Working Waterfront

Downeast to Casco Bay, coastal conversations float all boats

It must have been six years ago now that this paper made a concerted effort to add Washington County content. I recall raising grant funds to make it possible. The thought back then was that Washington County coastal communities shared a great deal in common with the island and remote coastal communities elsewhere in Maine. A… SEE MORE

Landowner Mark Alley and Island Institute Fellow Jessi Duma at the garden Alley is allowing Duma and her colleagues to bring back after a long period of lying fallow.

Working Waterfront

Cranberry Islanders reseed a growing tradition

Here and there around Great Cranberry Island, a flock of geese runs as one around its pen, a trio of sheep explores a grassy apple orchard, a brace of goats peer through a fence, and a whole lot of gardens in various sizes and configurations bloom with delicious vegetables and… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

It all depends… and repeat

One summer from June into September, I baked two cheese cakes every seven to ten days. It was one of two or three dessert choices on the dinner menu of the bed and breakfast inn where I worked. I learned a lot about cheesecake that summer, though not as much… SEE MORE

The steamer Islander at Squirrel Island Landing in 1901.

Working Waterfront

Traveling in style—Maine Maritime Museum remembers steamboat era

“Transport like no other” declared a sign posted more than 100 years ago on the Bath City Landing, directing visitors to board the steamboat Virginia. That sign is one of the items on display in a new steamboat exhibit at the Maine Maritime Museum. It’s been more than 25 years… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

A year of teaching social justice

Life on North Haven can have an insular, sheltered feeling to it. This can be blissful—children roam free, parents confident in their safety, rides are freely asked for and given, and babysitters are abundant and trustworthy. The downside to our little Mayberry is that awareness of social injustice can be… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

June as a junk drawer

When a knee issue went from sporadic to constant in February, my doctor suggested physical therapy. One-hour appointments two days a week don’t sound unreasonable, but scheduling them when you live across the water is one of the banes of island living. My PT appointments were on Mount Desert Island, so… SEE MORE

The cover art for the 2016 edition of The Island Reader was created by Islesboro student Cheyenne Houle.

Working Waterfront

The Island Reader celebrates homegrown art, literature

There is a side to island life that might be eclipsed by fishermen’s working lobster boats and pickup trucks, and tourists walking off ferries. Art and literature are alive and well in island communities, and the Maine Seacoast Mission believes they are worth celebrating and sharing. To that end, the… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Fake it ’til you make it

Reflections is a monthly column written by Island Fellows, recent college grads who do community service work on Maine islands and in remote coastal communities through the Island Institute, publisher of The Working Waterfront. Ben Algeo works with the electric utilities on Monhegan and Matinicus as they work toward energy efficiency. … SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Small, island-town values play well in big world

Benjamin Stevens of Islesford (Little Cranberry Island) graduated this month from Maine Maritime Academy in Castine. Every year, people from Maine’s islands buy all sorts of things. We buy clothes and shoes, tools and supplies, fuel and electricity, and groceries. Every island resident knows how challenging it is to get their… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Saving community underpinnings means recognizing them

A friend of mine once wrote that fishing villages came in to existence once they began to disappear. Once seaside villages were lost to other forms of development, nostalgia over their loss emerged, giving rise to the term “fishing villages” in the early 19th century. Most of the time, it… SEE MORE