VERMONT (Burlington, Montpelier, Derby)
Vermont is a northeastern New England state that borders the states of Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, and New York to the west, and the Canadian province of Quebec to the north. Vermont is the only state in New England that does not border the Atlantic Ocean. Vermont is the second-least populated U.S. state and the sixth-smallest by area of the 50 U.S. states. The state capital is Montpelier, the least populous state capital in the United States. The most populous city, Burlington, is the least populous city to be the most populous city in a state.
History. For some 12,000 years, indigenous peoples inhabited this area. The historically competitive tribes of the Algonquian-speaking Abenaki and Iroquoian-speaking Mohawk were active in the area at the time of European encounter.
During the 17th century, French colonists claimed the territory. After Great Britain began to settle colonies to the south along the Atlantic coast, the two nations competed in North America in addition to Europe. For years, each country enlisted Native American allies in continuous raiding and warfare between the New England and New France colonies. This produced an active trade in captives taken during such raids, often held for ransom.
After being defeated in 1763 in the Seven Years’ War, France ceded its territory east of the Mississippi River to Great Britain. Ultimately, a group of settlers with New Hampshire land grant titles established the Vermont Republic in 1777 as an independent state during the American Revolutionary War. The Vermont Republic abolished slavery before any of the other states. Vermont was also the first state to produce an African-American university graduate, Alexander Twilight, in 1823.
Vermont was admitted to the newly established United States as the fourteenth state in 1791. Vermont is one of the four U.S. states that were previously sovereign states (along with Texas, California, and Hawaii).
During the mid-19th century, Vermont was a strong source of abolitionist sentiment, although it was also tied to King Cotton through the development of textile mills in the region, which relied on southern cotton. In the 21st century, Protestants (30%) and Catholics (22%) make up the majority of those reporting a religious preference, with 37% reporting no religion, the highest rate of irreligion of all states.
The geography of the state is marked by the Green Mountains, which run north–south up the middle of the state, separating Lake Champlain and other valley terrain on the west from the Connecticut River valley that defines much of its eastern border. A majority of its terrain is forested with hardwoods and conifers, and a majority of its open land is devoted to agriculture.
Vermont’s economic activity of $34 billion in 2018 ranked 52nd on the list of U.S. states and territories by GDP (every state plus Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico were larger), but 34th in GDP per capita. In 1960, Vermonters’ politics started to shift from being reliably Republican toward favoring Democratic candidates. Since 2007, Vermont has elected only Democrats and independents to Congress. In 2000, the state legislature was the first to recognize civil unions for same-sex couples. In 2011–2012, the state officially recognized four Abenaki tribes.
Woodstock: Woodstock Inn & Resort,Woodstock.
MANCHESTER (pop 4,391)
Manchester has become a tourist destination, especially for those from New York and Connecticut, offering visitors factory outlet stores of national chain retailers such as Brooks Brothers, Kate Spade and Ralph Lauren, as well as many locally owned businesses, including the Northshire Bookstore, an independent bookstore.
The winter sports area of Stratton Mountain Resort is nearby to the east.
History. The town was one of several chartered in 1761 by Benning Wentworth, colonial governor of New Hampshire. Laid out in 1784, the land was better suited for grazing than tillage, so by 1839 about 6,000 sheep roamed the pastures and hillsides.
Other industries came to include iron mines, marble quarries and mills, and lumber companies. The arrival of the railroad from industrialized centers like New York City brought tourists, drawn by Manchester’s historic architecture and beautiful setting among mountains. Following the Civil War, the town developed into an affluent resort area, which it remains today.
Orvis is a family-owned retail and mail-order business specializing in high-end fly fishing, hunting and sporting goods. Founded in Manchester in 1856 by Charles F. Orvis to sell fishing tackle, it is the oldest mail-order retailer in the United States.
Jake Burton Carpenter, founder of Burton Snowboards, perfected snowboard design in his garage in Manchester. Stratton Mountain was among the first ski resorts to allow snowboarding.
Between 1812 and 1819 Manchester was made famous by the Boorn–Colvin case, called “America’s first wrongful conviction murder case”, the subject of several books and still studied today.
The following two businesses are in the NM “Hospitality Legends” series.
Equinox Hotel. Originally the Marsh Inn built in 1769, then the Thaddeus Munson’s New Inn, Widow Black’s Inn, Vanderlip’s Hotel, The Taconic, The Orvis Hotel, and finally the Equinox, it has six different architectural styles, and 17 different structures. It served as a hotbed for American Revolutionaries; and stands as a monument to the American government’s policy of expropriating private property for the common good.
The main building is white clapboard with many fluted columns.
Ye Olde Tavern is a restaurant in Manchester Center built in 1790, making it the oldest inn in the state of Vermont. It was also one of the first buildings in Manchester to house telephone lines, and was once “the headquarters for the movement to license the sale of ‘spirituous beverages’. It began as a tavern in 1790 called The Stagecoach Inn, then the 1850 Lockwood’s Hotel, the 1860 Thayer’s Hotel, the 1902 Fairview Hotel and then a hotel and antique shop. In 1975, it was renamed Ye Olde Tavern and has now had 3 separate owners. The tavern currently has seven dining rooms, two of which are upstairs, with ninety seats and a full bar.
The following are small villages all close together and filled with great old houses.
Dorset (pop 249) About 6 miles north of Manchester, it is famous for being the location of Cephas Kent’s Inn where the idea of Vermont was born. Dorset is the site of America’s oldest marble quarry and is the birthplace of Bill W., co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous. The East Dorset marble quarry had been established by Bill W.’s great grandfather and stayed in the family for three generations. Marble from these quarries provided stone for the New York Public Library Main Branch building in New York City. The quarry closed and during the summer months serves as a popular swimming hole.
Weston (pop 566). Set among the Green Mountains, the terrain is very rough and mountainous, but the intervales provided good soil for agriculture and pasturage. A second village grew at the canal cut to divert the West River to power watermills. Called the Island, it developed into a small mill town. By 1859, when Weston’s population was 950, industries included ten sawmills, a gristmill, two tanneries, one wood-turning mill, one machine shop, one axe shop, one carding machine, in addition to shops for blacksmiths, carpenters, tinsmiths, wheelwrights and shoemakers.
Vermont’s oldest professional theatre, the Weston Playhouse Theatre Company, was founded in 1935. The Vermont Country Store, a catalogue, retail, and e-commerce business, was established here in 1946 by Vrest and Ellen Orton.
Chester (pop 4,768). Dating form 1719, it may have been the first of the settlement grants by Massachusetts selected for expansion of growing populations in the seacoast. The highest point in town is found on an unnamed hill west of Bell Hill with two knobs of almost equal elevation of at least 635 feet (194 m).
Grafton (679). The town was founded as Thomlinson, but renaming rights were auctioned in 1791. The high bidder, who reportedly offered “five dollars and a jug of rum,” changed the name to Grafton after his home town of Grafton, Massachusetts. The money was never collected.
In the early 19th century, sheep raising became popular and multiple woolen mills sprang up along the branches of the Saxtons River. Soapstone was quarried on nearby Bear Mountain. The town became a notable stagecoach hub for traffic across the Green Mountains into Albany, New York. One inn from that era, “the Old Tavern,” was founded in 1801. It remains one of the oldest continually operating hotels in the United States.
Grafton had a population of almost 1,500 just before the American Civil War when it suffered severe losses. Local cemeteries hold many tombstones of casualties from the Battle of Gettysburg. After the war, the soapstone quarry was depleted and closed.
In the 1960s the village was renovated. An artisanal cheese business, the Grafton Village Cheese Company and a world-class cross-country skiing center started that attracted new residents from metropolitan New York and Boston.
NOMAD MANIA Vermont (Burlington, Montpelier, Derby)
Borders: Canada (Quebec)-United States
XL:
Haskell Free Library and Opera House
Province island (Quebec/Vermont)
Museums:
Bennington: Bennington Museum
Norwich: Montshire Museum of Science
Pittsford: New England Maple Museum
Rutland: Norman Rockwell Museum
Shelburne: Shelburne Museum
Windsor: American Precision Museum
House Museums/Plantations: Shaftsbury: Robert Frost Stone House Museum at Bennington College
Festivals: Essex: Vermont Quilt Festival
Theme Parks: Putney: Santa’s Land USA
Hospitality Legends: Woodstock: Woodstock Inn & Resort
Cities of the Americas
BURLINGTON/WINOOSKI
Airports: Burlington (BTV)
Museums: Fleming Museum of Art
Villages and Small Towns
CHELSEA
CHESTER
DORSET
GRAFTON
WESTON
MONTPELIER
Museums: Vermont Historical Society Museum
STOWE
Ski Resorts: Stowe Mountain Resort
MANCHESTER*
Museums:
American Museum of Fly Fishing
Museum of the Creative Process
Hospitality Legends:
Equinox Hotel
Ye Olde Tavern
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NEW HAMPSHIRE (Concord, Manchester, Keene)
It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Atlantic Ocean to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec to the north. New Hampshire is the 5th smallest by area and the 10th least populous U.S. state.
Concord is the state capital, while Manchester is the largest city. New Hampshire has no general sales tax, nor income tax other than on interest and dividends. Its license plates carry the state motto, “Live Free or Die”. The state’s nickname, “The Granite State”, refers to its extensive granite formations and quarries.
In January 1776, it became the first of the colonies to establish a government and was one of the original 13 colonies that signed the United States Declaration of Independence.
Historically, New Hampshire was a major center for textile manufacturing, shoemaking, and papermaking, with Amoskeag Manufacturing Company in Manchester at one time being the largest cotton textile plant in the world. Numerous mills were located along various rivers in the state, especially the Merrimack and Connecticut rivers. Many French Canadians migrated to New Hampshire to work the mills in the late 19th and early 20th century; New Hampshire still ranks second among states by percentage of people claiming French American ancestry, with 24.5% of the state identifying as such.
Manufacturing centers such as Manchester, Nashua, and Berlin were hit hard in the 1930s–1940s, as major manufacturing industries left New England and moved to the southern United States or overseas, reflecting nationwide trends. In the 1950s and 1960s, defense contractors moved into many of the former mills, such as Sanders Associates in Nashua, and the population of southern New Hampshire surged beginning in the 1980s as major highways connected the region to Greater Boston and established several bedroom communities in the state.
With some of the highest ski mountains on the East Coast, New Hampshire’s major recreational attractions include skiing, snowmobiling, and other winter sports, hiking and mountaineering (Mount Monadnock in the state’s southwestern corner is among the most climbed mountains in the U.S.), observing the fall foliage, summer cottages along many lakes and the seacoast, motor sports at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway, and Motorcycle Week, a popular motorcycle rally held in Weirs Beach in Laconia in June. The White Mountain National Forest links the Vermont and Maine portions of the Appalachian Trail, and has the Mount Washington Auto Road, where visitors may drive to the top of 6,288-foot (1,917 m) Mount Washington.
Prominent individuals from New Hampshire are Horace Greeley, founder of the Christian Science religion Mary Baker Eddy, poet Robert Frost, astronaut Alan Shepard, rock musician Ronnie James Dio, author Dan Brown, actor Adam Sandler and Seth Meyers.
Hanover Inn Dartmouth Hotel, Hanover. General Ebenezer Brewster, whose home occupied the present site of the Inn, founded the Dartmouth Hotel in 1780, which later burned to the ground and was replaced by the Wheelock Hotel. From 1901 – 1903, Dartmouth College carried out extensive renovations to the facility, which was then renamed the Hanover Inn. Wings were added in 1924, 1939 and 1968, a west wing was added. Today the Hanover Inn Dartmouth is a 108-room neo-Georgian structure that is owned by Dartmouth College. The Inn is located on the Dartmouth College campus, overlooking the college Green.
Manchester (pop 112,525) is a city in southern New Hampshire. It is the most populous city in northern New England (the states of Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont). It lies near the northern end of the Northeast megalopolis and straddles the banks of the Merrimack River. Manchester often appears favorably in lists ranking the affordability and livability of U.S. cities, placing particularly high in small business climate, affordability, upward mobility, and education level.
Native Pennacook Indians called Amoskeag Falls on the Merrimack River—the area that became the heart of Manchester—Namaoskeag, meaning “good fishing place”. In 1722, a dam and sawmill were built. In 1807, a canal and lock system was built to allow vessels passage around the falls, part of a network developing to link the area with Boston. In 1809, a water-powered cotton spinning mill was built that expanded to three mills in 1826. In 1846, it was home to the largest cotton mill in the world—Mill No. 11, stretching 900 feet (270 m) long by 103 feet (31 m) wide, and containing 4,000 looms. Other products made in the community included shoes, cigars, and paper. The Amoskeag foundry made rifles, sewing machines, textile machinery, fire engines, and locomotives. The rapid growth of the mills demanded a large influx of workers, resulting in a flood of immigrants, particularly French Canadians. Many residents descend from these workers. The mill town’s 19th-century affluence left behind some of the finest Victorian commercial, municipal, and residential architecture in the state.
EXETER (pop 15,317). Exeter is situated where the Exeter River feeds the tidal Squamscott River.
The area was once the domain of the Squamscott people, a sub-tribe of the Pennacook nation, which fished at the falls where the Exeter River becomes the tidal Squamscott. In 1638, the Reverend John Wheelwright and 175 others purchased the land where they had been exiled by the Massachusetts Bay Colony, a Puritan theocracy, for their dissident religious views. The settlers hunted, planted and fished. Others tended cattle and swine, or made shakes and barrel staves. In 1647, the Gilman family built the first sawmill, and developed a burgeoning business in lumber, staves and masts. The Gilman Garrison House and the American Independence Museum were both former homes of the Gilman family. The Gilman family also donated the land on which Phillips Exeter Academy stands. The Gilman family began trading as far as the West Indies with ships they owned out of Portsmouth. It was a high-stakes business.
In 1774, Exeter became New Hampshire’s capital, an honor it held for 14 years. Exeter had a significant black community at this time. In 1827, the Exeter Manufacturing Company used water power to produce cotton textiles. Other businesses would manufacture shoes, saddles, harnesses, lumber, boxes, bricks, carriages and bicycles. In 1836, the last schooner was launched at Exeter. In 1840, the Boston & Maine Railroad entered the town.
The United States Republican Party was born in Exeter in 1853. Abraham Lincoln, the first Republican president, visited Exeter in 1860. His son, Robert Todd Lincoln, was attending Phillips Exeter Academy. Other features of the town include the Swasey Parkway, which replaced wharves and warehouses along the Squamscott River, and the Ioka Theatre of 1915 on Water Street. Ioka was a Native American word meaning “playground”.
Philips Exeter Academy Library. In the NM “Modern Architecture Buildings” series, this independent boarding school and college preparatory school was founded in 1781 by Dr. John Phillips. The entire Phillips Exeter Academy campus was designed between 1908 and 1950.
The library opened in 1971 and is the largest secondary school library in the world, containing 160,000 volumes over nine levels with a shelf capacity of 250,000 volumes. It is structured in three concentric square rings. The outer ring, which is built of load-bearing brick, includes all four exterior walls and the library carrel desks immediately inside them near windows so they could receive natural light.. The middle ring, which is built of reinforced concrete, holds the heavy book stacks. The inner ring is a dramatic atrium with enormous circular openings in its walls that reveal several floors of book stacks.
Staff librarians are encouraged to see themselves as co-instructors with the regular faculty and to put less emphasis on shushing library patrons. A piano was installed and the library began sponsoring lectures and concerts. The library was the first building on campus to be computerized as it was built with sufficient conduit space for the cabling needed by the coming computer revolution.
The library has an almost cubical shape: each of its four sides is 111 feet (33 m) wide and 80 feet (24 m) tall with buildings-within-buildings”. The stacks are visible from the floor of the central hall, the layout of the library is clear to the visitor at a glance, which was one of the goals.
NOMAD MANIA New Hampshire (Concord, Manchester, Keene)
Borders
Canada (Quebec)-United States
United States of America 48 states (sea border/port)
Railway, Metro, Funiculars, Cable Cars
Cannon Mountain Tram
Mt. Washington Cog Railway
Museums
Enfield: Enfield Shaker Museum
Portsmouth: Strawbery Banke Museum
Warner: New Hampshire Telephone Museum
Wolfeboro: Wright Museum of World War II
Castles, Palaces, Forts
Moultonboroug: Castle in the Clouds
New Castle: Fort William and Mary
Windham: Searles Castle
World of Nature: Franconia Notch State Park (Sight)
Theme Parks: Bartlett: Story Land
Ski Resorts: Bretton Woods Mountain Resort
Hospitality Legends
Bretton Woods: Omni Mount Washington Resort
Hanover: Hanover Inn Dartmouth Hotel
Maritime/Ship Museums: Portsmouth: USS Albacore
Aviation Museums: Londonderry: Aviation Museum of New Hampshire
Vehicle Museums; Meredith: American Police Motorcycle Museum
Cities of the Americas
NASHUA
MANCHESTER
Airports: Manchester (MHT)
Museums: Currier Museum of Art
Villages and Small Towns
EXETER
Modern Buildings Architecture: Philips Academy Library
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MAINE (Portland, Augusta, Bangor, Presque Isle)
Maine is the northernmost state in the northeastern United States. Maine is the 12th smallest by area and the 9th least populous. It is bordered by New Hampshire to the west, the Atlantic Ocean to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Québec to the northeast and northwest, respectively. Maine is the only state to border exactly one other state, is the easternmost among the contiguous United States, and is the northernmost state east of the Great Lakes.
Maine is known for its jagged, rocky coastline; low, rolling mountains; heavily forested interior; and picturesque waterways, as well as its seafood cuisine, especially lobster and clams. There is a humid continental climate throughout most of the state, including coastal areas. Maine’s most populous city is Portland and its capital is Augusta.
For thousands of years, several Algonquian-speaking peoples inhabited the area. The first European settlement in the area was by the French in 1604 on Saint Croix Island. The first English settlement was the short-lived Popham Colony, 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 conflict with the local peoples caused many to fail over the years.
On March 15, 1820, under the Missouri Compromise, it was admitted to the Union as the 23rd state.
Maine’s agricultural outputs include poultry, eggs, dairy products, cattle, wild blueberries, apples, maple syrup, maple sugar and potato crops. Commercial fishing, once a mainstay of the state’s economy, maintains a presence, particularly lobstering and groundfishing. Maine is the number one U.S. producer of low-bush blueberries
Tourism and outdoor recreation play a major and increasingly important role in Maine’s economy – sport hunting, sport fishing, snowmobiling, skiing, boating, camping, and hiking.
Nubble Lighthouse (Cape Neddick Light). Built in 1879, it sits on Nubble Island about 100 yards off Cape Neddick Point. The lighthouse is inaccessible to the general public, but the nearby mainland is occupied by Sohier Park. The tower is lined with brick and sheathed with cast iron. It stands 41 feet (12 m) tall but the light is 88 feet (27 m) above sea level because of the additional height of the steep rocky islet on which it sits. Unusually, the stanchions of the walkway railing around the lantern room are decorated with 4-inch (100 mm) brass replicas of the lighthouse itself.The Cape Neddick Light stands on Nubble Island about 100 yards (91 m) off Cape Neddick Point. It is commonly known as “Nubble Light” or simply “the Nubble”.
Nubble Light is a famous American icon and a classic example of a lighthouse. The Voyager spacecraft, which carries photographs of Earth’s most prominent man-made structures and natural features, should it fall into the hands of intelligent extraterrestrials, includes a photo of Nubble Light with images of the Great Wall of China and the Taj Mahal.
There are many stories about the Nubble Light. Among them is one of the keeper and his wife who, in 1912, decided to take advantage of the booming tourist business at the York beaches. They developed a lively business ferrying tourists across to the island and giving tours. The trade grew so lively that the light was neglected and the keeper fired. Another keeper lived on the island with his 19-pound (8.6 kg) cat who was an attraction in himself, especially when he reputedly swam across the channel to visit mainland friends.
Colony Hotel, Kennebunkport. The Colony Hotel is a recognizable landmark from land and sea overlooking the Atlantic Ocean, Kennebunk River and private beach. The 1914 resort has 125 guestrooms in five buildings each with its own distinctive style and ocean, river, or garden view. Two ocean view restaurants serve New England fare and lobster at every meal. Owned and operated by the same family since 1947.
Cape Elizabeth Lighthouse, Cape Elizabeth. At the southwestern entrance to Casco Bay in Maine, only the eastern tower of the two that made up the light station until 1924 is active. The western tower is deactivated, but it is still standing and is privately owned.
The facility is adjacent to Two Lights State Park, a 41-acre (17 ha) state facility which allows a view of, but not access to, the grounds of the lighthouse. Designed in the Gothic Revival style, the area is known as “Two Lights” due to the history of the station. It was originally built in 1828 as two rubble stone towers 300 yards (270 m) apart. Steam-driven warning whistles were installed in the twin towers in 1869, the first used in North America. In 1874, both structures were replaced by conical towers made of cast-iron, each 67 feet (20 m) high and 129 feet (39 m) above sea level. Despite its twin beacons, Cape Elizabeth witnessed many shipwrecks.
One of the most thrilling episodes in the history of the lighthouse occurred on January 28, 1885, when Keeper Marcus A. Hanna saved two crew members of the schooner Australia which had run aground on the ledge near the fog signal station. The two men had taken to the rigging and were coated with ice, unable to move. The captain was drowned as a huge comber washed the deck. Keeper Hanna, securing a heavy iron weight to the end of a stout line, attempted time and again to reach the men with it. Suddenly a towering wave struck the schooner and smashed her against the rocks, putting her on her beam ends.
Keeper Hanna again threw his line and watched it land on the schooner. One of the seamen managed to reach it and bent it around his waist. Then he jumped into the sea and the keeper, with great effort, pulled him up over the rocky ledge. The keeper now heaved the line a second time and finally it reached the second seaman who wound it around his icy body. Then he too jumped into the ocean. Just as the keeper’s strength was exhausted in trying to haul ashore the second man, help came in the shape of the keeper’s assistant and two neighbours, who helped haul the man to safety.
PORTLAND (pop 66,417, metro 500,000)
Portland is the most populous city in Maine. Portland’s economy relies mostly on the service sector and tourism. The Old Port district is known for its 19th-century architecture and nightlife. Marine industry still plays an important role in the city’s economy, with an active waterfront that supports fishing and commercial shipping. The Port of Portland is the largest tonnage seaport in New England.
The city seal depicts a phoenix rising from ashes, which is a reference to the recoveries from four devastating fires. Portland was named after the English Isle of Portland, Dorset. In turn, the city of Portland, Oregon was named after Portland.
Native Americans, originally called the Portland peninsula Machigonne (“Great Neck”). Portland was named for the English Isle of Portland, and the city of Portland, Oregon, was in turn named for Portland, Maine. The first European settlers were in 1623 but it was a failure and was resettled in 1632 as a fishing and trading village named Casco. In 1676, the village was destroyed by the Abenaki, again in 1690 by French, and in 1775, was burned. The Neck developed as a commercial port and began to grow rapidly as a shipping center. Portland’s economy was greatly stressed by the Embargo Act of 1807 (prohibition of trade with the British), which ended in 1809, and the War of 1812, which ended in 1815.
In 1820, Maine was established as a state with Portland as its capital. In 1832, the capital was moved north and East to Augusta. In 1851, Maine led the nation by passing the first state law prohibiting the sale of alcohol except for medicinal, mechanical or manufacturing purposes and in 1855, the Portland Rum Riot occurred.
In 1853, upon completion of the Grand Trunk Railway to Montreal, Portland became the primary ice-free winter seaport for Canadian exports. Portland became a 20th-century rail hub as five additional rail lines merged into Portland Terminal Company in 1911. In 1923, Canadian export traffic was diverted from Portland to Halifax, Nova Scotia, resulting in marked local economic decline. In the 20th century, icebreakers later enabled ships to reach Montreal in winter, drastically reducing Portland’s role as a winter port for Canada.
On June 26, 1863, a Confederate raiding party led by Captain Charles Read entered the harbor at Portland leading to the Battle of Portland Harbor, one of the northernmost battles of the Civil War. The 1866 Great Fire of Portland 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.
The Maine Mall shopping center opened in the 1970s, economically depressing downtown Portland. The trend reversed when ztourists and new businesses started revitalizing the Old Port. Since the 1990s, the historically industrial Bayside neighborhood has seen rapid development,
Portland Head Light is a historic lighthouse sitting on a head of land at the entrance of the primary shipping channel into Portland Harbor, which is within Casco Bay in the Gulf of Maine. Completed in 1791, it is the oldest lighthouse in Maine. Built of rubblestone, it is 80 feet above ground and 101 feet above water with its white conical tower being connected to a dwelling. The aerobeacon is visible for 24 nautical miles
Fort Popham, Popham Beach, is a Civil War-era coastal defense fortification at the mouth of the Kennebec River in Phippsburg, Maine. Several forts and batteries were built with the Embargo Act of 1807, which prohibited all exports from the US as an attempt to exert pressure on Britain and France, which had been taking actions against US shipping. The embargo was deeply unpopular due to severe economic effects. It saw minor action during the War of 1812.
The fort was was built in 1861 from granite blocks with a 30-foot high wall in a crescent shape 500 feet in circumference facing the mouth of the Kennebec River. Construction was halted in 1869 as war experience showed that masonry forts were vulnerable to modern rifled guns. Fort Baldwin with longer-range guns was built in 1905 on the headland above Fort Popham and eventually rendered Fort Popham obsolete. Fort Baldwin was disarmed in 1924 but the mine facilities at Fort Popham remained operational through World War II.
Marshall Point Lighthouse sits at the entrance of Port Clyde Harbor and established in 1832 to assist boats entering and leaving the harbour. The original tower was replaced with the present lighthouse in 1857, a 31-foot tall white brick tower on a granite foundation. A raised wooden walkway connects the tower to land.
In 1895, the original keeper’s house was destroyed by lightning and a Colonial Revival style house was built to replace it. An oil house and a bell tower with a 1,000-pound (450 kg) bell were added in 1898 and was replaced with a fog horn in 1969.
Rockland (pop 7,297). The city is a popular tourist destination and is a departure point for the Maine State Ferry Service to the islands of Penobscot Bay: Vinalhaven, North Haven and Matinicus.
First settled about 1769, it developed rapidly because of shipbuilding and lime production. In 1854 alone, the city built eleven ships, three barks, six brigs and four schooners. The city had twelve lime quarries and 125 lime kilns, 1,000 workers and 300 vessels to transport the mineral to various ports in the country. Other industries included three grain mills, two foundries, three carriage factories, six lumber mills, two machine shops, three cooperies, one tannery, four granite and marble works, two boot and shoe factories, and four printing offices. Fishing was also important.
The Knox and Lincoln Railroad in 1871 brought an influx of tourists. 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 substantial increase in tourism and the downtown has transformed into one of unique shops, boutiques, fine dining and art galleries.
Rockland is home to the 5-day Maine Lobster Festival in the first week of August. Other attractions are the Center for Maine Contemporary Art and the Farnsworth Art Museum, a world-famous art museum containing paintings by Andrew Wyeth and other well-known New England artists. Penobscot Bay is known internationally as one of the best recreational sailing grounds in the world. The city’s breakwater, built in the 19th century, also draws tourists.
Camden (pop 4,850). The population of the town more than triples during the summer months, due to tourists and summer residents. Similar to Bar Harbor, Nantucket and North Haven, Camden is well known for its summer community of wealthy Northeasterners, mostly from Boston, New York and Philadelphia.
First settled about 1771–1772, the first home was the Conway House built in 1770 that in 1962 was purchased and renovated into a history museum.
The Megunticook River provided excellent water power sites for sawmills and gristmills. There were six shipyards, launching ten to twelve vessels annually. Camden was second only to nearby Rockland in the lucrative manufacture of lime. At the end of the 19th century, shipbuilding launched the largest four-masted schooner Charlotte A. Maxwell and the first six-master ever built-the George W. Wells. Local residents, who had formerly gone to sea to earn a living, found jobs as caretakers, gardeners, and carpenters to the rich and powerful.
In 1892, a fire burned the business district to the ground. 12 large brick buildings, including the Camden Opera House and the Masonic Temple were rebuilt. In 1897 a road was built to the top of Mt. Battie, one of the two mountains rising above the town and in 1898, the Megunticook Golf Club. Donations from the wealthy built the public library, the amphitheatre, Camden Harbor Park designed by the Olmsted Brothers, the Village Green, and the Camden Opera House.
West Quoddy Head is the easternmost point of the contiguous United States overlooking Quoddy Narrows, a strait between Lubec and Campobello Island, Canada. Since 1808, there has been a lighthouse there to guide ships through the Quoddy Narrows. The current one, with distinctive red-and-white stripes, was built in 1858. Most of the peninsula is part of Quoddy Head State Park,
The circular brick tower is 49 feet high with the beacon at 83 feet above sea level. The light has a range of 18 miles (29 km). The tower is built of brick, and painted in alternating horizontal red and white stripes.
NOMAD MANIA Maine (Portland, Augusta, Bangor, Presque Isle)
Islands: Mount Desert (ME)
Borders
Canada (New Brunswick)-United States
Canada (Quebec)-United States
United States of America 48 states (sea border/port)
XL:
Deer Isle (Maine)
Maine northern ‘panhandle’
Pohénégamook/Estcourt Station
Airports: Bangor (BGR)
Museums
Augusta: Maine State Museum
Brunswick: Bowdoin College Museum of Art
House Museums/Plantations Maine: Cushing: Olson House
Castles, Palaces, Forts: Popham Beach: Fort Popham
World of Nature:
Baxter State Park and Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument
End of Appalachian Trail, Baxter State Park (Sight)
Acadia
Zoos: York: York’s Wild Kingdom
Botanical Gardens: Boothbay: Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens
Lighthouses
Cape Elizabeth: Cape Elizabeth Lighthouse
Marshall Point Lighthouse
Nubble Lighthouse
Portland Head Light
West Quoddy Head
Waterfalls; Katahdin Falls
Ski Resorts: Sugarloaf
Hospitality Legends Kennebunkport: Colony Hotel
Maritime/Ship Museums: Bath: Maine Maritime Museum
Vehicle Museums: Tremont: Seal Cove Auto Museum
Cities of the Americas
PORTLAND
Airports: Portland Maine (PWM)
Museums
International Cryptozoology Museum
Portland Museum of Art
House Museums/Plantations Maine: Morse-Libby House
Lighthouses: Portland Head Light
Villages and Small Towns:
BAR HARBOUR
CAMDEN
SKOWHEGAN
ROCKLAND