The State of Maine is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The territory that is now Maine was at one time a part of Massachusetts. Maine is the northernmost portion of New England. It is known for its scenery — its jagged, mostly rocky coastline, its low, rolling mountains, and its heavily forested interior — as well as for its seafood cuisine, especially lobsters and clams.
The original inhabitants of the territory that is now Maine were Algonquian-speaking peoples. The first European settlement in Maine was in 1604 by a French party. The first English settlement in Maine, the short-lived Popham Colony, was established by the Plymouth Company in 1607. A number of English settlements were established along the coast of Maine in the 1620s, although the rugged climate, deprivations, and Indian attacks wiped out many of them over the years. As Maine entered the 18th century only a half dozen settlements still survived. American and British forces contended for Maine's territory during the American Revolution and the War of 1812. Because it was physically separated from the rest of Massachusetts (properly speaking, the Department of Maine was an exclave of Massachusetts) and because it was growing in population at a rapid rate, Maine became the 23rd state on March 15, 1820 as a component of the Missouri Compromise.

Origin of the name

There continues to be much interest in the origin of the name of Maine as there is not a definitive answer. The Maine legislature in 2002 adopted a resolution establishing Franco-American Day which stated that the state was named after the ancient French province of Maine.
Other theories mention earlier places with similar names, or claim it's a nautical reference to the mainland.
Whatever the origin, the name was fixed in 1665 when the King's Commissioners ordered that the "Province of Maine" be entered from then on in official records.

Geography

To the south and east is the Atlantic Ocean and to the north and northeast is New Brunswick, a province of Canada. The Canadian province of Quebec is to the northwest. Maine is both the northernmost state in New England and the largest, accounting for nearly half the region's entire land area. Maine also has the distinction of being the only state to border just one other state (New Hampshire to the west). The municipalities of Eastport and Lubec are, respectively, the easternmost city and town in the 48 contiguous states. Maine's Moosehead Lake is the largest lake in New England (Vermont's Lake Champlain being partially in New York). Mount Katahdin is both the northern terminus of the Appalachian Trail, which extends to Springer Mountain, Georgia, and the southern terminus of the new International Appalachian Trail which, when complete, will run to Belle Isle, Newfoundland and Labrador.
Maine also has several unique geographical features. Machias Seal Island and North Rock, off its easternmost point, are claimed by both the U.S. and Canada and are within one of four areas between the two countries whose sovereignty is still in dispute, but is the only one of the disputed areas containing land. Also in this easternmost area is the Old Sow, the largest tidal whirlpool in the Western Hemisphere.
Maine is the most sparsely populated state east of the Mississippi River. It is called the Pine Tree State; ninety percent of its land is forested. In the forested areas of the interior there is much uninhabited land, some of which does not have formal political organization into local units. The Northwest Aroostook, Maine unorganized territory in the northern part of the state, for example, has an area of 2,668 square miles (6,910 km²) and a population of 27, or one person for every 100 square miles (255 km²).
Maine is equally well known for its ocean scenery, with almost of shorelin. West Quoddy Head is the easternmost piece of land in the contiguous 48 United States. Along the famous rock-bound coast of Maine are lighthouses, beaches, fishing villages, and thousands of offshore islands, including the Isles of Shoals, which straddle the New Hampshire border. Jagged rocks and cliffs and thousands of bays and inlets add to the rugged beauty of Maine's coast. Just inland, by contrast, are lakes, rivers, forests, and mountains. This visual contrast of forested slopes sweeping down to the sea has been aptly summed up by American poet Edna St. Vincent Millay of Rockland and Camden, Maine in "Renascence":

"All I could see from where I stood

was three long mountains and a wood

I turned and looked the other way

and saw three islands in a bay"

More prosaic geologists describe this type of landscape as a drowned coast, where a rising sea level has invaded former land features, creating bays out of valleys and islands out of mountain tops. A rise in the elevation of the land due to the melting of heavy glacier ice caused a slight rebounding effect of underlying rock; this land rise, however, was not strong enough to eliminate all the effect of the rising sea level and its invasion of former land features.
Millions of people have enjoyed this coastal scenery at Maine's Acadia National Park, the only national park in New England.
Areas under the protection and management of the National Park Service include:

Acadia National Park near Bar Harbor

Appalachian National Scenic Trail

Maine Acadian Culture in St. John Valley

Roosevelt Campobello International Park near Lubec

Saint Croix Island International Historic Site at Calais

Climate

Maine experiences a humid continental climate (Köppen climate classification Dfb), with warm (although generally not hot), humid summers. Winters are cold and snowy throughout the state, and are especially severe in the northern parts of Maine. Coastal areas are moderated somewhat by the Atlantic Ocean. Daytime highs are generally in the 75-80 °F (24-27 °C) range throughout the state in July, with overnight lows in the high 50s°F (around 15 °C). January temperatures range from highs near 32 °F (0 °C) on the southern coast to overnight lows below 0 °F (-18 °C) in the far north.
Maine, on occasion, is affected by hurricanes and tropical storms although by the time they reach the state, many have become extratropical and few hurricanes have made landfall in Maine. Maine has fewer days of thunderstorms than any other state east of the Rockies, with most of the state averaging less than 20 days of thunderstorms a year. Tornadoes are rare in Maine with the state averaging less than two per year, mostly occurring in the southern part of the state.

History

The original inhabitants of the territory that is now Maine were Algonquian-speaking Wabanaki peoples including the Abenaki, Passamaquoddy, and Penobscots. The first European settlement in Maine was in 1604 by a French party that included Samuel de Champlain, the noted explorer. The French named the entire area, including the portion that later became the State of Maine, Acadia. The first English settlement in Maine was established by the Plymouth Company at Popham in 1607, the same year as the settlement at Jamestown, Virginia. Both colonies were predated by the Roanoke Colony by 22 years. Because the Popham Colony did not survive the harsh Maine winters and the Roanoke Colony was lost, Jamestown enjoys the distinction of being regarded as America’s first permanent English-speaking settlement.The coastal areas of western Maine first became the Province of Maine in a 1622 land patent. Eastern Maine north of the Kennebec River was more sparsely settled and was known in the 17th century as the Territory of Sagadahock.
The province within its current boundaries became part of Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1652. Maine was much fought over by the French and English during the 17th and early 18th centuries. After the defeat of the French in the 1740s, the territory from the Penobscot River east fell under the nominal authority of the Province of Nova Scotia, and together with present day New Brunswick formed the Nova Scotia county of Sunbury, with its court of general sessions at Campobello. American and British forces contended for Maine's territory during the American Revolution and the War of 1812. The treaty concluding revolution was ambiguous about Maine's boundary with British North America. The territory of Maine was confirmed as part of Massachusetts when the United States was formed, although the final border with British territory was not established until the Webster-Ashburton Treaty of 1842. (Indeed, in 1839 Governor Fairfield declared war on England over a boundary dispute between New Brunswick and northern Maine. Known as the Aroostook War, this is the only time a state has declared war on a foreign power. The dispute was settled, however, before any blood was shed.)
Because it was physically separated from the rest of Massachusetts and was growing in population at a rapid rate, Maine became the 23rd state on March 15, 1820 through the Missouri Compromise. This compromise allowed admitting both Maine and Missouri (in 1821) into the union while keeping a balance between slave and free states. Maine's original capital was Portland until 1832, when it was moved to Augusta.

Law and government

The Maine Constitution structures Maine's state government, composed of three co-equal branches - the executive, legislative, and judicial branches. The state of Maine also has three Constitutional Officers (the Secretary of State, the State Treasurer, and the State Attorney General) and one Statutory Officer (the State Auditor).
The legislative branch is the Maine Legislature, a bicameral body composed of the Maine House of Representatives, with 151 members, and the Maine Senate, with 35 members. The Legislature is charged with introducing and passing laws.
The executive branch is responsible for the execution of the laws created by the Legislature and is headed by the Governor of Maine (currently John Baldacci, a Democrat). The Governor is elected every four years; no individual may serve more than two consecutive terms in this office. The current attorney general of Maine is G. Steven Rowe. As with other state legislatures, the Maine Legislature can by a two-thirds majority vote from both the House and Senate override a gubernatorial veto.
The judicial branch is responsible for interpreting state laws. The highest court of the state is the Maine Supreme Judicial Court. The lower courts are the District Court, Superior Court and Probate Court. All judges except for probate judges serve full-time; are nominated by the Governor and confirmed by the Legislature for terms of seven years. Probate judges serve part-time and are elected by the voters of each county for four-year terms.

State and local politics

In state general elections, Maine voters tend to accept independent and third-party candidates more frequently than most states. Maine has had two independent governors recently (James B. Longley, 1975–1979 and Angus King, 1995–2003). The Green Party candidate won nine percent of the vote in the 2002 gubernatorial election, more than in any election for a statewide office for that party until the 2006 Illinois gubernatorial election. The locally organized Maine Green Independent Party also elected John Eder to the office of State Representative in the Maine House of Representatives, the highest elected Green official nationwide. Pat LaMarche, 2004 Green Party vice-presidential candidate, resides in the southern coastal town of Yarmouth. Maine state politicians, Republicans and Democrats alike, are noted for having more moderate views than many in the national wings of their respective parties.
Maine is an Alcoholic beverage control state.

Federal politics

Maine's federal politics are notable and are dramatic for several reasons. In the 1930s, it was one of very few states which remained dominated by the Republican Party. In the 1936 Presidential election, Franklin D. Roosevelt received the electoral votes of every state other than Maine and Vermont. In the 1960s, Maine began to lean toward the Democrats, especially in Presidential elections. In 1968, Hubert Humphrey became just the second Democrat in half a century to carry Maine thanks to the presence of his running mate, Maine Senator Edmund Muskie. Maine has since become a left-leaning swing state and has voted Democratic in four successive Presidential elections, casting its votes for Bill Clinton twice, Al Gore in 2000 and John Kerry (with 53.6% of the vote) in 2004. Republican strength is greatest in Washington and Piscataquis counties. Though Democrats have carried the state in presidential elections in recent years, Republicans have largely maintained their control of the state's U.S. Senate seats, with Ed Muskie, William Hathaway and George Mitchell being the only Maine Democrats serving in the U.S. Senate in the past fifty years.
The Reform Party of Ross Perot achieved a great deal of success in Maine in the presidential elections of 1992 and 1996: in 1992 Perot came in second to Bill Clinton, despite the longtime presence of the Bush family summer home in Kennebunkport, and in 1996, Maine was again Perot's best state.
Since 1969, two of Maine's four electoral votes are awarded based on the winner of the statewide election. The other two go to the highest vote-winner in each of the state's two congressional districts. 2004's presidential race saw reports that the campaign of President George W. Bush had made the calculation to devote attention to one of Maine's two Congressional Districts with the possibility of carrying the district's vote for an Electoral Vote in a close national race.
Famous politicians from Maine include James Blaine, Thomas Brackett Reed, Edmund Muskie, Margaret Chase Smith, William Cohen, George J. Mitchell, Olympia Snowe, Hannibal Hamlin, Susan Collins, Owen Brewster, and Percival Baxter.
Maine's U.S. senators are Republicans Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins. Maine's Senators Snowe and Collins were among the group of 10 and then five Republican U.S. Senators to vote with 45 Democratic Senators in February 1999's vote of acquittal in the impeachment of President Bill Clinton. The state's two members of the U.S. House of Representatives are Democrats Tom Allen and Mike Michaud.

Municipalities

Organized municipalities

An organized municipality has a form of elected local government which administers and provides local services, keeps records, collects licensing fees, and can pass locally binding ordinances among other responsibilities of self-government. The governmental format of most organized towns and plantations is the Town Meeting while the format of most cities is the Council-Manager form. As of 2007 the organized municipalities of Maine consists of 22 cities, 432 towns, and 34 plantations. Collectively these 488 organized municipalities cover less than half of the state's territory. Maine also has 3 Reservations: Indian Island, Indian Township Reservation, and Pleasant Point Indian Reservation.

The largest municipality in Maine, by population, is the city of Portland (pop. 64,249).

The smallest city by population is Eastport (pop. 1,640).

The largest town by population is Brunswick (pop. 21,172).

The smallest town by population is Frye Island, a resort town which reported zero year-round population in the 2000 Census; one plantation, Glenwood Plantation, Maine, also reported a permanent population of zero.

In the 2000 Census, the smallest town aside from Frye Island was Centerville with a population of 26, but since that Census, Centerville voted to disincorporate and therefore is no longer a town. The next smallest town with a population listed in that Census is Beddington, (pop. 29).

The largest municipality by land area is the town of Allagash (128 square miles).

The smallest municipality by land area is the plantation of Monhegan Island (0.86 square miles).

Unorganized territory

Unorganized territory has no local government. Administration, services, licensing, and ordinances are handled by the State Government. The Unorganized Territory of Maine consists of over 400 townships (towns are incorporated, townships are unincorporated), plus many coastal islands that do not lie within any municipal bounds. The UT land area is slightly over one half the entire area of the State of Maine. Year round residents in the UT number approximately 9,000, about 1.3% of the state's total population, with many more people residing only seasonally within the UT. Only four of Maine's sixteen counties are entirely incorporated, although a few others are nearly so, and most of the unincorporated area is in the vast and sparsely populated Great North Woods of Maine.

Most populous cities and towns

Fact Finder US Census Maine Portland:
Throughout Maine, many municipalities, although each separate governmental entities, never-the-less form portions of a much larger population base. There are many such population clusters throughout Maine, but some examples from the municipalities appearing in the above listing are:

Portland, South Portland and several other surrounding communities

Lewiston and Auburn

Bangor, Orono, Brewer, Old Town, and Hampden

Biddeford and Saco

Brunswick and Topsham

Waterville and Winslow

Education

Public Schools

Maine has four types of school departments: the first is a local school, one which serves only one municipality, and is headed by a superintendent. Usually, it serves kindergarten through grade 12, although some only go to grade 8. Usually, independent school districts which do not have a high school are not totally independent; they are part of a school union, the second type of school district.
A school union is two or more school departments that share a superintendent but nothing else; each town has an independent school board. Usually, only one of the schools in the school union has a high school, but unlike MSADs (discussed below), students in the whole school union are not compelled to attend that school. School union students are given a choice of neighboring school districts, and the school union pays for the student's tuition.
The third type is a MSAD (Maine School Administrative District). This is a regional school district that incorporates two or more towns into one school department with one high school and middle school. These towns do not have independent school boards, but instead have one central board governing the entire district. Students are obligated to attend the central high school. Usually, a MSAD is comprised of one larger town and one or more smaller towns. The larger town is equipped with a high school and middle school, while the surrounding towns have elementary schools as well, but no secondary schools. The elementary schools usually cut off after grade 5 or grade 6. Sometimes, towns in a MSAD do not have an elementary school but posses a high school and/or middle school, whereas the surrounding towns have the elementary schools.
The last type of school district is a CSD (Community School District, sometimes called a Consolidated School District). This usually (but not always) exists in school districts with such a small student population between several towns that the school district cannot justify an elementary school outside the largest town in the district. In rare cases a CSD refers to only a high school of a school union. Sometimes, in towns geographically isolated (such as island towns) the entire student population attends one school grades PK-12.
Students can choose to attend a school in another district if the parents agree to pay the school tuition. Vocational centers are usually regional, so one school department will administer a technical center but other school districts will transport their students there to take classes.

Private Schools

Private schools are less common than public schools. A large number of private elementary schools with under 20 students exist, but most private high schools in Maine are actually semi-private high schools. This means that while it costs money to send children there, towns will make a contract with a school to take children from a town or MSAD at a slightly reduced rate. Often this is done when it is deemed cheaper to subsidize private tuition than build a whole new school when a private one already exists.

Magnet Schools

Maine has one major magnet school: The Maine School of Science and Mathematics in Limestone. Another specialty public school exists in Portland: the Maine School of Performing Arts.

Colleges and universities

Bangor Theological Seminary

Bates College

Beal College

Bowdoin College

Colby College

College of the Atlantic

Husson College

Maine College of Art

Maine Community College System

Central Maine Community College

Kennebec Valley Community College

Eastern Maine Community College

Northern Maine Community College

Southern Maine Community College

Boat School at Eastport (a branch of Husson College)

Washington County Community College

York County Community College

Maine Maritime Academy

St. Joseph's College

Thomas College

Unity College

University of Maine System

University of Maine at Augusta

University of Maine at Farmington

University of Maine at Fort Kent

University of Maine at Machias

University of Maine

University of Maine at Presque Isle

University of Maine School of Law

University of Southern Maine

University of New England

Professional sports teams

Portland Sea Dogs, minor league baseball, Eastern League (U.S. baseball)

Portland Pirates, minor league hockey, American Hockey League

Lewiston MAINEiacs, junior hockey, Quebec Major Junior Hockey League

Miscellaneous topics

Four U.S. Navy ships have been named USS Maine in honor of the state.

The noted American ecologist Rachel Carson did much of her research at one of the Maine seacoast's most characteristic features, a tide pool for her classic "The Edge of the Sea." The spot where she conducted observations is now preserved as the Rachel Carson Salt Pond Reserve at Pemaquid Point.

George Lorenzo Noyes, known as the thoreauvian of Maine is a noted state naturalist, mineralogist, development critic, writer and landscape artist. He lived a devout wilderness lifestyle in the mountains of Norway, Maine, expressing in his paintings his spiritual reverence for nature and writing of the values of a simple life of sustainable living.

Maine is the only U.S. state to have a name one syllable long; all other 49 states have at least two syllables.

Maine is the only U.S. state to only be bordered by one state (New Hampshire); all other 49 states have multiple or zero bordering states.

The town of Lubec, Maine is the eastern-most point within the contiguous United States - for more information see extreme points of the United States. Eastport, Maine is the eastern-most city in the United States.

Estcourt Station is Maine's northernmost point and also the northernmost point in the New England region of the United States.

Maine is the number one exporter of blueberries and toothpicks. The largest toothpick manufacturing plant in the United States is located in Strong, Maine. The Strong Wood Products Incorporated plant produces twenty million toothpicks a day.

Cadillac Mountain in Bar Harbor, Mt. Katahdin in Baxter State Park, and Mars Hill Mountain in the town of Mars Hill each battle to be the first site in the contiguous United States to see the morning's sunlight.Maine's first light depends on the time of year, as the sunrise moves from South to North. From October 7 to March 6, Cadillac Mountain is first. From March 7 to March 24, West Quoddy Head is first in the country. Warmer months, March 25 to September 18, Mars Hill sees first light. Then, when the sun starts getting lower in the sky, The country's day begins between September 19 to October 6 back at West Quoddy Head.

Harvard Quarry at the summit of Noyes Mountain in Greenwood provides an excellent panoramic view and is a popular destination for rock and mineral collectors.

Maine has 62 lighthouses, of which more than 50 are still in use.

Maine has traditionally been a source for Maine Salmon, however economic considerations and environmental activism have caused some of the industry to move to Canada.

State symbols

State berry: Wild Blueberry

State bird: Black-capped Chickadee

State cat: Maine Coon

State fish: Land-locked salmon

State flower: White Pinecone and Tassel

State fossil: Pertica Quadrifaria

State gemstone: Tourmaline

State herb: Wintergreen

State insect: European honey bee

State mammal: Moose

State animal: Moose

State beverage: Moxie

State soil: Chesuncook soil series

State song: State of Maine Song

State tree: Eastern White Pine

State vessel: Arctic exploration schooner Bowdoin

State motto: Dirigo ("I lead" or "I direct")

(See also: symbols>www.maine.gov portal.)

Maine in fiction

Literature

H. P. Lovecraft, who set almost all of his stories in New England, occasionally mentions Maine.

Stephen King bases much of his fiction in Maine.

The Cider House Rules, a novel by John Irving (and later a motion picture) is set in several fictional Maine towns.

Night Chills, a horror/suspense novel by Dean Koontz takes place in the fictional town of Black River, Maine.

Charlotte Agell lives in Maine and has several books set in Maine

Film

"Darkness Falls", a 2003 horror film, is set in the fictional Maine town of Darkness Falls but was filmed mostly in Australia.

Empire Falls, a motion picture based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name, was filmed almost entirely in Waterville and Skowhegan.

"Welcome to Mooseport" is a 2004 movie set in the fictional city of Mooseport, Maine.

"In the Bedroom", a 2001 Academy Award-nominated film, takes place in Camden, Maine.

"Casper" The 1996 kids film is set in the town of Friendship, Maine.

"The Shawshank Redemption" The award winning 1993 movie took place in Maine.

Television

Murder, She Wrote, a television series starring Angela Lansbury, is set in the fictional Maine village of Cabot Cove.

"M

A

S

H", the television sit-com (1972-1983) set in the Korean War has one of its central characters, Hawkeye Pierce (Alan Alda), as a resident of Crabapple Cove, Maine.

"Dark Shadows" is set in the fictional coastal town of Collinsport, Maine.

Famous Mainers

A citizen of Maine is known as a "Mainer," though the term "Downeaster" may be applied to residents of the northeast coast of the state.

Business

Leon Leonwood (L.L.) Bean, clothing maker and retailer

Milton Bradley, board game inventor

Reuben Colburn, shipbuilder from Pittston, and guide for Benedict Arnold's March to Quebec, part of the Invasion of Canada (1775)

Francis Edgar Stanley and Freelan O. Stanley, inventors, Stanley Steamer

Entertainment and media

Christopher Daniel Barnes, actor

Anna Belknap, actress

Gordon Bok, folksinger/songwriter

Ernie Coombs, actor (Mr. Dressup)

Howie Day, singer/songwriter

Patrick Dempsey, actor

Richard Dysart, actor

Kevin Eastman, co-creator of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

James Flavin, actor

Jonathan Frakes, actor

Dan Fogelberg, singer/songwriter

John Ford, director, actor

Frank Fixaris, sports broadcaster

Patty Griffin, singer/songwriter

Juliana Hatfield, musician

David E. Kelley, producer

Ray Lamontagne, singer/songwriter

Linda Lavin, actress

Bob Marley, comedian

Andrea Martin, actress, comedienne

Judd Nelson, actor (member of the Brat Pack)

Rachel Nichols, actress

Shirley Povich, Washington Post sports columnist

Victoria Rowell, actress

Tim Sample, humorist

Tony Shalhoub, actor

Andrew St. John, actor

Noel Paul Stookey, singer/songwriter

Phyllis Thaxter, actress

Gary Thorne, sports broadcaster

Liv Tyler, actress (daughter of singer Steven Tyler)

Steven Zirnkilton, voiceover actor, best known for the opening narration of the NBC television drama series Law & Order.

Literature and the Arts

Artemus Ward, writer

Walter Van Tilburg Clark, writer

Thomas A. Desjardin, writer

Winslow Homer, artist (27 year resident)

Sarah Orne Jewett, writer

Stephen King, writer

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, poet

Robert McCloskey writer

Edna St. Vincent Millay, poet

Ruth Moore, writer

George Lorenzo Noyes, writer and artist

Walter Piston, composer

Phineas Quimby, 19th century philosopher, writer

Kenneth Roberts, historical novelist

Edwin Arlington Robinson, poet

Harriet Beecher Stowe, novelist & abolitionist

E.B. White, writer (28 year resident)

Andrew Wyeth, artist

Marguerite Yourcenar, writer and first female chosen for the French Academy (Resident in Mount Desert Island, from 1950 to 1987)

Government and politics

Myron Avery, creator of the Appalachian trail

Percival P. Baxter, governor, creator of Baxter State Park

James G. Blaine, politician, presidential candidate

Owen Brewster, politician

William S. Cohen, politician (former United States Senator and Secretary of Defense)

Dorothea Dix, civil rights reformer

Hannibal Hamlin, politician (Abraham Lincoln's first Vice President)

George J. Mitchell, politician (former U.S. Senate Majority Leader)

Edmund Muskie, politician, Secretary of State to Jimmy Carter, 1980

Thomas Brackett Reed, politician

Margaret Chase Smith, politician, first woman elected to both houses of the United States Congress

Samantha Smith, "America's Youngest Ambassador"

Olympia Snowe, Senior Republican Senator from Maine

Sam Webb, politician, Communist Party USA Leader

Military

Joshua Chamberlain, governor, Civil War General and hero, Medal of Honor recipient

Ronald Speirs, famous from the HBO series Band of Brothers, WW2

Gary Gordon, Medal of Honor recipient (3 October 1993, Mogadishu, Somalia)

Oliver Otis Howard, Civil War General, founder of Howard University

Henry Knox, first U.S. Secretary of War

Sports

Cindy Blodgett, former WNBA basketball player and current head women's basketball coach at the University of Maine

Amanda Buckner, MMA fighter in Mixed Fighting Championship 7 and was a contestant on MMA reality show Bodogfight TV.

Ricky Craven, NASCAR driver

Ian Crocker, Olympic swimmer

Marcus Davis, MMA fighter in the UFC and was a contestant on the Ultimate Fighter 2 on Spike TV.

Scott Garland, professional wrestler formerly employed by World Wrestling Entertainment under the ring name of 'Scotty 2 Hotty.'

James "Chico" Hernandez, featured on a box of Wheaties and is a FIAS World Sombo Wrestling Champion

Paul Kariya, NHL Hockey Player

Matt Kinney, MLB Baseball Player | SF Giants (minor leagues)

Dick MacPherson, former head coach of the New England Patriots and Syracuse University Orangemen

Stump Merrill, baseball coach and former manager of the New York Yankees

Les Otten, Boston Red Sox owner

Joan Benoit Samuelson, marathon runner

Louis Sockalexis, first American Indian (Penobscot) MLB baseball player

Matt Stairs, MLB Baseball Player | Toronto Blue Jays

Tim Sylvia, former Ultimate Fighting Championship Heavyweight Champion

Seth Wescott, 2006 Olympic Gold Medalist - Snowboard Cross

Mike Bordick, Baseball Player for the Baltimore Orioles. Attended Highschool and college in Maine.

External links

Official state web-sites

Maine government

Maine facts & history Maine maps, weather, geology, wildlife, statistics, history etc.

Travel directory Directory of Maine travel and recreation

Maine Office of Tourism Search for tourism-related businesses

Buy Maine food and farm products Agricultural Dept.

Maine Inland Fisheries & Wildlife Hunting and fishing licenses, etc.

Directories of Maine businesses Directory of commercial web-sites

Events & fairs directory Directory of events, fairs, & festivals

Visit Maine (agriculture) Maine fairs, festivals, etc. with a food or farm flair - Agricultural Dept.

Other governmental web-sites:

U.S. Geological Survey Real-time, geographic, and other scientific resources of Maine

U.S. Dept. of Agriculture Maine State Facts - agricultural

U.S. Census Bureau Quick facts on Maine

Education web-sites

The Boat School at Eastport

Tourism: Shared Maine-New Brunswick Region

Quoddy Loop A Two-nation Vacation in Maine and New Brunswick

Non-profit web-sites

Maine Historical Society

Old USGS maps of Maine.

Maine Media Websites

Comprehensive compilation of media sources in Maine.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Acadia National Park preserves much of Mount Desert Island, and associated smaller islands, off the Atlantic coast of Maine. The area includes mountains, an ocean shoreline, woodlands, and lakes. In addition to Mount Desert Island, the park comprises much of the Isle au Haut, a small island to the southwest of Mount Desert Island and parts of Baker Island, also nearby. A portion of Schoodic Peninsula on the mainland is also part of the park. In total, Acadia National Park consists of 30,300 acres (47 square miles or 123 km²) on Mount Desert Island, 2,728 acres (4.6 square miles or 11 km²) on Isle au Haut and 2,266 acres (3.5 square miles or 9.2 km²) on the Schoodic Peninsula.

History

The park was created by President Woodrow Wilson, as Sieur de Monts National Monument on July 8, 1916, administered by the National Park Service. On February 26, 1919, it became a national park, with the name Lafayette National Park in honor of the Marquis de Lafayette, an influential French supporter of the American Revolution.
Legislation passed in 1929 authorized the government to accept additional gifts of land beyond the limits of Mount Desert Island. Almost immediately, the park was enlarged to include parts of the Schoodic Peninsula. At the request of the donor of the Schoodic land the park was renamed Acadia National Park on January 19, 1929.
From 1915 to 1933, the wealthy philanthropist John D. Rockefeller, Jr. financed, designed, and directed the construction of an extensive network of carriage trails throughout the park. The network encompassed over of gravel carriage trails, 17 granite bridges, and two gate lodges, almost all of which are still maintained and in use today.
On November 11, 1938, Law Enforcement Ranger Karl A. Jacobson, age 22, was shot and killed in the line of duty by a deer poacher in the Schoodic Peninsula Section of the park. A suspect was arrested for the murder and sentenced to one day in jail due to his old age and mental state
On October 17, 1947, 10,000 acres (40 km²) of Acadia National Park burned in a fire that had begun on the mainland in a cranberry bog. The forest fire was one of a series of fires, known as The Great Fires of 1947 that consumed much of Maine's forest as a result of a dry year. The fire burned for days and was fought by the Coast Guard, Army, Navy, local residents, and National Park Service Employees from around the country. Restoration of the park was supported, substantially, by the Rockefeller family, particularly John D. Rockefeller, Jr.. Regrowth was mostly allowed to occur naturally and the fire has been suggested to have actually enhanced the beauty of the park, adding diversity to tree populations and depth to its scenery.
Acadia National Park is the only national park in New England and the first park on the east side of the Mississippi River.

Geography

Acadia National Park primarily straddles Mount Desert Island in the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of Maine, but also encompasses portions of Isle au Haut and the Schoodic Peninsula. The geology of Acadia National Park is mainly underlined in granite, which creates its high elevations and steep ridges.

Thunder Hole

Thunder Hole is a constantly changing geologic phenomenon within the park and along eastern coast of Mount Desert Island. It consists of a tide-formed hole in the granite coastline. Thus named because of the booming sound that it makes when waves come in from the Atlantic Ocean, the spray sometimes reaches forty feet in height.

Towns and Tours

The town of Bar Harbor is located on the northeast corner of Mount Desert Island. Southwest Harbor, on the western side of the fjord Somes Sound, is well known for boat-building and fishing, and has the largest year-round population on Mount Desert Island. Northeast Harbor is known for its beautiful private "cottages" yet retains a small town atmosphere. Cadillac Mountain, named after the same French Explorer who went on to found Detroit, Michigan, is on the eastern side of the island, and has always been a famous tourist destination because its pink granite summit is one of the first places in the United States to see the sunrise. Miles of scenic carriage roads were originally built by Rockefeller, Jr., with great sensitivity to the trees and contours of the land. The mountains of Acadia National Park offer hikers and bicycle riders views of the ocean, island lakes, and pine forests.

Wildlife

The park is home to some 40 different species of mammalian wildlife. Among those are red and gray squirrels, chipmunks, white-tailed deer, moose, beaver, porcupine, muskrats, foxes, coyote, bobcats, and black bears. Species that used to inhabit the island include the mountain lion (or puma) and the gray wolf. It is thought that these predators have been forced to leave the area due to the dramatic decrease in small prey and proximity to human activity. Many other marine species have been observed in the surrounding area and waters.

External links

National Park Service: Acadia National Park

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Bar Harbor is a town on Mount Desert Island in Hancock County, Maine, United States. As of the 2000 census, its population was 4,820. A port of entry for Bay Ferries from Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, Bar Harbor is a famous summer colony in the Down East region of Maine. It is home to the College of the Atlantic, Jackson Laboratory and Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratory. Bar Harbor is home to the largest parts of Acadia National Park.

History

Abenaki Native Americans called the island Pemetic, meaning "sloping land." Here they fished, hunted and gathered berries. In 1604, French explorer Samuel de Champlain is believed to have run aground at Otter Point, where he met members of the tribe. He would name the island Isles des Monts Deserts, meaning "island of barren mountains" -- now called Mount Desert Island, the largest in Maine.
First settled in 1763 by Israel Higgins and John Thomas, the community was incorporated in 1796 as Eden, after Sir Richard Eden, an English statesman. Early industries included fishing, lumbering and shipbuilding. With the best soil on Mount Desert Island, it also developed agriculture. In the 1840s, its rugged maritime scenery attracted the Hudson River School and Luminism artists Thomas Cole, Frederick Church, William Hart and Fitz Hugh Lane. Inspired by their paintings, journalists, sportsmen and "rusticators" followed. Agamont House, the first hotel in Eden, was established in 1855 by Tobias Roberts. Birch Point, the first summer estate, was built in 1868 by Alpheus Hardy.
By 1880, there were 30 hotels, with tourists arriving by train and ferry to the Gilded Age resort that would rival Newport, Rhode Island. The rich and famous tried to outdo each other with entertaining and estates, often hiring Beatrix Farrand to design landscaping. A glimpse of their lifestyles was available from the Shore Path, a walkway skirting waterfront lawns. Yachting, garden parties at the Pot & Kettle Club, and carriage rides up Cadillac Mountain were popular diversions. Others enjoyed horse-racing at Robin Hood Park-Morrell Park. President William Howard Taft played golf in 1910 at the Kebo Valley Golf Club. On March 3, 1918, Eden was changed to Bar Harbor, after Bar Island which protects the harbor. The name would become synonymous with elite wealth. It was the birthplace of vice-president Nelson Rockefeller.
In 1947, however, Maine experienced a severe drought. Sparks at a cranberry bog in Hull's Cove ignited a wildfire which would intensify over 10 days. Nearly half the eastern side of Mount Desert Island burned, including 67 palatial summer houses on Millionaires' Row. Five historic grand hotels were destroyed, in addition to 170 permanent homes. Over 10,000 acres (40 km²) of Acadia National Park were destroyed. Fortunately, the town's business district was spared, including Mount Desert Street, where several former summer homes within a historic district listed on the National Register of Historic Places operate as inns.

Notable residents

Astor family

James G. Blaine, statesman

Charles W. Eliot, college president

Edsel Ford, industrialist

Baron Ladislaus Hengelmüller von Hengervár, Imperial Austro-Hungarian ambassador

Katharine Hepburn, actress

J.P. Morgan, banker

Sir Harry Oakes, gold-mine owner & philanthropist

Joseph Pulitzer, publisher

Rockefeller family

Vanderbilt family

Dick Wolf, television producer

Judge Charles Bolster

Historic sites and museums

Abbe Museum

Bar Harbor Historical Society Museum

Bar Harbor Whale Museum

George B. Dorr Museum of Natural History

Mount Desert Oceanarium

Geography

According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 70.4 square miles (182.4 km²), of which, 42.2 square miles (109.3 km²) of it is land and 28.2 square miles (73.1 km²) of it (40.06%) is water. Bar Harbor is situated on Frenchman Bay.

External links

Town of Bar Harbor

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Portland is the largest city in the U.S. state of Maine, with a 2004 population of 63,882. Portland is Maine's cultural, social and economic capital. Tourists are drawn to Portland's historic Old Port district along Portland Harbor, which is at the mouth of the Fore River and part of Casco Bay, and the Arts District, which runs along Congress Street in the center of the city. Portland Head Light in nearby Cape Elizabeth is also a popular tourist draw.
The city seal depicts a phoenix rising out of ashes, which goes with its motto, Resurgam, Latin for "I will rise again", in reference to Portland's recoveries from four devastating fires. The city of Portland, Oregon, was named for Portland, Maine.
The Portland Public School District is the largest school system in Maine. The city is also the county seat of Cumberland County.

History

Portland was originally called "Machigonne" by the native people who first lived there. The first European settler of Portland was Capt. Christopher Levett, an English naval captain who was granted 6,000 acres from the King in 1623 to found a permanent settlement in Casco Bay. Levett proposed to call the new settlement 'York,' after the town of his birth in England. A member of the Council for New England and an agent for Sir Fernando Gorges, Levett returned to England and wrote a book about his voyage, hoping to drum up support for the settlement. But he never returned to Maine. It's unknown what became of the men he left behind. Fort Levett in Portland Harbor is named for him.
The next (and permanent) settlement by the English came in 1632, as a fishing and trading settlement. The town was then renamed Casco. In 1658 its name was changed again, this time to "Falmouth." A monument at the end of Congress Street where it meets the Eastern Promenade is a tribute to the four historical names for Portland.
In 1675, the village was completely destroyed by the Wampanoag people during King Philip's War. The community was rebuilt, to be destroyed by the same natives again several years later. On October 18, 1775, the community was destroyed yet again, bombarded during the American Revolutionary War by the Royal Navy under command of Captain Henry Mowat.
Following the war, a section of Falmouth called "The Neck" developed as a commercial port and began to grow rapidly as a shipping center. In 1786, the citizens of Falmouth formed a separate town in Falmouth Neck and named it "Portland." Portland's economy was greatly stressed by the Embargo Act of 1807 (prohibition of trade with the British) and the War of 1812. In 1820 Maine became a state and Portland was selected as its capital. By this time both the Embargo Act and the war had ended, and Portland's economy began to recover. In 1832 the capital was moved to Augusta.
Portland was a center for protests concerning the Maine law of 1851 culminating in the Portland Rum Riot on June 2, 1855.
Cumberland and Oxford Canal extended waterborne commerce from Portland harbor to Sebago Lake and Long Lake in 1832. Portland became the primary ice-free winter seaport for Canadian exports upon completion of the Grand Trunk Railway to Montreal in 1853. Portland Company manufactured more than 600 19th century steam locomotives. Portland became a 20th century rail hub as five additional rail lines merged into Portland Terminal Company in 1911. Canadian export traffic was diverted from Portland to Halifax, Nova Scotia following nationalization of the Grand Trunk system in 1923; and 20th century icebreakers later enabled ships to reach Montreal through the winter months.
The Great Fire of July 4, 1866, ignited during the Independence Day celebration, destroyed most of the commercial buildings in the city, half the churches and hundreds of homes. More than 10,000 people were left homeless. After this fire, Portland was rebuilt with brick and took on a Victorian appearance. Citizens began building huge Victorian mansions along the city's Western Promenade.
The quality and style of architecture in Portland is in large part due to the succession of well-known 19th-century architects who worked in the city. Alexander Parris (1780–1852) arrived about 1800 and left Portland with numerous Federal style buildings, although some would be lost in the 1866 fire. Charles A. Alexander (1822–1882) provided many designs for Victorian mansions. Henry Rowe (1810–1870) specialized in Gothic cottages. George M. Harding (1827–1910) designed many of the commercial buildings in Portland's Old Port, as well as many of Portland's ornate residential buildings. Around the turn of the century Frederick A. Tompson (1857–1906) designed many of Portland's residential buildings.
But by far the most influential and prolific architects of the Western Promenade area were Francis Henry Fassett (1823–1908) and John Calvin Stevens (1855–1940). Fassett was commissioned to build the Maine General Hospital Building (now a wing of the Maine Medical Center) and the Williston West Church as well as many other churches, schools, commercial buildings, apartment buildings, private residences, and his own duplex home on Pine Street. From the early 1880s to the 1930s Stevens worked in a wide range of styles from the Queen Anne and Romanesque popular at the beginning of his career, to the Mission Revival Style of the 1920s, but the architect is best known for his pioneering efforts in the Shingle and Colonial Revival styles, examples of which abound in this area.
The Victorian style architecture, which was popular during Portland's rebuilding, has been preserved very well by an emphasis on preservation on the part of the city government. In 1982 the area was entered on the National Register of Historic Places. In modern lifestyle surveys, it is often cited as one of America's best small cities to live in.
The erection of the Maine Mall, an indoor shopping center established in the suburb of South Portland during the 1970s, had a significant effect on Portland's downtown. Department stores and other major franchises, many from Congress Street or Free Street, either moved to the nearby mall or went out of business. This was a mixed blessing for locals, protecting the city's character (chain stores are often uninterested in it now) but led to a number of empty storefronts. Residents had to venture out of town for certain products and services no longer available on the peninsula.
Since the mid-1990s, Maine College of Art has been a revitalizing force in the downtown area, bringing in students from around the country, and restoring the historic Porteous building on Congress Street as its main facility. The school has also maintained the Baxter Building, once home to the city's public library, as a computer lab and photography studio.
Portland is currently experiencing a building boom, though much more controlled and conservative than a previous building boom during the 1980s. In recent years, Congress Street has become home to more stores and eateries, spurred on by the expanding Maine College of Art and the conversion of office buildings to high-end condos. Rapid development is occurring in the city's historically industrial Bayside neighborhood, as well as the emerging harborside Ocean Gateway neighborhood at the base of Munjoy Hill.

Honors

Ranked

6 on Relocate America's Top 10 Places to Live in 2007.

Ranked

12 in the world by Frommer's in its list of Top Travel Destinations for 2007.

Ranked

20 in Inc. Magazine 2006 Boom Town List of Hottest Cities for Entrepreneurs.

Ranked

7 on the 2005 list of the 100 Best Art Towns in America. (The Countryman Press, April 2005)

Named

15 in medium sized Top U.S. Cities for Doing Business. In the overall category of small, medium and large cities combined, out of 25,000 cities examined, Portland ranked

32. (INC. Magazine, May 2005)

Named

1 Top Market in Small Business Vitality. The study suggests Portland to be the strongest small-business sector of any large metropolitan area in the United States and ranked it as the hottest small business market in which to develop a company. (American City Business Journals, January 2005)

Named

14 in Best Performing Cities index, for its economic vitality based on measures that include employment and salary growth, with an emphasis on high-tech industries. (Milken Institute, California, November 2004).

A complete list of honors can be found at the City of Portland Economic Developement Center website.

Geography and climate

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 52.6 square miles (136.2 km²), of which, 21.2 square miles (54.9 km²) of it is land and 31.4 square miles (81.2 km²) of it (59.65%) is water. Portland is located on a peninsula beside Casco Bay on the Gulf of Maine and the Atlantic Ocean.Portland borders South Portland, Westbrook and Falmouth. The city is located at 43.66713 N, 70.20717 W.

Neighborhoods

Portland is organized into neighborhoods that are generally recognized by residents, but have no legal or political significance. City signage does, in many cases, name various neighborhoods or intersections (which are often called corners). Some city neighborhoods have a local neighborhood association whose self-appointed responsibility is to liaise with the city government on issues affecting the neighborhood.
Several neighborhoods incorporate the name "Deering" in some way. This is a result of the March 8, 1899 merger of Portland with the neighboring city of Deering, which comprised the northern and eastern sections of the city prior to the merger. Deering High School is also so named as it was formerly the public high school for Deering.

Arts District

Bayside

Bradley's Corner

Cushing's Island

Deering Center

Downtown

East Deering

East Bayside

East End

Eastern Cemetery

Great Diamond Island

Highlands

Kennedy Park

Libbytown

Lunt's Corner

Morrill's Corner

Munjoy Hill

Nason's Corner

North Deering

Oakdale

Old Port

Parkside

Peaks Island

Riverton

Rosemont

Stroudwater

West End

Woodford's Corner

Government

The city has adopted a council-manager style government that is detailed in the city charter. The citizens of Portland are represented by a city council which are charged with the responsibilities of making policy, passing ordinances, approving appropriations, appointing the city manager and overseeing the municipal government. The city council is an elected body of nine members, on which the citizens of Portland vote. The city is made up into five voting districts, with each district electing a city counselor to represent their neighborhood interests for a three year term. There are also four members of the city counsel which are elected at-large. From the nine counsel members a chairman is elected by a simple majority to serve a one year term, in which he/she will preside over all council meetings. The chairman is popularly known as the Mayor, which is primarily a ceremonial position.
From the city council a city manager is appointed. The city manager is responsible for the daily operations and workings of the city government. Consulting with the city council the city manager appoints heads of city departments and prepares annual budgets. The city manager directs all city agencies and departments, and is responsible for the executing laws and policies passed by the city council.
Aside from the main city council there is also an elected school committee for the Portland Public School system. The school committee is made up in the same manner of the city council with five district members, four at-large members and one chairman. There are many other boards and committees such as the Planning Committee, Board of Appeals, and Harbor Commission, etc. These committees and boards have limited power in their respective areas of expertise. Members of boards and committees are appointed by city council members.

Notable buildings

The spire of the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception has been a notable feature of the Portland skyline since its completion in 1854. In 1859, Ammi B. Young designed the Marine Hospital, the first of three local works by Supervising Architects of the U.S. Treasury Department. Although the city lost to redevelopment the 1868 Greek Revival Portland Post Office by Isaiah Rogers, it retains the equally monumental 1873 Italianate Portland Custom House by Alfred B. Mullett. Another significant structure is at 477 Congress Street, a 14-story commercial building completed in 1924, and known to locals as the Time & Temperature Building due to a large electronic sign on the top of the building that has flashed that data for decades.
A more recent building of note is Franklin Towers, a 17-story residential tower completed in 1969 and regarded as Portland's (as well as Maine's) tallest building. This building is next to the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in the Portland SkiLine. During the building boom of the 1980s, several new buildings rose on the peninsula, including the 1983 Charles Shipman Payson Building by Henry R. Cobb of I.M. Pei at the Portland Museum of Art, and the Back Bay Tower, a 15-story residential building completed in 1990.

Education

See also

Portland Public Schools

List of Portland, ME schools

Colleges and universities

Andover College

Maine College of Art

University of Maine School of Law

University of New England (Westbrook College Campus)

University of Southern Maine

High schools

Casco Bay High School (public-expeditionary)

Catherine McAuley High School (private)

Cheverus High School (private)

Deering High School (public)

Portland Arts & Technology High School (public-vocational)

Portland High School (public)

Waynflete School (private)

Culture

Sites of interest

Downtown Arts District, centered around Congress Street, is home to the Portland Museum of Art, Portland Stage Company, Maine College of Art, Children's Museum of Maine, SPACE Gallery, Merrill Auditorium, and Portland Symphony Orchestra, as well as many smaller art galleries and studios.
Baxter Boulevard around Back Cove, Deering Oaks Park, the Eastern Promenade, Lincoln Park, Riverton Park and the Western Promenade are all historical parks within the city. Other parks and natural spaces include Payson Park, Post Office Park, Baxter Woods, Evergreen Cemetery and the Fore River Sanctuary. The non-profit organization Portland Trails also maintains an expansive network of walking and hiking trails throughout the city and neighboring communities.
Other sites of interest include:

Casco Bay Islands, including the Casco Bay Lines

Cumberland County Civic Center, home of the Portland Pirates.

Eastland Park Hotel

East End Beach

Exchange Street (the "Old Port" area)

Hadlock Field, home to the Portland Sea Dogs.

Longfellow Arboretum

Maine Mall

Neal S. Dow House

Maine Narrow Gauge Railroad

Martin's Point

Old Port Exchange

The Portland Club

Portland Conservatory of Music

Portland Financial District

Portland Head Light Lighthouse

Portland Observatory

Shaarey Tphiloh Synagogue

University of Southern Maine (USM)

Victoria Mansion

Wadsworth-Longfellow House

Media

Portland is home to a concentration of broadcast and publishing companies, advertising agencies, web designers and commercial photography studios.
The city is served by a daily newspaper, the The Portland Press Herald, every day except for Sunday when the Maine Sunday Telegram is printed. The Maine Sunday Telegram is published by Blethen Maine Newspapers, which publishes the Portland Press Herald and the free weekly lifestyle magazine The Maine SWITCH.
Portland is also home to The Portland Phoenix, a weekly alternative newspaper, published by the Phoenix Media/Communications Group which also publishes the quarterly lifestyle magazine, Portland', The Portland Forecaster, a community newspaper published by the Sun Journal, The Bollard , The West End News, The Munjoy Hill Observer, The Baysider, The Waterfront and The Companion'', a GLBT publication.
The Portland broadcast media market is the largest one in Maine in both radio and television. A whole host of radio options are available in Portland, including WFNK (Classic Hits), WJAB (Sports), WTHT (Country), WBQW (Classical), WHXR (Rock), WHOM (Adult Contemporary), WJBQ (Top 40), 98.9 WCLZ (Adult Album Alternative), WBLM (Classic Rock), and WCYY (Modern Rock). WMPG is a local non-commercial radio station, run by community members and the University of Southern Maine.
The area is served by local television stations representing most of the television networks. These stations include WCSH 6 (NBC), WMTW 8 (ABC), WGME 13 (CBS), WPFO 23 (FOX), WPME 35 (MyNetworkTV), and WPXT 51 (The CW). There is no PBS affiliate licensed to the city of Portland but the market is served by WCBB Channel 10 in Augusta and WMEA Channel 26 Biddeford.
Portland and its suburbs are the subjects of two monthly lifestyle magazines Portland and Port City Life.

Sports

The city is home to two minor-league teams. The AA Portland Sea Dogs, a farm team of the Boston Red Sox, play at Hadlock Field. Additionally, there are the American Hockey League Portland Pirates. Skating at the Cumberland County Civic Center, they are an affiliate of the Anaheim Ducks.
The Portland Sports Complex, located off of Park Ave. and Brighton Ave. near I-295 and Deering Oaks park, houses several of the city's stadiums and arenas, including:

Hadlock Field - baseball (Capacity 7,368)

Fitzpatrick Stadium - football, soccer, lacrosse, field hockey, and outdoor track (Capacity 6,000+ seated)

Portland Exposition Building - basketball, indoor track, concerts and trade shows (Capacity 2,000)

Portland Ice Arena - hockey and figure skating (Capacity 400)

The Portland area has eleven professional golf courses, 124 tennis courts, and 95 playgrounds. There are also over 100 miles (160 km) of nature trails.

Food and beverage

The downtown and Old Port districts have a high concentration of eating and drinking establishments, with many more to be found throughout the rest of the peninsula, outlying neighborhoods, and neighboring communities. Local lore holds that Portland ranks among the top U.S. cities in restaurants and bars per capita. According to the Maine Restaurant Association, Portland is currently home to about 230 restaurants.
Portland has also developed a national reputation for the quality of its restaurants and eateries. In the spring of 2007, Portland was nominated as one of three finalists for "Delicious Destination of the Year" at the 2007 Food Network Awards. Many local chefs have also gained national notoriety over the past few years.
The city and outlying region played host to Rachael Ray in an episode of her Food Network Series $40 A Day.
Portland is home to a number of microbreweries and brewpubs, including the D. L. Geary Brewing Company, Gritty McDuff's Brewing Company, Shipyard Brewing Company, Casco Bay Brewing Co., Sebago Brewing Company, and Allagash Brewing Company.
Portland is the birthplace of the "Italian sandwich." Southern Maine’s signature sandwich, it is called simply "an Italian" by locals. Italian sandwiches are available at many stores, but most famously at Amato's delicatessens, which claims to have originated the sandwich (hence the name)

Infrastructure

Hospitals

Maine Medical Center is the largest hospital in Maine and is continuing to expand its campus and services. Mercy Hospital, a faith-based hospital, is the fourth-largest hospital in the state and began construction on its new campus along the Fore River in late 2006. The project is expected to be constructed in several phases, with completion of the first phase scheduled for 2008
Two formerly independent hospitals within the city are now being utilized in a different manner. The former Brighton Medical Center is now owned by Maine Medical Center, housing a minor emergency room and care center under the name Brighton First Care. The former Portland General Hospital is now home to the Barron Center nursing facility.

Transportation

Portland is accessible from I-95 (the Maine Turnpike), I-295, and U.S. Route 1. Also, U.S. Route 302, a major travel route and scenic highway between Maine and Vermont, has its eastern terminus in Portland.
Concord Trailways bus service connects Portland to 14 other communtities in Maine as well as Boston's South Station and Logan Airport, and offers 20 trips a day from the PTC and 20 a day from Boston to Portland. Amtrak's Downeaster train service connects the city with Boston via coastal New Hampshire. Both bus and train can be found at the Portland Transportation Center on Thompson Point Road.
Commercial air service is provided by Portland International Jetport, which is located west of the city's downtown district.
Ferry service is available year-round to many destinations in Casco Bay. Since May 22, 2006, The Cat high speed ferry has offered car ferry service to Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, making the trip in five hours. Until 2005, Scotia Prince Cruises had offered service that took eleven hours.
The Portland Explorer is a service that connects various transportation centers within the city. METRO provides public bus transit throughout Portland and the surrounding area.

Notable residents

Edville Gerhardt Abbott (1871-1938), surgeon

James Alden, Jr., former Rear Admiral in the United States Navy

Bebe Buell, model, actress, musician, & mother of Liv Tyler

Cyrus Curtis, publisher & philanthropist

Nik Caner-Medley, basketball player

Howie Carr, radio personality (born at Maine Eye and Ear Infirmary)

Joshua Chamberlain, civil war hero, governor, served later in life as Surveyor of the Port, Portland. Maintained a house on Back Bay

Charles Codman, early American painter

Ian Crocker, Olympic swimmer

Patrick Dempsey, actor

Neal S. Dow, Mayor of Portland, Union Army general, Temperance Movement leader

Kevin Eastman, co-creator of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

John Eder, Politician and Green Party organizer

Rob Elowitch, American professional wrestler

William Pitt Fessenden, senator

Frank Fixaris, sportscaster

John Ford, director

Jeremiah Hacker, journalist & reformer

Fletcher Hale, United States Representative from New Hampshire.

Stephen King, writer (born here, now lives in Bangor, Maine)

Linda Lavin, actress

Steve Letarte, NASCAR crew chief

Charles J. Loring, Jr., Medal of Honor recepient

Alexander Wadsworth Longfellow, Jr., architect

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, poet

Bob Ludwig, Grammy Award winning audio mastering engineer

John Lynch, U.S. Representative

Bob Marley, comedian

Andrea Martin, actress

Holman S. Melcher, mayor, Civil War hero

George Mitchell, US Senate Majority Leader, ex-chairman of Walt Disney. Practiced law in Portland 1965–1977, Assistant County Attorney; Cumberland County 1971

John Neal, author & critic

Judd Nelson, actor

Alexander Parris, architect

Lincoln Peirce, comic strip creator - Big Nate

Quinton Porter, NFL quarterback

Thomas Brackett Reed -- "Czar Reed," U.S. Representative and Speaker of the House

Victoria Rowell, actress

Joan Benoit Samuelson Olympic marathon gold medalist

Stuart Saunders Smith, composer and percussionist

Brett Somers, actress

Ronald Speirs, Easy Company, 506 Parachute Infantry Regiment officer

Liv Tyler, actress

Peleg Wadsworth, Revolutionary War general

Charles W. Walton, was a United States Representative from Maine

Jonathan Woodward, actor

Movies filmed in Portland

The Preacher's Wife

The Man Without a Face

Message in a Bottle

Thinner

Shawshank Redemption

Sixteen Stories

Hero for a Day

Sister cities

Portland has four sister cities, as designated by Sister Cities International, Inc. (SCI):

Shinagawa, Japan

Arkhangelsk, Russia

Cap-Haïtien, Haiti

Mytilene, Greece

External links

City of Portland

Port of Portland

Portland Public Schools

Portland Public Library

Portland Museum of Art

Portland Symphony Orchestra

Portland, Maine Transportation Page

Portland's Downtown District

Maine Historical Society - 489 Congress St., Portland

Tate Historic House Museum - 1270 Westbrook St., Portland

History of Portland from 1632 to 1864 by Wm. Willis, pub.1865, 864 pages, full HTML

History of Portland from the Gazetteer of Maine

Greater Portland Casco Bay Convention and Visitors Bureau

MaineToday.com - Local information, blogs, entertainment, breaking news

Food in Portland - Portland restaurants reviews, news and listings

Portland Food Map - a directory of restaurants in Portland

Movies filmed in Maine

Portland travel guide at Wikitravel

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Kennebunk, typically pronounced /'kɛnibʌŋk/ (KEN-ee-bunk) among locals but often /'kɛnəbʌŋk/ (KEN-uh-bunk) or /kɛnə'bʌŋk/ (ken-uh-BUNK) among people "from away," is a town in York County, Maine, United States. The population was 10,476 at the 2000 census. Including Kennebunkport the population totals 14,196 people. Kennebunk is home to several beaches, the Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge, the 1799 Kennebunk Inn, many historic sea captain's homes, and the Nature Conservancy Blueberry Barrens, (known locally as the Blueberry Plains) with 1,500 acres (6 km²) of nature trails and Blueberry Fields.

History

First settled about 1620, the town developed as a trading and, later, shipbuilding and shipping center with light manufacturing. It was part of the town of Wells until 1820, when it incorporated as a separate town. "Kennebunk, the only village in the world so named," was featured on a large locally famous sign attached to the Kesslen Shoe Mill on Route One. To the Abenaki Indians, Kennebunk meant "the long cut bank," presumably the long bank behind Kennebunk Beach. Kennebunk's coastline is divided into three major sections. Mother's Beach, Middle Beach or Rocky Beach, and Gooches Beach or Long Beach. Separate from Kennebunk Beach is secluded Parson's Beach, a quiet alternative to the summer crowds.
The town is a popular summer tourist destination. Kennebunk contains fine examples of early architecture, the most noted of which is the Wedding Cake House, a Federal-style dwelling extensively decorated with scroll saw Gothic trim. This was added to the house for his wife of many years by George Washington Bourne late in his life, and not as legend has it by a ship captain for a young bride lost at sea. Local economy is tourism based. The headquarters for the natural health-care product manufacturer Tom's of Maine is located in Kennebunk. Many residents commute to Portland, to New Hampshire, and Massachusetts.
The Lafayette Elm was a tree which was planted to commemorate General Lafayette's 1825 visit to Kennebunk. It became famous for its age, size, and survival of the Dutch elm disease that destroyed the hundreds of the other elms that once lined Kennebunk's streets. The elm is featured on the town seal. The restored Kesslen Shoe Mill has been renamed the Lafayette Center. Kennebunk is home to two of the state's oldest banks -- Ocean Bank (1854) and Kennebunk Savings Bank (1871). Only Saco & Biddeford Savings Institution (1827) and Bangor Savings Bank (1852) are older. Summer Street was Maine's first Historic District listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Notable residents

Kate Chappell, businesswoman

Tom Chappell, businessman

Joseph Dane, congressman

Judith Hunt, illustrator

Hugh McCulloch, treasury secretary

Erik Nedeau, runner

Pinkerton Thugs, musicians

Kenneth Roberts, author

Clement Storer, congressman & senator

Education

Kennebunk and neighboring Kennebunkport comprise Maine School Administrative District 71.
The schools in MSAD 71 comprise of Consolidated School, Kennebunk Elementary School, Sea Road School, Middle School of the Kennebunks, and Kennebunk High School. The Middle School of the Kennebunks is part of Maine's project that gives laptops to all of the 7th and 8th graders in the school called MLTI, or Maine Learning Technology Initiative.
In 2000, a group of students teamed up with parents and local community members to found The New School, a small alternative high school, with students coming from as close as Kennebunk and Wells and as far away as Portland and Somersworth. The school is accredited by the State of Maine and the first group of students graduated in June of 2001. The New School has a focus on community-based learning.

Geography

According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 35.5 square miles (92.0 km²), of which, 35.1 square miles (90.9 km²) of it is land and 0.4 square miles (1.1 km²) of it (1.18%) is water. Kennebunk is drained by the Kennebunk River and Mousam River.
There are a few ways to get in and out of Kennebunk:

Interstate 95

U.S. Route 1 which goes through the center of Kennebunk and is part of the main street.

Route 9A

Route 35

Amtrak also goes through Kennebunk, but does not stop to pick people up.

Sites of interest

The Brick Store Museum

Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge

BBQ BOBS

External links

Town of Kennebunk, Maine

Kennebunk at Maine.gov

Kennebunk Free Library

MSAD 71

The New School

City Data Profile

Epodunk Town Profile

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Freeport is a town in Cumberland County, Maine, United States. The population was 7,800 at the 2000 census. Known for its numerous outlet stores, Freeport is home to L.L. Bean, Wolfe's Neck Woods State Park, and is near the Desert of Maine.

History

The town was once a part of North Yarmouth called Harraseeket, after the Harraseeket River. First settled about 1700, it was set off and incorporated on February 14, 1789 as Freeport. It is believed to be named after Sir Andrew Freeport, the fictional London merchant in Joseph Addison's The Spectator. Freeport developed as four villages -- Mast Landing, Porter's Landing, South Freeport and Freeport Corner -- all of which are now part of the National Register Harraseeket Historic District.
At the head of tide on the Harraseeket River is Mast Landing, from which timber was shipped, particularly for use as masts. The estuary was dammed to provide water power for a gristmill, sawmill and fulling mill, with modest manufacturing and woodworking. Porter's Landing was involved in shipbuilding, important in Freeport following the Revolutionary War. The industry reached its peak in the decade between 1850 and 1860, but declined with the Civil War. South Freeport, the largest of the waterfront villages, once had four shipyards. Other businesses included fishing, canning and farming. In 1903, the Casco Castle and Amusement Park was built here by Amos Gerald to encourage travel by trolley cars, although the hotel would burn in 1914. Freeport Corner was an inland village for farming and trade, but the 1849 entrance of the railroad helped it develop into the town's commercial center, which it remains. In the 1800s, fabric was sent from New York and Boston to be made into clothing by local piece workers. Businessman E. B. Mallet established here a sawmill, brickyard, granite quarry and large shoe factory.
In 1912, Leon Leonwood Bean opened a store in the basement of his brother's apparel shop at Freeport Corner, selling the "Bean boot" (or Maine Hunting Shoe). This store, L. L. Bean, became so popular that in 1951 it started remaining open 24 hours a day. Its retail and mail order catalog facilities expanded into Freeport's principal business, and a worldwide company with annual sales of over a billion dollars.
In 1982, McDonald's made plans to tear down an 1850s Greek Revival house to build one of its standard stores. Outcry from residents caused the town to adopt new ordinances concerning what businesses could and couldn't do with their buildings, and McDonald's built the restaurant inside the house, maintaining the exterior appearance. This was one of the first times that McDonald's had been forced to change its restaurant design to fit local requirements.

Notable residents

John S. C. Abbott, pastor & historian

Aaron Lufkin Dennison, watchmaker

Beth Edmonds, politician

John Gould, humorist & columnist

Donald B. MacMillan, admiral & Arctic explorer

Christopher McCormick, businessman

Joan Benoit Samuelson, marathon runner & Olympic medallist

Geography

According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 46.5 square miles (120.4 km²), of which, 34.7 square miles (89.9 km²) of it is land and 11.8 square miles (30.5 km²) of it (25.34%) is water. Situated at the northeastern extremity of Casco Bay, Freeport is drained by the Harraseeket River.
Freeport borders Brunswick and Durham to the North, Pownal to the west, and Yarmouth to the southwest. Freeport also shares small borders with Cumberland and Harpswell in Casco Bay. Cumberland and Harpswell are not connected to Freeport by roads, but since Freeport's town border ranges out into Casco Bay, the other town's borders meet Freeport's. Both U.S. Route 1 and Interstate-295 run directly through Freeport, the latter with three and a half exits.

Education

Public schools

Morse Street School, grades K-2

Mast Landing School, grades 3-5

Freeport Middle School, grades 6-8

Freeport High School, grades 9-12

Private schools

Cricket Hunt School

L'Ecole Française du Maine

Maine Classical Christian School

Merriconeag Waldorf School

Pine Tree Academy (Seventh-day Adventist Church)

Sites of interest

Freeport Historical Society

Harrington House (c. 1830)

Pettengill House (c. 1830

Mast Landing Audubon Sanctuary

Wolfe's Neck Woods State Park

Wolfe's Neck Farm

External links

Town of Freeport, Maine

Freeport Community Library

Freeport Merchants Marketing Association

Old USGS Maps of Freeport

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Bangor is the county seat of Penobscot County, Maine, United States, and the major commercial and cultural center for eastern and northern Maine. For statistical purposes, it is the principal city of the Bangor Maine New England County Metropolitan Area which encompasses Bangor, all of Penobscot County and part of Waldo County, Maine.
As of 2008, Bangor is the third-largest city in Maine, as it has been for more than a century. The population of the city was 31,473 at the 2000 census. The population of the Bangor Metropolitan Statistical Area was over 140,000.
Bangor is approximately 30 miles from Penobscot Bay up the Penobscot River at its confluence with the Kenduskeag Stream.

History

Earliest period

The Penobscot people long inhabited the area around present-day Bangor, and still occupy tribal land on the nearby Penobscot Indian Island Reservation. The first European to visit the site was probably the Portuguese Esteban Gomez in 1524, followed by Samuel de Champlain in 1605. Champlain was looking for the mythical city of Norumbega, thought to be where Bangor now lies. French priests settled among the Penobscots, and the valley remained contested between France and Britain into the 1750s, making it one of the last regions to become part of New England.
The British-American settlement which became Bangor was started in 1769 by Jacob Buswell, and was originally known as Condeskeag Plantation. By 1772 there were 12 families, along with a sawmill, store, and school. The settlement’s first child, Mary Howard, was born that year. The first lawsuit was brought in 1790, when Jacob Buswell sued David Wall for calling him “an old damned grey-headed bugar of Hell” and Rev. Seth Noble “a damned rascall”.
Starting in 1775, Condeskeag became the site of treaty negotiations by which the Penobscot were made to give up almost all their ancestral lands, a process complete by about 1820, when Maine became a state. The tribe was eventually left with only their main village on an island up-river from Bangor, called “Indian Old Town” by the settlers. Eventually a white settlement taking the name Old Town was planted on the river bank opposite the Penobscot village, which began to be called “Indian Island”, and is now the site of the Penobscot Nation.
During the American Revolution in 1779, the rebel Penobscot Expedition fled up the Penobscot River after being routed in the Battle of Castine, and the last of its ships (at least nine) were burned or captured by the British fleet at Bangor. Paul Revere was among the survivors who fled into the woods. A cannon from one of the rebel warships is mounted in a downtown park, and artifacts from the sunken ships continue to be discovered in the river-bed, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Having grown in size to 567 people, Condeskeag decided to incorporate as a town in 1791, As legend has it, the settlers sent the Rev. Seth Noble to Boston with a petition to name the town "Sunbury" (at the time, Maine was part of Massachusetts). Noble's favorite song was an Irish hymn entitled Bangor, and, in a moment of either drunkenness or misunderstanding, he caused the town to be given that name instead.
The town was sacked by the British during the War of 1812. following the route of local militia in the Battle of Hampden.

Lumber capital

In the 19th century, Bangor prospered as a lumber port, and began to call itself "the lumber capital of the world". Most of the local sawmills were actually upriver in neighboring towns, Bangor controlling the capital, port facilities, supplies, and R&R. Bangor capitalists also owned much of the woodland. The main markets for Bangor lumber were the East Coast cities, but much was also shipped directly to the Caribbean. The city was particularly active in shipping building lumber to California in the Gold Rush period, via Cape Horn, before sawmills could be established in northern California, Oregon, and Washington. Bangorians subsequently helped transplant the Maine culture of lumbering to the Pacific Northwest, and participated directly in the Gold Rush themselves. Bangor, Washington, Bangor, California and Little Bangor, Nevada are legacies of this contact.
Sailors and loggers gave the city a widespread reputation for roughness — their stomping grounds were known as the "Devil's Half Acre".Irish-Catholic and later Jewish immigrants eventually became established members of the community, along with many migrants from Atlantic Canada. Of 205 black citizens who lived in Bangor in 1910, over a third were originally from Canada.
Bangor was a center of political agitation during the bloodless Aroostook War, a boundary dispute with Britain in 1838-39. Still wary of the British navy, which had brought violence to the Penobscot twice, local politicians caused the Federal government to build a huge granite fort, Fort Knox downriver from Bangor at Prospect, from 1844 to 1864. It remains one of the region's most prominent landmarks, although it never fired a shot in anger.
Many of the lumber barons built elaborate Greek Revival and Victorian houses that still stand on Broadway, West Broadway, and elsewhere around the city. Bangor is also noteworthy for its large number of substantial old churches, as well as its imposing canopy of shade trees. The city was so beautiful it was coined "The Queen City of the East." The shorter Queen City appellation is still used by some local clubs, organizations, events and businesses.

Slavery issue and the Civil War

Bangor was a center of anti-slavery politics in the years before the American Civil War, partly due to the influence of the Bangor Theological Seminary. The city formed an Anti-Slavery Society with 105 members in 1837, and a parallel Female Anti-Slavery Society with 100 more. In 1841, the gubernatorial candidate of the anti-slavery Liberty Party received more votes in Bangor than in any city in Maine, though he lost by a wide margin to a less radical Bangorean, Edward Kent. U.S. Congressman Israel Washburn Jr. from neighboring Orono was instrumental in organizing 30 members of the U.S. House of Representatives to discuss forming the Republican Party, and was the first politician of that rank to use the term "Republican", in a speech at Bangor in June 2, 1854.
That Hannibal Hamlin of neighboring Hampden became Lincoln's first Vice President, testified to the strength of local anti-slavery feeling, at least among an educated elite. The city gradually became so hot for the Republican cause that on Aug. 17, 1861 the offices of the Democratic paper, the Bangor Daily Union, were ransacked by a mob, and the presses and other materials thrown into the street and burned. Editor Marcellus Emery was threatened with violence but escaped unharmed. He only resumed publishing after the war.
Bangor and surrounding towns paid a heavy price in the American Civil War. The 1st Maine Heavy Artillery Regiment, mustered in Bangor and commanded by a local merchant, lost more men in a single ill-fated charge (in the Second Battle of Petersburg, 1864), than any Union regiment in the course of the war. The locally-mustered 2nd Maine Regiment, the first to march out of the state in 1861, also took terrific casualties. On the other hand, the 20th Maine Infantry Regiment commanded by Maj. Gen. Joshua Chamberlain from the neighboring town of Brewer gained fame for holding Little Round Top in the Battle of Gettysburg. Grant gave Chamberlain the honor of accepting the surrender of Lee's Army of Virginia. A bridge connecting Bangor with Brewer is named for Chamberlain, who was one of eight Civil War soldiers from Bangor or surrounding Penobscot County towns to receive the Congressional Medal of Honor.
Bangor's main Civil War naval hero was Charles A. Boutelle, who accepted the surrender of the Confederate fleet after the Battle of Mobile Bay. A Bangor residential street is named for him. A number of Bangor ships were captured on the high seas by Confederate raiders in the Civil War, including the "Delphine", "James Littlefield", "Mary E. Thompson" and "Golden Rocket".
The University of Maine was founded in the nearby town of Orono in 1868.
In the 1880s there was a local quarrel over the adoption of Eastern Standard Time because Bangor was so far east. Bangor even elected an anti-EST mayor (J.F. Snow), and the city had, for awhile, two times. Some set their watches to EST, and some to 'local time'. The issue was finally settled by the state legislature, which made EST 'standard' across all of Maine.

Twentieth century

In 1900 Bangor was still shipping wooden spools to England and wooden fruit boxes to Italy. An average of 2,000 vessels called at Bangor each year. But its days as a lumber port were numbered, as the Maine woods began to be purchased by paper corporations, and large paper mills were erected in towns all along the Penobscot. The transition from lumber to paper was completed in the first quarter of the 20th century, though Bangor businesses continued to prosper by serving the paper industry. Local capitalists also invested in a train route to Aroostook County in northern Maine (the Bangor and Aroostook Railroad), opening that area to settlement.
On April 30, 1911, embers from a hayshed near the Kenduskeag Stream ignited nearby buildings, sparking the Great Fire of 1911. The fire would destroy most of the downtown, forever changing the face of the city, but as in the case of the more famous Great Chicago Fire of 1871, Bangor rose again and prospered. Most of the present downtown is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the 'Great Fire Historic District'.
In 1915, a German agent, Werner Horn attempted to dynamite the international railroad bridge in nearby Vanceboro but was captured and arraigned on federal charges in Bangor. Again, in November, 1944, two German spies who had been landed on the Maine coast by U-Boat hitched a ride to Bangor, where they boarded a train to New York. They were eventually arrested and tried after an extensive Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) manhunt.
In the fall of 1937, public enemy number one, Al Brady, and most of his infamous Brady Gang, were killed in the bloodiest shootout in Maine's history. Federal agents lined the rooftops of Bangor's Central Street, shooting and killing Al Brady after he and his gang attempted to purchase guns and ammunition from Dakin's Sporting Goods in downtown Bangor. Brady is buried in the public section of Mount Hope Cemetery, on the north side of Mount Hope Avenue.
Until recently Brady's grave was unmarked. A group of schoolchildren in the 1990s erected a marker to his memory over his grave, but it eventually deteriorated. In 2007, a permanent stone marker was placed on Brady's grave.(Bangor Daily News, Friday, September 07, 2007)
During the Second World War, Bangor's Dow Field (later Dow Air Force Base) became a major embarkation point for U.S. Army Air Force planes flying to and returning from Europe. The photographs and obituaries of 112 servicemen from Bangor who gave their lives in the war are preserved in 'Book of Honor' at the Bangor Public Library. There was also a small POW Camp in Bangor for captured German soldiers, a satellite of the much larger Camp Houlton in northern Maine.
In the post-war period Dow became a Strategic Air Command Base, and was subsequently converted into the Bangor International Airport. Beginning in the 1970s, hundreds of thousands of international airline passengers, especially those on charter flights, cleared customs in Bangor as their planes refueled on the way from Europe to the interior of the United States or Mexico. The airport also became a major portal for returning troops in both the first and second Gulf Wars. Click Bangor International Airport for fuller discussion of the city's aviation-related history.
The destruction of downtown landmarks such as the city hall and train station in the late 1960s Urban Renewal Program is now considered to have been a huge planning mistake, ushering a decline of the city center that was only accelerated by the construction of the Bangor Mall in 1978 and subsequent big box stores on the city's outskirts. The downtown began to recover in the 1990s, however, with bookstores, cafe/restaurants, galleries, and other creative businesses filling once-vacent storefronts. The recent re-development of the city's waterfront has also helped.
In 1992 Bangor was the launch site for the Chrysler Trans-Atlantic Challenge Balloon Race, which saw teams from five nations competing to reach Europe. The Belgians won, but the American team, blown off course, became the first to pilot a balloon from North America to Africa (it landed near Fez, Morocco), setting new endurance and distance records in the process.
Also in 1992, a series of NASA scientific research flights carried out from Bangor, using a converted U-2 spy plane proved that the hole in the ozone layer had critically grown over the northern hemisphere, prompting an acceleration of the global phase-out of CFCs (the Copenhagen Amendment to the Montreal Protocol}
One of the victims of the September 11, 2001 attacks, Marianne MacFarlane (a passenger on United Flight 175, which hit the World Trade Center) had worked at the Bangor International Airport.

Geography

Bangor is located at (44.803, -68.770). According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 34.7 square miles (90.0 km²), of which, 34.5 square miles (89.2 km²) of it is land and 0.3 square miles (0.8 km²) of it (0.86%) is water.
Geography has long been key to the city's prosperity. The Penobscot River watershed above Bangor is both extensive and heavily forested, yet was too far north to attract American settlers intent on farming. These same conditions made it ideal for lumbering, along with deep winter snows which allowed logs to be easily dragged from the woods by horse-teams. Carried to the Penobscot or its tributaries, logs could be floated downstream with the spring thaw to sawmills on waterfalls (water-power driving the sawblades) just above Bangor. The sawn lumber was then shipped from the city's docks, Bangor being at the head-of-tide (between the rapids and the ocean) to points anywhere in the world needing wood. The combination of forests and sheltered coves along the nearby Maine coast also fostered the development of a ship-building industry to service the lumber trade.
Many of the same conditions that favored lumbering were attractive to the paper industry, which took over the Penobscot watershed in the twentieth century. One large difference was transportation: the paper was shipped out, and the chemicals in, by railroad. The city began turning its back on the river as its train-yards became more important.
Bangor's other geographic advantage, not realizable until the mid-twentieth century, was that it lay along the most direct air-route between the U.S. East Coast and Europe (the Great Circle Route). The construction of an air-field in the 1930s, and its continual expansion under military auspices through the 1960s, allowed the city to eventually take full advantage of this geographic gift. Having the Canadian border close-by also helped. Bangor was the last American airport before Europe, or the first American airport one encountered flying from Europe. The extension of air routes connecting Europe with the U.S. West Coast and the Caribbean in the 1970s-80s put Bangor very much in the middle as a refueling stop for charter aircraft. The subsequent development of longer-range jets began to reduce this advantage in the 1990s.
A potential advantage that has always eluded the city is its location between the Canadian port city of Halifax and the the rest of Canada (as well as New York). As early as the 1870s the city promoted a Halifax to New York railroad, via Bangor, as the quickest connection between North America and Europe (when combined with steamship service between Britain and Halifax). A "European and North American Railroad" was actually opened through Bangor, but the commerce never lived up to this potential. More recently attempts to capture traffic between Halifax and Montreal by constructing an East-West Highway through Maine have also come to naught. Most overland traffic between the two parts of Canada continues to go over Maine rather than through it.
Bangor's remaining geographic advantages include the following:

Forms the gateway between Canada's Maritime Provinces and the U.S. East Coast

Is the American gateway to both the eastern half of the Maine coast, and the northern Maine woods, both important tourist distinations. Acadia National Park lies just to the south and Baxter State Park just to the north.

Is the major retailing, service, and cultural center for half of Maine, and a significant destination in its own right for tourists/shoppers from the Canadian Maritime Provinces

Is adjacent to the University of Maine

Retains urban amenities, but is geographically distant from other East Coast cities, including even Portland, Maine. Some people like that, either for the isolation, the mystique, or both.

Cultural institutions

The Bangor Public Library, founded in 1883, traces its beginnings to 1830 and seven books in a simple footlocker. It now has a collection of over 500,000 volumes, and regularly records one of the highest circulation rates in New England Next to the Public Library is the Luther H. Peirce Memorial, a large statue commemorating River Drivers created by the noted sculptor Charles Eugene Tefft in 1925.
The University of Maine Museum of Art, located in Norumbega Hall in downtown Bangor, has a permanent collection of over 6500 pieces, including works by Berenice Abbott, Marsden Hartley, Winslow Homer, John Marin, Carl Sprinchorn, and Andrew Wyeth. The Maine Discovery Museum, a major children's museum founded in 2001 in the former Freese's Department Store. The Bangor Museum and Center for History in addition to its exhibit space maintains the historic Thomas A. Hill House. The Bangor Police Department boasts a police museum with some items dating to the 1700's. There is a Fire Museum at the former State Street Fire Station.
There are several performing arts venues and groups in the Bangor area. The Bangor Symphony Orchestra, founded in 1896, is the oldest continually operating symphony orchestra in the United States. Bangor's Robinson Ballet Company, established in 1977, sometimes performs with the symphony. The Bangor Band, founded in 1859 and performing continually since then, gives free weekly concerts in the city's parks during the summer, and counts among its past conductors noted march composer Robert B. Hall. The Penobscot Theatre Company, founded in 1973, is a professional theater company based in the historic Bangor Opera House. The Maine Center for the Arts, located at the nearby University of Maine, hosts a wide variety of touring performing artists and events. The Ten Bucks Theatre Company is a new local group of ensemble actors. River City Cinema hosts a free outdoor summer film festival in downtown Bangor. The Bangor Art Society is another component of a flourishing local and regional art scene.
The University of Maine, the flagship campus of the University of Maine System is located 9 miles from Bangor in the town of Orono, and adds significantly to the city's cultural life. There is also a vocationally-oriented University College of Bangor, associated with the University of Maine Augusta. Bangor's Husson College, founded in 1898, enrolls approximately 2000 students a year in a variety of undergraduate and graduate programs. Beal College, also in Bangor, is a small institution oriented toward career training. The Bangor Theological Seminary, founded in 1814, is the only accredited graduate school of religion in northern New England.
Bangor-based non-profit Peace through Interamerican Community Action (PICA) has sponsored a sister-city relationship between Bangor and Carasque, El Salvador since 1991, and many local groups have journied to El Salvador or participated in related initiatives, such as the PICA-sponsered Clean Clothes Campaig. This anti-sweat shop movement, which originated in Europe, counted Bangor among its first American sites. Maine Gov. John Baldacci of Bangor was the first U.S. governor to sign an anti-sweatshop procurement law in 2001.
Bangor is also has a sister city relationship with nearby St. John, New Brunswick.
The U.S. Post Office in Bangor contains the three-part mural "Autumn Expansion" (1980) by noted artist Yvonne Jacquette

Architecture

Bangor has a fascinating, mostly 19th-century cityscape, and sections of the city are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The city has also had a municipal Historic Preservation Commission since the early 1980s.
The Thomas Hill Standpipe, A huge elegant shingle-style structure, is visible from most parts of the city. Also prominent are the spires of the Hammond St. Congregational and Unitarian churches, built from similar designs by the Boston architectural firm Towle and Foster, and that of St. John's Church (Roman Catholic) constructed around the same time. The Bangor House Hotel, now converted to apartments, is the only survivor among a series of "Palace Hotels" designed by Boston architect Isaiah Rogers which were the first of their kind in the United States. Bangor also boasts the country's second oldest garden cemetery, the Mt. Hope Cemetery, designed by Charles G. Bryant.
Richard Upjohn, British-born architect and early promoter of the Gothic Revival, received some of his first commissions in Bangor, including the Isaac Farrar House (1833), Samuel Farrar House (1836), Thomas A. Hill House (presently owned by the Bangor Historical Society), and St. John's Church (Episcopal, 1836-39). The later was designed just prior to his most famous commission, Trinity Church in New York City. Upjohn was a founding member of the American Institute of Architects and its first president (1857-76).
Other local landmarks include the Bangor Public Library by Peabody and Stearns; All Soul's Congregational Church by Cram, Goodhue, and Ferguson; the Wheelwright Block by Benjamin S. Deane; The Eastern Maine Insane Hospital by John Calvin Stevens. Bangor also contains many impressive Greek Revival. Victorian, and Colonial Revival houses, some of which are also listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The most photographed is the William Arnold House of 1856, Bangor's largest Italianate style mansion and home to author Stephen King. Its wrought-iron fence with bat and spider web motif is King's own addition.
The bow-plate of the battleship USS Maine, whose destruction in Havana, Cuba presaged the start of the Spanish-American War, survives on a granite memorial in a downtown park.
In the category "roadside architecture", Bangor has a huge, famous fiberglass-over-metal statue of mythical lumberman Paul Bunyan (Normand Martin, 1959) and one of only two Howard Johnson's restaurants left in the country.

Public safety

Ironically, this city associated with the novels of Stephen King is among the safest in the United States. Its crime rate is the second lowest among American metropolitan areas of comparable size.
Beginning 19 January 2007 the city has banned smoking in automobiles if children under 18 are present. Offenders can be fined $50 under the ordinance. According to the New York Times, Bangor is "believed to be the first city to outlaw smoking in cars with children."

Government

Bangor has a Council-Manager form of government, with a nine-member City Council. Three city councilors are elected to three-year terms each year. Although Bangor has no "Mayor", the Chair of the City Council is often informally referred to as the City's Mayor.
In 1996, Bangor's City Council was the first in North America to unanimously approve a resolution opposing the sale of sweat-shop produced clothing in local stores.
Bangor and Augusta have together produced the largest number of Governors of Maine (nine each, including two non-consecutive terms by Edward Kent). This list includes the present governor, Democrat John Baldacci, and the last Republican governor, John R. McKernan. One governor from Augusta, Frederick W. Plaisted was born and raised in Bangor, and a number of others (e.g. Hannibal Hamlin, Joshua Chamberlain, Israel Washburn) were born or lived in suburban towns such as Brewer, Hampden, and Orono.

Events

The Bangor State Fair, held starting the last Friday of each July, for more than 150 years, is one of the country's oldest fairs, featuring agricultural exhibits, carnival attractions, and live performances.
In 2002, 2003, and 2004, Bangor was the host of the National Folk Festival. In August 2005, the newly created American Folk Festival began as an annual event on the city's waterfront.
The Kenduskeag Stream Canoe Race, a celebrated white-water event which begins just north of Bangor in the town of Kenduskeag, has been held annually for the last 40 years. Bangor also hosts an annual Soapbox Derby race.

Media

The Bangor region has a large number of media outlets for an area its size. The city has an unbroken history of newspaper publishing extending from 1815. Almost 30 dailies, weeklies, and monthlies had been launched there by the end of the Civil War .
The Bangor Daily News was founded in the late nineteenth century, and is one of the few remaining family-owned newspapers left in the United States.
Bangor Metro, founded in 2005, is the area's glossy business, lifestyle, and opinion magazine. The alternative/lifestyle weekly The Maine Edge also publishes in the city.
Bangor has more than a dozen radio stations and seven television stations, including WLBZ 2 (NBC), WABI 5 (CBS), WVII 7 (ABC), WBGR 33, and WFVX 22 (Fox). WMEB 12, licensed to nearby Orono, is the area's PBS member station. Radio stations WKIT (FM) and WZON (AM) are particularly notable for being owned by Zone Radio Corporation, a company owned by Bangor resident novelist Stephen King.

Sport and recreation

The Eastern Maine High School Basketball Tournament is held each February at the Bangor Auditorium drawing fans from central, eastern and northern Maine. The nearby University of Maine fields major college sports teams in football, ice hockey, baseball, and men's and women's basketball. Bangor has also been home to two minor league baseball teams in the past decade: the Bangor Blue Ox (1996-1997) and the Bangor Lumberjacks (2003-2004). Both were affiliated with the Northeast League that existed under that name from 1995-1998.
Bangor Raceway offers live harness racing and features an off-track betting center. Also, nearby Hollywood Slots is Maine's first slot machine gambling center. In 2007, construction began on a $131 million casino complex in Bangor that will house, among other things, a gaming floor featuring up to 1,500 slot machines, a seven-story hotel, and a four-level parking garage. The new racino is slated to open in the summer of 2008. Maine is one of few states where racinos are legal, and the one in Bangor is expected to change the city's tourism profile.
Every August (since 2002) Bangor has been home to the Senior League World Series.
Bangor has also been of historical importance to professional wrestling. Vince McMahon promoted his very first wrestling event in Bangor in 1979. In 1985, the WWC Universal Heavyweight Championship changed hands for the first time outside of Puerto Rico in Bangor at an IWCCW show.
The Bangor City Forest and other nearby parks, forests and waterways support a wide variety of outdoor activities including hiking, sailing, canoeing, hunting, fishing, skiing, and snowmobiling.
The Penobscot has always been the premier salmon-fishing river in Maine, and the Bangor Salmon Pool traditionally sent the first fish caught to the President of the United States. Low fish stocks resulted in a ban on salmon fishing in 1999-2006 but the wild salmon population (and the sport) is slowly recovering. The Penobscot River Restoration Project is presently working to help the fish population by removing certain dams north of Bangor

Famous and notable Bangorians

Statesmen

Bangor is the hometown of Hannibal Hamlin, who served as Abraham Lincoln's first Vice President, and was a strong opponent of slavery. His statue stands in a downtown park, and his house is on the National Register of Historic Places. His daughter and son were present in Ford's Theatre the night Lincoln was shot. Lincoln's Secretary of the Treasury, William P. Fessenden, practed law in Bangor in the early 1830s.
William Cohen, former U.S. Senator and United States Secretary of Defense under President Bill Clinton, is a Bangor native. A local middle school is named in his honor.
The vice presidential candidate of the Green Party in the 2004 election, Patricia LaMarche was raised in Bangor.

Writers

The most famous Bangor resident is doubtlessly Stephen King, the author best known for his horror-themed stories, novels, and movies. His wife, Tabitha Spruce-King, is also a writer, as are sons Joseph Hillstrom King (aka Joe Hill) and Owen King. The family donates a substantial amount of money to local libraries and hospitals and have funded a baseball stadium, Mansfield Stadium (home to the Senior League World Series), and the Beth Pancoe Aquatic Center, both on the grounds of Hayford Park, for the citizens (especially the children) of the city. King's fictional town, Derry, Maine, shares many points of correspondence with Bangor — the rivers, the Paul Bunyan Statue, the Thomas Hill Standpipe, the hospital — but is always referred to as separate from Bangor. King also features Bangor in many of his stories, such as The Langoliers and Storm of the Century. King owns radio stations WKIT and WZON.
Hayford Peirce, the science-fiction writer and nephew of Waldo Peirce, is likewise a Bangor native. Other contemporary novelists from Bangor include Christina Baker Kline, Christopher Willard, and Barbara Goldscheider. Poet Sarah Ruth Jacobs and children's book author Bruce McMillan also grew up in Bangor.
Bangor had strong links to Transcendentalism through Frederick Henry Hedge, minister of the Congregational Church there in the 1830s. His circle, which included Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau, met as "Hedge's Club" or the Transcendental Club whenever Hedge returned to his native Cambridge, Massachusetts. Emerson had previously lectured in Bangor and Hedge took the position here on his advice. Thoreau visited Bangor a number of times (his aunt and cousins also lived here) and describes the city in his book The Maine Woods.
Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Owen Davis (1874-1956) lived in Bangor until he was 15, and his prize-winning play Icebound (1923) is set in neighboring Veazie. Davis wrote between 200 and 300 plays, as well as radio and film scripts, and two autobiographies. He was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and was president of the Author's League of America and the American Dramatist's Guild.
Christine Goutiere Weston (1904-1989), author of ten novels, more than thirty short stories, and two non-fiction books (about Ceylon and Afghanistan), lived the latter part of her life in Bangor. She had been born in India and much of her fiction was set there.
Blanche Willis Howard, a best-selling late nineteenth century novelist, was born and raised in Bangor. She eventually moved to Stuttgart, Germany and married the court physician to King Charles I of Wurttemberg, thus becoming the Baroness von Teuffel.
Eugene T. Sawyer, the "Prince of Dime Novelists", once lived in Bangor. In a 1902 interview, he claimed to have authored 75 examples of that genre, mostly for the Nick Carter series, once producing a 60,000 word novel in two days. His major innovation was to "begin the plot with the first word", i.e. "We will have the money, or she shall die!"
Laura Jane Curtis Bullard, whose family started a successful patent medicine business in Bangor in the 1830s, eventually moved to Brooklyn and became a proto-feminist novelist and editor. She was a patron and confidante of Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton and took over editorship of their journal Revolution when it experienced financial difficulties.
Ruel Perley Smith, born in Bangor, was the author of the Rival Campers series of boy's book in the early 20th century. His regular job was as as night and Sunday editor of the New York World newspaper.
Ada Peirce McCormick, the younger sister of the Byzantine art authority Hayford Peirce, Sr. and of the artist Waldo Peirce, edited and published the quarterly Letter (1943-49), and contributed to magazines such as Harpers. She was also a philanthropist in Tucson, Arizona, where she spent most of her adult life, and at the University of Arizona.
Frances Parker Laughton Mace was a Bangor poet and writer in the 1850s. Her stone house became the original building of what is now the Eastern Maine Medical Center and still stands on its grounds.

Artists

The painter and bohemian Waldo Peirce, confidante of Ernest Hemmingway, was from a prominent Bangor family.
Portrait painter Jeremiah Pearson Hardy (1800-1887), who apprenticed under Samuel F.B. Morse also lived and worked in Bangor for most of his career. His children Anna Eliza Hardy and Francis William Hardy, and sister Mary Ann Hardy, were also part of a 19th century circle of Bangor painters.
Walter Franklin Lansil studied under Hardy, and at the Academie Julian in Paris. He established a studio in Boston and became a celebrated landscape and marine artist. His brother Wilbur H. Lansil was also a painter and accompanied him to Boston.
Frederick Porter Vinton (1846-1911) left Bangor at age 14 for Boston, where he became that city's most sought-after portrait painter - producing over 300 canvases - and one of the original members of The Boston School. He studied in Munich and with Leon Bonnat in Paris, as well as with William Morris Hunt.

Actors, comedians, and sportscasters

Bangor is the birthplace of comedian Charles Rocket, who was a cast member on Saturday Night Live in the 1980-1981 season. Sportscaster Gary Thorne was also born here and once served as an assistant district attorney in the city. Actor Wayne Maunder, who played George Armstrong Custer in the late sixties television series Custer, and starred in Lancer, was raised in Bangor, as was actress Stephanie Niznik of the series Everwood.
Pioneer local television comic and personality Eddie Driscoll, noted for his late-night fright-fest Wierd was paid this complement by Stephen King: "you warped my childhood".
Comedian Ed Wynn once ran out of money in Bangor and had to take a job playing piano in a local brothel.

Singers, musicians, and song-writers

Singer/songwriter Howie Day, who recorded the hit Collide, was born and raised in Bangor, and got his start playing local clubs. Country singer Dick Curless, who recorded the 1965 hit Tombstone Every Mile, also lived there.
George Frederick Root (1820-95), a noted Civil War era composer of songs such as The Battle Cry of Freedom, lived in Bangor before becoming a successful music publisher in Chicago. John Wheeler Tufts (1825-1906), a Leipzig-trained musician who early in his career was an organist and composer in Bangor, eventually co-authored the Normal Music Course (1883), which revolutionized music training in American public schools. John Edgar Gould (1820-75), and Daniel H. Mansfield (1810-1855), and were two other local composers/arrangers whose songs were published nationally in the 19th century. Bangor-born music teacher Sarah Robinson Duff, who made her career in Chicago, discovered and cultivated the great early-20th century opera diva Mary Garden.
Rudolph Ringwall, Associate Conductor of the Cleveland Orchestra 1934-56, was born in Bangor. Berlin-born Werner Torkanowsky, director of the New Orleans Symphony Orchestra, came to Bangor in 1981 to direct the Bangor Symphony and did so until his death in 1992.
Kay Gardner (1941-2002), flutist and pioneering composer of 'healing music' lived and died in Bangor. She was also a Priestess of the Fellowship of Isis and founder of Bangor's Temple of the Feminine Divine.

Athletes

Bangor is the home of Toronto Blue Jays hitter Matt Stairs. Major League baseball player Matt Kinney of the (Minnesota Twins, Milwaukee Brewers, and Kansas City Royals) is also a native, as is Jon DiSalvatore, of the NHL (now with the Phoenix Coyotes).
Former Major League baseball players born in Bangor include Bobby Messenger (1901-1964) of the Chicago White Sox and St. Louis Browns; Jack Sharrott (1869-1927) of the New York Giants and Philadelphia Phillies; and Pat O'Connell (1861-1943) of the Baltimore Orioles. Shortstop Mike Bordick, who played for the Oakland Athletics, New York Mets, Baltimore Orioles, and Toronto Bluejays, grew up in the adjacent towns of Winterport and Hampden, and was a star player on the University of Maine team in nearby Orono.
Professional Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) Fighter Marcus Davis and his Team Irish currently call Bangor their home. Ohio Wesleyan University football coach Mike Hollway was born in Bangor. Jerry "The Hammer" Smith, former Bangor boxer, is Chief of Ushers at Fenway Park (home of the Red Sox in Boston.
Kevin Mahaney of Bangor won a silver medal in sailing at the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games, and went on to reach the finals of the America's Cup trials with his Bangor-based PACT-95 team.
Jack McAuliffe, World Lightweight Boxing Champion in the 1880s-90s and known as "The Napolean of the Ring", learned to fight growing up as a child in a tough Bangor neighborhood. He retired with an unbeaten record. Another local boxer, Michael Daley, became Lightweight Boxing Champion of New England, but was arrested in Bangor in 1903, along with George La Blanche, the former Middleweight Champion of the World, for robbing a man at a local hotel.
In the 1890s, Henry Orman Robinson of Bangor was Head Coach of the University of Texas football team, the Texas Longhorns, and before that the University of Missouri team, the Missouri Tigers.
Karen Colburn of Bangor was Girl's National Free-Style Ski Champion in 1975.

Scholars

The "Father of American Sociology", Albion Woodbury Small, attended grade-school in Bangor. He was the first American professor of sociology, founder of the first dept. of sociology (at the University of Chicago), edited the discipine's first American journal, and was President of the American Sociological Society (1912-13).
Edith Lesley, founder of Lesley University in Massachusetts, grew up in Bangor.
University of Maine psychologist Doris Allen (1901-2002), who was born in nearby Old Town, and practiced at the Bangor Mental Health Institute in the 1970s, was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize for founding the Children's International Summer Villages. She was also President of the International Council of Psychologists. Marilyn Bailey
Ogilvie and Joy Dorothy Harvey, Biographical Dictionary of Women in Science (Taylor & Francis, 2000), p. 25
Elliott Carr Cutler (1888-1947), son of a Bangor lumber merchant, became a professor at Harvard Medical School and a pioneer in cardiac surgery, inventing a number of important techniques and publishing over 200 papers. He was elected President of the American Surgical Association.
William Witherle Lawrence (1876-1958) of Bangor became a Professor of English at Columbia University and a ground-breaking scholar of Beowulf, and the works of Chaucer and Shakespeare. He was awarded the Royal Order of Vasa with the rank of knight by the King of Sweden.
The Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center at Boston University is named for the university archivist and Bangor native who collected, among other treasures, the papers of Martin Luther King and the dancing shoes of Fred Astaire
Hayford Peirce Sr., father of the science fiction author and brother of painter Waldo Peirce, was a noted scholar of Byzantine Art.

Soldiers and sailors

Maj. Gen. Joshua Chamberlain, a hero of the Battle of Gettysburg who also accepted the surrender of General Lee's Army at Appomattox, was born in the neighboring city of Brewer but studied at the Bangor Theological Seminary. The bridge connecting the two cities is named for him. Chamberlain, a professor at Bowdoin College when the war began, and later its president, could read seven foreign languages. He was also elected Governor of Maine, as was another Civil War general from Bangor, Harris Merrill Plaisted. Cyrus Hamlin, who commanded a regiment of African-American troops, and Charles Hamlin, both sons of Vice President Hannibal Hamlin, also became generals in the Civil War. Other Bangorians who achieved a general's rank in the same war included Edward Hatch, who commanded the cavalry division of Grant's Army of the Tennessee; Augustus B. Farnham, Chief of Staff of the Third Division, who was severely wounded; and Charles G. Roberts and George Varney, both of the Second Maine Regiment. Naval Lt. Charles A. Boutelle accepted the surrender of the Confederate fleet after the Battle of Mobile Bay, where he commanded an ironclad.
Vice Adm. Carl Frederick Holden of Bangor began World War II as executive officer of the battleship USS Pennsylvania during the attack on Pearl Harbor. He became the first captain of the battleship USS New Jersey, and ended the war as a Rear Adm. commanding Cruiser Division Pacific. He was on the deck of the USS Missouri to witness the Japanese surrender in 1945.
Lt. Gen. Donald Norton Yates of Bangor selected June 6, 1944 as the date for D-Day, the Allied invasion of Europe, in his capacity as chief meteorologist on Eisenhower's staff. He chose well - it turned out to be the only day that month the invasion could have been successfully launched - and was subsequently decorated by three governments. He went on to become the chief meteorologist of the U.S. Air Force, Commander of the Air Force Missile Test Center at Patrick Air Force Base in Florida, and retired as Deputy Director of Defence Research and Engineering in the Pentagon.
Other Bangorians who have risen to flag rank in the armed services include Lt. Gen. Walter F. Ulmer, former Commandant of Cadets at West Point and commander of the III Corps and Fort Hood, and Maj. Gen. Elmer P. Yates, an early proponent of nuclear power in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Astronauts

Two future astronauts were among the pilots stationed at Bangor's Dow Air Force Base in the 1950s. Robert A. Rushworth of Madison, Maine, and a graduate of the University of Maine in nearby Orono, was at Dow in 1951-53. He was one of 9 test pilots initially selected to be astronauts in 1958, and undertook a record number of rocket research flights (34) in the X-15, then the world's fastest and highest-flying winged aircraft.
James A. McDivitt, a fighter pilot at Dow in 1953-54, became the command pilot of the NASA spacecraft Gemini 4 in 1965. This space mission was the first in which an American astronaut (Edward Higgins White) conducted a space-walk. McDivitt took the famous photographs of that event. He was later commander of the Apollo 9 mission, which first tested the lunar module, and subsequently became Manager of the Apollo Space Program itself.

Inventors

Commercial Chewing gum was invented in Bangor in 1848 by John B. Curtis, who marketed his product as "State of Maine Pure Spruce Gum". He later opened a successful gum factory in Portland
L.B. Davies of Augusta, Maine, who came to work as a millwright in Bangor when he was 17, and subsequently joined the crew of a local steamboat, ended up in Ohio. There he invented the cow-catcher. He never patented it, nor made a cent from its widespread use.
The automotive snow plow was invented by Don A. Sargent of Bangor, and manufactured at the Union Iron Works in the 1920s. Sargent patented the device.
Col. Paul E. Watson of Bangor, chief engineer of the U.S. Army Signal Corps, headed the team that built the army's first long-range radar in 1936-37.
Chuck Peddle, who developed the MOS 6502 microprocessor in 1975, was born in Bangor in 1937.

Architects and engineers

Maine's first architect, Charles G. Bryant, lived and practiced in Bangor in the 1830s and designed Mt. Hope Cemetary, the second garden cemetery in the United States. Bryant later moved to Texas (Galveston) and became the first architect in that state, where he was eventually killed and scalped while fighting Indians.
Other prominent Bangor architects, many of whose buildings survive in the city and nearby towns, included Calvin Ryder, Benjamin S. Deane, George W. Orff and Wilfred E. Mansur. The modern architect Eaton Tarbell has also stongly influenced Bangor's cityscape.
Bangor-born Edward Austin Kent (1854-1912) became a leading architect in Buffalo, New York and three-time president of the American Institute of Architects. He went down on the Titanic in 1912.
Bangorian Charles Davis Jameson, an engineer who taught at MIT, subsequently went to China and became Chief Consulting Engineer and Architect to the Imperial Chinese Government (1895-1918). He planned important hydraulics projects and witnessed the Boxer Rebellion
Although not strictly an engineer, Bangor lawyer Francis Clergue, born in neighboring Brewer oversaw one of the most ambitious engineering projects in North America, the development of Sault Ste Marie Michigan and Ontario as a major hydro-power and industrial center in the 1890s-1900s. Before that Clergue had organized the Bangor Street Railway (the first electric railway in Maine) and the Bangor Waterworks, and had tried and failed to build a railroad across Persia and a waterworks in its capital, Tehran.
Prominent Chicago architect Ernest Alton Gunsfeld was a draftsman at Dow Field in Bangor during the Korean War.

They married well

Bettina Brown Gorton, the wife of Australian Prime Minister Sir John Gorton (who served 1968-71) was from Bangor. She is the only wife of an Australian PM to have been foreign-born.
Marie Jennings Reid Parkhurst, a Washington socialite and wife of Bangor politician Frederick H. Parkhurst, who lived for a time on West Broadway, divorced him and married (in 1901) an Italian Prince she had met in Bar Harbor. As Princess Rospigliosi, Reid created headlines through the 1910s as she attempted to have her previous marraige to protestant Parkhurst annulled by the Pope. Parkhurst eventually became Governor of Maine. Reid's son Girolamo became the 9th Prince Rospigliosi, and caused his own sensation by eloping with American oil heiress Marian Snowden in 1931.
Beer baronness and conservative political doner Holland "Holly" Hanson Coors was born in Bangor in 1920. The widow of Joseph Coors, Colorado brewer and founder of the Heritage Foundation, Holly Coors sits on that organization's board of trustees.

Diplomats

Diplomats who were born in Bangor include Robert Newbegin II, U.S. ambassador to Honduras (1958) and Haiti (1860-61); Charles Stetson Wilson, U.S. ambassador to Bulgaria (1921-28); Romania (1928), and Yugoslavia (1933); William Pennell Snow, U.S. ambassador to Burma (1959) and Paraguay (1961-67); Chester E. Norris, U.S. ambassador to Equatorial Guinea (1988-91); Gorham Parks, U.S. Consul in Rio de Janeiro (1945-49); Wyman Bradbury Seavy Moor, U.S. Consul in the British West Indies (1857-61); and Aaron Young, Jr., U.S. Consul in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil (1863-73), who was formerly Maine's State Botanist and Secretary of the Bangor Natural History Society. Hannibal Hamlin, Lincoln's Vice President and Bangor politician, served as U.S. Ambassador to Spain later in his career.
While former Maine Governor Edward Kent was U.S. Consul in Rio de Janeiro 1849-53, he lost two of his three children to yellow fever. His wife died the year they returned to Bangor, and his surviving child soon after.
Bangor politician Elisha Hunt Allen served as U.S. Consul to the Kingdom of Hawaii 1850-56, and then joined the Hawaiin government as Chancellor and Chief Justice 1857-76. In that capacity he accompanied King Kalakaua on his first and only trip to the United States in 1874. Allen returned to Washington as Ambassador of the Kingdom of Hawaii to the United States, and died on the job during a White House diplomatic reception in 1883.

Journalists

Joseph W. Grigg of Bangor was the Chief European Correspondent for United Press International for 25 Years. He was the only American reporter in Berlin at both the beginning and end of the Second World War, and one of the first in Warsaw after its fall. He was briefly interred in Germany when America entered the war. He was among the first to report the Nazi murder of Jews in Eastern Europe, and later covered the trial of Adolf Eichmann.

Clergymen and missionaries

The Bangor Theological Seminary produced a number of influential ministers, missionaries, and scholars in the 19th century. The seminary's first professor and director, Jehudi Ashmun later led a group of 32 freed slaves to the American Colonization Society's African colony in Liberia in 1822, and is considered one of the founders of that nation. Cyrus Hamlin, who graduated from the seminary in 1837, was the founder and first president of Robert College in Istanbul, Turkey, and later president of Middlebury College (1880-85) in Vermont. His friend and classmate Elkanah Walker left Bangor in 1838 to become one of the first missionaries (or American settlers) in the Oregon Territory. His son Cyrus Hamlin Walker was the first child born of American settlers west of the Rocky Mountains to live to adulthood.
Seminarian Daniel Dole (1808-78) left Bangor in 1839 to establish one of the earliest protestant missions in Hawaii, and ended up founding a local dynasty. His son Sanford Dole led the successful coup d'etat against the Kingdom of Hawaii in 1893, becoming the first and only President of the Republic of Hawaii and, later, the first American territorial governor. Daniel's nephew James Drummond Dole became the "Pineapple King".
Another seminary graduate, Edwin Pond Parker (1836-1920), became a member of Mark Twain's literary circle in Hartford, Connecticut, and inspired him to write The Prince and the Pauper. Parker himself wrote or arranged over 200 hymns, and was the first Congregational minister in the Northeast to celebrate Christmas. He was also the father-in-law of writer and bohemian Dorothy Parker.
Bangor Methodist Minister Benjamin Franklin Tefft became president of Genesee College in New York (the nucleus of the later Syracuse University), and, in 1862, U.S. Consul in Stockholm and acting Ambassador to Sweden

Civil Servants

William Hammatt Davis of Bangor, brother of playwright Owen Davis, served as Chairman of the War Labor Board under Franklin Roosevelt, where his job was keeping industrial peace between management and labor. He was appointed US Economic Stabilizer at the end of the war. He also helped draft the National Labor Relations Act (the Wagner Act) of 1935, which gave labor unions the right to organize.

Survivors

David Thibodeau, one of only 9 survivors of the Branch Dividian conflagration in Waco, Texas, is from Bangor. He wrote a book about the experience.

Bangor in popular culture

Books and plays

Bangor or its alter ego Derry are the fictional settings for so many novels and stories by Stephen King that the city has become the capital of Translymainia, a gothic horror-scape King invented largely by himself (with some help from the 1960s television show Dark Shadows).
Bangor is also referenced in John Guare's famous play Landscape of the Body, as the home of its protagonist. Billy Barry, the fictional hero in Horace Porter's Young Aeroplane Scouts novel series of 1916-19, is from Bangor, as is Edward Wozny, the protagonist in Lew Grossman's 2004 novel Codex.
The 1988 novel Pink Chimneys by Ardeana Hamlin Knowles, is set in 19th century Bangor. Owen Davis' Pulitzer Prize winning 1923 play Icebound is set in neighboring Veazie.
Henry David Thoreau's The Maine Woods includes this passages describing Bangor: "Like a star at the edge of the night, still hewing the forests of which it is built, already overflowing with the luxuries and refinements of Europe, and sending its vessels to Spain, to England, to the West Indies for its groceries"

Poems

Robert Lowell's Flying from Bangor to Rio 1957 was written at the poet's summer house in nearby Castine, Maine about the experience of seeing off his friend, the poet Elizabeth Bishop at the Bangor Airport.

Songs

Bangor is mentioned in the famous country song King of the Road by Roger Miller. The line goes "Third boxcar, midnight train. Destination: Bangor, Maine." Southbound Train by Travis Tritt has a similar reference. It helps that 'Maine' rhymes with 'train', and that Bangor seems an edge destination. The first popular song to use this lyrical formula was Riding Down From Bangor (sometimes Riding Up From Bangor), written in 1871. The lyric goes: "Riding down from Bangor in an eastern train, after six weeks of hunting in the woods of Maine" It was recorded in Britain and South Africa though strangely never in the United States.
According to music historian Norm Cohen, "the earliest railroad song known to have entered oral tradition" was Henry Sawyer, about a fatal accident on the Bangor and Piscataquis Canal Railroad between Bangor and Old Town in 1848. .
Bangor is also in the lyrics of the North American version of I've Been Everywhere by Lucky Starr, and How 'bout them Cowgirls by George Strait. The lyrics to the later song go "I've crisscrossed down to Key Biscayne, and Chi-town via Bangor, Maine."

Film and television

Several movie versions of Stephen King's stories have been filmed in Bangor. The Langoliers, mentioned above, was set and filmed in part at Bangor International Airport. Pet Semetary and Graveyard Shift include scenes filmed at Mt. Hope Cemetary and The Bangor Water Works.
The 1946 film The Strange Woman starring Hedy Lamarr, and based on the novel by Ben Ames Williams is set in early 19th century Bangor.
In the 1960s gothic tv soap opera Dark Shadows, set in the fictional town of Collinsport, Maine, Bangor was sometimes mentioned as being close-by, along with Portland, Maine. Likewise, The Dead Zone, a series based on the Stephen King novel, takes place in a suburb of Bangor called Cleaves Mills.

Comic books

MODOK, the villainous Marvel Comics character, was created from the benign lab technician George Tarleton, a native of Bangor. The GI Joe character Sneak Peak is also from Bangor, along with Crystal Ball's mother. The location of DC Comics second "Dail H for Hero" series is a suburb of Bangor.

Sport

A skilful competitor in the sport of birling (log-rolling) has traditionally been known as a 'Bangor Tiger'. This was the name given Penobscot river-drivers in the nineteenth century.

Ships

The first ocean-going iron-hulled steamship built in the U.S., by the Harlan and Hollingsworth firm of Wilmington, Delaware in 1844, was named 'The Bangor'. A four-masted schooner named 'The Bangor' was also built in Eureka, California, in 1891. 'The City of Bangor' was an Eastern Steamship Co. steamer that connected Bangor and Boston on a daily run in the early twentieth century.

Business

Two businesses listed on the New York Stock Exchange have used 'Bangor' in their names. The Bangor and Aroostook Railroad, which operated between 1891 and 2003 was founded by local capitalists and originally had its offices in Bangor. In 1964 it merged with the Boston-owned but Cuba-based Punta Alegre Sugar Corp., forming Bangor Punta Alegre Sugar or after 1967 just Bangor Punta. On the advice of BP Director and former president of the B&A Curtis Hutchins, the railroad was sold in 1969, but Bangor Punta, managed by Hungarian-American financier Nicolas Salgo (who also built the Watergate complex in Washington), and with Bangorean Hutchins still on the board, became a classic 1960s conglomerate, accumulating such diverse holdings as the arms-maker Smith and Wesson, Piper Aircraft, and a number of yacht-makers. It was on the Fortune 500 List for most of its existence. Salgo was bought out in 1974 and the corporation dissolved in 1984.

Accidents and natural disasters

The Great Fire of 1911 was Bangor’s most spectacular catastrophe, but other natural disasters and accidents have occurred there, often with greater loss of life (only two were killed in the Great Fire). The most recurrent problem, besides fire, was the formation of ice dams causing spring floods on the Penobscot River, a situation that's resolved itself with warmer winters. The only destructive flood since the 1930s (in 1976) was caused by a storm at sea. Notable incidents include:
1846: The “Great Freshet”, or spring flood, was the most destructive of the 19th century, carrying away the Penobscot River bridge and inundating a hundred shops and many houses. Its cause was the sudden release of a massive, 4-mile-long ice dam. There were no casualties.
1849-50: A cholera epidemic
1869: The West Market Square fire, from which arose The Phoenix Block (the present Phoenix Inn)
1871: A bridge in Hampden collapsed under the weight of a Maine Central Railroad train approaching Bangor, killing 2 and injuring 50.
1872: Another large downtown fire, on Main St., kills 1 and injures 7
1872: A smallpox epidemic closed local schools.
1882: A tornado blew the steeple off the Universalist Church, the roof off the County Courthouse, and sent hundreds of chimneys into the street.
1889: Forest fires in surrounding towns enveloped Bangor in smoke.
1892: Another tornado overturned the launch “Annie” in the Penobscot River drowning 8 passengers.
1895: Another Penobscot flood
1896: The barkentine "Thomas J. Stewart" of Bangor was lost at sea in a hurricane with all hands (11 men) somewhere between New York and Boston
1898: A Maine Central Railroad train crashed near Orono killing 2.
1898: The steamer Pentagoet of the Manhatten Line was lost in a gale between New York City and Bangor with all 16 hands.
1899: The collapse of a gangway between a train and a waiting ferry at Mount Desert sent 200 members of a Bangor excursion party into the water, drowning 20.
1901: A powerful storm caused the Penobscot to flood, carrying 8,000 logs from Bangor into Penobscot Bay, where they menaced shipping.
1902: Another great spring flood, caused by an ice dam, detached the middle section of the Penobscot River railroad bridge from its foundations and sent it crashing through the wooden covered pedestrian bridge down-stream, cutting all connections with Brewer.
1903: The Bangor-based schooner Willie L. Newton turned turtle (upside down) in a storm off Connecticut, with loss of all hands (7 men).
1907: The Sloop "Ruth E. Cummack" capsized in Penobscot Bay, drowning 6 young men, 5 of them from Bangor.
1908: Forest fires burned in surrounding towns. 1,000 men fought them within a 35-mile radius of Bangor.
1911: The Great Fire of 1911
1911: A head-on collision of two trains north of Bangor, in Grindstone, killed 15.
1918: The Spanish flu pandemic of 1918, which was global in scope, struck over a thousand Bangoreans and killed more than a hundred. This was the worst 'natural disaster' in the city's history.
1923: The Penobscot flooded again.
1928: Tiger-tamer Mabel Stark while performing in the John Robinson Circus in Bangor, was attacked by two of her tigers and severely mauled in front of a large crowd. She survived, and went on to survive 17 more tiger attacks, though none as bad as the one in Bangor.
1936: For the last time, an ice dam on the Penobscot caused serious flooding in Bangor.
1939: A truck carrying dynamite from Bangor through Holden, Maine was blown to bits, killing 6.
1941: First fatal crash of a military aircraft in Maine, when a B-18 Bolo Bomber stationed at Bangor Army Airfield goes down in nearby Springfield, Maine, killing all 4 crew. Between 1941 and 1971, there would be 14 additional fatal crashes of military aircraft based in Bangor, 3 within city limits and the rest in small towns or wilderness areas between the north woods and the coast.
1976: A coastal Northeaster, known as The Groundhog Day Gale of 1976 caused a surge up the Penobscot River, resulting in a flash flood downtown which covered 200 cars and closed both bridges to Brewer. No one was injured but it caused $2 million in property damage.
1984: The 740 ft. tall WVII TV antenna and 550 ft. tall WABI TV antenna both collapsed under ice, knocking seven tv and radio stations off the air.
1998: The North American Ice Storm of 1998. Bangor was among a few metropolitan areas in the United States effected by this freakish storm, which was a major natural disaster for Canada. Electricity was knocked out for more than a week in some areas as all trees, utility poles, and other objects were coated with a glistening layer of ice.

Military installations

Although Dow Air Force Base has been the city-owned Bangor International Airport since 1969, the US military and the Maine Air Guard continue to house units there and share the runway. These include the 101st Air Refueling Wing of the United States Air Force (USAF) and its 132nd Air Refueling Squadron, which mostly fly KC-135 tanker planes. The 132nd, which has been based in Bangor since 1947, and calls itself “The Mainiacs”, was a fighter squadron until 1976.
In 1990, the USAF East Coast Radar System (ECRS) Operation Center was activated in Bangor with over 400 personnel. The center controlled the Over-The-Horizon Backscatter (OTH-B) radar system, whose transmitter was in Moscow, Maine, and receiver in coastal Columbia Falls. Designed and built by General Electric, and incorporating 28 Digital Equipment VAX computers housed in Bangor, it was the most powerful radar in the world, capable of monitoring virtually the entire North Atlantic, from Iceland to the Caribbean. A similar system on the West Coast was built but never activated. With the end of the Cold War, the facility's mission of guarding against a Soviet air attack became superfluous, and though it briefly turned its attention toward drug interdiction, the system was decommissioned in 1997 as an expensive Cold War relic.
In 1960-64, Bangor had a similar experience as one of a dozen BOMARC anti-aircraft missile bases. Abandoned by the Air Force four years after construction, the fortified concrete missile bunkers long survived as ghostly landmarks, and a de-activated BOMARC missile was briefly mounted, statue-like, next to Paul Bunyan at Bass Park.

External links

City of Bangor

Bangor Convention & Visitors Bureau - Tourism Information

Bangor Region Chamber of Commerce

Bangor Metro magazine

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Boothbay Harbor is a town in Lincoln County, Maine, United States. The population was 2,334 at the 2000 census. Prior to incorporation in 1889 it was part of the town of Boothbay.
Boothbay Harbor is also a tourist attraction during the summer months. Some location filming for the 1956 film version of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Carousel, notably the June Is Bustin' Out All Over sequence, was done there.

Newspapers

The local newspaper for the Boothbay/Boothbay Harbor region is the Boothbay Register. The Lincoln County News also circulates in Boothbay Harbor. The Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram provides daily newspaper coverage.
See also: Boothbay Harbor (CDP), Maine


From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Kennebunk, typically pronounced /'kɛnibʌŋk/ (KEN-ee-bunk) among locals but often /'kɛnəbʌŋk/ (KEN-uh-bunk) or /kɛnə'bʌŋk/ (ken-uh-BUNK) among people "from away," is a town in York County, Maine, United States. The population was 10,476 at the 2000 census. Including Kennebunkport the population totals 14,196 people. Kennebunk is home to several beaches, the Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge, the 1799 Kennebunk Inn, many historic sea captain's homes, and the Nature Conservancy Blueberry Barrens, (known locally as the Blueberry Plains) with 1,500 acres (6 km²) of nature trails and Blueberry Fields.

History

First settled about 1620, the town developed as a trading and, later, shipbuilding and shipping center with light manufacturing. It was part of the town of Wells until 1820, when it incorporated as a separate town. "Kennebunk, the only village in the world so named," was featured on a large locally famous sign attached to the Kesslen Shoe Mill on Route One. To the Abenaki Indians, Kennebunk meant "the long cut bank," presumably the long bank behind Kennebunk Beach. Kennebunk's coastline is divided into three major sections. Mother's Beach, Middle Beach or Rocky Beach, and Gooches Beach or Long Beach. Separate from Kennebunk Beach is secluded Parson's Beach, a quiet alternative to the summer crowds.
The town is a popular summer tourist destination. Kennebunk contains fine examples of early architecture, the most noted of which is the Wedding Cake House, a Federal-style dwelling extensively decorated with scroll saw Gothic trim. This was added to the house for his wife of many years by George Washington Bourne late in his life, and not as legend has it by a ship captain for a young bride lost at sea. Local economy is tourism based. The headquarters for the natural health-care product manufacturer Tom's of Maine is located in Kennebunk. Many residents commute to Portland, to New Hampshire, and Massachusetts.
The Lafayette Elm was a tree which was planted to commemorate General Lafayette's 1825 visit to Kennebunk. It became famous for its age, size, and survival of the Dutch elm disease that destroyed the hundreds of the other elms that once lined Kennebunk's streets. The elm is featured on the town seal. The restored Kesslen Shoe Mill has been renamed the Lafayette Center. Kennebunk is home to two of the state's oldest banks -- Ocean Bank (1854) and Kennebunk Savings Bank (1871). Only Saco & Biddeford Savings Institution (1827) and Bangor Savings Bank (1852) are older. Summer Street was Maine's first Historic District listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Notable residents

Kate Chappell, businesswoman

Tom Chappell, businessman

Joseph Dane, congressman

Judith Hunt, illustrator

Hugh McCulloch, treasury secretary

Erik Nedeau, runner

Pinkerton Thugs, musicians

Kenneth Roberts, author

Clement Storer, congressman & senator

Education

Kennebunk and neighboring Kennebunkport comprise Maine School Administrative District 71.
The schools in MSAD 71 comprise of Consolidated School, Kennebunk Elementary School, Sea Road School, Middle School of the Kennebunks, and Kennebunk High School. The Middle School of the Kennebunks is part of Maine's project that gives laptops to all of the 7th and 8th graders in the school called MLTI, or Maine Learning Technology Initiative.
In 2000, a group of students teamed up with parents and local community members to found The New School, a small alternative high school, with students coming from as close as Kennebunk and Wells and as far away as Portland and Somersworth. The school is accredited by the State of Maine and the first group of students graduated in June of 2001. The New School has a focus on community-based learning.

Geography

According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 35.5 square miles (92.0 km²), of which, 35.1 square miles (90.9 km²) of it is land and 0.4 square miles (1.1 km²) of it (1.18%) is water. Kennebunk is drained by the Kennebunk River and Mousam River.
There are a few ways to get in and out of Kennebunk:

Interstate 95

U.S. Route 1 which goes through the center of Kennebunk and is part of the main street.

Route 9A

Route 35

Amtrak also goes through Kennebunk, but does not stop to pick people up.

Sites of interest

The Brick Store Museum

Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge

BBQ BOBS

External links

Town of Kennebunk, Maine

Kennebunk at Maine.gov

Kennebunk Free Library

MSAD 71

The New School

City Data Profile

Epodunk Town Profile

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Rockland is a city in Knox County, Maine, in the United States. As of the 2000 census, the city population was 7,609. It is the county seat of Knox County. It was settled in 1769, and was originally part of Thomaston, Maine. In 1848 it became a separate town named East Thomaston, and was chartered as a city in 1854. Rockland is also an officially designated micropolitan area, and has made several "best cities and towns to live" lists in recent years. Since the early 1990s, Rockland has seen a shift in its economy away from the fishery and toward a service center city. It has also seen a large increase in tourism and the downtown has transformed into one of unique shops, boutiques, fine dining and art galleries. Rockland is the commercial center of the midcoast Maine region, with many historic inns, a coffee roaster, a food co-op and is also home to the Farnsworth Art Museum.

Geography

Rockland is located at (44.109569, -69.114652). It is bordered to the south by the town of Owls Head to the west by Thomaston, Maine and to the north by Rockport, Maine. Penobscot Bay on the Atlantic ocean borders Rockland to the east. About ten miles to the east are the islands of North Haven, Maine, and Vinalhaven which can be reached by ferry service from Rockland.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 15.1 square miles (39.1 km²), of which, 12.9 square miles (33.4 km²) of it is land and 2.2 square miles (5.7 km²) of it (14.50%) is water.

Culture

Farnsworth Art Museum & Wyeth Center

The Farnsworth Art Museum offers a nationally recognized collection of American art in its elegantly appointed galleries. Such great names in 18th- and 19th-century American art history as Gilbert Stuart, Thomas Sully, Thomas Eakins, Eastman Johnson, Fitz Hugh Lane, Frank Benson, Childe Hassam, and Maurice Prendergast are represented in the museum's permanent collection entitled Maine in America.
The museum also houses the nation's second-largest collection of works by premier 20th-century sculptor Louise Nevelson and has opened four new galleries to showcase contemporary art. Its Wyeth Center exclusively features works of Andrew, N.C. and Jamie Wyeth, America's first family of art.

Rockland Public Library

The Rockland Public Library, located in downtown, opened in its current location in 1904, a gift of Andrew Carnegie. In addition to thousands of books, the library also hosts children's reading programs, films, and lectures.

Strand Theatre

The Historic Strand Theatre, located in downtown Rockland, has been entertaining moviegoers since 1923. Independently owned and listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the theatre underwent an extensive historic restoration in 2004–2005. The Strand was updated with state-of-the-art sound and projection equipment, the interior and exterior were restored, and a new marquee was added.
Rockland's only movie theatre, the Strand offers the best of independent and world cinema, documentary, classic and retrospective film. In addition, the Strand hosts live musical performances & concerts, comedy, conferences, and other special events. The theatre is also available for rent on a limited basis.

Penobscot School

Founded in 1986 as a non-profit language school and center for international exchange, Penobscot School is a unique community international school. Over the years, hundreds of people from the U.S. and from around the world have advanced their foreign language skills at Penobscot School and have learned more about the world in the process. You are invited to be a part of this experiment in language learning in the context of the exchange of ideas and knowledge.
Penobscot School’s primary mission is to offer effective courses of language study for adults. Courses are designed to allow you, the student, to learn in your own way and at your own pace and to enjoy yourself while learning. The goal is maximum language acquisition for meaningful, real-life communication.
More than a language school, Penobscot School is a center for exchange between people of different cultures. One of the most popular languages at Penobscot School is English. Over 500 adults have come to Rockland from 48 different countries. Foreign visitors and American students of foreign languages creates a synergy — a true university of learners.

WRFR-LP Radio Free Rockland

WRFR-LP is a low power FM radio station licensed by the FCC to serve the City of Rockland, Maine, and surrounding towns. The construction permit was granted on March 19, 2001. The Station has been broadcasting 24/7 since Valentines Day, 2002. The station is licensed to Penobscot School, a non-profit center for language learning and international exchange in Rockland. Penobscot School appoints the station manager and has established WRFR as an independent community radio station with a mission to serve and be open to everyone in its listening area. WRFR is non-commercial and is operated entirely by volunteers. It is also carried on 99.3 in Camden.

North Atlantic Blues Festival

North Atlantic Blues Festival 14th annual fest held 12 & 13 July 2008, featuring Walter Trout and Elvin Bishop. Harbor Park is a beautiful outdoor setting, held rain or shine. From 11:00 a.m. until 6:00 p.m. each day national touring blues musicians play on stage with the Atlantic ocean as back drop. Saturday night Main street is closed to traffic for the famous Club Crawl, in which 15 venues have music. Check the website for acts and ticket info. Hot Line info 207-593-1189.

Maritime History

Lobster Festival

The Maine Lobster Festival is held the first weekend of August in Rockland Maine. Every year there is a parade and the worlds biggest lobster cooker. You can tour a naval ship, participate in lobster crate races and enjoy great entertainment. People come from all over the world to eat 25,000 pounds of lobster! Also there are 1000 volunteers every year.
In recent years, headliners have included JoDee Messina, Don Rickles, Beausoleil, Ricky Skaggs, Dickey Betts, SheDaisy, Dwight Yoakam, The Temptations, Marshall Tucker Band, Willie Nelson, The Dixie Chicks, Sha Na Na, Asleep at The Wheel, and Chubby Checker, among many others. In 2006, our entertainment included Country stars Andy Griggs and Julie Roberts, acclaimed song writer Don McLean (American Pie), and the legendary classic rockers Blood Sweat & Tears as headliners for the Maine Lobster Festival.

Atlantic Challenge/Apprentice Shop

The Apprenticeshop is one of the oldest and finest traditional boat building schools in the country. Begun in 1972 within the complex of The Maine Maritime Museum in Bath and founded by Lance Lee, the ‘Shop was inspired by the philosophy of Kurt Hahn—who believed that education should encourage both thought and action, not one or the other, but both at once. Lee believed that practicing resourcefulness and learning through boatbuilding—a medium that requires decisions, care, patience, forethought, and time, is as important as learning boatbuilding.
More than three decades have passed since the first keel was laid in a newly resurrected ‘Shop in Bath, and our mission has never changed. Thousands of apprentices, interns, volunteers and visitors have passed through, and hundreds of examples of work have left the ‘Shop floor for new lives on the water. While we are drawn to the beauty and function of the craft we produce, we are confident that it is not solely about the boats.

Coast Guard Station Rockland

The U. S. Coast Guard has a lengthy history of service in the Penobscot Bay area. Earlier in this century, several lighthouses and lifeboat stations served local mariners. The current station is located on two parcels of land in downtown Rockland. Small boat docks and support facilities are located on a wharf at the end of Tillson Avenue. Formerly known as Tillson's Wharf, this property was acquired in June 1941 by the U.S. Navy to be used as a naval section base during WWII. It was given to the Coast Guard in 1943 and became Base Rockland along with the wharf now known as Coast Guard Moorings. Coast Guard Moorings has been used by many Coast Guard Cutters over the years and now serves the ABBIE BURGESS, THUNDER BAY, TACKLE and Station small boats.

Maine Lighthouse Museum

The Maine Lighthouse Museum is the proud home of the largest collection of lighthouse lenses, and one of the most important landmark collections of lighthouse artifacts and Coast Guard memorabilia in the United States. The collection was formerly displayed at the Shore Village Museum until its closing in October, 2004.

Recreation

Situated on the western shore of Penobscot Bay, recreation on the water is the center of summertime activities. Rockland's waterfront features many boatyards and chandleries, and the Rockland Yacht Club also hosts events for sailors. The many islands in the bay provide a rich and varied experience for sea kayaking, with guided tours available.
The Rockland Golf Club is located a mile from downtown, and the Samoset Golf Club (both open to the public) is in nearby Rockport. The winding, hilly roads offer great bicycle rides, and trails offer challenging rides for mountain bikers. Group rides depart from a local bike shop.
Wintertime provides for other activities, including ice fishing ice boating and skating on Lake Chickawakee, cross country skiing, and alpine sports at the Camden Snowbowl nearby.

Trivia

Rockland was the birthplace of Pulitzer Prize winning poet Edna St. Vincent Millay

The 2001 film In the Bedroom was set and predominantly filmed in Rockland, and production was based at the Lincoln Street Center there.

Famous Natives and Residents

Maxine Elliott, Actress

David F. Emery, Former U.S. Representative

Nathan A. Farwell, Former Senator.

Todd Field, Academy Award nominated Filmmaker

Edna St. Vincent Millay, Poet (Born in Rockland).

Louise Nevelson, Artist (Reared in Rockland).

Walter Piston, Pulitzer Prize Winning Composer

Merrill Morang, Famous World War II Paratrooper and Maine Soldier of the year recipient (Lives in Rockland).

External links

City of Rockland

Photobucket Photos

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia