Local History: Home

Historical overview, coach profiles, team histories, and special features on high school football teams that are members of the Little Ten Conference from 1951-2001.

This is the story of Albert J. Cole, the founder of Cole's Express, the man who influenced the trucking industry and the delivery of goods and services in central and northern Maine.

iscusses the early period (1769-1820) of log houses and colonial and federal buildings; expansion into a port - late Federal, Greek and Gothic revival contributions (1820-1850); Italianate, French and later revival styles (1850-1880); and eclectic and turn-of-the-century architecture (1880-1914).

Before airplanes, and with few roads, getting to Maine and the isolated fishing spots that made the state a world famous fisherman's paradise was no small task. Huge resorts and hotels peppered the fishing regions, accommodating hundreds, perhaps thousands of sportsmen at any one time. From these lodgings, sports with their guides branched out, taking expeditions and canoe journeys that lasted for days, even weeks, into Maine's wilderness. Only recently have vacationers been transient and as such, have changed the concepts of fishing in wilderness areas forever. Today, the hotels are mostly gone, and people now fish for a few hours to a day or more and then move on. Glimpses of Maine's Angling Past returns to the days when vacationers settled into their camps for whole summers, before the endless acres of timber were dissected by logging roads, and secret, little-known lakes and ponds took days or weeks to reach. This long-anticipated volume includes countless images from the entire state, broken down into eight distinct areas: the Sebago Lakes, the Belgrade Lakes, the Rangeley Lakes, Down East, the Penobscot River Valley, the Kennebec River Valley, the Moosehead Lake Region, and northern Maine and "the County." Included are rare photographs from lodges no longer in existence and antique sports magazines such as In the Maine Woods and Field and Stream. All of this is complemented by the author's painstaking research and his intimate memories of Maine's sporting history.

Good Old Maine is a compilation of places and products from Maine.

Every year visitors flock to Maine's Fort Knox near the mouth of the Penobscot River. They are drawn by the thousands for its glimpse into Maine's military past, but also for it's haunted aspects. The fort was catapulted to national attention when the prime-time TV show Ghost Hunters filmed an episode there. Since no shots were ever fired from the fort, who might the ghost or ghosts be? Now, Gardner Walsh delves into the creepy nature of the fort to find the answer. She explores the history of the fort and some of the Indian legends of the area from before the fort was built; provides interviews of staff and eye-witness accounts of ghost sightings at the fort; and she offers a fun look at how the fort makes the most of its attention by hosting its annual Fright at the Fort--called the "best Halloween experience in Maine"--and the summer Paranormal Faire. Woven throughout, Walsh recounts her own haunted adventure when she spent a night locked in the fort with the East Coast Ghost Trackers.

Known as the Pine Tree State, Maine once led the world in lumber production. It was the first great lumber-producing region, with Bangor at its center. Today, the state has nearly eighteen million acres of timberland, and forest products still make up a major industry. Logging and Lumbering in Maine examines the history from its earliest roots in 1630 to the present, providing a pictorial record of land use and activity in Maine. The state's lumber industry went through several historical periods, beginning with the vast pine and spruce harvests, the organization of major corporate interests, the change from sawlogs to pulpwood, and then to sustained yields, intensive management, and mechanized harvesting. At the beginning, much of the region was inaccessible except by water, so harvesting activities were concentrated on the coast and along the principal rivers. Gradually, as the railroads expanded and roads were constructed into the woods, operations expanded with them and the river systems became vitally important for the transportation of timber out of the woods to the markets downstate. Logging and Lumbering in Maine traces these developments in the industry, taking a close look at the people, places, forests, and machines that made them possible.

Maine has long been a well-known and frequently visited hunting region. Long ago, moose and caribou were abundant and as time passed, trappers have been able to earn a decent living pursuing choice and prized fur-bearing animals. Small game and waterfowl populations remained fairly stable over the years and have continued to increase in popularity. However, as large areas of habitat were cleared for timber, larger animals began to disappear and opulations dwindled. Trapping has since become a less favorable mode of producing income because of the low prices offered for native and raw fur. Maine's Hunting Past captures the pursuit of wild animals through a century of documentation. Since about 1850, animals have been taken for sport, for food, and for their hides. Hunting has long been not only a sport but also an industry, resulting in the increase and growth of sporting camps and an expanding number of guides. Maine's Hunting Past highlights favorite regions, featuring famous sporting camps and well-known guides. Big game, small game, upland birds, waterfowl, furbearers, and numerous photographs of trophy animals and large bag limits are all included.

Historian, writer, and former legislator, Rolde gives us the complete history of Maine politics and beyond. From the Stone Age to the New Age, Maine: A Narrative History honors, bally-hoos, investigates, and studies the people and politics that built and continue to influence life in the State of Maine. Filled with intriguing facts, photographs, maps, and memorabilia, this one-volume narrative is an excellent reference guide and an entertaining read.

Celebrate the bicentennial of Maine statehood Historian Tom Huntington presents an anecdotal history of the state, covering the course of Maine's often turbulent history, decade by decade. Huntington narrows the focus to key events and milestones, not just in the state of Maine, but in the context of world and national events. Discover Maine's role in how those events played out, including: the Jonathan Cilley duel of the 1830s; the Webster Ashburton Treaty and the Aroostook War; the Portland Rum Riot and the birth of Prohibition; various Civil War topics for the 1860s; Louis Sockalexis becoming the first Native American to play major league baseball (1890s); L.L. Bean's founding (1910s); and Telstar establishing the earth station in Andover (1960s), etc.

In 1885, on the trademark registration for Moxie--a beverage once more popular than Coca-Cola or Pepsi--Dr.Augustin Thompson wrote that Moxie was "a liquid preparation charged with soda for the cure of paralysis, softening of the brain, and mental imbecility." This compendium of all things Moxie shows us why this soda--the official soft drink of Maine--has garnered such a loyal and vocal following. Through history, photos, festivals, and more, Moxie: Maine in a Bottle will make you feel like you have Moxie too! Representing old-fashioned values and a sense of community, Moxie is a heaping slice of Americana delivered Maine-style.

Old Town, situated in north-central Maine, sits snugly along the mighty Penobscot River. Taking advantage of the river s vibrant woods and watershed, Old Town would become the country s leading producer of timber in its early history. Penobscot Indian tribes had inhabited the land for more than 6,000 years, but the area s resources were so vast that, by 1836, the first railroad in Maine had established a line from Bangor to Old Town, with many eager to access the town s wealth. Since its separation from the town of Orono in 1840, Old Town has developed a robust industrial base, including Old Town Canoe Company, Penobscot Chemical Fibre, T.M. Chapman & Sons, the Bickmore Gall Company, Jordan Lumber, LeBree s Bakery, and the James W. Sewall Company. Today, Old Town has lost much of its industrialized base, but nonetheless, its strong ethnic and religious communities, which have worked together for more than 175 years, stand ready to prepare the river town for a bright future."

A history of Old Town, Maine.

Outstanding archival photographs, many never before published, show canoes under construction, canoes underway, canoes being pitched off the factory roof, and everything from log drives to summer camps.

Founded in 1836, the Maine State Museum is America's oldest state museum and is known to many as "Maine's Smithsonian" because of the great breadth and diversity of its holdings----nearly a million objects covering every aspect of the state's cultural, biological, and geological history----and the many thousands of stories its collections tell. For this book the museum selected and photographed 112 artifacts and specimens that, together, tell the story of the land and its people from prehistoric times to the present. It is a story covering 395 million years, a story told with a walrus skull and fossils, tourmaline and spear points, mammoth tusks and bone fishhooks, Norse coins and caulking irons, militia flags and survey stakes, treaty documents and wooden tankards, a temperance banner and a locomotive, Joshua Chamberlain's pistol and a cod tub trawl, a Lombard log hauler and a woman's WWII welding outfit, L. L. Bean boots and German POW snowshoes, and many more objects from the museum's collections. Short narratives written by museum curators are woven around each item----including photos of related objects----and the ensemble has been honed, polished, and introduced by museum director Bernard Fishman. This is a book that Maine residents and visitors will delve into again and again, unearthing new treasures with each reading.