Island Journal

The Summer of ’43, When Quakers Landed on Vinalhaven

The Summer of ’43, When Quakers Landed on Vinalhaven While World War II raged, urban teens visited a Maine island to work. BY HARRY GRATWICK By 1943, the World War seemed endless. The news carried stories of victories and defeats, liberation and slaughter. In February of that year, the German… SEE MORE

History

Woman sketching on a hill overlooking ocean

Island Journal

The Legacy of Ireland’s Great Blasket Island

A Community Unraveled: The Legacy of Ireland’s Great Blasket Island STORY AND PHOTOS BY KATHLEEN WALSH BUCHANAN The Dingle Peninsula in County Kerry, Ireland, is a landscape of spare and emotive beauty. It is a rugged place of stone-walled fields climbing mountainsides to the limits of tillable land, where the… SEE MORE

black and white photo of docked world war II vessels

Island Journal

World War II left a big footprint on Casco Bay islands

World War II Left a Big Footprint on Casco Bay Islands BY EDGAR ALLEN BEEM The great concrete bulwark of Battery Steele on Peaks Island is covered in earth and weeds and graffiti. The maw of the old gun emplacement stands dark, dank, and toothless, its 16-inch battleship guns removed… SEE MORE

History

Island Journal

Youth as Conservation Catalysts

Youth as Conservation Catalysts Friday, July 21, 1882. Immediately after breakfast all members of the camp sailed out of the harbor and over to the seawall . . . About two hours were spent on shore, Townsend and Spelman with their guns and Clark with his hammer, confining their attention… SEE MORE

black and white photo of view of Monhegan from Manana

Island Journal

Monhegan at 400: “A Fortunate Island”

Of all the Maine islands I favor Monhegan, a solitary whale couchant in a blue field of sea, sixteen miles distant with nothing beyond but more sea and the coast of France. —Martin Dibner, Seacoast Maine: People and Places (1987) It has been 400 years since the English explorer Captain… SEE MORE

History

Island Journal

The Year Steel and Cable Changed Deer Isle

Does an island lose its “islandness” when a bridge is built linking it to the mainland? For Deer Isle and Little Deer Isle, the question is not hypothetical. For the last 75 years, a bridge has wrought changes to the two Penobscot Bay islands and to Stonington, the busy fishing… SEE MORE

History

Island Journal

Hauling in The Puddle

My lobstering career started the day old Chet Wall cut off a finger while repairing wooden traps in our barn. It was mid-July, the height of one of the best lobster seasons we’d had in years. Chet had been working for my father, lobstering around Pleasant Island. Daddy supplied him… SEE MORE

Island Journal

Islands Are Character Magnets

As a kid, I wanted to be normal. Anything that kept me away from this ideal—namely, my parents—was a threat. Middle school can be rough, and the closer I was to everybody else, the easier life would be. It took me a while to appreciate “characters,” which as far as… SEE MORE

Island Journal

Caring For Their Own

“The family became so destitute that they were obliged to seek alms from the town. An official from Stonington took the child when she was six years old and started with her for the Poor Farm on Deer Isle.” — Dr. Benjamin Noyes, Island Family Histories: 1890–1945 Fortunately, this story… SEE MORE

History

Island Journal

The Gardner Bill

In May of 1912, a group of fishermen from Essex County, Massachusetts, enlisted the support of their congressional representative, Augustus P. Gardner, to push forward a bill to ban the use of otter trawls on Georges Bank. It was a bold move, though not unprecedented in pre–World War I US… SEE MORE