MONHEGAN — A small island with a history of putting on circuses is seeking to renew that old-fashioned tradition. In 1912, Monhegan welcomed the big top—or was it two? From the announcement of that long-ago event: “Two Big Shows In One: See Red Pete jump from a soap box 4 feet high and dash his brains
Happy birthday, Machias!
The town was incorporated June 23, 1784, then including what today are the towns of East Machias, Whitneyville, Machiasport and Marshfield. It was the first town incorporated between the Penobscot and the St. Croix rivers. English settlers had visited as early as 1633, when Richard Vines established a trading-post. During this period, France and England
In memoriam: At rest with the waves and wind
At Maine Maritime Academy, we are taught to wear our uniform with pride for those who have gone before us—for the men and women whose lives became merchant work in the service of the nation. The school was founded in 1941 to provide officers for one of the most vital and dangerous efforts in World
The IT guy makes a ‘fair’ point about Snowden and J. Edgar
Not the “‘It’ Girl,” as silent film star Clara Bow was known, but the IT Guy. That’s who I needed this past weekend now that the last of the digitally literate children has moved out of the house and for the first time in more than a decade a pair of ignorant adults has to
Rockland man’s dory trip protests Wall Street
ROCKLAND — Joe Auciello has been traveling on the cheap most of his life and wants to demonstrate the joy of such journeys. While raising their family, he and wife Shlomit Auciello ran a business based on his sculpture and stone masonry which depended on Joe to take long road trips to sell and install his work. On
Portland’s working waterfront at a crossroads
PORTLAND — From his office on the city’s waterfront, Aaron Merriam, an IT infrastructure engineer, often ponders the health and future of the harbor. Having grown up among the fishing community in Bucksport, Merriam wants to see a vibrant working waterfront when he looks out over the harbor; instead, he sees vacant building space in
A vision born on the wings of eagles… and fog
CAMDEN — The 1980s were a turning point for Maine. Fifty years after the Great Depression, an influx of people and money began to bring change. And most of it was good. Philip Conkling, founder and president of the Rockland-based Island Institute notes that in 1980, Maine’s population hit 1 million, recovering from a century
A Vinalhaven school, family tradition marches on
Front Row L-R: Patricia Skoog Duncan & Father Gosta Skoog, Pricilla Carlsen Smith & Father Jack Carlsen Second Row: Edith MacDonald Jordan & Father Ted MacDonald, Harriet Martin Warren & Brother Benjamin Martin Third Row: Helen Philbrook Speck & Father Earnest Philbrook, Greta
No man an island, but islands had deep impact
I will step down officially on July 1 from my role at the Island Institute, but I won’t be going far—12 miles out to Lanes Island on Vinalhaven, for starters. Ever since my first visit to a Maine island in 1975, islands have never been far from my mind and will not be far away
Graduation sometimes an end to island life
We’re nearing the end of graduation season, a time when people think back on their youth with longing and/or embarrassment and wonder what on earth they’re going to do with the extra cake and balloons. I attended the Swan’s Island School’s eighth grade graduation this year—an event which did not exist in my own school