Stay in touch with the coast.
Sign up for our newsletter »


The Revenue Man

Catching rumrunners during Prohibition was one thing, but convicting them was another, as a customs agent on Mount Desert Island learned, much to his frustration.

From Rum to Lobsters

The qualities that made them good for rum-running during Prohibition also made builder Will Frost’s boats good for lobstering. His semi-displacement hulls, renowned for maintaining speed at capacity, have influenced the design of lobsterboats ever since.

Remembering the Oakey L. Alexander

Sometimes when disaster strikes, the official rescuers need help. In 1947, a whole community came out to save a shipwrecked crew off Cape Elizabeth.

The Hidden Life of Seaweed


Influenced by Nature

Charles Eliot was a noted landscape architect who helped create the land trust model that led to the formation of Acadia National Park. Sailing vacations to Maine with his family when he was young helped inspire his later work.

What's In a Name?

Henry R. Hinckley was an innovator, an early pioneer in the concept of fiberglass production yacht construction. But when it came to boat names, he found one he liked and stuck with it.

FDR's Beloved Island

Franklin Delano Roosevelt was happiest on Campobello Island, which straddles the border between Maine and Canada. The 50th anniversary of Roosevelt-Campobello International Park, the centerpiece of which is the former first family’s 34-room, red-shingled summer “cottage,” was in 2014.

Eliot Porter’s Golden Isle

World-famous photographer Eliot Porter honed his eye in Maine on a Penobscot Bay island owned by his family. His book, Summer Island: Penobscot Country, was published 50 years ago, but the essays and images remain incredibly relevant today.

Grand, Wild, and Terrific


Dr. Gould’s Flying Nurses


Fishing and the Rangeley Boat


Maine’s First Summer Home

Built for a Louisiana hotelier and his wife, the jaw-dropping rooms of Portland’s Victoria Mansion constitute the first and only extant interior by 19th-century design star Gustave Herter. Today, more than 150 years after it was built, the mansion retains 90 percent of its original furnishings and grants a rare look at 19th-century design.

On the Land and on the Lake: the amphicar

Who hasn’t dreamed about a car that can go in the water? A German company made amphibious cars in the 1960s and exported them to the United States. Some are still on the road today. Bob Stover of Belfast, Maine, has owned and restored three of these plucky hybrids, which are at home both on land and in the water.

A Ticket to Ride, the Boston Whaler

Why does every teenager want a Boston Whaler? Freedom, adventure, and fun play a big part.

Thoreau in the Maine Woods
