MAINE: THE PINE TREE STATE
In Discover New England The Guide (2007)

Finding unspoiled landscapes and getting away from the holiday crowds is easy: just head for Maine. The Pine Tree State is vast. As big as all the other five New England states put together, it has mountains and valleys, lakes and rushing rivers guarded by those signature pine trees. Then there is the coastline, peppered with lighthouses, a Maine trademark. Here, the Atlantic surges past thousands of little islands to crash onto granite rocks. Invigorating, refreshing, and inspiring: that’s Maine.

“Visitors go there now chiefly for the New England foliage in spring and autumn, the unfettered skiing and snowmobiling in winter, the hundreds of compact coastal resorts with their brilliant white lighthouses in summer and - most of all - for the scale of the mountains, forests and 2,500 lakes which effortlessly swallow up any crowds in any season.” The Guardian

My kind of town
A popular destination is Portland, a historic seaside city that encompasses Casco Bay, with its island communities. Thanks to over 300 years of history, there are handsome old homes and the Old Port, plus top-class museums, performing arts, restaurants and comfy inns. The city’s most famous son is 19th-century poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, who wrote The Song of Hiawatha. Open to the public, his childhood home is the oldest residence in Portland. Augusta is the state capital, where highlights are the 1754 National Landmark Old Fort Western and the Maine State Museum, where Maine’s historic and cultural past is traced.

Somewhere special
In New Gloucester, the 230-year-old Sabbathday Lake Shaker Community is home to the last few members of this religious group that is best known for its simple lifestyle and fine furniture design. In Livermore, the excellent Washburn-Norlands Living History Center’s hands-on programmes let visitors experience the frugal New England lifestyle of the 1870s. Deep in the countryside in Newfield, west of Portland, Willowbrook Museum Village also recreates the 19th century with historic homes, stagecoaches, carriages and much, much more. Down on the water, there is plenty to learn about the past in Old York, with everything from an Old Gaol to an Old Schoolhouse.



Highways and byways
Drive from Portland to the western mountains and Bethel, a year-round destination, with historic homes clustered round a picturesque village green. Summer brings hikers and golfers; autumn is the foliage season; and nearby Sunday River is one of New England’s top ski and snowboarding resorts. Few seaside towns have a more beautiful setting than Camden, at the foot of Mount Battie and overlooking Penobscot Bay. Old houses have been converted into romantic inns; yachts bob at their moorings; and lobster is always on the menu. Sailing, once for trade, is now for recreation: spend a day or a week aboard a windjammer. This Maine speciality is a tall-masted sailing schooner. Help to haul on the sheets, or just sit and watch the world go by.

Culture club
Maine’s scenic beauty has long been an inspiration for painters. Among the most famous are Edward Hopper and the three generations of the Wyeth family, whose works are featured at the Farnsworth Art Museum in Rockland. Ogunquit’s Museum of American Art has been rated ‘the most beautiful small museum in the world’, while the Downeast Heritage Museum is in Calais, up near the Canadian border. But it’s hard to beat Portland’s Museum of Art, with its European masters plus contemporary American works.

Only in Maine
Freeport and Kittery: these two words are poetry to shopaholics. Just inside Maine’s southern border, Kittery has 120 outlets with designer fashions, brand name shoes, fine china as well as camping and outdoor sporting gear at the famous Kittery Trading Post. Further north, Freeport is a shopping ‘village’, with 170 regular shops, outlet stores and boutiques, plus B&Bs and hotels. The most famous store is L L Bean, known for its outdoor wear. Open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, the store has no locks on the doors!

Away from it all
Maine is rugged, with unspoiled nature at its best in the 200,000 acres of Baxter State Park, home of mile-high Mount Katahdin. For a real thrill, join a canoe trip along the 92-mile long Allagash Wilderness Waterway. Equally dramatic is one of America’s most popular National Parks: the 47,000-acre Acadia National Park on Mount Desert Island. Built over a century ago for the carriages of affluent holidaymakers, the 45 miles of scenic roads are now used by hikers and cyclists. There is also a 27-mile Park Loop Road for sightseeing on four wheels, and an environmentally-friendly free shuttle service, the Island Explorer, that reduces traffic and enables visitors to safely take their eyes off the road to enjoy the magnificent scenery.

Fascinating facts
Maine is a favourite destination for rock hounds, gemologists searching for amethyst, tourmaline and quartz. Before hunting in the mineral-rich Oxford Hills, they check in at an 85-year-old landmark: Perham’s Mineral Store of West Parism. As well as its collection of minerals, there is a jewellery store. Two centuries ago, Maine fishermen made their money from whaling. Today, it’s cameras rather than harpoons that shoot the finback, humpback and minke whales that migrate to Maine’s waters. Take a whale watching cruise from the ports along the coast. And don’t forget earmuffs! In 1873, when Chester Greenwood’s ears were freezing, he invented Ear Protectors, an achievement celebrated in Farmington on the first Saturday of December.