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| 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.
