All Things Maine

Maine ZIP Codes

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 01:11:00 +0000

This Google map mashup shows the boundaries of most of Maine's ZIP codes. Codes run from 03901 (Berwick) to 04992 (West Farmington).

Perham's Closing

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 21:12:00 +0000

Perham's of West Paris will be closing in July after 90 years in business.

The store, which sold minerals and gems as well as books and equipment for prospecting, was opened in 1919 by Stanley Perham. In December, Stanley's daughter and current owner Jane Perham said she would close the store until June 1, but the business did not reopen.

In addition to the store, the business includes a museum display of gems and minerals unearthed at local quarries. Perham and her father have sent samples to the American Museum of Natural History and the Smithsonian Institution.

The pieces in the museum display will be given to a private party who will keep them in Maine. Perham said her brother was hoping to keep the quarries he owns open for public access as long as they are covered by liability insurance. [Link]

Her brother, Frank Perham, is Maine's leading expert on pegmatites, and even has a mineral—Perhamite—named for him.

Ed McMahon, Bingo Caller

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 19:55:00 +0000

Ed McMahon got his professional start calling bingo at a carnival in Mexico, Maine.

On our arrival in Mexico it turned out we had joined one of the toughest carnivals on the road. The night before a guy had been killed by another guy. He got angry and hit his friend over the head with a sledgehammer. That smarts!

The carnival had closed for the night and the wake was going on when we pulled into the grounds and started setting up to be ready to start calling bingo bright and early the next morning. This was hard work and all five men in the troupe including Frank, the boss, worked at it. It meant raising the tent, setting up the counters in the interior and the display table in the back, hooking up the PA system and the lights that would make the prizes look prettier than they really were.

We did what they told me was good business and I was enjoying the whole new experience tremendously. I was beginning to feel at home among the people, the sights, and the smells of the carnival and I wanted to be 100 percent one of them. [Here's Ed: The Autobiography of Ed McMahon, pp. 87-88]

Free Access to Images of America

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 17:29:00 +0000

Until July 31, 2009, you can browse several Maine titles from the Arcadia Publishing Images of America series. If asked to log in, enter:

Username: reviewer
Password: 69preventative2

Local and Regional History Online: A History of American Life in Images and Texts is a unique new resource cultivated from Arcadia Publishing's award-winning series of local history books. At completion, it will include over 1 million historical images and texts, celebrating the places and faces that give America its spirit and life. All of the images and texts have been indexed to provide an unprecedented level of access into the contents, enabling users to explore the depth of a town's history or to compare the histories of various towns, cultures, ethnic groups, architectural features, and more.

Portland Ink

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 17:52:00 +0000

There's a great post today at Strange Maps about the city of Portland, inspired by an unusual tattoo.

Fixing her regional loyalty in indelible ink on skin, Julia had a map of Portland, ME tattooed on her shoulder. A comparison with the more conventional map on the right indicates that her tat clearly shows the Portland peninsula, the Fore River, Back Cove and surrounding coastline, plus a large part of the road network connecting Maine’s biggest city to its hinterland.

Endangered Sturgeon Found in Saco River

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 16:53:00 +0000

A rare shortnose sturgeon was caught in the Saco River this week.

While the Atlantic sturgeon had seemingly disappeared for about 100 years, its more rare cousin had apparently never been seen in the Saco. At least not until researchers pulled one up Tuesday.

"It's crazy," said James Sulikowski, assistant professor of marine sciences. "Nobody had any idea that we would catch a shortnose."

Squiers, for one, thinks it may be another sign that the state's only known spawning population of shortnose sturgeon – in the Kennebec and Androscoggin rivers – is expanding. He and others believe one of those fish paid a visit to the Saco.

"Shortnose sturgeon were thought to stay within their natal river system," he said. "It appears, based on the work in Maine, that they're moving more than thought." [Link]

The Duke Launches a Battleship

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 16:46:00 +0000

Lisa Paul shares this story of John Wayne christening a ship at BIW.

An executive at the Bath Iron Works, the shipyard that has been producing US Navy vessels for over 100 years, told me about the time John Wayne was invited to christen a battleship. He smashed the champagne bottle over the hull, which was supposed to signal the hydraulics to release the ship down the ramp and into the water. Nothing happened. In as superstition-riddled an industry as the maritime world, this is the greatest bad juju — pretty much a curse on a ship for all time. There was a horrified pause. Then the Duke reached out with one long arm and gave the bow of the ship a shove. It slid down the ramp to thunderous applause. [Link]

Law Forbids "Squaw"

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 16:55:00 +0000

A bill signed yesterday will tighten the law that bars use of the word "squaw" for official place names in Maine.

After Maine's law took effect, Big Squaw Mountain in Greenville became Big Moose Mountain; Squaw Pond became Sipun, the Passamaquoddy Indian word for blackfly; and a couple of dozen other names were changed.

But there have been efforts in some communities to end-run the restriction by using shorter versions of the word, such as "Squa," or combining it with another word to form place names. In northern Maine's Aroostook County, a lake near Mapleton remained Squapan Lake. And in coastal Stockton Springs, a local homeowners' group objected to the renaming of Squaw Point to Defence Road. [Link]

Extreme Frugality

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 02:05:00 +0000

W. Hodding Carter and his family are attempting to live in rural Maine on $550 a month. In the most recent of his Extreme Frugality blog posts at Gourmet.com, Carter scavenges a roadkilled duck.

Since it was not only dark but also misty, I was driving slowly down Route 52 when suddenly my frugal eye spotted a vibrant green-and-orange something lying alongside the road. Given the conditions, it was just a blur, but my sharply honed penny-pincher’s sixth sense knew it was food. I jerked the car to a stop, ran out in front of a truck, and snatched dinner from a certain squashing.

It was … sniff, sniff … fresh roadkill. A mallard, in fact. Judging by the scent and a smattering of feathers across the pavement, it must’ve happened in the past hour or so—or else, surely, some other scavenger would have made off with it. [Link]

Bryant Pond's Three-Story Privy

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Fri, 22 May 2009 02:08:00 +0000

Bryant Pond has a rare three-story outhouse in its Masonic lodge.

The lodge, and its retro facilities, were state of the art in the mid-1800s when they were constructed. This skyscraper privy is a simple pine board with a hole in it. Anything dropped through falls two complete stories until it smacks the earth. Venerated by some, abhorred by others, the three-holer was finally supplemented by real indoor plumbing in the year 2000—a flush toilet and everything. But only on the ground floor; the second and third stories remain as they were. [Link]

America's Oldest Family-Run Inn

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Sun, 10 May 2009 07:14:00 +0000

12th-generation innkeeper Tricia Mason believes that Seaside Inn & Cottages in Kennebunk is the oldest family-run inn in America.

The Seaside has been in her family since at least the mid-1600s. That's when Mason's ancestor John Gooch answered the call of Fernando Gorges, agent for King Charles II, to ferry travelers across the mouth of the Kennebunk. Gooch sailed from England and settled here, most likely in the 1650s. Because travelers often needed to spend a night or two before the crossing, he offered rooms and meals. [Link]

The Center of New England

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Sat, 09 May 2009 02:34:00 +0000

The title of "geographical center of New England" has been claimed by Dunbarton and Wakefield, New Hampshire, and Sanford, Maine. But according to a geologist with the U. S. Geographical Service in Massachusetts, the center lies in the Oxford County town of Norway.

Using her computer algorithms, Emily Himmelstoss pegged the center of Maine in a bog at the west end of Roaring Brook Pond in the unorganized Piscataquis County land mass labeled on maps as "T-7, R-9 NWP" (45.3937 W, -69.2385 N).

The center of New Hampshire is 41 feet off the Winona Road, 0.14 miles northwest of Winona Lake (43.6877 W, -71.5785 N). Vermont's centroid is 480 feet west of a spot on the Drown Road, 3/4 of a mile, as the crow flies, from East Roxbury (44.0740 W, -72.6637 N).

For Massachusetts's, the center of the state can be found 61 feet east of South Flagg Street, 0.12 miles for its intersection with Pleasant Street, in Worcester (42,2756 W, -71.8389 N), while Connecticut's centroid is smack in the westbound lane of Route 9, 0.15 miles from where it passes under Beckley Road, in East Berlin. Finally, Rhode Island's center can be found in the south brook of the Pawtuxet River, 0.17 miles east of Gatehouse Farm Road, in Coventry (41.6942 W, -71.5916 N).

All of that, puts the center of New England in Norway, Maine, at a spot 542 feet east of a spot on the Shedd Road.

The Advertiser is not revealing the exact point on the Shedd Road because, while public use is allowed - a snowmobile trail cuts across one corner of the 110-acre parcel - the owner has yet to acclimate to the prospect of a long line lookie-loos tramping past the family farmstead. [Link]

Vintage Aerial Photos of Maine Farms

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 16:17:00 +0000

Steve Berry of Vintage Aerial is traveling the back roads of Maine, trying to identify farms photographed from the air 40 years ago.

Berry, age 67 and retired from his job as a salesman for an aerial photo company, learned a few years ago that a rival company, State Aerial Farm Statistics Inc., had at least 25 million aerial photos of farms squirreled away in a warehouse in Toledo. The photos date back to the 1960s and are a visual record of the changing American rural landscape.

Berry convinced State Aerial that the vintage photos, combined with the farms' histories and stories of the people who lived there, would make good books – books people would be willing to buy. They hired him to do some old-fashioned shoe-leather reporting county by county.

Berry has 1,565 rolls of film from Maine, each roll containing 36 exposures. In recent weeks, he's been driving around Somerset County, and plans to be in Aroostook County by May 1. He travels five days a week, trying to set foot in every Maine county and looking for volunteers to help him track down the farms and interview the residents. [Link]

Andover Earth Station Video

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 05:28:00 +0000

Here's a History Channel segment about the first transatlantic television transmission from the Andover Earth Station to France via the Telstar satellite in 1962.

Maine Radio History, 1971–1996

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 20:18:00 +0000

BostonRadio.org offers an excellent history of Maine radio stations from 1971 to 1996.

There was only one station in Piscataquis County in 1971, Dover-Foxcroft's WDME. There's still only one, and it's still WDME. The only difference is that back then, WDME was on 1340 AM (and a relative newcomer; it signed on in 1967). WDME-FM signed on in 1980, as a simulcast on 103.1 A few years later, both stations moved into a converted railroad car, and not long after that, the AM vanished from the airwaves. Today, “D-103” makes a big deal out of its exotic studio location, with IDs that feature train sounds underneath.

Maine Immigration Data Since 1880

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 17:09:00 +0000

This Interactive Map Showing Immigration Data Since 1880 from the New York Times shows that Maine's immigrants have mostly been from Canada. In the Mid-coast counties, though, Western European immigrants have often outnumbered Canadians, and Cumberland County has seen its Asian/Middle Eastern population become predominant since 1990.

Portland's Fastest Barbers

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 04:40:00 +0000

In his 1906 autobiography, John M. Todd relates the boasts of some of Portland's 260 barbers:

Charles C. Haskann, the king of left handed barbers, once hauled off eighteen dollars on a Saturday while working in Portland. Fred Cook at the Preble, one of the swiftest wielders, raked in the cool sum of fifty dollars during Grand Army week. J. B. Powers is slow but thunderingly sure. J. J. Sullivan says he pushed the steel over a man's face in a minute and a half, bear in mind I am not telling you any fish stories. Luke V. Whalen, the only official minute barber in the city, swears that by all that is green on earth that he lathered and shaved a man over twice in just one minute, and that the sum total of his earnings on one third of July was nineteen dollars and thirty-five cents, working up to two o'clock Sunday morning, and "you tell that thirty-two-second fellow," said Luke, "I'd like to meet him down back of some old barn some dark night." [Link]

Channel 6 Audio Will Soon Be Gone

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 17:52:00 +0000

When WCSH finally goes digital in June, Mainers will no longer be able to listen to Channel 6 in the car. All American TV stations assigned to Channel 6 broadcast their analog audio signal at 87.7 MHz—down at the lower end of the FM dial. When WCSH switches off its analog signal on June 12, Mainers' ability to listen to its programming on the radio will be lost.

To compensate for the loss, WCSH will be broadcasting its morning and evening news reports on The Oldies Channel (870 AM in Portland, 1470 AM in Lewiston/Auburn).

"We know Mainers have come to rely on our radio signal," said WCSH President and General Manager Steve Thaxton. "We've worked for months to find a radio partner to join with us to continue this valuable service. The value of the service is particularly evident during widespread or extended power outages, such as the one caused by December's ice storm." [Link]

Tin Roof Toboggan

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 05:29:00 +0000

Jim Degerstrom remembers sliding down Derby Hill in Milo on a tin roof toboggan.

The huge field was different at 150 feet wide and just as long. It was wide open without any major obstacles like trees or rocks, so the only dangerous spot was a 6 foot drop into the ditch along the road. Backing up a bit, I did say we were creative inventing rides like the tin roof toboggan? I didn't say the idea was brilliant. Ouch! If you can imagine speeding downhill on soft snow riding a sharp and rusty sheet of tin, the inevitable wreck had consequences. A crash meant stitches and a tetanus shot or bandages at the least. In retrospect I think the thrill was worth it.

Possible Right Whale Wintering Ground Found

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 06:54:00 +0000

North Atlantic right whales appear to be wintering off the coast of Maine.

A large number of North Atlantic right whales have been seen in the Gulf of Maine in recent days, leading right whale researchers at NOAA’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center (NEFSC) to believe they have identified a wintering ground and potentially a breeding ground for this endangered species.

The NEFSC’s aerial survey team saw 44 individual right whales on December 3 in the Jordan Basin area, located about 70 miles south of Bar Harbor, Maine.

With a population estimated to be about 325 whales, knowing where the whales are at any time is critical to protect them. [Link]

Southern Maine Veterans' Memorial Cemetery

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 03:37:00 +0000

Work began in October on a new 88-acre veterans' cemetery in Springvale. The work should be completed by spring, 2010, with burials starting next fall. The Master Plan renderings may be viewed here.

The state currently operates two veterans' cemeteries in Augusta, and a third in Caribou.

How Some Towns Got Their Names

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 17:43:00 +0000

1. Milbridge
The name is thought to have been suggested by John Gardner of Boston, who built the first bridge across the Narraguagus River.

The spelling of Milbridge has been a subject of much discussion. Some say that two "ls" should be used because the name is a blending of the two words, "mill and bridge." They further assert that the early incorporators meant it to be such. The one "l" supporters affirm that their spelling should prevail for if the town's namers did not mean it to be such, they would not have used the spelling with one "l" in the Act of Incorporation. They affirm that a mistake could not have been made, there, for the word was spelled too many times.
[The Milbridge register, 1905]

2. Norway
Petitioners in 1795 requested that their proposed town be named "Norage." Charles F. Whitman, in his History of Norway, suggests two explanations for this suggestion: Either it was an alternate spelling of "Norwich," the name of an English city; or it was an alternate spelling of "Norridge," a Native American word for waterfalls. Whatever the petitioners' intentions, the General Court interpreted "Norage" as an alternate spelling of "Norge," the Norwegian name for Norway.

3. Dixfield
Legend has it that Dixfield was named for Dr. Elijah Dix as a quid pro quo.

The good doctor had promised to build a library for the town if the citizens voted to change its name from Holmantown to Dixfield. The citizens voted to do just that, but the library never materialized. Dr. Dix in the meantime had moved, and mailed the citizens dusty, old boxes of medical books - printed in German, no less with which to found a library. [Link]

The town would not have a proper library until 1935.

4. Presque Isle
Presqu'île is French for "peninsula." The town center was located on a peninsula formed by the Aroostook River and Presque Isle Stream.

5. Damariscotta
Said to derive from an Abenaki term for "place where alewives are plentiful."

6. Embden
Named for Emden in what is now Germany. Town clerk Benjamin Colby, Jr., is credited with changing the spelling by adding a "b" a year after the town was incorporated.

7. Mars Hill
Named for the town's prominent mountain, which was named for the Areopagus in Athens.

8. Stoneham
Stoneham was incorporated and named for the Massachusetts town in 1834. A proprietor named Ellis B. Usher succeeded in having the name changed to "Usher" in 1841. The townsfolk protested, and had the change reversed two years later.

9. Orland
First settler Joseph Gross is supposed to have found an oar on the shore of the river when he arrived in 1764. By the time of incorporation in 1800, "Oarland" had become "Orland."

10. Roque Bluffs
Nearby Roque Island (in Jonesport) is said to have been named for Saint Roch by Champlain.

Rejected Town Names

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 08:21:00 +0000

Some proposed and rejected names for Maine towns:

Sunbury (Bangor)
Reach (Bath)
North Wood (Corinna)
Sharon (Durham)
Sumner (Ellsworth)
Russia (Greenwood)
Fluvanna (Guilford)
Columbia (Hebron)
Winchester (Islesboro)
China (Rumford)
Independence (South Thomaston)
Sparta (Woodstock)
"Hertford, Woodstock or Lisbon," or Williamston (Hartford)
New Hancock, or Gilman (Sumner)
Knoxbury, or Knoxburgh (Prospect)

Three Junks of Pork

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 07:28:00 +0000

There are at least three places in Maine called "Junk of Pork." One lies a few miles beyond Peaks Island, and was described by Samuel Drake Adams in 1891 as "a tough morsel even for old salts." A photograph taken last year confirms the following description from 1892:

The rock is called the Junk of Pork, and is one of the most dangerous on the Maine coast. It rises precipitously to a height of nearly fifty feet from the surface of the sea, and is encompassed with countless bowlders and jagged reefs. [Link]

A second Junk of Pork lies in Flanders Bay, in the town of Sorrento. It was described by the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey as "a small dirt cone of unusual appearance."

An even smaller Junk of Pork, shown here, is located in Beech Hill Pond, in the town of Otis.

The Maineism "junk"—meaning "a fairish-sized piece; a hunk"—made it into the Dictionary of American Regional English in 1985.

Pronouncing "Mount Desert"

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 02:53:00 +0000

A debate over the proper pronunciation of "Mount Desert" pitted 19th-century scholars against year-round residents of the island.

The accentuation should not fall on the last, but on the first syllable of Desert, although the name is almost universally mispronounced in Maine, and notably so on the island itself. Usually it is Mount Desart, toned into Desert by the casual population, who thus give it a curious significance.
[Nooks and corners of the New England coast (1875)]

It would hardly seem necessary after quoting Champlain's statement with regard to the name of this Island and his reasons for so naming it, to call attention to the proper accentuation of the word "Desert," but there are still many who place the accent on the last syllable, a practice which has a tendency to obscure its meaning. We have seen that Champlain called the place the "Isle of the Desert Mountains," and from this, doubtless, it came to be called Mount Desert. The French words for this name are Mont Desert the last word pronounced as though written "dezer." Now, since we have substituted Mount for the French "Mont," why should we not give the word Desert, which is written alike in French and English, the English accent? It is true Champlain did not call the Island a desert, only its mountains, but the words "Mount Desert" or "Desert Mount," convey the meaning intended by him, and the word Desert with the accent on the first syllable used in its ordinary sense of solitary, unfilled, uninhabited, is part of the name. The fact that many of the natives of the Island accent the word differently and give a different significance to the terms employed by Champlain, proves nothing. We have Champlain's own statement that the name was intended to describe an island filled with solitary, uninhabited mountain wastes, and no words better described such a place than those used by him.
[William Berry Lapham, Bar Harbor and Mount Desert Island (1886)]

Lapham's argument was picked up in 1886 by the New York Times, by way of the Lewiston Journal.

How shall Mount Desert be pronounced? is a question asked many times. Shall it be Mount De-sert or Mount Des-ert? Dr. Lapham, who is an authority on such matters, is in favor of the latter pronunciation. The Maine Historical Society has adopted it—made it an English name. Dr. Lapham's suggestion that as we have given it the English orthography it should have English pronunciation is sensible. Let it be Mount Des-ert, then.

And yet, the "corrected" pronunciation didn't catch on.

"Everybody now seems to say Mount Desert (de-zert')."—Boston Globe.
[Seven Thousand Words Often Mispronounced (1895)]