Maine Trivia & Tidbits - Page 13

Looking for Maine trivia? Try our list Maine little know facts, tidbits and trivia.

The Gulf of Maine-Bay of Fundy system off the coasts of Maine, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia produces some of the world’s highest tides, with levels varying as much as 50 feet during a 12-hour cycle.

first appeared: 7/28/2002

Ocean Pier at Old Orchard Beach (pop. 8,856), built in 1898, was nearly destroyed by a fire in 1907 and a storm in 1909. The current pier, with its shops and boutiques, was rebuilt after a 1979 storm severely damaged the old one.

first appeared: 7/21/2002

The Roosevelt Campobello International Park on Campobello Island, where Franklin D. Roosevelt often summered, is administered jointly by the United States and Canada. The island is in New Brunswick, but bridge access is from Maine.

first appeared: 7/14/2002

As the crow flies, Maine’s coast is 230 miles long, but the best estimates of its actual shoreline, a coast of many bays, inlets, and harbors, is 3,500 miles.

first appeared: 7/7/2002

A city of firsts, Bangor is the birthplace of the canvas-covered canoe and the extension ladder, and was the first town in Maine to have an electric trolley system, inaugurated in 1889.

first appeared: 6/30/2002

Somes Sound at Mount Desert Island is the East’s only true fjord—a narrow, steep valley carved by glaciers that subsequently filled with rising ocean water.

first appeared: 6/23/2002

Ospreys, also called fish hawks, all but disappeared from Maine in the 1950s and ’60s due to DDT poisoning. They’ve bounced back in the last two decades, now numbering more than 2,000 statewide.

first appeared: 6/16/2002

The 1839 Aroostook “war” began when the United States sent troops to discourage Canadian lumbermen from venturing into northern Maine’s Aroostook River valley. The dispute ended without bloodshed with an 1842 treaty.

first appeared: 6/9/2002

Maine has moose and the towns of Moose River (named after the waterway) and Moosehead—along with Moose Mountain, Great Moose and Mooselook lakes, Moose Point State Park, and Moosehorn wildlife refuge.

first appeared: 6/2/2002

The Thomas Hill Standpipe in Bangor holds 1.75-million gallons of water, with a white-shingled, colonnaded observation deck atop it. The deck is open each year for foliage season.

first appeared: 5/26/2002

Bangor was the first town in Maine to erect a memorial to its Civil War soldiers, building it a month before the Battle of Gettysburg.

first appeared: 5/19/2002

Maine has more bogs than any other northeastern state. They’re especially prevalent in Washington County, where the surface topography and cool, moist air off the ocean combine to create these floating meadows.

first appeared: 5/12/2002

Students at the University of Maine at Fort Kent (pop. 4,233) on the Canadian border get an orientation class in “Franglais,” the English-French hybrid often used in the region. It includes such words as gadang-gadang, meaning roughly, “a bit too fancy.”

first appeared: 5/5/2002

Fond of naming towns after presidents, Maine has a Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, Jackson, Van Buren, Harrison, Lincoln, and Garfield. It also has a Clinton.

first appeared: 4/28/2002

Each July, the folks in Pittsfield (pop. 3,217) break out one of the world’s largest frying pans for their Central Maine Egg Festival. The pan is five feet in diameter, weighs 300 pounds, and is Teflon coated.

first appeared: 4/21/2002

The first closed-helmet diving suit—the helmet was made of lead—was patented by Leonard Norcross of Dixfield (pop. 2,514) in 1834. Air was pumped into the suit by a bellows.

first appeared: 4/14/2002

U.S. Route 1, with one end in Key West, Fla., has its other end at Fort Kent (pop. 1,978) on the U.S.-Canadian border.

first appeared: 4/7/2002

The organ in the Lorimer Chapel at Colby College in Waterville was designed by the renowned humanitarian Albert Schweitzer (1865-1975).

first appeared: 3/31/2002

Maine has roughly 25,000 moose within its boundaries. Moose can weigh more than 1,000 pounds, with antlers weighing 50 pounds or more.

first appeared: 3/24/2002

A 26-foot great white shark was caught near Eastport (pop. 1,640) in 1932. It’s still on the record books as the largest shark ever taken in Maine waters.

first appeared: 3/17/2002

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