This is one of the first signs visitors see as they cross the Piscataqua River from New Hampshire on the turnpike. It looks like an outright boast, but is it? What are we talking about anyway? Ask any Mainer what is meant by this claim and you will get a different answer.  Some will talk about the outdoor lifestyle; fishing, farming, or working in the woods. Some will bring up the scenery that is never in short supply. Some will equate the lifestyle with the winter experience and the special feeling of living just a little closer to the edge of survival. Many who move here find it romantic to find themselves a mile from the nearest plowed road in the winter. In a few years the same folks become weary of the struggle and head for home.

To me, “the way life should be” means to preserve the good stuff. This is the first place I’ve lived in which the rate of commercial development is balanced by the return of old buildings into the earth. Where abandoned ramshackle houses are allowed to slowly settle into a pile of boards. Where all that remains of cleared farmland is a rock wall surrounding a forest. I can’t quite explain why this is a comfort to me. Maybe I like to think that other places may cleanse themselves like this some day.

The phrase also speaks to our way of getting along; the easy combination of respecting privacy and looking out for one another. Leaving doors unlocked, going to town meeting where citizens vote for the yearly budget by arguing for hours and then holding up colored cards while the town manager counts . Our antiquated democracy where we are represented by “Selectman and Overseer of the Poor”. How cool is that?

Yet Maine is not without problems. We don’t value education enough. Our public colleges are inadequate. Many people are poor and isolated. But maybe that’s why the forces of development and growth have passed us by, why the old buildings are allowed to tumble into the ground, and why this recession in Maine is not the shocker it is elsewhere. We make do, we can always dig a few clams, cut our own firewood and spin a yarn or two. When civilization crumbles Mainers stand a better chance of surviving. It’s all about renewal. I can say this no better than Bill Caldwell, author of Islands of Maine:

Stand on a Maine island alone and feel the awesome glory of rock, soil sky, sea. On a peacock day in summer, these islands, more than most places on earth, can give world-strained mankind the healing balm of natural peace.

Acadia's bare granite, rounded and gouged by glaciers

Thirteen thousand years ago Bar Harbor was covered with a sheet of ice nearly a mile thick. As the ice melted the land rose and the ice-sculpted granite revealed itself. Two thousand years later evidence suggests the first post-glacial Paleo-Indians appeared. They hunted the giant mammals of the era until they both vanished, 9500 years ago. For the next 2000 years little human activity occurred.
Eight thousand years ago the Early Archaic Indians appeared with smaller spear tips indicating smaller animals. 4000 years later the Red Paint People arrived with a much more advanced culture. They went out of their way to obtain red ochre from near Mt. Katahdin to bury with their dead and had large stone chisels which they used to make ocean-going dugout boats. Thus came Maine’s first fishing people, thirty-six centuries before Europeans made landfall. Red Paint settlement excavations yield large swordfish skeletons, a fish only found in 1000 feet of water.

Eroded shore shows shell fragments from middens

Did the first European explorers encounter Red Paint People? No. There was another thousand year gap before the “Ceramic Group” appeared. Named for their use of pottery, their presence was more or less continuous until the familiar tribes were recognized. Evidence exists of these people within a few hundred feet of SeaCat’s Rest. They gathered near the shore by stream outlets and dug clams and managed fish traps during the summer months. Huge deposits of shells piled up called “midden piles” near their encampments, one of which is two doors down.

FDR's birch bark canoe

These modern Indians fashioned the famed birch-bark canoes now copied by Old Town Canoe Co. They also planted gardens and grew corn, beans and squash, using tools of shell and bone. Their lifestyle was only semi-nomadic, with regular summer and winter villages. In November they headed upriver to hunt in the forests.

European explorers describe two principle nations, the fierce Micmacs and the more passive Abnakis. Abnakis were in turn made up of the Passamaquoddy, Penobscot and Wawenocks and were the coastal tribes most encountered by Europeans. Early encounters by the two groups were quite friendly and positive reports were written by Captain George Weymouth and journalist James Rosier in 1605. Praise for their tobacco, dress, written language, homes and fishing methods flowed back to England.

In the next hundred years hostilities and acquired diseases decimated the native populations. In the 1970′s the Maine tribes sued the government and received 350,000 acres and $81.5 million. Today there are many in Maine who proudly celebrate their native heritage. I recently found out that one of my great great great great grandmothers was an Iroquois Indian, so I am 1/64 Native American, blue eyes notwithstanding.

References used: Islands of Maine by Bill Caldwell, Manitou and Providence by Neal Salisbury

The Islands of Maine were called upon by Europeans for many decades before the famed settlements of Jamestown and Plymouth were founded in the early 1600s. According to some speculation and fragments of evidence, the Vikings visited around 1000 years ago. Much better evidence exists for John Cabot’s visit in 1497. His descriptions of steep cliffs and dark forests dissuaded his financiers from more voyages, but served as a basis for England’s later claim to Maine. Other explorers followed. Italian Giovanni Verrazano was searching in 1524 for a passage to China and was mooned by hostile Abnaki natives. He named Monhegan, Isle au Haut and Mt. Desert islands, but not with names we now use. Spaniard Estaban Gomez named Casco Bay, Campobello Island and the Bay of Fundy.

While rumors flew about the jeweled city of Norumbega, the real wealth of Maine turned out to be fish. Arriving in the Spring, fishermen would catch and dry them in the sun on our islands. While not really settlers, the fishermen would stay for the summer, load up their ships and head back to England or France with hulls full. Their rock ballast from Europe would remain on the beaches. By 1600 there were, by some estimates 300 fishing vessels along the coast of Maine, filling Catholic Europe’s need for meatless protein. With these summer settlements came boat repair shops and early timber mills. Why then, did the first attempt at permanent settlements happen in Virginia and Massachusetts?

They didn’t! The Popham Beach settlement began in August, 1607 just a few months after Jamestown and 13 years before the Mayflower arrived, with 124 people and two ships. By September of 1608 the colonists simply gave up and went home. Few people died or starved, they just lacked the discipline, unity, religious fervor or profit motive to overcome another winter of cabin fever.  Amazingly, (I am discovering this as I write) one of the two ships was the Mary and John, the same ship which carried my 8th great grandfather Jonathan Gillett to Dorchester, Mass in 1630.

The Mary and John, the author's genetic dispersal

The Popham Beach settlement came and went with only one recorded death (George Popham) but the group did manage to build a 30 ton ship, the Virginia, before they sailed back to England. Jamestown, meanwhile lost all but 61 of their 500 colonists by 1610. The good ship Virginia made several crossings, many to supply the Jamestown colony. I will cover history specific to Acadia later. For more information about the Popham Colony go here and for info about Popham Beach State Park  go here.  Thanks to Bill Caldwell’s Islands of Maine for reference.

Have a GPS? Want to find treasure? Want to create a mystery for others to solve? Like to have fun without spending a bunch? Like going on line and want to combine history and geography. Try Geocaching…..

All of a sudden about four years ago we started seeing more folks drive down our road, stop at the middle, and then turn around and leave. It turns out our drive was part of the Geocach adventure. This is really a treasure hunt activity. We have a group of deer that use our meadow/woods as their sleeping place. As a result, you can see them every day as they wander home and wake up to seek out their breakfast. A picture of one of our does turned up on a Geocach website standing beside our driveway.

winter drive

Find a small box or container that contains some objects. Take an object, leave an object. The main adventure is to find some lovely spots while learning a bit of history. I think half the fun is setting up a spot around your own house and watching, waiting for others to find and enjoy the discovery.

The clue is a GPS location. Then there are some descriptions of the area, clues really. In addition, some suggestions as to what you will find at certain times of day. For example, since we have a deer yard near us, you can almost always spot a doe and fawn right after sunset around the field to the east of our driveway. In the morning, you may see the eagle our neighbor feeds near their pond. In the Fall you might even see two eagles, one with a white head, and one without, as the parents train their young eagle to hunt and scavenge food.

road to SeaCat's Rest

For more information on Geocaching,,,,go to their website

Geocaching
Geocaching is a high-tech treasure hunting game played throughout the world by adventure seekers equipped with GPS devices. The basic idea is to locate hidden containers, called geocaches, outdoors and then share your experiences online. Geocaching is enjoyed by people from all age groups, with a strong sense of community and support for the environment. Search for a geocache below or learn more about getting started.

A lot of folks are not aware, but almost every GPS for the automobile can be utilized to find specific coordinates, so take the challenge and add another layer of fun on your next vacation. An email off of a geo-cache site recently had this advice to an upcoming visitor to Maine.

When are you coming to the state? It would be nice if there were an event going while you’re here. There are many on Mt Desert to do that are nice. Hunters Beach Hunt (GCGPXG) by Parmachenee (2.5/3) is one I especially like. Hope you have a great time.

wonderful walk - echo lake

The right equipment can make all the difference between a successful hike and an experience that stresses you out. There are only 4 essential items for hiking.

The first is footwear, not tennis shoes or sports shoes. While these are fine on walks under 1 or 2 miles, they just do not provide enough arch and ankle support or traction to be worn for serious hiking. Hiking boots have special grip surfaces, and provide the best support for you foot. This will also ensure that your knees and ankles are well provided for.

The second is food and water. Carry more than enough for yourself. Water is the first issue. Carry more than you think you will need. You need at least 1 liter per person per mile. Investigate sources of water that could be available on your hike. In Acadia there are limited water resources on most hikes.

Start at Long Lake

Only Cadillac Mountain and Jordan Pond House have water, for the rest, you need to carry all you will need. Food can be toted around in many forms. Fruit such as apples or nuts work well in packing in energy replacement per unit space. Travel mixes work well, in that they provide salt replacement as well as sugar for energy.

Third are items to assist you in keeping your body comfortable, which can include rain-gear or a hat, or mittens, depending on where and when you are hiking. Now, you can simplify rain gear and just take along a simple pocket rain poncho. Plan for the worst you could expect. If you will be hiking up a vertical trail, imagine having to spend the night at the top of your hike because of a twisted ankle. Have enough items along to get you through. Head gear along with rain gear should be enough. Time of year though will influence what you take. If you are going hiking in a windy location, a wind jacket is recommended. Cell phone coverage can be spotty, so don’t depend on it for your safety net.

The fourth is having assist devices: a compass or map, a walking stick or adjustable staff for challenging downhills, a set of binoculars or sunglasses. Because I have had knee issues in the past, I always, always use a hiking stick when walking downhill – it can make an incredible difference the day after your hike.

carriage trail parking Eagle Lake

Of course, you should plan ahead if you want to hike, and start with small slow walks around home, building up to time and length you hope to be walking on your next vacation adventure.

Vegetarians, please look away. This post is for people who can’t wait for their Maine lobster. Finding a fair place to buy here on the shore is not that “hahd”, we know local Lamoine fishermen and women you can buy from. But then there are all those other questions, like, “What does the meat actually cost per pound?” and, “Which size lobster has the best price per pound of meat?”, and finally, “What about soft shell versus hard shell?”. Truth is, I’m not sure I can answer these tough questions without a little research. I will make the sacrifice for science and buy three different sized lobsters so we can get to the bottom of this. I will not be able to answer the soft shell question as at this time of year, all lobster are hard shell.

One of the assumptions about lobsters that I hear a lot is that there will be more meat as a proportion of total weight in a larger lobster. This is what I want to test. If I do find this to be true, then the question will be whether the extra meat will be worth the extra cost per pound for a larger lobster.  There are usually three sizes, or rather size ranges of lobsters. The first is 1.0-1.25 lbs, the next is 1.25-1.5 lbs and the third is over 1.5 lbs. Usually each larger category fetches an extra $1 or so in price.

Now I have my three lobsters. The smallest  is 1.03 lbs and costs $7.79 per pound. The next is 1.42 lbs and costs $8.79 per pound while the biggest is 1.74 lbs and costs $9.79 per pound. After cooking by the method below it’s time to weigh the meat. I will ignore the little legs and interior meat for this test. The smallest lobster has 2.54 ounces of meat for a ratio of 2.46 ounces per pound of whole lobster. The cost per pound then is $50.55. The middle sized has 2.45 ounces of meat for a ratio of 1.73 ounces per pound of whole lobster. The cost per pound is $81.46. Finally, the biggest lobster has  4.037 ounces of meat for a ratio of 2.32 ounces per pound of whole lobster. The cost per pound is $67.54.

First of all, is anyone else floored by the cost of the cooked meat? These prices are quite surprising! The rule of thumb is that meat only makes up about 20% of the lobster by weight, so it is logical that it should cost at least 5 times the price of the whole lobster.

The other shocker is how the weight of the meat seems to have little to do with the overall size of the lobster. Perhaps the question could be resolved with more data, but I can’t afford it. Maybe the meat proportion has to do with the way the lobster are handled; maybe storage in a winter pound denies exercise and the bigger ones lose more muscle mass?

I end up with more questions than I’ve answered. Now I’m going to have to try this again with fresh caught lobster from the boat instead of the supermarket. But first I’ll need to let my bank account recover.

• How do I prepare my lobsters?
o Fill a large (I use 5 gallon) pot half to two-thirds full with water.
o Add two large handfuls of seaweed (from the shore-low tide) to the pot.
o Set your burner to high heat and bring water to a rolling boil. This may take some time!
o Add lobsters to the pot head first, making sure that they are completely
submerged. I like to cut off the claw bands.
o Cover the pot tightly and return to a boil as quickly as possible. Watch for foaming!
o Once water is boiling again, cook the lobsters 10 minutes for the first
pound and 3 additional minutes for each additional pound. Example: cook a
two-pound lobster for approximately 13 minutes.
o When the lobsters turn a bright orange-reddish color and their tails curl,
they are done.
o Prepare some melted butter and lemon for dipping while the lobsters cool down.
o I like to provide some heavy duty scissors to open up the shells, a large discard bowl and plenty of napkins!

I have finished reading the just-released memoir of Wendy Burden called Dead End Gene Pool, which I mentioned in an earlier post, The Rich and Famous of Bar Harbor. First of all, let’s get one thing straight regarding the sentence on page 251, “…I really got a feel for why Maine has the highest rate of alcoholism…in the country.” Maine is not the most alcoholic state in the Union, not even close. That distinction belongs to Wisconsin. Depending on which study you consult and what you are measuring, it’s pretty close to the middle or slightly under. Go ahead and Google it! I could say something mean like our rate of alcohol consumption goes way up when the idle rich summer people arrive, but I have no data on that and so unlike Ms. Burden, I must withdraw unsupported assertions. While we’re at it, our winters are not like Siberia (Maine is much sunnier in winter than most northern states), and spending a winter here is not an excuse to drop off the chemical deep end.

There! Falsehoods erased.  Now the good part. This is a fun book for anyone who was born in the middle of the last century who always wondered what their life would be like if they were born into extreme wealth. Wendy has the childhood of the 60′s down pat; the toys, the attitude, the music and the dress.  Extreme wealth adds a complexity most of us can’t imagine. Bad genes from a limited gene pool  result in mental and physical disorders. Kids are spoiled rotten but ignored. Adults seem to fritter their time away drinking, ordering staff around, drinking, jetting to alternate palatial homes, drinking, tanning and drinking. Besides offering a glimpse into very famous families (Vanderbilt, Twombly, Burden) we are made to feel lucky we are not them. Given the inaccuracies noted in my first paragraph, perhaps we should take all this exposure with a grain of salt, but it’s still a fun read.

So how does Maine figure into this? The author’s grandfather William A. M. Burden II, built a 4,500-square-foot house at the entrance to Northeast Harbor on Mt. Desert Island in 1947 (increased to 6500 s.f.  later with the addition of an indoor pool.) Unlike the other “cottages” of the Eastern elite, this home was an ultra-modern design by Isamu Noguchi and Wallace Harrison, architect of the United Nations Building in New York City.  Initial reaction from the local community was that it was the height of ugly, but when it burned down in 1999 it was meticulously rebuilt and is now listed in the National Register of Historic Places. The house looms large in Ms. Burden’s narrative.

Quirky characters abound in Wendy Burden’s Dead End Gene Pool. Some still live in Northeast Harbor (or at least are in the phone book) but Wendy herself also seems to have received a dose of blue-blood wackiness. As a child she idolized Wednesday Addams from TV’s The Addams Family, liked to document the decay of dead animals, performed cruel but hilarious stunts on the servants and generally attempted to inflict misery on her aloof family (which she continues to this day!).  The book is hilarious, you are welcome to borrow our copy when you stay at SeaCats’ Rest.

St. Sauveur site, 1613

Acadia was named “Isle des Monts-deserts” by Samuel de Champlain in 1604, and the region was known as “La Cadie”. The first settlement was in June of 1613 at the mouth of Somes Sound on a hillside called called Fernald’s Point, at a narrow passage between what is now Southwest Harbor and Northeast Harbor. Four Jesuit priests, thirty colonists and a crew of fifteen set up tents and began their work of converting Abnaki Indians. Their settlement, called St. Sauveur, lasted only a few weeks before disaster struck. A British ship from Jamestown, the Treasurer, appeared and seized the Jesuit ship and destroyed the camp, under orders to seek out and destroy all attempts at French colonization.

For the next 150 years the area was unsafe for settlement by French or English. It was administered by the French long enough for Antoine Laumet in 1688 to name the island’s tallest mountain after himself, or rather his grandiose invented name, Antoine La Mothe, Sieur de Cadillac. It was not until the end of the French and Indian War in 1759 that the British forces finally were able to establish security enough for settlement.

In 1761 Massachusetts governor Sir Francis Bernard encouraged his friend, cooper Abraham Somes to settle the Sound which now bears his name.  Soon more settlers arrived from Somes’s native Gloucester, and Somes’s barrel stave business became the island’s primary industry. Sir Francis Bernard had big plans for the island, hoping to make a killing on selling off five acre plots to land hungry settlers. Sadly for him, his pro-crown policies as governor necessitated a hasty retreat to England when the Revolutionary War started. The Somes Sound settlements however remained and prospered.

Madame de Gregoire's stone in Hulls Cove Hillside cemetery

The war resulted in a honeymoon of sorts between the new American nation and the French. Taking advantage of this was none other than the granddaughter of Antoine Laumet,  Maria Therese de la Mothe Cadillac de Gregoire. She was given the eastern half of Mt Desert Island and settled in what is now Hulls Cove in recognition for France’s help in the war.  She carried on in the tradition of Bernard, selling land to make her living. Wealthy refugees from the French Revolution helped this enterprise, and many landowners today find their property descriptions traced back to the French crown; only Louisiana can also make this claim.

Meanwhile, a similar claim on the western half of the island resulted in it being awarded to John Bernard, son of Francis. John possessed the foresight to fight for the right side in the War and thus inherited his father’s title. By 1790 the island boasted a population of 786 people and had entered an era of permanence. Farms, sawmills, smokehouses, ice harvesting and boatyards dotted the landscape; the biggest industry on Mount Desert Island however, was yet to come.

References: Maine Paradise by Russell Butcher and Marie Menzietti, Islands of Maine by Bill Caldwell, Mt. Desert Island and Acadia National Park by Sargent F. Collier.

Pieces of Maine’s foundation stone have found their way right into your vacation house in Maine   One of the very first difference in houses I found when moving to Maine was the use of granite blocks in old foundations. Curbs of stone are unique to this area where granite is abundant. What’s with all those rocks just hanging out in the woodlands? A lot of it is granite.

Granite is an interesting rock. There are three kinds of granite found on MDI island. It’s fun to find them and make a adventure out of it.

There is granite of Southwest Harbor. It is a light-colored rock, fine-grained, light gray commonly with a tan or pinkish hue. Outcrops are visible along the shore at Southwest Harbor and near West Tremont. Rock similar to Southwest Harbor granite makes up the southern end of Schoodic Peninsula and is exposed at Schoodic Point.

Granite of Cadillac Mountain is pink to greenish-gray and coarse-grained. You can see grains of translucent, gray, glassy looking quarts and pink or gray feldspar. The black mineral is hornblende. The stone forms the bald top of the mountain and much of the walking trail around the top rim is on and around that pink granite.

The granite of Somesville (above) is  fine to medium grained and pink and gray – which looks similar to Cadillac Mountain granite at first glance, but has smaller grains and a different type of feldspar. Pink or cream colored K-feldspar and light gray plagioclase will be found. The Hall Quarry supplied large quantities of building stone to many major cities with Somesville granite. You can see this stone used around seal cove as a protection against beach erosion from storms and very high tides which come four of times a year.

Deer Isle granite is the one you’ll find in our kitchen. Its pink, gray and white with black accents. It was the source of granite for New York’s major bridges, Rockefeller Center and the John F. Kennedy Memorial in Arlington National Cemetery. There are four quarry sites in and around Stonington, which was renamed for the stone industry that took over this town in the late 1800′s, Their harbor is lined with huge blocks of granite, exposed at low tide all along the town docks there. A great day side trip can be made to the only old quarry site on the main island of Deer Isle, now a nature conservancy natural area. You can walk in the quarry, and bring a lunch along for a great harbor view.

Where is the Settlement Quarry?
Take Route 15 and bear left at Deer Isle village. Keep heading toward Stonington until you see Ron’s Auto Repair on left. This is the Oceanville Road. Continue about a mile until you see the granite sign on your right.

I have always wanted to know more about the Quarry along the Penobscot River around Franklin, Maine.   Quarries along water were popular when transportation was an issue.   Boats made transporting so much easier with the heavy stone. It’ll be my next geological mystery to uncover in future posts. Still interested in granite? Visit the granite museum in Northeast Harbor. It’s closed for the winter right now but should open up again in June sometime. Stay tuned for a future post about granite sculpture project that has been going on around here for a few years now.

Reference: The Geology of Mount Desert Island, A visitor’s guide. Maine Geological Survey, Department of Conservation.

I couldn’t believe my eyes, moss covered rocks everywhere, lots of wild life, and beauty. I had found Crockett Cove Woods. An hour’s drive from SeaCat’s Rest, but worth the ride, this 98 acre preserve is a treasured gem.

A dense spruce and fir forest covers this sliver of land between the shore front houses and the west road to Stonington on Deer Isle. On the island’s north shore, along Eggemoggin Reach, the trees are mostly white pine mixed with oak and other hardwoods. Here, along the southwest shore, lichens and mosses thrive in the cool, moist air of this coastal fog forest. A wide variety of coniferous forest birds can also be seen here. The preserve and its trails are maintained and managed by a local volunteer stewardship committee. In 1975, Crockett Cove Woods Preserve was donated to The Nature Conservancy.
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The preserve has two parking lots, each with a short loop and then a long, wet trail connecting the two. The wet part of the trail is wet all year long, because the moss keeps the trail spongy. I’d recommend the Indian Pipe section if you just have a short time. It packs a mossy and boulder filled experience into just about 1/2 mile trail up and around a hill. The moss does absorb the sound, and makes for a very peaceful place. This place is not for the masses, as there are only two or three parking spaces at either end, but that makes it even more special for me. I like to be outside with small groups and experience the forest like it must have been 200 years ago. This place will do that for you.

For lunch or dinner you have many great choices. Right on the harbor in Stonginton, Fisherman’s Friend for the freshest seafood on the planet. Also, back a bit in Deer Isle, a wonderful small secret spot: Lily’s restaurant. They used to bake cakes for Julia Child’s birthday celebration. Also a Portugese restaurant is talked about way around at the goose cove bed and breakfast – open seasonally only though. Off island, just before the reach bridge is El El Frijoles is a California-Style taqueria located in a barn. They offer fresh and delicious Mexican cuisine in a most unusual setting (opens on May 20th) and recently I stopped at the Barncastle Hotel and Restaurant in Blue Hill, all good choices. You might have to make several trips over a few years to try all these places out.

Thanks Island Heritage Trust for helping preserve such a special place.

Where is Crockett Cove Woods?
Take 15A, the Sunset Road about three miles beyond the Sunset Post Office. Turn right on Whitman Road and then right on Fire Road 88 where you will find the preserve entrance.

Here’s a link to the map and self-guided walk. http://www.nature.org/wherewework/northamerica/states/maine/files/crockettmap.pdf