Working Waterfront

The wonders of Maine life

In August 1973, our family arrived in Maine for a one-week vacation on Pemaquid Pond outside Damariscotta. The following year we arrived for two weeks, and then steadily we accumulated more weeks and years until something about Maine felt like home. I was 13 the bicentennial summer in 1976 and… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Remembering, reviving the musical ‘Islands’

Essay by Barney Hallowell//Photos by Amanda LaBell I wasn’t sure we could do it, or even should do it. Resurrecting Islands, the musical written by the late John Wulp of Vinalhaven and Cindy (now Cid) Bullens for its 20th anniversary had been on Waterman Community Center’s radar almost since its… SEE MORE

James Fitzgerald, “Saltin' Mackerel ca. 1960, oil on canvas, 30 by 40 inches. Monhegan Museum of Art and History, promised gift of Stephen S. Fuller and Susan D. Bateson

Working Waterfront

James Fitzgerald paints Fish Beach

During his life as a painter, James Fitzgerald (1899-1971) knew firsthand a number of working waterfronts. After completing his art studies in his home city of Boston, he took to the sea, shipping out of Gloucester, ostensibly to sketch and paint. On later trips to the Grand Banks aboard the… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Coastal Maine: A sense of place

Before Maine, the Midwest was home for 30 years. It is again, now overlooking Minnesota farmland, not the Maine coast’s dark skies. Each vista, Midwest and Downeast, stunning in its own way. Throughout those 20 years, seventh-generation Downeast neighbors would inevitably ask why in the world People From Away move… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

COVID, islands, and the illusion of sanctuary

We all, no doubt, have a vivid memory of the spring of 2020. Life changed radically as we adapted to the reality of a pandemic and how to avoid getting or spreading COVID-19. For me, the March 15 vote by the North Haven Select Board stands out. In a statement… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Remembering Maine’s lady of letters, Elizabeth Coatsworth

Though less renowned than Damariscotta’s late Barbara Cooney of Miss Rumphius fame, prolific poet and writer Elizabeth Coatsworth penned an estimated 127 total titles while living for decades in an early 19th-century house at lakefront Chimney Farm in Nobleboro. There Coatsworth and her pioneering nature writer husband Henry Beston (contemporaries… SEE MORE

The steam ferry Union on the Bath waterfront, circa 1890. PHOTO: COURTESY MAINE MARITIME MUSEUM

Working Waterfront

Before bridges: River crossings relied on ferries

Once a primary mode of transportation for many Mainers, ferries are more often a fun excursion than a necessity, at least for those who live and work on the mainland. Yet for over a century, such vessels transformed life along Maine coastal and inland waters, enabling commerce, travel, and recreation… SEE MORE

he Gold Ball-winning basketball team from Narraguagus High School, 2016, with their coach, the lobster fisherman "Olivia Marshall" in the book, whose real name is Heather Thompson (back row, far right). The team is aboard the fishing boat Thompson named in honor of the championship team. “Audrey Barton”—whose real name is Kelli Kennedy—is in the back row, third from left. “Mckenna Holt”—whose real name is Laniew Perry—is in the back row, next to Olivia Marshall.

Working Waterfront

‘Downeast’ strikes a blow against ‘the geography of nowhere’

In this difficult time of failed public expectations, when thoughtful people wonder where to look for hope, I keep returning in my own mind to the thought of the renewal of the rural communities… But to be authentic, a true encouragement and a true beginning, this would have to be… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

On the St. George peninsula, education continued

When schools closed in March 2020, the doors to a new after-school program in St. George also closed. In the latter half of its first year, the Blueberry Cove 4H after-school program had finally gotten its feet under itself. The program was formed as a response to families needing reliable,… SEE MORE

A postcard depicts Charles Nungesser and Francoise Coli, who some believe may have been the first to fly across the Atlantic.

Working Waterfront

Historic flight still shrouded in mystery

The disappearance 94 years ago in May of the White Bird biplane and its two pilots—possibly in Washington County—remains an unsolved mystery of aviation history. The plane's two French pilots may have been the first to fly nonstop across the Atlantic Ocean, less than two weeks before Charles Lindbergh's famous… SEE MORE

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