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

An artist's rendering of the three proposed wind turbines off Block Island

Island Journal

The Cable Is the Key

Block Island, 13 miles south of the Rhode Island coast, is a postcard of beaches, quaint shops, and wild conservation land. With a year-round population of 1,000 residents and a summer population that can reach 10,000, it follows the seasonal ebb and flow of many New England islands. The place… SEE MORE

Kathie Iannicelli in her greenhouse on Monhegan

Island Journal

My Garden in Your Backyard

Monhegan in late January is the antithesis of the island’s summertime buzz of endless work, activities and hordes of day-trippers. The days are short and bitter: the wind surges off the harbor and shakes the spruce and pushes against the house clapboards violently. And at night, with the stars frozen… SEE MORE

Island Journal

In It For The Long Haul

To many residents and visitors alike, summer on a Maine island means one thing above all others: that most wonderful of culinary and sensory experiences—a Maine lobster dinner—succulent white meat dripping with drawn butter, served near the ocean. While finding the perfect spot to enjoy a lobster, visitors may stroll… SEE MORE

Chellie Pingree talks with North Haven boatyard owner Foy Brown, 1996.

Island Journal

What I Take With Me

When I moved to North Haven, I thought I was moving away from politics. In 1971, I was just out of high school, a veteran of protest marches in a country divided by disputes over the war in Vietnam. That summer, I went to visit a young man on a… SEE MORE

Island Journal

Islesford’s Creative Economy

The Cranberry Isles consist of five islands that, in the words of the historian Ted Spurling, “fit into the Great Harbor of Mount Desert Island, nestling nicely under its shorter arm.” They are, from largest to smallest, Great Cranberry, Little Cranberry (also called Islesford), Sutton, Baker and Bear. The islands… SEE MORE

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