Maine Guide 1 |
Augusta owes much of its past history and present-day charm to the Kennebec, a river that pours into the Atlantic 40 miles downstream and remains tidal all the way to the capital city.
Probably no other state in the country can boast of such a wilderness waterway running right through its capital. On a trip to Augusta, it’s not uncommon to see eagles and osprey flying
overhead or nesting along the banks of this "urban" waterway while Atlantic salmon swim in its currents.
English settlers took an interest in the Augusta area from the beginning of the New World. Mayflower
The main trading commodity at this Plymouth Company outpost was furs, and the trade was a lucrative one. When the pilgrims arrived in the New World. they were indebted to the Merchant Adventurers of London for the cost of their voyage and managed to pay off that debt with Kennebec furs.
Later, in the 19th century, when British colonists ran into trouble with the French and Indians, they built Fort Western here. After the area was safe from Indian attacks, newcomers from Massachusetts began to settle in the area and the fort became a private home and store. Today, visitors to Old Fort Western can still explore the store, filled with authentic goods from trade with England and the West.
The Kennebec River has never been navigable in the winter because it freezes over, but the ice itself was a salable commodity in the 1800s. Before the days of refrigeration, Kennebec ice was exported and prized around the world. In the latter part of the 19th century, a million tons of ice were harvested along the Kennebec each year. Augusta was declared the capital of Maine in 1827 and a renowned Boston architect, Charles Bulfinch, designed the State House. Over 150 years later, this landmark building is still Maine’s capitol, and today, government provides four out of every ten jobs in the region. The State House is open for tours.
Located near the capital is the Maine State Museum which takes visitors through "12,000 Years in Maine." Along with this prehistory exhibition, there is also a three-level, water-powered mill, a steam locomotive, and one of Maine’s last Downeaster ships, the St. Mary. The museum is open seven days a week and admission is free.
Today, the residents of Augusta celebrate their river community with the Whatever Family Festival which takes place every June and features a carnival, soap box derby, fireworks and waterfront tours.
"There is a spirit of enterprise and industry in Portland…" The statement sounds like it might come from a recent travel brochure, but it’s the assessment of James Sullivan, writing about
the city in 1795. Sullivan’s words have proved true. Portland was and is a city of vibrant activity.
Portland has always had the character of a seacoast city. Casco Bay provides a deep
harbor, a rich source of fish, and a sparkling setting that is as important today as it was when Sullivan made his observation two hundred years ago.
Early explorers found the fish abundant off Maine’s coast and were willing to withstand winter storms and Indian wars for a chance to profit from these new fishing grounds. Soon settlers
were catching cod by the ton in the Casco Bay area, not only feeding themselves with their bounty, but also salting and drying the product for export.
Through the decades, Portland flourished as a port city, but not without setbacks. Probably its worst disaster came on Independence Day in 1866 when a fire started in a boat shop
along the walerfront. The flames quickly spread to encompass most of the city, destroying banks, churches, commercial buildings and hundreds of houses. Miraculously, no one was
killed. Portlanders quickly rebuilt, widening streets, replacing wooden buildings with brick and establishing a late 19th-century style and feel that remains today.
Some of Portland’s older architecture still stands as a tribute to the city’s long history. The Tate House on Westbrook Street was built in 1755 and is now open to the public. Visitors
can still get a commanding view of Portland and the bay from the Portland Observatory erected in 1807.
A hallmark of prosperous times after the Great Fire is Portland’s
City Hall, erected in 1912. Like its two predecessors on the Congress Street site, the building included a concert hall. Today, the newly renovated Merrill Auditorium’s turn-of-the-century grandeur is the perfect
setting for the Portland Symphony Orchestra and numerous theater productions.
Further west, where Congress Street intersects with High and Free Streets, is the renowned Portland Museum of Art
. The state’s largest art museum is home to works by Homer, Wyeth, and Hartley, as well as a vast collection of 18th and 19th century European and American art.
Within walking distance of the art museum is the charming Old Port district
, alive with the city’s most cutting edge restaurants, night clubs, galleries, and gift shops. On these streets fisherman once dried cod for export, and oxcarts hauled timber for sailing ships. Now
shoppers browse tor the unusual from tourmaline jewelry to brass nautical accessories to cherry computer desks, while diners enjoy varied fare that includes dishes like lobster benedict and cedar pan-roasted haddock.
An obvious love for the city’s rich cultural heritage goes hand in hand with a forward-looking enthusiasm in Portland where "the spirit of enterprise and industry" is still alive and well.
Lewiston/Auburn’s attraction has always been water power. Early settlers realized they could harness the Great Falls on the Androscoggin River, and before 1800 there was already a
sawmill and village growing up around the site. It was in 1836, when the Great Androscoggin Falls Dam, Locks and Canal Company was formed, that Lewiston/Auburn (the Twin Cities)
began to take their place as one of the stale’s major industrial centers. Soon Boston businessmen realized the area’s potential and began to invest heavily in Lewiston mills.
Entrepreneurs built a series of waterways that diverted the rush of water to numerous sites where imposing textile mills rose above the canals. Lewiston became an important source of wool and cotton for New England and beyond.
A vast amount of people power was also needed to run these operations. French Canadians, from Quebec, had a reputation as hard workers, so mill agents recruited them.
By 1873 as many as 150 French Canadians were arriving daily at Grand Trunk Railway Station in "Little Canada" at the center of Lewiston’s mill district.
Today that French Canadian influence is still strong in the Lewiston/Auburn area. Prominent on the LA skyline is Saints Peter and Paul Church, built between 1906 and 1938 by the
devoutly Catholic French Canadians. Despite the Great Depression these descendants of the first mill workers were determined to erect an imposing monument to their faith. The
result is a French Gothic structure built of Maine granite that can accommodate over 2,000 worshipers. Roman Catholic services are still held regularly on the site, and the church is open for group tours.
The Franco/American Heritage Collection, housed at Lewiston-Auburn College, contains artifacts and documents pertaining to the city’s French heritage, and is open to the public by
appointment. Lewiston/Auburn’s French influence flowers in the Festival de Joie which takes place in mid-summer at the Central Maine Civic Center.
Since Bates College was established in 1855,
the institution has contributed to the Twin Cities’ cultural offerings. The Museum of Art is housed in the Olin Arts Center and features
a collection of paintings by Lewiston native Marsden Hartley, an important twentieth century Modernist painter.
In recent years the LA area has been gaining an uplifting reputation for itself with the Great Falls Balloon Festival. The annual summer event attracts 100,000 visitors to view dozens
of colorful hot air balloons from all over New England. Champagne balloon rides are offered to the public, while back on solid ground, craftsmen sell their wares and enter-tainers sing, play, dance and juggle all weekend long.
One of the features that has always defined Bangor is not the site itself, but what lies beyond: vast wilderness tracks of pine. In 1820, when Maine separated from Massachusetts,
investors jumped at the chance to profit from the northern timberlands and swarmed to Bangor, soon making it one of the busiest lumber ports in the world.
Woodsmen also flocked to Bangor, gateway to their lumber camps. When in Bangor, these
loggers went to an area near the Penobscot River (bordered by Washington, Hancock and Exchange Streets) that soon became known as "The Devil’s Half Acre." Thanks to this
neighborhood, Bangor developed a 19th century reputation as one of the busiest, and rowdiest, lumber ports in the world.
Aside from the Devil’s Half Acre, other areas of Bangor were developing some charm. In 1834, Mt. Hope Park was established as both a park and a cemetery. Today, Mt. Hope
holds the distinction of being the second-oldest garden cemetery in the country. Visitors still stroll along paved pathways. Maine native son Hannibal Hamlin, Vice President under Abraham Lincoln, is buried here.
Linking Bangor’s past to its present are its museums, historic sites, and attractions. The Cole Land Transportation Museum exhibits more than 200 antique Maine vehicles and
over 2,000 enlarged and captioned photographs of life in early Maine. This museum also holds collections of military vehicles and uniforms dating from Civil War times up to Desert Storm, plus other memorabilia. The Bangor Police Museum
displays the history of Bangor’s police force dating back to 1890. The Isaac Farrar Man-sion is a restored Greek Revival residence once inhabited by a lumber baron. Bass Park is where the famous
31-foot statue of Paul Bunyon resides, reminding everyone of Bangor’s lumber heritage.
Musical residents of Bangor joined together in 1896 to form an orchestra. Since then, the
Bangor Symphony Orchestra has not missed a season, making it the oldest continuously performing community orchestra in the country. The group performs regularly at the Maine Center for the Performing Arts in Orono.
Bangor recently added attractive brick sidewalks and street lamps, an aesthetic complement to newly refurbished historic architecture like the Phenix Building on West Market Square.
This building has been reborn as one of the region’s finest downtown inns.
For recreational pursuits, there are fresh-water beaches, salmon fishing, golf, canoeing,
sailing, downhill and crosscountry skiing, and harness racing. Downtown Bangor has numerous unique shops, pubs, and restaurants. There are approximately 80 stores at the Bangor Mall, and more across the street at the Maine Square Mall
. Along Union Street you will find the Airport malls, and the Broadway Shopping Center is on Broadway.
Major highways, buses, and a host of airlines converge at
Bangor’s International Airport. Modern motels and hotels abound, and restaurants serve a wide variety of cuisines. All of this makes Bangor an ideal base for excursions to the inland and upland areas to the west
and north, and/or south along the coast.
The springtime canoe race from Kenduskeag to Bangor draws enthusiastic participants plus thousands of spectators to the banks of the Penobscot River. Other grand gatherings here are the
Fourth of July celebration, Maine’s largest, and the annual Bangor State Fair at Bass Park, later in the same month.
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