Maine
Maine entered the Union on March 15, 1820, becoming the nation’s twenty-third state. Known as the Pine Tree State, it has Augusta as its capital and Portland as its largest city. The northernmost state in New England, Maine is distinguished by its rocky Atlantic coastline, numerous islands and lighthouses, vast forests, inland lakes, and mountain regions.
Maine was part of Massachusetts until it achieved statehood through the Missouri Compromise, which admitted Maine as a free state and Missouri as a slave state. Its forests, rivers, and extensive coastline supported the growth of logging, shipbuilding, fishing, and maritime commerce. These industries shaped communities throughout the state and established Maine’s enduring connection to both the sea and its forested interior.
Recent Articles
The P-3 Orion at Brunswick Landing
We had stopped in Brunswick for breakfast when an airplane beside the road caught our attention. It stood on the grass with four propellers, broad wings, and a black nose that seemed to face anyone passing by. We had not planned to visit an air station, but there was no chance we were driving past […]
Willing Workers Hall
While Marty and I were driving through Maine, I saw a sign for the Historic Willing Workers Hall and asked him to pull over. The name caught my attention. Who were the Willing Workers? What kind of work had they done, and why did they have a hall of their own? Across the road stood […]
Civil War Soldiers’ Monument
The tall stone monument on Bath’s High Street was raised while the Civil War was still close in memory. Erected between 1867 and 1869, it honored the men from Bath who had died in the conflict. An eagle crowns the shaft; below it, the city’s dedication asks those passing by to remember its sons. The […]
The River That Built Bath
The Kennebec looked quiet when we stopped along Bath’s waterfront. Small boats rested at the docks, and the wooded shore stretched across the water. It was easy to linger over the view. It took a little more imagination to see how much had once happened on this same stretch of river. In the nineteenth century, […]
The Shaker Cemetery
I had already explored the history of Sabbathday Lake Shaker Village, but its cemetery offered another way to understand the people who live there. Unlike burial grounds filled with elaborate monuments celebrating individual wealth, military service, or family ancestry, the Shaker Cemetery reflects the community’s beliefs in simplicity, humility, equality, and collective life. The Shakers […]
Poland Spring Resort
I made my way to Poland Spring to spend the night, and in many ways it felt like stepping back in time. This was not a modern luxury hotel experience. The room was plain, the towels were thin, and there was a small bar of soap waiting in the bathroom. The accommodations were simple and […]
Monhegan Island
Staying at the Island Inn became an important part of our experience on Monhegan Island. Perched on a bluff overlooking the harbor, the large shingled inn seems perfectly suited to its surroundings. From the moment we arrived, there was a feeling that we had stepped into an earlier era of New England summer travel. The […]
The Pen That Created Frances Perkins National Monument
On December 16, 2024, President Joseph R. Biden Jr. used this pen to sign the presidential proclamation establishing Frances Perkins National Monument in Newcastle, Maine. The ceremony took place in the U.S. Department of Labor; the department Perkins led from 1933 to 1945. The photograph accompanying the pen shows Biden handing it to Frances Perkins’s […]
The Cogswell Family
Set into the rocks at Pemaquid Point is a bronze plaque marking the place where one family’s American story began nearly four centuries ago. On August 14, 1635, John Cogswell and his family, from Westbury Leigh in Wiltshire, England, first set foot in America near this site. They had crossed the Atlantic aboard the Angel Gabriel, […]
Fort William Henry
One of the highlights of our visit to Colonial Pemaquid in New Harbor, Maine, was exploring Fort William Henry. Looking across the harbor today, it is difficult to imagine that this peaceful stretch of coastline was once one of the most fiercely contested places in North America. Yet for much of the seventeenth century, this […]
Poland Spring Resort
I made my way to Poland Spring to spend the night, and in many ways it felt like stepping back in time. This was not a modern luxury hotel experience. The room was plain, the towels were thin, and there was a small bar of soap waiting in the bathroom. The accommodations were simple and […]
Pemaquid Point Lighthouse
One of the pleasures of traveling is discovering places you never expected to visit. Pemaquid Point Lighthouse was one of those discoveries. As we made our way home from the Canadian Maritime Provinces, we learned about this historic lighthouse on the coast of Maine and decided to make a short detour. It turned out to […]
