Bucksport, a Favorite Haunt

Col. Jonathan Buck (1716-1795)
Founder of Bucksport, Maine, 1762 

Bucksport has always been one of my favorites among little Maine haunts. I have fond memories of it as a young girl during visits at my cousin’s house on the Duck Cove Road. After breakfast and chores, she and I would head off on foot and briskly walk the couple of miles into town.

At the edge of town we’d walk even brisker past the cemetery where the legendary Jonathan Buck Memorial stands with its leg and foot shaped defect that’s spawned a wealth of spooky folktales that mingle with and shroud the history of Bucksport’s founding father. We’d spend a good part of the day hiking over the bridge to Verona Island then crossing the Waldo-Hancock Bridge (which now stands vacant of travelers in the shadow of the new Penobscot Narrows Bridge) to end up at Fort Knox in Prospect. Lunch would follow our hike back to Main Street at Pop Hill’s, an absolutely “Happy Days” establishment serving burgers, shakes, and a jukebox full of the latest song hits to please its crowd of Marlboro and Lucky Strike packing teenagers who gathered there religiously. You would either leave Pop Hill’s with a class ring or a broken heart, it was guaranteed! A jaunt to the 5¢ & 10¢ store would complete our day’s plans then we’d meet up my uncle at the paper mill parking lot for a ride home when he finished his daily shift. I know I’ve dated myself with this little recollection, but the ‘50s and ‘60s were very cool in Bucksport.

Today Bucksport is as charming, if not more so, than it was back then. The community has relished its history and natural beauty the Penobscot River has provided it with. The Alamo Theatre, home to Northeast Historic Film, is a great example of this. Local residents have never forgotten their Alamo, built way back in 1916 when some folks actually arrived by boat to attend a show. In 1992, the Alamo was thankfully rescued from a state of deterioration and is now, not only, one of the oldest community cinemas currently in operation, it provides important archive and preservation headquarters for many of the historic films in the country.

Another example of community respect is the town’s historic Jed Prouty Inn and Tavern, which is now being remodeled as senior housing–saving the structure from disaster. The three-story building originally constructed in 1783 by a prominent Bucksport merchant was converted to an inn circa 1820. It has, according to history, played gracious host to four presidents and was made famous as the inspiration for a Broadway play.

Pop Hill’s may no longer be there, but there are still quaint little shops and businesses which have withstood the test of time along Bucksport’s Main Street, such as the Dairy Port—its been serving ice cream for over fifty years!

Tucked in between other businesses along Main Street, is BookStacks, one of my most favorite bookstores in the entire state of Maine. It stocks over 5,000 book titles and 1,500 periodicals—plus provides free Wi-Fi, fantastic coffee and tea, a used book section, cards, gifts, and more. The “more” includes several groups of readers and writers who meet there regularly, and book signing events by local Maine authors. In fact, I, myself, will be there Thursday, August 16, 2012, 6-7pm, signing my collection of poetry, thoughts, and recipes, Life Raked In. Another Maine author, Jane Meade, will also be there signing her book, Glimpses.

Be respectful!

Don't forget the ice cream!

There’s been a lot of effort put into the Bucksport waterfront and it has an absolutely beautiful walking trail, information center, historical society, as well as a public boat launch. Where else can you view Fort Knox and the majestic Penobscot Narrows Bridge so well? Blae loves it! He wants me to remind you to be sure to keep it clean and also not to forget the ice cream.

Bucksport Waterfront view of Fort Knox and Penobscot Narrows Bridge.

I suggest, if you are traveling through Maine on Route 1 from the Belfast area to Bar Harbor, take a few hours, or days, to explore Bucksport, Maine. It’s worth the detour.

Learn more about Bucksport: 

Bucksport Bay Area Chamber of Commerce

Fort Knox and the Penobscot Narrows Bridge

The Alamo Theatre and Northeast Historical Film

BookStacks

Bale and I are regular contributors to the theSCENE. Check it out!

Nature’s Place; Holbrook Island Sanctuary on Cape Rosier, Maine

Cape Rosier, Maine on the way to Holbrook Island Sanctuary

Many visitors to Holbrook Island Sanctuary believe it rivals the beauty of Acadia National Park, without crowds or park fee. Most simply treasure its tranquility and the opportunity to witness the wonders of its natural environment and will return again. All can agree, Holbrook Island Sanctuary in Brooksville, Maine is a place where everybody, including the family dog, can escape from modern day stresses and relax. It’s a part of the world situated on beautiful Cape Rosier that will remain unaltered by modern park facilities or management techniques as natural forces alone will, forevermore, determine its future.

Blae at Holbrook Island Sanctuary

Dogs must be on a leash no longer than four feet in length, that’s one of a few simple and easy to follow rules and regulations visitors are asked to abide by. Others state the native plants and wildlife are not to be disturbed and remind visitors fires are not permitted in the park, nor is overnight camping. Observing the rules is certainly a small price to pay for the privilege of experiencing this sanctuary from 9 a.m. to sunset daily—thanks to the foresight and generosity of Anita Harris.  The area resident acquired and donated 1,230 acres of Brooksville to the state in 1971 in order “to preserve for the future a piece of unspoiled Maine that I used to know.” What a gift she bestowed to us all. I for one have an overwhelming respect for both Anita and her priceless gift.

The park is maintained by the Maine Department of Conservation, Bureau of Parks and Lands year round and can be enjoyed by cross-country skiers during the winter months, as well. You can also arrange for special group outings by calling 207-326-4012.

Kids can earn a free tee shirt at Holbrook Island Sanctuary. Here’s how:

For More Information:

 Download a copy of the Holbrook Island Sanctuary Brochure

Friends of Holbrook Island Sanctuary

Maine Department of Conservation, Bureau of Parks and Lands

You can read more about Maine events and attractions 

in an issue of theSCENE, an entertainment magazine published monthly by 

Courier Publications LLC in Rockland, Maine.

Nosing Around Maine  © Copyright 2012 Gail J. VanWart  All Rights Reserved

Join the Flock in Southwest Harbor

Pink Flamingos Flock to Southwest Harbor, Maine

When July’s temperatures rise in the midst of summer on the Quietside of Mount Desert Island, it turns hot pink as flocks of flamingos suddenly take up residence in the front yards of businesses and homes throughout the quaint little town of Southwest Harbor. It’s the Harbor House Flamingo Festival that brings the plastic iconic lawn ornaments to the neighborhood, joining community, summer residents and tourists together, year after year, in celebration of small town life—the whole town is decked out and in the pink, so to speak, from one end to the other. This year the colorful event takes place July 13-16 with a full schedule and a promise to provide fun and entertainment for folks of all ages.

It is unclear, even to the Harbor House, how this annual event actually started. In fact, the inventor of the pink flamingo lawn decorations, Don Featherstone, had no connection to the area, until after the festival of flamingos was established. How it all started is really insignificant, it’s how the event has come to symbolize a community that works and plays together that’s important. The Flamingo Festival has become the kind of festival people add to their Maine bucket list.

More Information:


Harbor House

Southwest Harbor & Tremont Chamber of Commerce

Woof! Blae suggests this link:

Traveling to MDI with Pets

You can read more about Maine events 

and attractions in an issue of 

theSCENE 

an entertainment magazine published monthly by 

Courier Publications LLC in Rockland, Maine.

Nosing Around Maine  © Copyright 2012 Gail J. VanWart  All Rights Reserved

Bar Harbor and Mount Desert Island on Dwellable

Tidal Falls Preserve; Fresh Maine Air, Lobsters, and Free Concerts

A protected Maine environment for your enjoyment.

Conservation is a wonderful thing. It allows us to protect and enjoy the land we love. A perfect example of just how great it is can be witnessed at Tidal Falls Preserve in Hancock, thanks to a generous land grant from Land for Maine’s Future and the Frenchman Bay Conservancy, which, by the way, is celebrating its 25^th anniversary this year.

Picnic tables and grills provided.

The conservancy owns and protects the 4.2 acre Tidal Falls park offering public shore access—the only public shore access in Hancock—for hand carried watercraft, plus a very pleasant picnic area complete with tables, iron grills, and a pavilion. Tidal Falls also houses the Frenchman Bay Conservancy office on the second floor of its lobster pound, which operates a take-out in July and August to benefit the conservancy. 

Free Monday Evening Concerts at Tidal Falls

This beautiful preserve, and challenging reversing falls on the Taunton River it overlooks, boasts a colorful history, abundant wildlife, and even provides a spotlight for local culture by offering free concerts on Monday evenings from July 9 to August 20. Add a food cart serving lobster rolls and hot dogs to the festivities and it’s the ultimate example of Maine, the way life should be. The only draw back for some, such as my Border Collie, Blae, is dogs are not allowed on the grounds.

Getting there is easy, though off the beaten path for many who never realized its existence. From Ellsworth, travel north on US Route 1 through the village of Hancock, turn right onto Eastside Road, then turn left onto Tidal Falls Road. If you come to bridge, turn back. Directions from US Route 1 in Sullivan, heading south, take the first left after crossing the bridge into Hancock onto Eastside Road then another left onto Tidal Falls Road. You’re there!

If you’d like to support the Frenchman Bay Conservancy further, you can reserve your seat at a BYOB Lobster Dinner with all the fixings, July 21, 2012, 5:30-6:30 p.m., rain or shine. See link below.

Note:  Fido needs to make other plans.

More information can be found on these links:

Free Concerts at Tidal Falls Preserve

July 21st Lobster Dinner at Tidal Falls Preserve

Maine Department of Conservation

Sullivan/Sorrento Historical Society

Taunton River's history is as strong
as its currents and tides.

© Copyright 2012 Gail J. VanWart  All Rights Reserved

The Place of the Rocks

Penobscot means "the place of the white shining rocks".

I can't tell you how many times I have passed by this place in the course of a routine day. It's the "place of the white shining rocks" situated conveniently by the on and off ramps of  I-395 on South Main Street in Brewer, Maine. At first glance, it seems like there are simply three huge rocks strategically placed in a rest area. A second glance will bring the realization there’s artwork carved on the front of the tallest center rock. But, as with most things, you really do have to take a minute to stop in order to appreciate everything you will never see just driving by. 

A sign by the rocks, I had never read before, told me the story of why “the place of the rocks” exists. While discovering the artwork cleverly crafted on the other sides of the rocks not visible from the road, I also walked on bricks manufactured in Brewer a long time ago and artfully laid between the rocks in a pattern representing continuity. Since my husband’s grandfather, Bruce VanWart, had worked in a Brewer brickyard, I was touching a bit of family history at “the place of the rocks” as well. An old Bangor Daily News clipping (below) of an article by Lawrence Carroll Allin, published on October 21, 1987, tells the Brewer brick story extremely well. The reason we have the article today is because my mother-in-law spied Bruce VanWart in the1939 photo that accompanied it and she passed it on to my husband with an arrow pointing out his grandfather, a man he’d never met.

All in all, I decided this little rest area is a beautiful place on the Penobscot River bank to stop, whether you're traveling though the area or a local, like me, taking a moment to embrace the local scenery. I'm sure I'll stop here again to enjoy the tranquil beauty of the river and the pictorial story sculpted in the monumental Maine bluestone rocks of it's natural resources and haunting image of Penobscot Indian Princess Molly, all created by Carole Hanson and Andreas Von Huene to commemorate Brewer's Centennial in 1989.  

Beyond all else, it's simply a nice place to walk a dog and imagine what the river was like when the bricks, that lay there now, were made.

Nosing Around Maine  © Copyright 2012 Gail J. VanWart All Rights Reserved.

Bass Harbor Head: My Guiding Light

Bass Harbor Head Light 

Bass Harbor Head Light Tower

Last year I revised a t-shirt design I had created in the 1990s of Bass Harbor Light. Several months after, I was amazed to discover Bass Harbor Head Light is going to be featured as the quarter in the United States Mint 2012 America the Beautiful Ouarters® Program. I couldn’t have planned the timing of things any better than this accident of fate. I took it as a sign to poke around Bass Harbor a little bit more and Blae was hungry for some salt air.

Blae at Seawall Park
SW Harbor, Maine

Around 1860, when the Bass Harbor Head Light was fairly new, more people inhabited its surrounding islands and coastline and one in five Maine residents were mariners. Maine’s lighthouses were key to survival in many instances. In modern times, our U. S. lighthouses are sort of like castles in Europe, each stands tall with its own unique history and mystique that draws visitors from near and far, year after year. Maine’s lighthouses, in many cases, are still functioning and useful, as well.

Bass Harbor, Maine is on the southwestern portion of Mount Desert Island known as the “quite side”. Its lighthouse was erected in 1858 to mark the bar across the eastern entrance of Blue Hill Bay. In 1974 the light was automated by the U. S. Coastguard and is now a private residence with outside access to the light tower and a walking path leading you to an excellent view of its front side from the ledges below. That is if you are up to a steep and somewhat challenging climb over the rocky incline tangled with weathered tree roots clinging to the cliff. It is a beautiful, but rugged, trail.

 

By car, you can reach this out-of-the-way destination via Route 3 in Ellsworth, turning right onto Route 198, then turning right again on Route 102. The lighthouse can also be observed from Maine State Ferries and other vessels operating out of Bass Harbor and Frenchboro.

John Thurston was the first keeper to light the beacon at Bass Harbor Head on September 1, 1858. Until the US Coast Guard automated the lighthouse in 1974, twenty-two “wickies” in all had taken a turn at keeping the steadfast light glowing by their manual efforts for 116 years. Some stayed less than a full year, others two or more. Joseph M. Gray served as a keeper there from 1921 to 1938. When I read that on a sign at the lighthouse, I thought to myself how he must have really loved his job in spite of fog horns and clanging bells on those numerous days without enough visibility for the beacon’s light to do its job for those in the water depending on its guidance. My next thought was a curiosity wondering if I could locate him in my Gray family tree, since my mother’s maiden name is also Gray. Thanks to Ancestry.com and my copy of Descendants of Joshua Gray compiled in 2005 by the Gray Reunion Committee and published by Downeast Graphics & Printing Inc., Ellsworth, Maine, I soon had my answer. This lighthouse keeper is my fourth cousin two times removed. Though I never had a chance to meet him, as his life ended before mine began, I did want to know more about him.  Back on the Internet through a link to Lighthouse Digest, I learned quite a bit. He was actually Captain Joseph M. Gray who spent a total of 40 years of lighthouse service at Crabtree Ledge, Mt. Desert Rock, Great Duck Island, Marshall Point, and Bass Harbor—after his six years of fishing off Grand Banks and before retiring to a small cottage in Tremont. A very nice newspaper article by Henry Buxton published in May 1938 and reprinted by Lighthouse Digest in 2005 about lighthouse keeper Capt. Joseph M. Gray tells a compelling tale and portrays a man I can certainly be proud to have among the branches of my family tree. Again, when fate leads you somewhere, its best to take advantage of the trip.  Seems my fascination with Maine’s lighthouses has not only inspired my creativity over the years, it has guided me to some family roots along the way.

Side view of Bass Harbor Head Light 

A partnership between the U. S. Coast Guard, State of Maine and American Lighthouse Foundation intends to increase awareness of Maine’s maritime heritage and the rich history of its lighthouses and lighthouse keepers by offering visitors the opportunity to go inside many of Maine’s historic beacons on Open Lighthouse Day, which will take place on September 15 this year.

For more information about the 2012 Bass Harbor Quarter, my Bass Harbor QRtee™  

t-shirt, Maine’s lighthouse history and events, or the memories of Captain Joseph M. Gray, please check out the following links.

United States Mint 2012 America the Beautiful Ouarters® Program 

Bass Harbor QRTee™

More About Maine Lighthouses

Free Maine Travel Guides

Memories of Capt. Joseph M. Gray a Maine Lighthouse Keeper 

Downeast and Acadia on Dwellable