A map of Fort George at the failed Popham colony (property of the archive at Simancas

Working Waterfront

Mysteries of Maine’s first European colony

By Phil Showell It was one of those crazy thoughts people get in the dead of winter. It’s January of 1608. You’re a Popham colonist, teeth chattering, huddled against the cold in a half-built Fort St. George. Up drives a snow-splattered Jeep Cherokee with a license plate proclaiming “Maine–Vacationland.” Well,… SEE MORE

Sellam El Ouahabi teaching circus skills.

Working Waterfront

Circus School coming to Vinalhaven, Bar Harbor

A circus arts school recently formed in Biddeford will bring classes to the coast this summer. The Sellam Circus School, founded by Sellam El Ouahabi and Amity Stoddard, will offer its first-ever summer circus arts day camp on Vinalhaven Island in July and in Bar Harbor in August, part of… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

On the record with: Steve Lyons of the Maine Office of Tourism

Steve Lyons has been with the Maine Office of Tourism since 1998, working under three directors. With the departure of Carolann Ouellette, he is now the acting director of the small office—which has just seven employees—tucked within the Department of Economic and Community Development. But there’s nothing small about the… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Herring history at stake in Lubec

Some things just can’t be replaced, such as the historic brining shed—an integral element in Lubec’s once booming smoked herring business. The now empty and fragile structure was used as part of the process at McCurdy’s Smokehouse, which is the last standing herring smokehouse in the country. Rachel Rubeor, president… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Native wisdom measuring Maine, verse by verse

Booker’s Point by Megan Grumbling. Denton, Texas: University of North Texas Press “Come to a fork, you gotta take/it, they say” When I was growing up on Long Island, New York, my parents hired a local man, Fred Grimshaw, to look after our property. He knew how to do everything—trim hedges,… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Island life spiced up by dining opportunities

April’s issue of the North Haven News, our monthly island newspaper, came with a delightful surprise announcement: Cooper’s Landing would be re-opening for the season on April 17. The Landing has been an on-and-off North Haven institution. The slate blue building just across the street from the ferry terminal has… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Eating garbage as the responsible, frugal thing to do

Danish chef Mads Refslund has just written a book called Scraps, Wilt, and Weeds: Turning Wasted Food into Plenty. This is just the most recent evidence of a recent phenomenon of people trying to figure out what to do with food that normally is dumped into the garbage can. Old… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

‘A world of singers’ is siren for Islesford poet

At Bunker Cove. Poems by Ralph Stevens. Westbrook, Maine: Moonpie Press, 2017. 58 pp. Softbound, $14 Born during World War II to a father who was in the Navy, Ralph Stevens moved at least ten times before graduating from Lincoln Academy in Newcastle. He dropped out of college and did… SEE MORE

Andrea Shane poses with one of her patients at the Antigua Exotic rescue center in Antigua

Working Waterfront

Fox islanders go from high school to the world

Mainers commonly travel during the winter and early spring, and Andrea Shane and Skyler Sanborn, both of Vinalhaven, are no different. But Shane and Sanborn are not snowbirds. The girls, both 2016 graduates of Vinalhaven High School, are spending time in Guatemala as part of a gap year before college.… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Nostaglic for one island, learning the life of another

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. I’ve been taking lots of walks. Without a vehicle, this is inevitable, but it’s also been a… SEE MORE