Working Waterfront

What World War II meant to Monhegan

The Second World War had a dramatic impact on the everyday lives of people across the country, and while far from the fighting, the residents of Maine’s remote offshore islands also were profoundly affected by the war overseas. The multimedia online exhibition World War II: On-Island and Abroad incorporates oral… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Connection, as only music can provide it

Island winters are not for the faint of heart. My first winter on Islesboro was no exception. At the beginning of my fellowship, a wise islander gave me some sage advice: the only way to make it through winter on Islesboro is to have a really good hobby. SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

On the record with… David Hopkins, chair of Maine Arts Commission

Born in Bangor in 1953, David Hopkins grew up on North Haven Island. When he was 14 and his brother, painter Eric Hopkins, was 16, they asked their parents if they could open an art gallery on the family’s Hopkins Wharf. That was the beginning of a life-long connection for… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Walking back the memories

I suppose this is a little island. I mean, look at Greenland. On the other hand, Vinalhaven is the same size as Manhattan and it is the largest island in Penobscot Bay. Still, in the scheme of things or if one lives here for eons and is in the habit… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Island life through the eyes of COVID refugees

When Andrei Pogany, his wife Deborah Gorman, and their two young daughters, Klara and Amalia came from Los Angeles to stay on Islesford last September, they planned to be here for about three months. The island internet was fast enough to work from home and Klara could start her L.A.… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Let’s talk about ‘fresh’

For millennia, humankind dwelling in the parts of the globe with four distinct seasons—during which at least one of them nothing grows—never hankered for salad in February, or asparagus in January. Or strawberries, or broccoli, except in season. They actually enjoyed good health, except when struck with contagious disease, like… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Food is an anchor of normalcy

It’s very close to the one-year anniversary of “quarantimes” as I write this column. On March 13, 2020, our students had their last day of in-person school for the year, although we didn’t know it at the time. We shut everything down—for two weeks, then for a month, then for… SEE MORE

A spring scene on the Peaks Island shore. FILE PHOTO: TOM GROENING

Working Waterfront

Peaks Island soliciting developers for senior facility

When asked, most say that aging at home or aging in an assisted living facility near home are the preferred options. But what if home is on an island, with limited health services, let alone an assisted living facility? A group of Peaks islanders is working to change that status.… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

The island wave is part of self-governing

Reflections is written by Island Fellows, recent college grads who do community service work on Maine islands and in coastal communities through the Island Institute, publisher of The Working Waterfront. As I drove down Main Street on Vinalhaven for the first time, admiring the dozens of lobster boats moored in Carver’s… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Poetry embedded in a fisherman’s diary

Review by Dana Wilde Didn’t Do Much but a Little of Everything: The Eagle Island Diary of Dalton Raynes Ian Ludders, ed.; Lulu.com It’s about 1961, a sunny day somewhere in Scarborough. Spread over what seems, to my 8-year-old eyes, like acres and acres of dry field, are sardine… SEE MORE