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Tom Chappell’s Favorite Maine Place
Maine beckoned Tom Chappell back in 1968, when he was two years out of college, selling life insurance in Philadelphia and nursing fond memories of boyhood summers on Drakes Island, in Wells. So he...
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Why Maine Became a State (And Not a Commonwealth)
By Brian Kevin The year is 1819. Founding Father James Monroe is two years into his first presidential term. Journalists have dubbed the epoch “the Era of Good Feelings,” reflecting a swelling...
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The Art of Sauntering
By Susan Hand Shetterly Henry David Thoreau’s great essay “Walking” was published in The Atlantic Monthly in 1862. He defined his manner of walking as sauntering. I used to walk, and that seemed fine...
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American Roots Runs Deep
By Rachel SladePhotographed by Michael D. Wilson With his Yosemite Sam eyebrows and thick beard and ’stache — red, flecked with gray — Ben Waxman has a whiff of 19th-century industrialist about him....
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The Maine-iest Drink from Each of Maine’s 16 Counties
By Will GrunewaldPhotographed by Mark Fleming THE APÉRITIF Androscoggin County: The Moxie Bomb A Union native invented Moxie in the 1800s, and though it’s never been produced here, Mainers’ love...
View ArticleMaine News You May Have Missed
Swan’s Island MDI High School senior Sage Dentremont swam 6 miles from Swan’s Island to Bass Harbor, inspired by tourists who asked what happens if she misses the ferry on a school day. Her feat...
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In This Together
Gorham Savings Bank Maine Marathon Boys and Girls Clubs of Kennebec Valley Good Shepherd Food Bank The Ecology School Northern Light Health An Enduring Good The Gorham Savings Bank Maine Marathon has...
View ArticleThese 5 New Maine Restaurants Opened During the Pandemic
Dozens of Maine restaurants have permanently closed due to the pandemic-driven downturn, from snug pubs (Camden’s Drouthy Bear, Brunswick’s Pedro O’Hara’s) to decades-old breakfast counters (South...
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2020 Down East Art of Giving
The Art of Giving is Down East’s annual celebration of Maine art, artists, and the community organizations they hold dear. Each year four artists are selected to have their work shown at a reception,...
View ArticleNovember 2020
Features Maine Gives Back As a difficult year draws to a close, we salute Mainers doing their part to make the state a better place. Segment One At the heart of the public debate over a proposed...
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Sharp as Ever
By Kaitlyn Schwalje | Photographed by Tristan Spinski With his silver hair neatly parted, Norman Millette arrives at Portland’s Senior Citizens Barber Shop around 7 a.m., after driving in from his Old...
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Mé Lon Togo is Still Cooking (in Camden)!
By Jesse Ellison | Photographed by Dave Waddell Chef-owner Jordan Benissan meticulously plates meals, but his easygoing demeanor sets the tone in the restaurant. At Mé Lon Togo, in Camden, a dish...
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Can You Guess These 5 Spots on the Maine Coast?
Sure, Maine’s got 3,500 miles of coastline, but just a small fraction of that has public access that’s guaranteed. And with climate change and development pressures looming, waterfront access has...
View ArticleCan You Name This Lighthouse?
In 1895, a Boston Post travel writer cruised on a steamboat past this little island, “where a new lighthouse is soon to be built, to aid the navigators of this circuitous river.” It was one of several...
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The CMP Corridor: Maine’s Most Divisive 53 Miles
Above: The sheer face on the left is part of Greenlaw Mountain, known to some New England peakbaggers as Crispo Peak, after a pioneering climber of all of New England’s 3,000-footers. The power...
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What Happened When a Maine Governor Tried to Rig an Election
By Brian Kevin Alonzo Garcelon was a dark-horse candidate who surprised observers when he was elected Maine’s governor despite losing the popular vote. Throughout his life, he’d switched parties...
View ArticleWhere in Maine? Our Favorite Answer
The Allagash River Each month, Down East editors select our favorite response to “Where in Maine?” Here is our favorite letter from September’s photo. “I first canoed the Waterway in October 1975,...
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The Complete Works of Marsden Hartley
By Will Grunewald Marsden Hartley spent much of his career bouncing around the U.S. and Europe, but he started and ended it in Maine, where he depicted everything from Katahdin to lobstermen to...
View ArticleDr. Sean Birkel’s Favorite Maine Place
Growing up in Bangor, Sean Birkel wasn’t much for the outdoors. Sure, he camped every so often with his family, but he was more into video games and coding. Then, as a UMaine undergraduate studying...
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5 Ways to Recognize Maine’s Wabanaki Heritage During Native American Heritage...
By Will Grunewald and Brian Kevin The pandemic has nixed many museums and events, but there are still plenty of (socially distanced) resources for learning about Maine’s four Wabanaki tribes —...
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