bear hunting, 415, 417
Beauchamp, John, 31
Beaver colonies and dams, 305-06, 309
Beddington, 306
Belfast, 225-26
Belfast Memorial Bridge (Belfast), 227
Belgrade, 351
'Belgrade' (ship), 231
Belgrade Lakes, 351
Belgrade Lakes Region, 408
Bellamy, Samuel, 234-35
Belmont, 371
Benfield House (Belfast), 226
Benton, 320
Benton Falls, 320
Bernard, Francis, Sir, 281-82
Berwick Academy (South Berwick), 337
Berwick Sponge Cake, 338
Beryl mining, 370
Bethel, 302
Bethel Inn (Bethel), 302
Betterment Act, 41
Biard, Pierre, Father, 30, 285-86, 287
Bible Society of Maine, 84
Biddeford, 208, 254-55
Biddeford Pool (Biddeford), 254
Biddeford Saco Country Club (Biddeford), 256
Big Squaw Township (see Unorganized Town-
ship No. 2, Range 6)
Bigelow, 352
Bigelow Game Preserve, 352
Bingham, 333
Bingham, William, 333
Birch Harbor, 276
Birch Island, 394-95
Bird, Thomas, 173
Black Hawk Tavern (Houlton), 152
Black, John, Col., 230
Black Mansion (Ellsworth), 230
Black Point Fruit Farm (Scarboro), 210
Black Point Preserve and Game Farm (Scar-
boro), 210
Blackburn, Joseph, 102
Elaine, 244
Elaine House (Augusta), 126
Elaine, James G., 122, 126
Blaisdell House (Belfast), 226
Blaisdell House (Frankfort), 228
Blockhouse (Winslow), 328
Blue Hill, 287
Bluehill, 287-88
Bluehill Falls, 288
Boarding Blocks (Lewiston), 158-59
Boar's Head (Monhegan Island), 397
Bog Brook, 424
Bok, Mary Louise, 225
Bonafide Mills (Winthrop), 357
Boothbay, 266
Boothbay Harbor, 266
Boston and Maine Railroad, 71-72
Boston Watch Company (Brunswick), 139
Boulder and Tablet (Augusta), 122
Boundary Cottage, 325
Boundary line, Maine and New Hampshire
(i739). 36
Bourne Mansion (Kennebunk), 207
Bowdoin Art Collection (Brunswick), 141
Bowdoin College (Brunswick), history of,
141-42; buildings, 145-48; charter of, 80
Bowdoin College Library (see Hubbard Hall)
Bowdoin, James, 141
Bowdoin, James, Gov., 141
Bowdoin Pines (Brunswick), 146
Boyd Lake, 315-16
Braden Monument (Presque Isle), 245
Bradford, William, Gov., 118
Bradstreet, Simon, 35
Bray, Marjory (Lady Pepperell), 249
Brewer, 229, 304
Brewer, John, Col., 229
Brewster, Ralph 0., Gov., 321
Bridgewater, 244
Bridgton, 380-81, 440
Bridgton Academy (Bridgton), 380
Bridle trips: Augusta, 435~36; Bangor, 433-35J
miscellaneous, 436-37
Briggs, William C., 338
Bristol, 268-70
Brooklin, 288-89
Index
461
Brookton, 242
Browne, Charles Farrar (see Ward, Artemus)
Browne, Richard, 270
Brownfield, 368
Brownville, 319
Brownville Junction, 319
Brunswick, 139-49; Bpwdoin College, 141-42,
145-48 (see also individual entry); economic
development, 140; Indians and, 140; in-
dustries, 139, 140; noted citizens, 140-41
Bryant Pond, 365
Bucknam House, Maude (Columbia Falls), 233
Bucksport, 273-74
Building of Arts (Bar Harbor), 283
Bulfinch, Charles, 132-33, 138
Bull, Dixey, 269
Bullockites, 83
Bumpus Mine (Albany), 370
Burial grounds — Indian: Orland, 275; Perry,
278-79; Waterville, 196; Windham, 376;
Winslow,329. While: Andover,3O3 ; Augusta,
373; Bristol, 268, 269; Bucksport, 274;
Falmouth, 213; Freeport, 214; Georgetown,
262; Indian Island, 296; Machias, 235;
Manchester, 356; Portland, 177; Scarboro,
210; South Berwick, 338; Whitefield, 374;
Waldoboro, 221; Windham, 342; Winslow,
329; York, 252
Burnell House (West Baldwin), 367
Burnham, 321
Burnham Tavern (Machias), 235
Burnt Head (Monhegan Island), 397
Burr, Aaron, 128
Burroughs, George, Rev., 172
Bus Lines, xxi
Bustin's Island, 394
Buswell, Jacob, 130
Buxton, 340-41
Cabot, John, 28
Cabot Manufacturing Company's Millyard
(Brunswick), 144
Cabot, Sebastian, 28
Cadillac, de la Mpthe, Sieur, 281
Cadillac Mountain Summit Road (Bar Har-
bor), 283
Calais, 239-41
Calendar Isles, 211
Camden, 225, 440
Camden Bowl (Camden), 225
Camden Opera House (Camden), 225
Camp Ellis, 256
Camp Etna (Etna), 298
Camp Keyes (Augusta), 129
Camp site (Ogunquit), 205
Campobello Island, 278
Canaan, 299
Candage, Otis M., 288
Canibas Indians, 192
Canoe trips: Allagash River, 419-22; East
Branch, 422-24; Dead River and Moosehead
Waters, 424-25; miscellaneous, 426-27;
Rangeley Lakes, 426. (See also Sports,
Recreation)
Cape Cottage (South Portland), 211
Cape Elizabeth, 211
Cape Neddick, 204
Cape Porpoise, 254
Capital punishment, 222
Caratunk, 333
Caratunk Falls (Solon), 333
Caribou, 245-46, 441
Caribou Stream, 246
Carlton Bridge (Bath), 216
Carmel, 298
Carnegie Science Building (see Bates College)
Carrabassett, 352
Carroll, Gladys Hasty, 100, 336
Carter House (Paris), 364
Gary, 243
Gary, Annie Louise, birthplace of (Wayne), 358
Gary, Shepard, 154
Gary, William H., 151
Gary's Mills, 154
Casco, 376-78
Casco Bay, 164, 212, 213, 386
Casco Bay Islands, 211, 386-95 (see also indi-
vidual entries)
Casco Castle (South Freeport), 214
Case, Isaac, 356
Castine, 290-92; Indians in, 290; Pilgrims and,
290; Revolutionary War, 291; War of 1812,
291
Castine Expedition, 130
Caterpillar Hill (Sedgwick), 289
Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception
(Portland), 176-77
Cathedral Pines (Eustis), 346
Cathedral Woods, 397
Cattle Pound (Jefferson), 374
Cave, The, 429
Center Lovell, 370
Central Maine Power Co. (Bingham), 333
Central Maine Sanatorium (Fairfield), 330
Chain of Ponds, 347-48
Chaloner Tavern (Lubec), 277
Chamberlain House (Brunswick), 148-49
Chamberlain, Joshua, Gen., 45, 148-49; house
of (Brewer), 229
Chamberlain Lake Dam, 420-21
Chandler House (Brunswick), 145
Chapelle, Howard L., 231
Chaplin, Jeremiah, Rev., 194
Chapman Home (Bethel), 302
Charter of 1639, 31
Chase House (Limington), 384
Chase, Mary Ellen, 100, 287-88
Chase Sawmill (Limington), 384
Chebeague Legend, 389-90
Cherry field, 231-32
Chesuncook Dam, 422
Chesuncook Village, 435
Chillicote House (Brewer), 229
China, 355
Chisholm, 344
Christmas Cove, 268
Church of England, 41
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints,
233
'Church of the Holy Ghost and Us,' 84
Churches: Baptist: Paris, 364; Porter, 385;
Whitefield, 374. Congregational: Augusta,
128; Benton, 321; Brunswick, 148; Ells-
worth, 230; Fryeburg, 369; Kennebunkport,
254; Kittery, 250; Portland, 189; Saco, 209;
Scarboro, 210; Wells, 205. Episcopal: Fal-
mouth, 231; Portland, 185; York, 204.
Presbyterian: Walpole, 267. Roman Catholic:
462
Index
Augusta, 128-29; Lewiston, 159; Newcastle,
220; Portland, 176-77; Whitefield, 373.
Unitarian: Kennebunk, 207; Portland, 172;
Standish, 383
Churchill House (Portland) (see Dale House)
Cilley House (Thomaston), 222-23
Cilley, Jonathan, 222-23
Circular Depressions (Houlton), 243
Civil War, 44-45
Civil War Monument (Portland), 172
Clapboard Island, 392-93
Clapp House (Wiscasset), 218
Clark and Lake Settlement, 262
Clarke, MacDonald, 96
Clarke, Rebecca Sophia, 98
Clark's Point (Machiasport), 236
Clay Cove (Portland), 180
Clay House (Belfast), 226
Cleaveland Cabinet, The (see Massachusetts
Hall, Brunswick)
Cleaveland, Parker, 146
Cleeve, George, 165
Cliff Island, 212, 390
Clifton, 305
Climate, xxii, 5-6
Clinton, 321
Clough, Samuel, Capt., 264-65
Clubhouse (Lucerne-in-Maine), 229
Coast Guard Stations: Biddeford, 254; Jones-
port, 234; Lubec, 277; Phippsburg, 261;
South Portland, 211
Coastline, 201-04
Cobb, Sylvanus, Jr., home of (Norway), 363
Cobscook Falls (North Trescott), 277
Coburn, Abner, 299
Coburn Classical Institute (Waterville), 196
Coburn Gore, Unorganized Township of, 348
Cochrane, Harry, 358
Cochranism, 83
Coe Infirmary (Brunswick), 148
Coffin, Robert P. Tristram, 99-100
Colburn House (Dresden), 350
Colburn, Reuben, Maj., 350
Colby College (Waterville): As Waterville
College, 42, 8 1 ; campus and buildings, 195-
96; history, 194-95; Maine Literary and
Theological Institute, 81
Colcord, Lincoln, 100; home of (Searsport), 227
Cole, Charles p., 102
College of Agriculture (Orono), 297
Columbia, 232
'Columbia' (ship), 379
Columbia Falls, 232
Commerce: Colonial, 59-60; exports, 50, 56,
58; from Revolution to Civil War, 60-61;
imports, 56; later, 61-62; shipping, 63, 132;
types of, 61-62
Commercial Street (Portland), 180-81
Community Yacht Club (Rockland), 223
Comstock House (see Golden Ball)
Congregationalism, 41
Consolidated Maine Central Railroad, 71
Cony High School (Augusta), 123
Corea, 276
Corinna, 321
Cornish, 367
'Coronet' (ship), 215
Council for New England, 31 (see also Council
for Plymouth)
Council for Plymouth, 30-31
'Country of the Pointed Firs' (book), 272
Courtship of Miles Standish, The (poem), 118
Cousin's Island, 393
Cox's Head, 260
Craigie's Tavern (Oxford), 362
Cranberry Isles, 285
Crane, John, Col., grave of (Whiting), 237
Crawford, 307
Crock ertown, Unorganized Township of, 352
Crocket-Jewett-Broad House (Gorham), 342
Cromwell, Oliver, 206
Cumberland Club House (Portland), 183
Cumberland Country Courthouse (Portland),
176
Cumberland Mills, 382
Cundy's Harbor, 258
Curtis, Cyrus H. K., 176, 183; birthplace of
(Portland), 183
Gushing Island, 388
Cushnoc, 123
Cusinock (see Cushnoc)
Cutler, 277
'Cynthia' (ship), 252
d'Abbade, Jean-Vincent (see de St. Castin,
Baron)
d'Aubri, Nicolas (see Aubry, Nicolas)
da Verrazzano, Giovanni, 29
Dallas, 346
Damariscotta, 220
Dana Warp Mills (Westbrook), 383
Danforth, 242
Danforth Tavern (Norridgwock), 330
Danforth, Thomas, 34, 35, i?9
Danish Village (Scarboro), 209
Davenport Memorial Building (Bath), 216
Davis Farm, 433
Davis, Jefferson, 306
Day, Holman F., birthplace of (Augusta),
328
Day House (Woolwich), 217
Day's Ferry (Woolwich), 217
de Castin, Jean- Vincent, 25-26, 33, 290-91, 296
de Champlain, Samuel, 29, 136, 225, 287, 281;
Journals of, 130; Monument (Mount De-
sert), 284
de Cheverus, Jean, Father, 220
de Gregoire Marie Theresa, grave of (Bar Har-
bor), 282
de Monts, Sieur, 29
de Poutrincourt, Baron, 29
de St. Castin, Baron, 290
Dead Man's Cove (Cousin's Island), 393
'Dead Pearl-Diver' (statue) (Portland), 103,
183, 383
Dead River and Moosehead Waters Canoe
Trip, 424-25
Dead River Region, 408
Dead Ship of Harpswell, The (poem), 97, 392
Deadman Ledge, 398
Dean Camps, 434
Deane House (Portland), 185
Dearborn, Henry, Gen., 119
Dearborn, Pamela Augusta, 119
Dedham, 229-30
Deer hunting, 415, 417, 418
Deer Island, 289
Deer Isle, 224, 289, 399
Index
463
Deering Mansion (Portland), 188-89
Deland, Margaret, 100
Dennison, Aaron, 139
Denny, Samuel, 262
Dennys River Fishing Trip, 410-11
Denny sville, 237-38, 411
Derby, 317
Desert of Maine, 213
Devil's Den (Turner), 343~44
Devil's Half-Acre (Bangor), 131
Devil's Staircase (Lovell), 370
Dexter, 321
Direct Primary Law, 46
District of Maine, 38, 39
District Schools (see Rural Schools)
Dixey Bull, 269
Dixfield, 301
Dixmont, 353~54
Dochet Island, 239
Dole, 325
Dole House (Portland), 184
Dole, Nathan Haskell, 98
Dorcas Society, 340
Dover-Foxcroft, 317
Dow Farm, 433
Dow Homestead (Portland), 186
Dow, Neal, 186
Dresden, 350
Dresden Mills, 350
Druillettes, Gabriel, 32, 82, 118, 331
Dry Mills, 360
du Guast, Pierre, 29
Duck-hunting, 140, 416, 417
Dunbar, David, 36
Dunham, Mellie, 363
Dunlap, David, 144
Dunlap, Fanny, 185
Dunlap House (Brunswick), 145
Dunlap, Robert, Gov., 144
Dunlap, Robert, Maj.-Gen., 145
Dunstan, 209
Dunton, W. Herbert, 121
Dustin, Hannah, 234
Dutch attempt at colonization, 33
Dutch explorers, 30
Dutch West Indies Company, 33
Dyer Brook, 293
Dyer House (Castine), 292
Eagle Island, 212, 390
Eagle Lake, 308
Earliest recorded Transportation, 68
Earthworks of Fort Machias (Machiasport),
236
East Boothbay, 266
East Branch Canoe Trip, 422-24
East Brownfield, 368
East Holden, 229
East Limington, 384
East Machias, 236-37
East Millinocket, 311
East Orland, 275
East Seboomook, 419
East Stoneham, 370
Easter sunrise services (Bar Harbor), 283
Eastern Maine Conference Seminary (Bucks-
port), 274
Eastern Music Camp (Sidney), 106
Eastern Promenade (Portland), 187
Eastman Community House (South Berwick),
337
Easton, 244
Eastport, 280
Eastport Country Club Inn (Eastport), 281
Eckstorm, Fannie Hardy, 77
Eddington, 304
Eddy, Jonathan, memorial to (Eddington),
304
Eddy, Mary Baker Glover, 221-22
Edgecomb, 264-65
Education, 42, 80—82; first real school, 80;
free high school law, 80; ' moving schools,' 80;
normal schools, 80; rural schools, 81 ; colleges,
81-82
Edwards and Walker Hardware Company
Building (Portland), 172
Edwards Manufacturing Company Mill (Au-
gusta), 126
Eliot, John, 82
Ellsworth, 230
Ellsworth City Hall (Ellsworth), 230
Elmore Neighborhood, 271
Embargo Law of 1807, 39
Emmons House (Brunswick), 144-45
'Enterprise' (ship), 177
Eric the Red, 28
Etchimins, 24, 26, 130
Etna, 298
Etnier, Stephen, 103, 104
Eustis, 346-47
Eustis Ridge, 347
Evans Notch, 302
Executive Mansion (see Elaine House)
Fairfield, 329
Falls of the Androscoggin (Brunswick), 144;
(Rumford), 301
Falmouth (see Portland)
Falmouth Foreside, 213
'Falmouth Gazette' (publication), 40, 167
Falmouth Town (see Falmouth Foreside)
'Fanshawe' (novel), 97
Farming, 63-67; blueberries, 66; dairy pro-
ducts, 64; decrease in, 66; earliest, 63; grain
production, 64; home-making type, 63;
market, 66; orchard, 65; potatoes, 65, 150,
240, 245-46, 309; poultry, 66; roadside
market, 65; sheep and cattle, 64; sweet
corn, 65-66
Farmingdale, 327
Farmington, 300-01, 344-45
Farmington Falls, 300
Farnum, William and Dustin, birthplace of
(Bucksport), 274
Farrar, Isaac, 137
Fauna, 15-19
Federal Court Building (Portland), 176
Federal Street (Brunswick), 144
Federalists, 38-39
Feke, Robert, 102
' Female Friendship' (book), 95
Female Samaritan Association of Portland, 84-
85
Fern, Fanny, 96, 176; birthplace of (Portland),
176
Fernald's Point, 285
Fessenden, William Pitt, Hon., 186
Field House, Ben (Belfast), 226
464
Index
Field, Rachel, 100, 285; summer home of
(Cranberry Isles), 285
Financial panic of 1835, 55
Fire of 1866, 178
Fire Law, xxii
Fire Tower (Bridgton), 381
First Civic Monument (Portland), 187
First Hotel in Maine, site of (Biddeford), 255
First naval engagement of Revolution, 38
First Parish Church (Portland), 172
First Permanent English Colony (Machias),
235
First 'radio parish/ 84
First real school, 80
First representative body in permanent settle-
ment, 31
First Train in Augusta, 120
Fish River Region, 408-09
Fisher House (Bluehill), 287-88
Fisher, Jonathan, 287
Fishing industry: decline of, 51; early, 50;
later development, 50-51; principal varieties,
50-51 ; (see also Industry, Commerce, Sports)
Fitch Tavern (Cornish), 367
Five Islands (Georgetown), 263
Flagstaff, 347
Flora, 12-15
Flying Place, 234
Folklore: folk dialects, 78; folk wisdom, 79;
folksongs, 76-78; folktales, 78-79; folkways,
76-82 ; speech peculiarities, 78
Folkways (see Folklore)
Fore Street (Portland), 177-78
Forest City, Unorganized Township of, 242
Forest Station, 242
Forests: Cathedral Pines, 346; Cathedral
Woods, 397; White Mountains National, 370
Forks, The, 334
Fort Fairfield, 246
Fort Gorhamtown, site of (Gorham), 341
Fort Hill, site of (Biddeford), 255
Fort House (Bristol), 269
Fort Kent, 248, 308
Fort Kent Mills, 308
Fort New Casco, site of (Portland), 212-13
Fort Noble, site of (Bath), 259
Fort Pentagoet, site of (Castine), 291
Fort Settlement (Augusta), 119
Fort St. George's, site of (St. George), 271
Fort Sullivan, site of (Eastport), 280
Fort William Henry, reproduction of Tower
(Bristol), 269
Forts: Augusta: Western, 119, 121; Bristol:
Charles, 269, Frederick, 269, Shurt's, 269,
William Henry, 35, 269; Brunswick: Andros,
140, site of, 144, George, 140, site of, 144;
Castine: George, 291, Madison, 291; Edge-
comb: Edgecomb, 264; Fort Kent: Kent, 248,
Great Diamond Island: McKinley, 389 ; House
Island: Scammell, 387-88 ; Kittery: McClary,
250; Machiasport: Machias (O'Brien), 236;
Phippsburg: Baldwin, 260, Popham, 261,
St. George, 260; Portland: Loyal, 35, 179-
80; Prospect: Knox, 227; Scarboro: Josselyn,
210; South Portland: Gorges, 211, Preble,
211, Williams, 211; Winslow: Halifax, 119,
192, 328-29
Fortune Rocks (Biddeford), 254
Forty-fifth Parallel of Latitude, 238
Foster's Corner, 342
Foster's Rubicon, 236
Fox-hunting, 415
Fox Island Thorofare, 399
Frankfort, 228
Franklin, Benjamin, 181-82
Eraser Paper Company, Ltd. Mills (Mada-
waska), 247
Free Camp Site (Alexander), 307
Free high school law, 80
Free-Soil Party, 43
Freemason's Arms (Portland), 171
Freeport, 214
French and Indian War, 1744, 36-37 (see also
History)
French influence, 33
French Revolution, 38
Frenchville, 247-48
Friendship, 221
Frost House, Nathaniel (Kennebunk), 207
Fryeburg, 368-69, 441
Fryeburg Academy (Fryeburg), 369
Frye's Leap (Casco), 378
Fuller, Melville W., 121
Furlong, Atherton, 365
Gannett, William Howard, 121, 129
Gardiner, 326
Gardiner, Sylvester, 326, 350
Garland House (Bangor), 136
Garrick Playhouse (Kennebunkport), 254
Garrison Cove (Scarboro), 210
Garrison Hill, 154
Garrison Island, 221
Gehring, John G., 302
Gendall, Walter, 393
Geography and Topography, 3-5
Geology, 6-8; Cambrian fossils, 7; Cenozoic
era, 7; Devonian period, 7; ice age, 7-8;
Mesozoic era, 7; Ordovician beds, 7; Pale-
ozoic rocks, 6-7 ; Pre-Cambrian rocks, 6
Georgetown, 263
German immigrants, 31
Gilead, 302
Gilman Mansion (Brunswick), 142-43
Ginn, Edwin, 274
Glassware, collection of (Friendship), 221
Glines Neighborhood, 381
Goff Hill (Auburn), 163
Gold, ii
'Gold Hunter' (ship), 132
Golden Ball (see Comstock House), 277
Goldwaithe House (Biddeford), 255
Good Will Farm (Fairfield) , 330
Goodall Worsted Company Factory (Sanford),
339
'Goodly Heritage' (book), 287-88
Goodwin House (South Berwick), 337-38
Goodwin Ichabod, Gen., 337-38
Gorgeans (see York)
Gorges, Ferdinando, Sir, 31, 32, 165, 251, 260,
272, 392
Gorges, Thomas, 31, 251
Gorges, William, 31
Gorham, 34i~42, 383
Gosnold, Bartholomew, 29
Gould's Academy (Bethel), 302
Gouldsboro, 231, 275-76
'Governor Ames,' (ship), 220
Index
465
Government, 48-49 (see also History)
Graf ton Notch (Newry), 365
'Grand Design' (ship), 286
Grand Falls, 425
Grand Isle, 247
Grand Lakes and Schoodic Region, 409
Grand Trunk Railway, 71
Grand Trunk Station (Portland), 179-80
Granite Quarrying, 398
Grant, Ulysses S., 121
Gray, 342-43. 360
Great Chebeague Island, 389
Great Diamond Island, 388-89
Great Farm (Dixmont), 353~54
Great Head, 284
Great Island, 257
Great Moshier Island, 393
Great Mountain Cave (Orland), 275
Great Northern Paper Company (Pittston
Farm), 324, 325
Great Northern Paper Company (Sourdnahunk
Depot Camp), 314
Great Northern Paper Company Newsprint
Plant (Millinocket), 311-12
'Great Patent,' 30
Green Indians, 371
Greenback Party, 45-46
Greene, 359
Green's Farm (Coplin), 346
Greenville, 322, 441
Greenville Junction, 323
Greenwood, 365
Greenwood Ice Caves (Woodstock), 365
Grindstone, 310
Grindstone Inn Golf Club (Winter Harbor),
275
Grindstone Neck, 275
Guide Service, 308, 309, 310, 322, 323
Guilford, 318
Gulf Island Dam, 359
Gulf, The, 320, 434
Gulick, ,Luther, 378
Guppy, Charles, 394
'Gurnet, '258, 392
Hahn, William H., 221
Haines Landing, 349
HAJ boats, 437
Haley House (Biddeford), 255
Half Way House, 419-20
Halidon, 382
Hall, Robert B., 195
Hallowell, 52, 58, 70, 119, 327-28
Hallowell, Benjamin, 327
Hallowell Granite Quarries (Hallowell), 327-28
Hamilton House (South Berwick), 338
Hamlin, Augustus C., 21
Hamlin, Hannibal, 43, 136; birthplace of
(Paris), 364; house of (Bangor), 136; Statue
of (Bangor), 136
Hamlin Peak, 4
Hampden, 228, 353
Hampden Center, 353
Hampden Highlands, 228
Hancock, 231
Handicrafts: cabinet work, 112; embroideries,
no; house and furniture carving, in; in
shipping industry, no-n; influences on,
108; metal work, 112-13; quilts, 109-110;
rugs, 108-09; ship models, 111-12; weaving,
109
Hanson, Freeman, 340
Harpswell, 257-58, 394
Harpswell Neck, 390
Harpswell Sound, 391-92
Harrington, 232
Haskell Island, 390
Haskell Silk Mill (Westbrook), 383
Hathorn Hall (see Bates College)
Haven, 289
Hawkins House (Bridgton), 380
Hawkins, John, Sir, 29
Hawthorne House (Brunswick), 145
Hawthorne House (Casco), 377
Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 97, 103, 145, 377-78
Hayden House (Raymond), 376
Hayloft, The (Naples), 379-80
Hay wood, John, Capt., grave of (Bridgton),
381
Hazzard Estate (Old Orchard Beach), 256
Hazzard Shoe Company Factory (Augusta),
126
Head Tide, 219
'Helen Eliza' (ship), 388
Hell Gate (Woolwich), 262
Hermitage, The, 434
Hermon, 298
'Herringtown,' 119
Higgins, George, 83, 298
Higginsites, 83, 298
Higginsville, 298
Highmoor Farm (Monmouth), 358-59
Highways, xxi
Hiking, 427-32; Hunt Trail, 429; miscellane-
ous, 431-32; Mount Blue Trail, 430-31;
Saddleback Mountain Trail, 430; Squaw
Mountain Trail, 430 (see also Recreation)
Hill, Charles, Capt., 380
Hills Beach, 255
Hilton, Winthrop, 332
Hinds House, Asher (Benton), 321
Hiram, 367-68
Hiram Falls (Baldwin), 367
History: Abolition movement, 43; as part of
Massachusetts, 32, 34, 35-36, 39, 40; Cana-
dian boundary dispute, 42; character of in-
habitants, 41-42, 47; Civil War, 44-45;
commerce, 40-41; early explorations, 28-30:
early missions, 30, 32, 33; early territorial
changes, 32733, 34, 38; education, 42 (see
also Education); French and Indian Wars,
34-35, 36-37; French influences, 33; In-
dustry, 40-41; King Philip's War, 34;
political parties, 36, 38-39, 42, 43, 44, 45-
46; Prohibition Movement, 43-44, 45, 47;
religion, 41-42, 44 (see also Religion); Revo-
lution, 37-38; settlement, 31-32; War of
1812, 39-40; water power legislation, 47;
World War, 46-47
Hockomock Point, 262
Hodgdon, 243
Hog Island, 387
Holden, 229
Holden House (Moose River), 334
Holiness Church, 352
Holland, John P., 364
Hollingsworth Whitney Company Mills (Wins-
low), 329
466
Index
Hollis, 340
Hollis Center, 340
Holmes House (Alfred), 339-40
Holmes, John, 339-40
Homeland Farms (Gorham), 383
Homer, Winslow, 102
Hook Settlement, 119
Hope, 374
Hope Island, 390
Hormell, Orren C, 49
Houlton, 149-54, 243, 293; as a military post,
151; communications, 152; early grants, 151;
geologic formations, 150; in the Aroostook
War, 151; industries, 150
Houlton Grange (Houlton), 154
House Island, 387-88
Howard, James, Capt., 119
Howard, O. O., Gen., 45, 122
Howe's Corner, 343
Howells, William Dean, 97-98
Rowland, 315
Howland, John, 118
Hubbard Hall (Brunswick), 147
Hubbard House (Hallowell), 327
Hubbard House (Paris), 364
Hubbard, John, Gov., 356
Hudson, Henry, 30
Hull's Cove, 282
Hunnewell House (Scarboro), 209
Hunt Trail, 429
Hunting (see Sports)
Hurricane Island, 398
Hurricane Sound, 398
Husbandmen, 165
Hussey's Sound, 389
Hutchinson, Anne, 205
Hyde Hall (Brunswick), 147
'Increase' (ship), 205
Indian Cellar (Buxton), 341
Indian Island, 295
Indian Lake, 237
Indian Relics, collections of: Dennysville, 238;
Naples, 379; Windham, 375
Indians: as state wards, 38; Canibas tribe, 192;
French relations with, 33, 130; miscellaneous
references, 140, 162-63, 213; Penobscots,
192; reservations -.Indian Island, 295; Prince-
Ion, 242; Revolution and, 38; settlers'
attitude toward, 36; villages, 25, 384 (see
also Abnakis, Red Paint People)
Indian's Foot (Bar Harbor), 284
Indian's Last Leap (Sanford), 339
Indiantpwn, Unorganized Township of, 241
Industries: Beryl mining, 370; fishing, 50-51,
280, 397, 399-400; lumbering, 54-57, 119,
121, 131, 132, 139, 293, 295, 309, 335; mis-
cellaneous, 57-59; quarrying, 58-59, 322,
398; shipbuilding, 51-54, 63; shoe, 57, 157,
357; textile, 57-58, 121, 139, 208
Information Bureaus, xxiii
Ingram, David, 29, 270, 30
Institute de Notre Dame (Alfred), 340
International Bridge, 248
International Institute of Y.W.C.A. (Bidde-
ford), 85
International Longfellow Society, 178
International Paper Company Plant (Livermore
Falls), 344
International Plan, 279-80
Island Falls, 294
Isle Au Haut, 224, 400
Islesboro, 226
Islesford, 285
Jacataqua Oak (Augusta), 127-28
Jack-the-Ripper, 293-94
Jackman, 334
Jackson Brook Lake, 242
Jackson Memorial Laboratory (Bar Harbor),
284
James I, 30
Jameson's Tavern (Freeport), 214
Jay, 344
Jefferson, 374
Jefferson Embargo, 63
Jernegan Gold Swindle, 277
Jerusalem, Unorganized Township of, 352
Jewell Island, 212, 390
Jewett, Sarah Orne, 98, 336-37, 338; house of
(South Berwick), 336-3?
'John A. Briggs' (ship), 214
Johnson, Henry, 98
Johnston House (Castine), 291
Jones, Rufus M., 355; summer home of (China),
T355u
Jonesboro, 234
Jonesport, 233
Jordan, Dominicus, 377
'Journal of Maine History' (book), 317
Judiciary system, 48-49
Katahdin Iron Works, n, 319-20, 434
Katahdin Region, 408
Katahdin State Game Preserve, 312
Kavanaugh Mansion (Newcastle), 220
'Kearsarge' (ship), 249
Kebo Valley Country Club (Bar Harbor), 283
Keegan, 247
Keiff's Garden (Cliff Island), 390
Kellogg, Elijah, 98
Kenduskeag Mall (Bangor), 136
Kenduskeag Plantation, 130
Kennard Home (Windham), 375
'Kennebec' (ship), 72, 168
Kennebec Agricultural Society, 356
Kennebec County, 3Q, 57, 117, 119, 300
Kennebec County Jail (Augusta), 128
Kennebec Dam (Augusta), 123
Kennebec Journal (newspaper), 122
Kennebec Journal Offices (Augusta), 122
Kennebec Patent, 118
Kennebec Purchase, 352; Proprietors, 119,
327, 373
Kennebunk, 206-08, 253
Kennebunk Beach, 253
Kennebunkport, 253-54
Kent, Rockwell, 103-04, 397
Kent's Hill, 356
Keyes House (Fairneld), 330
Kezar Falls, 385
Kezar Falls Woolen Company Mill (Parsons-
field), 385
Kidd, William, Capt., 212, 228, 265, 350, 395
Kidd's Cave (Squirrel Island), 395
Kimball, William, Gen., 364
Kimball, William W., Rear Admiral, 364
Kinaldo, 313
Index
467
Kineo House (Rockwood), 324
Kineo Legend, 323
King Chapel (Brunswick), 147
King Homestead (Sqarboro), 209
King House, Cyrus (Saco), 208
King House, William, site of (Kingfield), 352
King Phillip's War, 34
King, William, 42; birthplace, site of (Scar-
boro), 257
King William's War, 34-35
Kingfield, 352
Kingsbury Plantation, 318
Kirby, R. M., Maj., 151
Kittery, 32, 249-51
Kittery Point, 250
Kneisel, Franz, 288
Kneisel Hall (Bluehill), 288
Kneisel Quartet, 288
Know-Nothing Party, 44
Knox County Historical Society (Thomaston),
23
Knox, Henry, Gen., 222, 333
Kokadjo, 314
Koussinock (see Cushnoc)
La Farge, John, 147
La Grange, 315
Lafayette Elm (Kennebunk), 207
Lafayette House (Biddeford), 208
Lake Kezar Country Club (Lovell), 370
Lakes: Allagash, 420; Attean, 425; Auburn,
343; Carry, 243; Caucomgomoc, 420;
Chamberlain 420, 423; Chesuncook, 314,
420; China, 355; Cobbosseecontee, 357;
Cochran, 293; Conroy, 244; Damariscotta,
374; Eagle, 308; Echo, 285; Grand, 423;
Highland, 380; Howard, 244; Kezar, 369;
Leweys, 241; Lobster, 419; Long (St.
Agatha), 247-48, (Naples), 378, (Standish),
384; Lower Richardson, 303-04; Marana-
cook, 356; Meddybemps, 238; Millinocket,
312; Mirror, 374; Moosehead, 5, 322, 411-12;
Moxie, 334; Musquash, 242; Portage, 309;
Portland, 244; Ragged, 422; Sebago, 376,
408; Sebasticook, 298; Spencer, 425; St.
Froid, 309; Tripp, 359; Turner, 400; Umsas-
kis, 421; Wesserunsett, 299; West Mus-
quash, 242; Wilson, 301
Lakeview, 434
Lakewood, 299-300
'Lamson' (ship), 53
Land policy of Massachusetts, 39
Landlocked salmon, 376
Lane's Island, 393-94
Larrabee Garrison House (Kennebunk), 207
Latter-Day Saints, Church of (Jonesport),
233
Laurel Hill (Auburn), 162-63
Lawrence Portland Cement Company Plant
(Thomaston), 223
Lee, Ann, 361
Lee, Jesse, 356
Lee-Payson-Smith House (Wiscasset), 218-19
Leif the Lucky, 28
Leverett, Thomas, 31
Levett, Christopher, 164-65
Lewiston-Auburn, 155-163, 441; history,
156-57; industries, 156-57; politics, 156
Lewiston Armory (Lewiston), 162
Lewiston Bleachery and Dye Works (Lewis-
ton), 159
Lewiston Canal (Lewiston), 158
Lewiston Falls and Dam (Lewiston), 162
Lewiston Falls Legend, 162
Liberty, 371-72
'Liberty' (ship), 240
Libraries: Augusta: Lithgow, 128, Maine
State, 127; Bangor: Bangor Public, 137;
Brunswick: Bowdoin College (Hubbard
Hall), 147; Camden: Camden Public, 225;
East Machias: East Machias, 237; Ells-
worth: Public, 230; Lewiston: Coram (see
Bates College); Orono: Carnegie, 297; Paris:
Hamlin Memorial, 364; Wiscasset: Town, 219
Lighthouses: Bristol: Pemaquid, 270; Harps-
well: Halfway Rock, 258; Kennebunk port:
Goat Island, 254; Lubec: West Quoddy, 277;
Monhegan Island: Monhegan Island, 397;
Ogunquit: Boon Island, 205; Owl's Head:
Owl's Head, 224; Phippsburg: Fort Popham,
261, Sequin Island, 261; Rockland: Range
Beacons, 223; South Portland: Portland
Head, 211, Two Lights, 211; York: Nubble,
253
Lilac Cottage (see Clapp House)
Lily Bay, 314-15
Limerick, 366
Limington, 384-85
Lincoln, 294
Lincoln County Courthouse (Wiscasset), 218
Lincoln, Enoch, 95, 127
Lincoln Home (Denny sville), 238
Lindbergh, Anne Morrow, 399
Lindsey Tavern (W'ells), 206
Line Houses (Moose River), 335
'Lion, The' (locomotive), 71
Lippincott House (Columbia Falls), 233
Literature, 94-100
Lithgow House (Winslow), 328
Little Canada (Lewiston), 155-56
Little Chebeague Island, 389
Little, Clarence C., 284
Little Diamond Island, 388
Little Moshier Island, 393
Little Spencer Stream, 425
Little Wohelo (see Luther Gulick Girls' Camp)
Littlejohn Island, 393
Littleton, 234-44
Livermore, 344
Livermore Falls, 344
Lobster fishing, 397
Lobster Stream, 419
Locke's Mills, 365
Locket, Molly, grave of (Andover), 303
Log cabins (Princeton), 242
Log Village (Rangeley), 348
Long Falls, 424-25
Long Island, 389
Long Pond Dam, 425
Long Reds, 377
Longfellow Garden Society, 182
Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth, 96-97, I44~45»
148, 178, 182; birthplace of (Portland),
178-79; statue (Portland), 186
Longfellow Square (Portland), 212.
Lord House (Kennebunk), 207
'Lost Paradise' (book), 257
Loud's Island, 270
468
Index
Louisburg, capture of, 37
Lovejoy, Elijah Parish, 354-55; homestead
(Albion), 354
Lovell, 369-70
Lovell, John H., residence of (Waldoboro), 221
Lovewell's Fight, site of (Bridgton), 381
Lovewell's War, 140
Loyalists, 36
Lubec, 277
Lucernt-in-Maine, 229-30
Ludlow, 293
Lumbering and allied industries: condition
influences, 54~55; development, 55, 56;
phases of economic development, 54; pulp
industry, 56-57 (see also Industry, Com-
merce)
Lumberjacks, 334
Luques House (Kennebunkport), 254
Luther Gulick Girls' Camp (Casco), 378
Lynchville, 370
Lyon, Harry, Capt., 364
Lyonsden (Paris), 364
Machias, 30, 32, 38, 92, 234-36, 290
Machias River, 235
Machias Seal Island, 18
Machiasport, 71, 236
Mackworth, Arthur, 392
Mackworth Island, 392
Macleod Call Camp, 435
Macomber Playground (Augusta), 126
Macwahoc, 294
Madawaska, 247
Madawaska Training School (Fort Kent), 80
Maddocks, Luther, 266
Madison, 332
Madockowando, 25-26
Madrid, 345
'Maine' (ship), 126
Maine Administration Code of 1931, 48
Maine Agricultural Experiment Station, 297
Maine and Central Vermont Airways, 73
Maine and New Hampshire Boundary (1739),
36
Maine Central Institute (Pittsfield), 321
Maine Chance (Mount Vernon), 356-57
Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and
Game, 407
Maine Forestry District, 49
Maine Garrison Houses, 87
Maine Hall (Brunswick), 146-47
Maine Historical Society (Portland), 23
Maine Hunting Laws, 418
Maine Literary and Theological Institution
(Wateryille) (see Colby College)
Maine Mineral Store (Paris), 364
Maine Music Festivals, 106, 170 (see also
Music)
Maine Seaboard Paper Company Mill (Bucks-
port), 273
Maine Society of Colonial Dames, 190
Maine State Pier (Portland), 181
Maine State Planning Board, 4
Maine State Prison (Thomaston), 222
Maine State Seminary, 81
Maine Steel, Inc. (South Portland), 211
Maine Wesleyan Seminary (Readfield), 356
'Major Jack Downing Letters' (Articles), -570
Mallison Falls (South Windham), 342
'Malta War,' 120, 373
Manana Island, 396
Manchester, 355-57
Manning House (Casco), 377
Manitou Kennebec, 118
Manning, Richard, 377
Manor, The (Naples), 379
Mansion House (Poland Spring), 361-62
'Marble Faun, The' (novel), 103, 183
Marbury, Elizabeth, 356
Marbury House (Mount Vernon), 356
'Margaretta' (ship), 38, 236
Marie Antoinette House (Edgecomb), 264-
65
Marie, Henrietta, 3
Marin, John, 103-04
'Mark Bachelder Tragedy' (folk song), 77
Market Square (Portland) (see Monument
Square)
Marrett House (Standish), 383
Mars Hill, 244
Martinsville, 272
Masardis, 309
Mason House (Calais), 240
Mason, John, Capt., 31
Mason Manufacturing Company Factory
(South Paris), 363-64
Masonry, 43
Massabesic (see Alfred)
Massachusetts, union with, 32
Massachusetts Charter of 1691, 35
Massachusetts Hall (Brunswick), 146
Masse, Ennemond, Father, 285-86
Mattawamkeag, 294
Maxim gun, 318
Maxim, Hiram, Sir, 316, 317-18
Maxim, Hudson, 316
Maxim, Isaac (see Maxim, Hudson)
'Maximite,' 316
Maxwell, Alexander, 252
May House (Norridgewock), 330
Mayflower Hill (Wateryille), 196
McArthur House (Limington), 385
McArthur, William, Gen., 385
McCobb, James, 224-25; house of (Phipps-
burg), 259
McDonald Inn (Limerick), 366
Mclntire Garrison House (York), 204
McKeen, Joseph, 146
Means House (Portland), 190
Mechanic Falls, 359
Meddybemps Village, 410
Medway, 310-11
Meeting-houses: Buxton: Tory Hill, 341;
Castine: Old, 291; China: Friends, 355;
Manchester: Methodist, 356; New Gloucester:
Shaker, 361; Poland: Center, 362; Waldo-
boro: German, 221; Winthrop: Quaker, 357;
Wicasset: Alna, 91, 219; Woolwich: Nequas-
set, 217
Melcher, Samuel, 142, 145, 148
Melcher, Samuel, 3d, 140-41
Mellen-Fessenden House (Portland), 186
Memorial Hall (Brunswick), 146
Mercer, 300
Mere Point, 149
Meridian Stones (Fryeburg), 369
'Merino fever,' 64
Merrymeeting Bay, 149
Index
469
Methodist Camp Ground (Old Orcaard Beach),
256
Methodists, 42
Mexico, 301
Milbridge, 231
Milford, 295
Millay, Edna St. Vincent, 99, 392; birthplace of
(Rockland), 223
Miller Tavern, Joseph (Belfast), 226
Miller, William, 298
Millerites, 298
Milliken House (Portland), 185
Millinocket, 311-12
Mills, Bruce, 391
Mills, Wallace, 391
Milltown, 241
Milo, 316-17
Mineral Resources, 10-11
Minot House (Belgrade), 351
Minot, John Clair, 351
'Minstrelsy of Maine' (book), 77
Misery Gore, 323-24
Missionaries (see Religion)
Mitton, Michael, 388
Mogg Heigon Marker (Scarboro), 210
Monastery of the Precious Blood (Portland),
1 86
Moncacht-Ape, 263
Money Cove (Isle au Haut), 400
Money Holes (Pittston), 350
Monhegan Island, 396-97
Monhegan Island Race, 438
Monmouth, 358
Monmouth Academy (Monmouth), 358
Monmouth Town Hall (Monmouth), 358
Monspn, 322
Monticello, 244
Montpelier (Thomaston), 223
Monument Square (Portland), 171-72
Moody, Samuel, 166
Moose Cave (Newry), 36"
Moose hunting, 417
Moose River, 334-35
Moosehead Lake Fishing Trip, 411-12
Moosehead Lake Region, 408
Moosehorn, 348
Moro Plantation, 310
Morrill Act, 296
Morrison Heights, 358
Morton Homestead (Raymond), 376
Mosher, Thomas Bird, 100
Moulton House (Buckspprt), 274
Moulton Union (Brunswick), 148
Mount Blue Trail, 430-31
Mount Desert, 284-86
Mount Desert Island, 14, 29, 30, 281-86
Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratory
(Bar Harbor), 282
Mount Desert Players, 283
Mount Vernon, 356-57
Mountain climbing (see Recreation)
Mountains: Acadia, 285; Agamenticus, 205;
Bag Pond, 347; Battie, 225; Baxter Peak,
429; Blue, 430; Cadillac, 4, 276, 281, 283;
Coburn, 334; Great, 275; Katahdin, 4,
312-14, 429; Kineo, 4, 322-23; Lead, 306;
Magurrewock, 241; Mica, 364; Mosquito,
227, 3345 Old Blue, 303; Old Spec, 365:
Ossipee, 366; Owl's Head, 334; Pickard,
353; Pleasant, 381; Plumbago, 303; Ragged,
374; Sabattus, 369; Saddleback, 4, 345,
384, 430; Schoodic, 276; Squaw, 430;
Sugarloaf, 4; Waldo, 228
Mowatt, Henry, Capt., 166-67
Mt. Katahdin, 312-14
Mt. Katahdin Legends, 313-14
Mt. Waldo Granite Corporation Plant (Pro-
spect), 228
Mt. Zircon Bottling Company Works (Rum-
ford), 302
Mud Pond Carry, 422
Municipal Auditorium (Portland) (see Port-
land City Hall)
Murch House (Casco), 377
Muscongus Grant of 1630, 31, 41
Muscongus Patent (see Muscongus Grant)
Museums, art: Portland: Sweat, 104, 183
Museums, historic: Augusta: Fort Western,
121, State, 23, 127; Bangor: Bangor Histori-
cal Society, 137; Bar Harbor: Abbe, 23, 284;
Bath: Davenport Memorial, 216; Bruns-
wick: Pejepscot Historical, 145; Castine:
Howard Wilson's, 23, 291; Gorham: Baxter,
341; Islesford: Sawtelle, 285; Portland:
Maine Historical Society, 182-83; Saco:
York Institute, 209; Stonington: Eastern
Penobscot Archives, 400; Wateroille: Reding-
tpn, 10; Windham: Kennard Indian Collec-
tion, 375
Museum, industrial, Bridgton: Spratt-Meade,
380
Museum, marine, Sears port: Penobscot, 227
Museums, natural history: Brunswick: Searles
Science Building, 148; F airfield: Good Will,
330; Lewiston: Stanton (see Bates College);
Portland: Natural History, 21, 172
Music: Folk music, 105-06; organizations, 106;
summer camps and colonies, 107
Muskrat Settlement, 309
'N. W. P.' (denned), 31
Nahanda Legend, 339
Naples, 378-380
Narragansett No. 7 (see Gorham)
Naskeag Point (Brooklin), 288
Nasson College for Women (Sanford), 81, 339
National Arsenal, site of (Augusta), 122
National Cemetery (Augusta), 373
National Home for Disabled Volunteer
Soldiers (see U.S. Veterans' Administration
Facility)
Neal, John, 186
Neal Houses, John (Portland), 186
Needahbeh, Chief, 296
Neighborhood House (Mount Desert), 285
Neptune, Moses, 278-79
Nescambiou, 368
New Auburn, 155
New England Conference of Methodists, 356
'New England Rarities' (book), 2IO
New Gloucester, 360-61
New Hampshire, 31
New Harbor, 269-70
New Lights (see Shakers)
New Portland, 352
New Sharon, 300
New Somersetshire, 31
New Sweden, 246
470
Index
New Vineyard, 351-52
Newburgh, 353
Newburgh Center, 353
Newcastle, 219-20
Newhall, 342
Newhall, George G., 342
Newport, 298
Newry, 302, 365-66
Newry Mine, 303
Noble, Seth, Rev., 130-31
Nobleboro, 220
Nola, Charles, 279
Nonesuch River, 210-11
Nordica, Lillian, 344~45J birthplace of (Farm-
ington), 344
Normal Schools, legislation for, 80
'Normandie' (ship), 240
Norridgewpck, 300, 330
Norse navigators, 28
North Amity, 243
North Anson, 332
North Berwick, 338, 441
North Bridgton, 380
North Castine, 292
North Edgecomb, 264-65
North Harpswell, 257
North Haven, 224, 399
North Jay, 344
North Knox Fairground (Union), 374
North Limington, 384-85
North Lovell, 370
North Lubec, 277
North Lubec Canning Company Plant (Ston-
ington), 400
North Newry, 365
North Searsmont, 371
North Star Camp (Waterboro), 366
'North to the Orient' (book), 399
North Trescott, 277
North Turner, 343
North Whitefield, 373, 436
North Windham, 375
North Yarmouth, 34, 72, 213
North Yarmouth Academy (Yarmouth), 213
Northeast Harbor, 285
Northeastern Boundary Dispute, 121
Northern Maine General Hospital (Eagle
Lake), 308
Northport, 225
Norton, Lillian (see Nordica, Lillian)
Norumbega Parkway (Bangor), 133
Norway, 362-63
Norway Advertiser-Democrat (newspaper), 362
Notch, The, 303
Nubble Light (York Harbor), 253
Nye, 'Bill' (see Nye, Edgar Wilson)
Nye, Edgar Wilson, 98-99
Oak Grove Seminary (Vassalborough), 81, 328
Oak Hill, 209
Oaklands, 326-27
O'Brien, Capt., grave of (Machias), 235
Ocean Park (Old Orchard Beach), 256
Ocean Point, 266
Ogunquit, 205-06
Oilcloth manufacture, 357
Olamon, 295
Old Brick House (Gorham), 341
Old Brick House (Paris), 364
Old City Hall (Bangor), 136
Old Colonial Houses of Topsham (Houlton),
149
Old Courthouse (Castine), 292
Old Devereaux House (Castine), 292
Old Hallowell Academy (Hallowell), 327
Old Houses (Falmouth), 213
Old Iron Works (Pembroke), 238
Old Jail (Newry), 365
Old Johnson House (Belfast), 226
Old Lime Kilns (Rockport), 224
Old Orchard Beach, 256, 405
Old Peterson House (Bath), 216
Old Point (Norridgwock), 300, 330-32
Old Post Office Building (Portland), 181-82
Old Red House (see Hunnewell House)
Old Rock Schoolhouse (Bristol), 270
Old Shepley House (Portland), 185
Old Shoppe House (Beddington), 306
Old Stone Jail (Paris), 364
Old Town, 24, 25, 26, 2Q5-g6
Old Town Canoe Company Factory (Old
Town), 295
Old Windmill (Casco), 377
Opportunity Farm (Gray), 343
Oquossoc, 349
Orient, 243
Orland, 274
Orneville, 315-16
Orono, 26, 296-97
Orono, Joseph, 26
Orr Homestead (Harpswell), 258
Orrington, 228
Orr's Island, 212, 258
Orson, Paul, 20
Ossipee River, 385
Otis House (Belfast), 226
Otter Cliff (Bar Harbor), 284
Owl's Head (Rpckland), 223
Oxbow Plantation, 309-10
Oxford, 362
Oxford Paper Co. Mill (Rumford), 301
Paine, John Knowles, 178
Palermo, 372
Palestine Emigration Association, 83-84
Palmyra, 299
Panawamske Island (see Indian Island)
Paris, 363-65
Paris Hill, 364
Parker Head, 260
Parks: Acadia National, 282, 284, 440; Bath
City, 216; Baxter State, 312; Bear Pond,
344; Belfast City, 225; Coburn, 299; Deer-
ing's Oaks, 189; Dix, 228; Fort Allen, 187;
Fort Sumner, 187-88; Ganeston, 129; Grotto
Cascade, 138; Island, 357; Knox State
Arboretum, 222; Lincoln, 176; Narragansett.
t4i; Norumbega, 133; Stan wood, 300;
tate, 15, 127; Sunset, 243
Parlin Pond Camps, 334
Parson-Mason House (Castine), 291
Parsonsfield, 385
Parton, Sara Payson (see Fern, Fanny)
Partridge hunting, 417
Passamaquoddy Bay, 9, 279
Passamaquoddy Indians, 24, 26, 241-42, 278;
hunting grounds, 230, 241
Passamaquoddy Tidal Power Development
Index
471
Project, 9, 10, 279; model of (Quoddy Vil-
lage), 279
'Patent' (ship), 72
Patent of the Plough, 165
Patten, 310
Patten, Gilbert, 321
Peabody House (Houlton), 154
Peacock Tavern (Topsham), 326
Peak's Island, 212,388
Pearl House (Orr's Island), 258, 392
'Pearl of Orr's Island, The' (novel), 212, 392
Pearse Ennis Art School (Eastport), 280-81
Peary, Robert £.,273, 369
Peirce Memorial (Bangor), 137
Peirce, Waldo, 103
Pejepscots, 140
Pemaquid, 268-69, 270
Pemaquid Point, 270
Pembroke, 238
Pennell Institute (Gray), 343
Penny Collection of Indian Relics (see Museum
of the Maine Historical Society)
Penobscot, 32, 33, 34, 35, 39, 289
Penobscot Indians, 24-26, 192, 295-06, 332
Penobscot Monument (Indian Island), 296
Pentagoet (see Castine)
Pentagoet Indians, 26
Pepperell House (Kittery), 249-50
Pepperell House, William (Kittery), 250
Pepperell Manufacturing Company Plant
(Biddeford), 208
Pepperell, William, 37, 249-50
Pequawket, 384
Pequawket Indians, 303, 384
Perio's Point (Jonesport), 233
Perkins Cove (Cape Neddick), 205
Perkins Mill (Kennebunkport), 254
Perley Pines (Naples), 379
Perry, 238
Pestumokadyik (see Passamaquoddies)
Pheasant hunting, 417
Phillips, 345
Phillips Academy (Andover, Mass.), 21,22
Phillips, William, 338, 339
Phillipstown, 338
Phinney, John, Capt., 341
Phipps Point (W'oolwich), 217
Phippsburg, 259-61
Phips, William, Sir, 262; home of (Woolwich),
217
Picture Rocks (see Clark's Point)
Pierce Place (Cornish), 367
Pierpole, 300
Pike's Hill (Norway), 363
Pilgrims, 30-31, 118, 287
Pine, Paper, and Power, 50-62 (see also Indus-
try, Commerce)
'Pine Period,' the, 131
Pine Point, 256
Piracy, 173, 234-35, 290
Piscataqua Plantation, 249
Pittsfield, 321
Pittston, 37, 324, 350
Pittston Farm, 324
Planked trout, 410
Pleasant Lake, 294
Pleasant Point, 278
Plummer House (Scarboro), 210
Plymouth Colony, 118, 234
Plymouth Company, 30, 251
Plymouth Patent, 118, 299
Poisonous Plants, xxiii
Poland, 359, 361-62
Poland, Chief, 375, 378
Poland Spring, 361, 439
Poland Spring House (Poland Spring), 362
Polis, Joseph, 26
Political Parties (see by name)
Polk, James K., 123
Pond Cove (South Portland), 211
Pond Cove Village, 211
Pondicherry Mills (Bridgton), 380
Ponds: Cochnewagan, 358; Long, 425; Long
(Belgrade Lakes), 351; Massacre, 210;
Mattanawcook, 294; Middle Range, 362;
Moose, 381; Round, 421; Round (Vinal-
haven Island), 398; Saddleback, 430;
Sheepscot, 372; Soldier, 308
Popham Beach, 261
Popham Colonists, 52, 55
Popham Colony, 30, 41; site of (Phippsburg),
260
Popham, George, 217, 260-61, 272
Popham, John, 217, 260-61, 272
Poplar Tavern (North Newry), 365
Port Clyde, 272
Port Royal, 29
Portage Lake, 309
Porter, 83, 385
Porter's Landing, 214
Portland, 163-90, 375; commerce, 167-71;
communication, 164; cultural interest,
169-70; exploration and settlement, 164-66;
great fire, 169; later history, 168-69; Revolu-
tion, 166-67
Portland Art Society, 183
Portland City Hall (Portland), 172-76
Portland Country Club (Portland), 212
Portland Hebrew School (Portland), 81
Portland Observatory (Portland), 188
Portland Society of Natural History (Port-
land), 15, 19
Portland Yacht Club, 438
Portsmouth Conference, 249
Portsmouth Navy Yard (Kittery), 249
Potato Growing (see Farming)
Potato warehouses: Ashland, 309; Caribou,
245-46; Dyer Brook, 293; Houlton, 154;
Littleton, 243
Potter, Charles, 313
Pownalborough Courthouse (Dresden), 350
Preble, Edward, Commodore, 177
Preble, William Pitt, 184
Prentiss House (Gorham), 383
Prentiss, Seargent Smith, 383
President's House (Brunswick), 145-46
Presque Isle, 244-45, 441
Presque Isle Fairgrounds (Presque Isle), 245
Princeton, 241-42
Pring, Martin, Capt., 29
Privateering, 397 (see also Piracy)
Prohibition Movement, 43-44
'Proprietors of the Kennebec Purchase,'
119
Prospect, 227
Prospect Harbor, 276
Prout's Neck (Scarboro Town), 102, 210, 257
Prout's Neck Bird Sanctuary (Scarboro), 210
472
Index
Prout's Neck Country Golf Course (Scarboro),
2IO
Prout's Neck Yacht Clubhouse (Scarboro), 210
Prouty Tavern (Bucksport), 274
Province of Lygonia, 165
Province of Maine, 3, 31, 204
Public Landing (Rockland), 223
Pulpit Rock (Casco), 378
Pulsifer, Harold Trowbridge, IOO
Purchase, Thomas, 140
Putnam, George Palmer, 140
Quakers, 74, 328, 355, 357
Queen Anne's War, 36
Quoddy Village, 279
Quoddy Village Dam, 279
Rabbit hunting, 416, 417
Raccoon hunting, 415-16
Racial elements: Acadians, 74-75; Dutch, 74;
English, 75; Finns, 75; French, 74; French
Canadians, 75; Germans, 74-75; Icelanders,
75; Irish, 74, 75; Negroes, 75; Norwegians,
75; Scotch, 75; Swedes, 75
Radio Direction Finder Station, 276
Radio Station WCSH (Portland), 84
Ragged Island, 392
Ragged Stream, 422
Raid of 1750, 401
Railroads, xxi
Randolph, 350
Rangeley, 345-46, 348-49
Rangeley Game Preserve, 348
Rangeley Lakes Canoe Trip, 426
Rangeley Lakes Country Club (Rangeley), 349
Rangeley Lakes Region, 408
'Ranger' (ship), 52, 249
Rasle, Sebastian, 33, 80, 82, 331; memorial to
(Norridgewock), 330
Raymond, 376
Raymond Cape (Casco), 377
Raymond Fish Hatchery (Raymond), 376
Readfield, 356
Rearing Pool (Bridgton), 380
Recreation, xxii, 418-38; canoeing, 418-27;
hiking and mountain climbing, 427-32;
riding, 432-37; yachting, 437-38 (see also
Sports)
Red Beach, 239
'Red Bridge' (ship), 132
'Red Jacket' (ship), 53
Red Paint People, 20-23, 324; artifacts of, 23;
Beothuks, 21; implements of, 22; Red Paint
cemeteries, 22
Reed House, David (Benton), 320^21
Reed, Thomas Brackett, 179; birthplace of
(Portland), 179; statue of (Portland), 189
Reed, William, 288-89
Reenie, James, 392
Registry of Deeds (Fryeburg), 368
Religion, 82-85; minor sects, 83-84; mission-
aries, 82; social service organization, 84-85
(see also sects by name)
'Remember the Maine' Memorial (Bangor),
137
Republican Party, founding of, 345
Republicans, 36, 38-39
Republicans vs. Democrats, 378-79
Revere, Paul, 291
Revolution, 37-38, 164, 236, 288-89, 346-47
Richards, Laura E., 98, 326
Ricker Classical Institute (Houlton), 154
Ricker, Jabez, 361
Rideout, Milner, 99
Riding (see Recreation)
Rigby> Alexander, Col., 165
Ripogenus Dam, 314, 422
Rivers: Allagash, 421; Androscoggin, 302,
386-87; Aroostook, 244, 246; Bear, 365;
Kennebec, 117, 118, 120, 217; Little Mada-
waska, 246; Little Ossipee, 384; Little
Wilson, 320; Moose, 425; Penobscot, 5,
295, 310; Pleasant, 320; Saco, 384; Songo,
384; St. Croix, 238-39; St. John, 5; Swift,
301
Robbinston, 238-39
Roberts, Kenneth, 100, 181, 206
Robinson, Edwin Arlington, 99, 326
Rock and Shell Formation (Casco), 377
Rockland, 50, 58, 61, 223-24
Rockland Breakwater (Rockland), 224
Rockland Community Yacht Club, 223
Rockport, 224-25, 375
Rockwood, 324
Rome, 351
'Roosevelt' (ship), 273
Roosevelt, Franklin D., summer home ot
(Campobello Island), 278
Round Pond, 270
Round Pond Carry, 420
Royall Garrison House, site of (Falmouth), 213
Ruggles House (Columbia Falls), 232-33
Ruggles, Thomas, Judge, 232
Ruined House (Georgetown), 263
Rum and Water Elms (Albion), 354
Rumford, 301-02, 441
Rural Schools, 81
Sabbathday Lake Village, 360-61
Saco, 208-09, 255-56
Saco-Lowell Company Plant (Biddeford), 208
Saddle Trip Out of Augusta, 435~36
Saddle Trip Out of Bangor, 433-35
Saddleback Mountain Trail, 430
(Saint, see also under St.)
'Saint' Aspinquid, 205
Saint Croix Gulf Club (Calais), 239
Saint Luke's Cathedral (Portland), 185
Saint Sauveur Mountain, 285
Salisbury Cove, 282
'Sally' (ship), 264-65
Salmo Sebago (see Landlocked salmon)
Salmon Falls, 340
Salmon-fishing Pool (Denny sville), 237
Samoset, 269-70
Sampson, C. A. L., no
Sandfordites, 84
Sandy Point, 273
Sanford, 338-39
Sanford Mills (Sanford), 339
Sangerville, 317-18
Sapling (see Unorganized Township No. I,
Range 7)
Sarampas Falls Camp Site (Eustis), 347
Sargent, Dudley Allen, 148
Sargent Gymnasium (Brunswick), 148
Sargentville, 289
Sayward House (York), 263
Index
473
Scarboro, 210, 256
Scarboro Marshes, 209
'Scarlet Letter, The' (book), 378
Schoodic Mountain, 276
Schoodic Peninsula (Winter Harbor), 276
Schoodic Point (Bar Harbor), 284
School of Fine and Applied Art (Portland), 104,
183-84
Schooner Head (Bar Harbor), 284
Scott, Winfield, Gen., 42, 121
Scottow's Hill, 209
Screw Auger Falls (Newry), 365
Seacoast Mission (Bar Harbor), 85
Seacoast Mission Ship (Jonesport), 234
Seal Harbor, 284
Searles Science Building (Brunswick), 148
Searsmont, 371
Searsport, 227
Seawall, 286
Sebago R.R. Station (Standish), 383
Sebascodegan (see Great Island)
Sebec, 317
Sebomook, 324
Sedgwick, 289
Sedgwick Town Hall (Sedgwick), 289
Settlement of Saint Sauveur, site of (Mount
Desert Island), 285
Seven Pennies Shelter, 429
Sewall House (Kittery ), 251
SewalTs Bridge (Kittery), 251
Seymour, Richard, Rev., 82
Shakers, 82-83, 360-61
Shell Heaps (Bluehill), 288
Shell Heaps (Damariscotta), 220
Sheridan, Phil, Gen., 121
Sherman, 310
Sherman Station, 310
Shiloh, 214-15
Shiloh Temple (Durham), 84
Ship Harbor (Southwest Harbor), 286
Shipbuilding: contract, 52; early, 51-52;
period of steel ships, 53; types of construc-
tion, 52-54
Shipping, 60, 63, 132, 166-67 (see also Com-
merce, Industry, Shipbuilding)
Shirley, 322
Shirley Mills, 322
Shirley, William, Gov., 119
Shoe Industry (see Industry)
Shore Club (Bar Harbor), 283
Sieur de Monts Springs and Park (Bar Harbor),
284
Silver, n
Simmons, Franklin, 103, 186
Simpson House (South Berwick), 337
Skid Hill (Naples), 379
Skowhegan, 299
Slate Quarrying (see Industry)
Small, Francis, 367
Small's Falls (Madrid), 345
Smith House (Gorham), 341
Smith House (Windham), 342
Smith, John, Capt., 30, 50, 268
Smith, Samuel E., 218-19
Smith, Samuel Francis, 195
Smith, Seba, 95, 379
Smith, Silas G., 340
Smoking Pine (Hallowell), 327
Smyrna, 293
Smyrna Mills, 293
Snow Falls (Paris), 364
Snow, Wilbert, 271
Societies, historical: Androscoggin Historical
Society (Auburn), 163; Bangor Historical
Society (Bangor), 137; Maine Historical
Society (Portland), 182-83; Pejepscot His-
torical Society (Brunswick), 145
Society for the Preservation of New England
Antiquities, 336-37
Society of Christian Endeavor, birthplace of
(Portland), 189
Soil, 8-9
Solon, 332-33
Somersetshire (Province of Maine), 31
Somes Sound (Mount Desert), 285
Somesville (see Mount Desert)
Sons of Liberty, 252
Sortwell House (Wiscasset), 218
Sourdnahunk Depot Camp, 314
South Arm, 303-04
South Berwick, 336-38
South Bluehill, 288
South Bristol, 267-68
South Casco, 376-78
South China, 355
South Freeport, 214
South Gouldsboro, 275
South Harpswell, 257
South Hope, 374
South Paris, 363-65
South Portland, 211
South Windham, 342
South Windsor, 373
Southport, 267
Sparhawk House (Kittery), 250
'Spectator Papers' (book), 214
Spinney, Herbert L., home of (Bath), 216
Spite House (Rockport), 224-25
Spofford, Harriet Prescott, 98
Sports: Canoeing: 418-27; Fresh-water fishing:
xxii, 407-12; creel limits, 409; open season,
409; Hunting: xxii, 414-18; Game areas:
417-18; Salt-water fishing: xxii, 412-14 (see
also Recreation, Winter Sports)
Spouting Horn (St. George), 271-72
Sprague, John Francis, 317
Spring's Tavern (Hiram), 368
Springvale, 339
Squa Pan, 309
Squando, 208
Squaw Mountain Trail, 430
Squirrel Island, 395-96
St. Agatha, 247
St. Croix, 29
St. Croix River, 3, 5
St. David, 247
St. Francis, 248, 422
St. George, 271-72
St. John's River, 3, 5, 8
St. Joseph's Academy (Portland), 189-90
St. Louis School for Boys (Dunstan), 209
St. Pierre et St. Paul Church (Lewiston), 159
Stacyville Plantation, 310
Stair Falls, 424
Standish, 383-84
Standish, Bert L., 321
Standish, Miles, 118
Stanley, Freeland O., 359
474
Index
Stanley Steamer, 359
Staples Inn (Old Orchard Beach), 256
Starrett, Leroy S., 355; birthplace, site of
(China), 355
State College of Agriculture and Mechanic
Arts (Orono), 296-97
State Fish and Game Department Camp
(Beddington), 306
State fish hatcheries: Caribou, 246; East
Orland, 275; Princeton, 242; Unorganized
Township, No. 2, Range 6, 323
State Game Preserve (see Ganeston Park)
State Hospital (Augusta), 122
State House (Augusta), 127
State Interdenominational Commission, 84
State name, 3
State of Maine Building (Poland Springs), 362
State Reformatory for Men (South Windham),
342
State Reformatory for Women (Skowhegan),
299
State Street (Portland), 184
State Street Hospital (Portland), 185
Steamship Lines, 73
Stella Maris Home (Biddeford), 255
Stephens, C. A., 96
Stephens High School (Rumford), 301
Stephenson Tavern (Belfast), 227 '
Steuben, 231
Stevens, Lillian M. N., 317
Stinson Farm House (Woolwick), 262
Stockton Springs, 227, 273
Stone and Allied Industries (see Industry)
Stone House (Bath), 216
Stone Quarry (Jay), 344
Stone Store (Sullivan), 231
Stoneham, 370
Stonington, 289, 399
Storer Garrison House, Joseph (Wells), 206
Storer House (Kennebunk), 206
Storer-Mussey House (Portland), 184
Stowe, Harriet Beecher, 97, 145, 148; house of
(Brunswick), 145
Strong, 345
Sugar Loaves, 261, 399
Sullivan, 231
Summer Surveying School (East Machias), 237
Surry, 287
Surry Theater (Surry), 287
Swan Island, 401
Swan, James, 401
Sweat Mansion (Portland), 183-84
Sweat Museum (Portland), 104, 183
Swedish immigration, 45
Symphony House (Bangor), 137
Tarantines, 25
Tarkington Art Collection (Kennebunkport),
101, 104
Tarkington, Booth, 100
'Tarranteens' (see Tarantines)
Tate, George, 190; house of (Portland), 190
Taylor House (Kennebunk), 207
'Tea Party,' 252
Tefft, Charles E., 136, 137
Telos Lake Dam and Canal, 423
Tenant's Harbor, 271
Textiles (see Industry)
Thaxter, Celia, grave of (Kittery), 250
Theater, 105
'Thinks-I-to-Myself (ship), 132
Thomas, Richard, grave of (Winslow), 329
Thomas, William W., Jr., 45
Thomaston, 222-23
Thoreau, Henry David, 97, 133, 312-13
Thoreau Spring, 429
Thorndike, Israel, 353-54
Thornton Academy (Saco), 209
Thornton Heights (South Portland), 211
Thunder Hole (Bar Harbor), 284
Thuya Lodge (Asticou), 284
Ticonic Falls, 197, 329
Tidal Power Development Project Model
(Quoddy Village), 279
Tide Mill (Bath), 259
Tilbury Town (poem), 326
Togus (see U.S. Veterans' Administration
Facility)
Tomah Stream, 242
Tomhegan, Unorganized Township of, 324
Topsfield, 242
Topsham, 326
Town government, 35, 49
Township No. i, Range 7, 310
Township No. 3, Range 5, 325
Township C, 303-04
Traffic Regulations, xxi-xxii
'Tragedies of the Wilderness' (book), 401
Trans-Atlantic Radiophone Receiving Station
(Houlton), 154
Trans-Atlantic Receiving Station (Houlton),
293
Transportation, 68-73; airports, 73; earliest
recorded, 68; postal service, 70; railroad, 71;
recent forms of, 73; stagecoach lines, 70-71;
Steamboat, 72, 73, 120
Trask, 'Samuel, 265
Treasure hunting (Jewell Island), 212 (see also
Kidd, William)
Treat's Island, 277-78
Tremont, 286
Trescott, 277
Triborough Bridge (Stonington), 399
Tripp Lake, 359
Trowbridge, Harold, 100
Troy, 354
True, Eliza S., 95
Tucker Castle (see Tucker Mansion)
Tucker Mansion (Wiscasset), 219
Tuna Fishing, 413-14
Turner, 343~44
Turner Center, 343
Twide, Richard, 270
Two Lights, 211
Two Trails, 384
Tyng, Edward, 37
Tyng, William, 37
Underwood Spring (Falmouth Foreside), 213
Union Water-Power Company (Lewiston-
Auburn), 157
United Society of Believers in Christ's Second
Appearing (see Shakers)
United States Arsenal (Augusta), 120
United States Customs and Immigration
Station (Arnold Pond), 348
United States Customs Office (Moose River),
335
Index
475
United States Hatchery and Aquarium (Booth-
bay Harbor), 267
United States Immigration Station (Jackman
Plantation), 334
United States Lighthouse Reservation (Rock-
land), 223
United States Route I, 201
United States Veterans' Administration Facil-
ity (Augusta), 373
Unity, 354
University of Maine (Orono), 81, 296-97
Unorganized Township No. I, Range 7, 323
Unorganized Township No. I, Range 9, 312
Unorganized Township No. 2, Range 6, 323
Unorganized Township No. 2, Range 9, 312
Unorganized Township No. 3, Range 12, 312
Upjohn, Richard, 136, 137
Upper Gloucester, 343
Upton, 366
Vallee, Rudy, 369, 383
Valley House (Elaine), 244
Van Buren, 246-47
Vanceboro, 152
Vanderbilt, Mary S., grave of (Etna), 298
Vannah, Kate (Letitia Katherine), 326
Vassalborough, 328
Vaughan Mansion (Hallowell), 327
Veazie, 297
Veazie Banks vs. Fenno, 297
Veazie House (Bangor), 138
Veazie, Samuel, Gen., 138, 297
Verona, 273
'Village, The' (poem), 127
Vinal, Harold, 100, 398
Vinalhaven, 224, 398
Vinalhaven granite, 398
Vines, Richard, 208
'Virginia' (ship), 52, 59
von Steuben, Baron, 231
Waban Legend, 332
Wadsworth Hall (Hiram), 367-68
Wadsworth, Henry, 177
Wadsworth-Longfellow House (Portland), 182
Wadsworth, Peleg, 367
Waite, 242
Waldo-Hancock Suspension Bridge, 227, 273
Waldo Patent, 31, 220, 222, 371 (see also
Muscongus Grant)
Waldo, Samuel, Gen., 31, 74, 220, 222
Waldoboro, 220
Walker Art Galley (Brunswick), 147-48
Walker, John, Capt, 29
Wallagrass, 308
Wallagrass Plantation, 308
Walpole, 267-68
Waltham Watch Company, 139
Wapsaconhagan Stream, 241
War of 1812, 39-40, 63, 131
Ward, Artemus, 95, 299, 363; home of (Water-
ford), 363
Warren, 221-22
Wrarren, Fiske, 382
Warren Paper Company Mills (Westbrook),
382
Washburn Family, 344
Washbum Homestead (Livermore), 344
Washington Academy (East Machias), 237
Wassataquoik Stream, 424
Wassookeag School (Dexter), 321
Watawasa, Princess, 296
Waterboro, 366
Water Carnival (Kennebunkport), 254
Waterfront (Portland), 181
Water-power legislation, 47
Water Resources, 9
Waterville, as part of Winslpw, 192; education
and culture, 194-95; foreign elements, 191-
92; industry, 191, 194; transportation in,
194; winter sports in, 441
Waterville College (see Colby College)
Waterways, xxi
Watt's Garrison (Georgetown), 262-63
Wawenock Indians, 265
Way mouth, George, Capt., 29, 213, 271, 272
Wayne, 358
Weary Club (Norway), 362
Webb, Nathan, 185
Webster-Ashburton Treaty, 42
Webster, Daniel, 368-69
Webster Lake Dam, 423
Wedding Cake House (Kennebunk), 207-08
Wells, 205-06
Wesley, 306
West Baldwin, 367
West Enfield, 294-95
West Gorham, 383
West Hampden, 353
West Harpswell, 257
West Outlet, 324
West Paris, 364-65
West Pembroke, 238
West Quoddy Head, 277
West Rockport, 375
Westbrook, 382-83
Westbrook Junior College for Women (Port-
land), 81-82
Western Promenade (Portland), 189
Western State Normal School (Gorham), 341
Western, Thomas, 119
Westford Hill (Hodgdon), 243
Weston, 243
Weston, Hannah, 234; grave of (Jonesboro), 234
Weston, John Colby, 317
Whaleboats, 393
Wheeler House (Castine), 291
Wheelwright, John, Rev., 205-06
Whidden, James, Capt., 401
Whipping Tree (Alfred), 339
White House (Belfast), 226
White Mountains National Forest, 370
Whitefield, 373-74
Whitefield Academy and Orphan Asylum
(Whitefield), 374
Whitefield, George, 36
White's Bridge (Windham), 375
Whiting, 237
Whiting House (Castine), 291
Whitney Brook, 244
Whitney House (Castine), 292
Whitneyville, 234
Whittier, John Greenleaf, 97, 210, 322, 392
Wiggin, Kate Douglas, 98, 338; house of (Bux*
ton), 340; grave of (Buxton), 341
Wilcox House (York), 252
Wild Animals, xxiii (see also Sports)
Willett, Thomas, Capt., 118
476
Index
'William P. Frye' (ship), 53
Williams, Ben Ames, 100, 371
Williams House, Reuel (Augusta), 122-23
Williams, Paul, 397
Willis, Nathaniel, 95-96, 176
Willis, Nathaniel Parker, 96, 176; birthplace of
(Portland), 176
Willoughby, Charles, 128
Willoughby's 'Antiquities' (book), 22
Wilson, J. Howard, 291
Wilson, Thomas, 300
Wilton, 301, 344
Windham, 342, 375-76
Windsor, 120, 373
Winn, 294
Winnecook, 321
Winnegance, 259
Winslow, 328
Winslow, Edward, Gov., 118
Winslow, John, 118, 331
Winter Carnival (Rumford), 302
Winter Harbor, 275-76
Winter, John, 52
Winter Sports: areas, 440-41; dog-sled racing,
439-40; harness racing, 439; iceboats, 439;
Winter Carnival (Rumford), 302
Winterpprt, 228
Winterville Plantation, 309
Winthrop, 357
Winthrop Hall (Brunswick), 146
Wiscasset, 218-19
Witch's Grave (York), 252
Women's suffrage, 396
Wonsqueak Stream, 276
Wood House (Wiscasset), 218
Wood, Madam (see Barrel, Sally Sayward)
Woodbridge House (York), 252
Woodcock hunting, 416
Woodland, 241
Woodman, Horace, 208
Woodstock, 365
Woolwich, 217
Woolwich Drawbridge, 262
Worster House (Hallowell), 327
Wreck of the Hesperus (poem), 388
Wrights Lookout (Machiasport), 236
Wyman Dam (Bingham), 333
'Wyoming' (ship), 53
Yachting (see Recreation)
Yankee humor, 78
Yarmouth, 213, 393-94
York, 32, 204-05, 251-53
York Beach, 253
York Corner, 204
York Cotton Factory Company, 252
York Country Club (York), 251
York Gaol (York), 252
York Harbor, 253
York Manufacturing Company Plant (Bidde-
ford), 208
York Town Hall (York), 2^2
Yorkshire, County of, 32
Young Men's Christian Association Camp
(Winthrop), 357
Young People's Society of Christian Endeavor,
84
Young Women's Christian Association, Inter-
national Institute of, 85
Youth's Companion (periodical), 95-96