Year: 2015

crowd standing in front of building at community center opening ceremony

Island Journal

MBNA and the Midcoast Miracle

MBNA. Four letters that actually stood for nothing, yet oh-so-much, in the mid-1990s through 2005. The Delaware-based credit-card lender, spun off from Maryland Bank, National Association—hence the name—dominated the Midcoast landscape for those years. From 50 jobs in Camden in 1993 to 4,500 statewide by the early 2000s, its growth… SEE MORE
illustration of boy and seal

Island Journal

A Tidal Joy Ride

ILLUSTRATIONS BY SCOTT NASH Elias and Drew donned the life jackets they’d selected from the wide assortment found in the barn and scurried out onto the line of rocks and ledges that constituted a little jetty at the head of the rapids. Twelve-year-old Elias had been coming to Vinalhaven from… SEE MORE
windmills in the distance behind a body of water

Island Journal

Song of the Samsingers

Landing on Samsø Island, part of Denmark, we were greeted by a kind of rock star. “Hello! My name is Søren,” exclaimed the man. “I am the lead singer of the Samsingers,” he smiled, echoing a local pun (the residents of the island are known as “Samsingers”). Søren Hermansen was… SEE MORE
oysters on a bed of ice with a menu board in background

Island Journal

An Oyster Story

An Oyster Story The source of that slurpy, salty goodness is the ‘taste of place’ BY CATHERINE SCHMITT At three in the afternoon on a Friday in January, all the seats are full at Eventide Oyster Company in Portland. Outside, the temperatures are plummeting, but inside the sun shines through… SEE MORE
old photo of a man in a canoe

Island Journal

The Alluring and Enduring Maine Coast

The Alluring and Enduring Maine Coast Historic images from the Penobscot Marine Museum By Lisa Mossel Vietze The Penobscot Marine Museum’s photographic collection is vast — overwhelmingly vast . . . . . . Lucky for me, I had the privilege of working with Kevin Johnson, the museum’s photo archivist,… SEE MORE
woman standing in front of house during winter

Island Journal

Counting Empty Houses Come Winter

Counting Empty Houses Come Winter Affordable housing finds a foothold on Maine’s islands. BY ANNIE MURPHY Tiffany Tate knows the frustration of looking for affordable housing on an island where all real estate is expensive and rentals are hard to come by. She was raised in Washington County, but Tate’s… SEE MORE
old black and white image of campers

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
overlooking Stonington Harbor

Island Journal

Stonington: A Town on the Edge

Stonington: A Town on the Edge Contradictions abound, but resiliency abides. STORY AND PHOTOS BY TOM GROENING If anyone has a finger on the pulse of a community, it’s the guy who runs the town’s weekly newspaper. And what does Ben Barrows, general manager of the Island Ad-Vantages, think about… SEE MORE
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