Maine Trivia & Tidbits - Page 6

In 1982, 10-year-old Samantha Smith from Manchester (pop. 2,465) captured world attention when she expressed her fears of nuclear war in a letter to Soviet Premier Yuri Andropov. Touched, Andropov invited Smith to visit his country, making her one of the United States’ youngest peace ambassadors. A statue of Smith, who died in a plane crash in 1985, graces the grounds of the Maine State Museum in Augusta. —During the 1930s, wooden yachts produced by the M.M. Davis & Son Shipyard brought international fame to Solomons (pop. 1,536). Perhaps the most famous was the Manitou, built in 1937 for James R. Lowe and sailed by President John F. Kennedy during his 1962 vacation in Maine.

Mel Gibson’s 1993 movie The Man Without a Face was filmed in Camden (pop. 5,254), Rockport (pop. 3,209) and other locations in the state.

Producers of the 1999 movie Snow Falling on Cedars used the Portland Head Light in Cape Elizabeth (pop. 9,068) for a lighthouse scene in the movie, althrough the film is set in the Pacific Northwest.

A 22-foot-tall L.L. Bean boot stands outside the company’s flagship store in Freeport (pop. 1,813).

The Burnham & Morrill Company opened its first plant in 1867 in Portland (pop. 64,249) and canned a variety of foods—meat, vegetables and fish, including lobster. Canning overcame some of the problems associated with shipping lobsters.

Maine was the birthplace of the motor iceboat, a forerunner of the snowmobile.

In September 1888, the Hunniwells Beach Coast Guard Station rescued 15 people from Glovers Rock off the coast of Small Point south of Bath (pop. 9,266). The crew fired a gun, which cast a line to the stranded people, who were hauled to safety in a dory.

Smackmen first appeared in Maine in the 1820s to supply lobsters to the New York and Boston markets. They were named after their boats, small sailing vessels, called smacks, featuring tanks that allowed seawater to circulate around their catch.

Among the collections at the Pine Tree State Arboretum in Augusta (pop. 18,560) is "Governors Grove," a stand of more than 60 eastern white pines, Maine’s state tree, planted in honor of each of the state’s governors since 1820.

James Rosier, a member of a British Capt. George Weymouth’s expedition to the Maine coast in 1605, chronicled the first official Maine lobster catch. Once considered "poverty food," lobsters became popular after the first cannery in Eastport (pop. 1,640) was established in 1843.

One of the nation’s first Boy Scout troops, Troop #1 of Brewer (pop. 8,987), was founded in 1909, even before the Boy Scouts of America was incorporated in 1910.

Eastport (pop. 1,640), on Moose Island in Passamaquoddy Bay, was the birthplace of Maine’s canned sardine industry. Today, along with surrounding communities in Maine and Canada, Eastport is a leading producer of farm-raised Atlantic salmon.

Situated in a deep tidal creek, the first lobster pound was constructed on the island of Vinalhaven (pop. 1,235) in 1875. Essentially a pen or tank through which water circulates, lobster pounds are more commonly found today at docks floating in harbors.

On Trap Day—Dec. 3, 2004—the lobstermen of Monhegan Island (pop. 75) began their 180-day trapping season. Each lobsterman is limited to 600 traps, and only they may trap the waters within a 2-mile radius of the island.

Shoals Marine Laboratory, founded in 1973, is located on Appledore Island, part of the Isles of Shoals archipelago in the Gulf of Maine. The laboratory is an educational research facility.

Located on a cluster of rugged islands and on the mainland at Schoodic Peninsula, Acadia National Park includes the highest point on the North Atlantic seaboard—1,530-foot Cadillac Mountain.

Led by Neal Dow, known as the "Father of Prohibition," the state banned the manufacture and sale of liquor in 1851.

Beginning in the mid-19th century, families from New York City, Boston and other cities boarded steamships known as "Boston Boats" to travel to the burgeoning resort towns along the coast of Maine. MARYLAND—The first U.S. Army light artillery regiment was formed at Baltimore’s Fort McHenry in 1808.

The Bangor & Piscataquis Canal and Railroad completed the first railroad tracks in the state in 1836. Stretching from Bangor (pop. 31,473) to Old Town (pop. 8,130), the rail line, used primarily for shipping lumber, was the second railroad in New England.

Dot Petty of Portland (pop. 64,249) was world singles champion in candlepin bowling in 1967 and 1978 and twice earned "Bowler of the Year" awards. The game, according to the International Candlepin Bowling Association, was invented in 1880.