Maine Trivia & Tidbits - Page 14

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

Before Charles Lindbergh’s solo flight in 1927, several non-solo transatlantic flights left from Old Orchard Beach (pop. 8,856) in southern Maine. The take-off terrain consisted of long stretches of hard-packed sand.

first appeared: 3/10/2002

In June, the cones on a Maine balsam fir, the most abundant fir in the state, turn purple.

first appeared: 3/3/2002

Cyrus Curtis was born in Portland in 1850. In 1897, he paid $1,000 for a weekly magazine with limited readership and virtually no advertising. Curtis revamped the magazine, The Saturday Evening Post, and by 1909, circulation had risen to more than 1 million.

first appeared: 2/24/2002

Until the 20th century, New Englanders considered lobsters to be scavengers and therefore garbage, useful only as fertilizer. Actually, lobsters eat only live clams, mussels, and other shellfish, which accounts for the sweet taste of lobster meat.

first appeared: 2/17/2002

Kittery (pop. 4,884), settled in 1623, is Maine’s oldest community. The Ranger, the first ship to fly the Stars and Stripes, was launched at Kittery under John Paul Jones on May 10, 1777.

first appeared: 2/10/2002

Collections at The Center for Maine History in Portsmouth encompass more than 2,000 paintings, prints, and other works of art, and about 8,000 artifacts depicting life in Maine.

first appeared: 2/3/2002

The Seashore Trolley Museum in Kennebunkport (pop.1,376) has one of the most comprehensive collections of electric streetcars in the world.

first appeared: 1/27/2002

In our Dec. 23 issue, we moved the Baltimore Orioles from Maryland to Maine—without their permission. Our apologies both to Maine and to the Orioles for the unlikely matchup.

first appeared: 1/20/2002

This state has cooler weather than much of the rest of the U.S. because Arctic air and coastal winds keep it from being warmed by air rising from the Gulf Stream flowing by its coast.

first appeared: 1/13/2002

The state is home to about 20 species of human-biting mosquitoes, whose natural enemies include dragonflies, bats, barn swallows, purple martins, frogs, and certain fish.

first appeared: 1/6/2002

From the town of East Orland (pop. 680), Walter Van Tillburg Clark is the author of the 1940 novel, The Oxbow Incident, a tale about the Old West that became a popular movie.

first appeared: 12/30/2001

The first year the Baltimore Orioles played in the American League, in 1954, an opening day bleacher seat cost 75 cents.

first appeared: 12/23/2001

The state’s earliest recorded frost date is Sept. 5. That frosty morning came in 1963.

first appeared: 12/16/2001

Born in Ellsworth (pop. 6,456), John Hay Whitney (1904–1982) served as ambassador to Great Britain (1957-1961). In 1961, he became publisher of the New York Herald Tribune, which ceased publication in 1966.

first appeared: 12/9/2001

Aroostook is the state’s northernmost and largest county. Its 5 million acres contain more than 1,000 lakes and several mountain ranges.

first appeared: 12/2/2001

Penobscot Bay, 40 miles long and 15 miles wide, has more than 200 islands and many coves. several of the islands—many of them served by ferry—are home to state parks.

first appeared: 11/25/2001

The largest recorded landlocked salmon was caught in Sebago Lake, a few miles from the village of Sebago (pop. 1,433). in 1907. It weighed 20 pounds, 8 ounces.

first appeared: 11/18/2001

In 1860, Hannibal Hamlin (1809-1865), a native of Paris (pop. 4,793), was Abraham Lincoln’s first vice president. Like Lincoln, Hamlin was a lawyer and a member of his state’s House of Representatives. He also served two terms as a U.S. representative and was once elected senator.

first appeared: 11/11/2001

In 1524, Italian explorer Giovanni da Verranzano (1485-1527) was the first European to survey the coast of Maine.

first appeared: 11/4/2001

The stones used in the fireplace of the Porter Memorial Library in Machias (pop. 2,353) were originally ballast stones in the British warship Margaretta, captured during the American Revolution.

first appeared: 10/28/2001

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