Theres a sense of history here like nowhere else, a lobstermans wife, Lisa Twombley-Hussey, had said to me weeks before. Now, with all thats happenedI dont know. Shortly, I arrived at the white school house and was enthusiastically greeted by the teacher and entire student body (grades 1 through 8) -- two brothers and their cousin! Im forever getting helped, by this person or that. And Vance Bunker was there; hed arrived with his sternman in a blue pickup with a .22-caliber handgun and an AK-47 assault rifle with nine loaded magazines. These were not adorned with floating docks at the end of convenient ramps swinging up and down with the tides, made for small boats, deep water anchorages and a lot of maintenance. High tides provide periodic windows when a boat can leave Rockland at a reasonable hour in the morning, arrive at Matinicus, unload and load, and then return to Rockland by mid afternoon with ample time for something to go wrong. Many of the better-off sorts are coming to understand what weve known all along, which is that nice clothes, stylish clothes, new clothes even clothes different from yesterdays clothes and makeup and a well-maintained professional haircut do not matter. But it was never far away. The name Matinicus means far-out island in Abenaki, and Penobscot People used the island while fishing and sealing. A two-man boat would come in with a three-day haul of 4,500 pounds, worth $14,000 or more. Vance and I were kids together. And the old gasoline engines got traded in for diesels; the boats were faster now, so you could set your traps twice as far out. She has skillfully woven the plot into the background of living on a small island off the coast of Maine, supported mainly by the lobster industry. The real question is What father wouldnt?) We were sitting together, he and I and Sariknown by most on the island as S.T., short for schoolteacher, which is what she was when they met here more than 20 years agoin the living room of the modest, red-shingled house theyve shared seasonally for 17 years in a small coastal town just across the water from Matinicus. Be sure to check the most recent online schedule. Matinicus Island, 22 miles out to sea from Rockland, is Maine's most remote offshore community. Its what you had to do.. One of them brought in some old buoys, maybe from when he was a kid, Im not sure, and showed us how they were made. Matinicus Island. The two men wrestled. But our destination that morning was the Maine State Ferry Terminal in Rockland where one might catch a boat out to Matinicus, among other islands, the most remote island community on the American east coast. The Matinicus Island Airports 1,645 foot runway was completely rebuilt in 2012, through a combination of local funding and state grants. Old pickups sit in driveways, their six-year-old license plates bearing witness to their last presence on the mainlandwhich some here call America.. You can call our office at (207) 594-9209. Overall, our two days out on Matinicus made for a very special visit and I especially am glad we saw it before the summer season really began. Bill told us the story of an old couple who had lived in a two room cottage most of their lives somewhere at the end of that short spit of land shown at right in the photo above. Without a grid tie to the mainland, the Matinicus Plantation Electric Company generates all the islands electricity with diesel fuel. He is descended, he tells me, from a family of shipbuilders who first settled in Bath in the 1770s, migrated to the Penobscot Bay islands, and have been on Matinicus for just under 200 years. From Metinic we moved on to Tenants Harbor, just five miles to the northwest . The little photo I bought that day, of the rainbow over the harbor, hangs now over my desk at home. Islesboro, and our destination, Matinicus Island. I cant make out their engines, but I feel certain they were smaller, tooand slower, built for a lazier, more generous time. When we told the driver where we were going he simply asked Does Bill know youre coming? Though I assured him that indeed Bill was expecting us, the question put me at some unease. Most are aggravating, to be sure, but a few really are for the better. The first of these was on a Tuesday and the next that following Thursday, which would permit a two day stay on the island. Expedited delivery doesnt exist. We can offer some slight reassurance that all is not lost. They preferred the path they had always used before. But if anyone wants to participate in a service, those are provided too. Shes a painter, and in the summer also runs a small gallery she calls The Fishermans Wife, selling art, handcrafts, and notecards to the summer people. 2023 Yankee publishing, Inc., An Employee-Owned company, all rights reserved. There's no garbage collection on the island and no dump, so what does one do with lobster shells and claw remains? They had since been taken to the mainland due to health issues and probably have passed away now. April at Bradys, new menu, a Decades Dance, & Pints & Puppies!! Adventurous early retiree with lots of time yet limited money. Its just too far out there and the seas and skies can be unfriendly. Many of them are included in the thin, typewritten, hand-stapled book she wrote a decade or so ago: Tales of Matinicus Island: History, Lore and Legend. But these windows come in periods only about twice a month. A century ago, 200 or more of them were fishermens communities; today, only 14 are inhabited year-round. A few yards away, alongside the traps still piled by the garage, two of the three Hussey children took turns dousing one another with a garden hose. I asked Philbrook about the fishhouse meetings Id heard about that had been going on the last several years: all the lobstermen on the island, gathering every springtime in the schoolhouse or church basement to set the rules that would govern, among other things, who could lobster and who couldnt. Theres no war going on, and no one I met is groping for their guns. But other than that, theres at least some truth to most of it. The parrot in the living room wished us good mornings and otherwise was mostly friendly, though Harold believed the parrot didnt respect him very much. Matinicus gravel airstrip with the Camden Hills in the background. Bring the best of Maine right to your front door. The inn doesnt have a sea view but I think the ocean couldnt have been more than 20 or so yards away from the trees that lined the property. You say.) I once headed out to Matinicus in a 22-foot sailboat with old canvas and a sputtering Evinrude. The most popular property types are House (49 listings) and Apartment (38 listings). Harold had bested me in bringing less, simply a large beach towel draped over his shoulders (Douglas Adams would be pleased) and some peanut butter crackers. And we were told that the water taxi service is well run and a good option. Domestic Violence Roundtable Discussion: Register Now for May 19th in Knox County, Kacie Orff, New Community Outreach and Experience Director at The Lincoln Home, The Lincoln Homes Community Outreach Director, Brigit Cavanagh, Retiring, Retirement Planning - How to Win at Retirement Savings FREE, Benefit Concert in Warren on May 21st 3:00pm. Now, the whole country is waiting for a package from Amazon, waiting for tests and vaccines, waiting to find out if the kids hockey is going to start back up. I dont even have to brush my hair every day (talk about a month of Sundays!). Granite shorelines mostly. Our May window was timed on Tuesday to arrive one hour before highest tide and on Thursday one hour after highest tide. Bill has an arrangement with a young guy who works as a stern man on a lobster boat. Hes my family. They warned him, then cut his traps. If one were to follow the South by Southeast heading to Matinicus harbor, steering from Owls Head Light outside of the Rockland Harbor breakwater, and should one manage to miss the landing at Matinicus, the next landfall on that heading would be along South Americas northern coast. Then she stopped. We ended up with two 1-1/2+ pounders for us each. One day life was good: full, straight-ahead, uncomplicated. It's an island tradition! Mostly, he talked about the business of lobstering: how the cost of bait and fuel had gone through the roof, while the price being paid for a pound of lobster was making it hard to get by. We were nestled in a small clearing with fresh breezes blowing through the house. So most notably we took some really deep afternoon naps. Their cottage was without water and electricity. He had to pay his dues. Congress appropriated $4,000 on May 18, 1826 for the project, and the island was purchased for $20 from George W. Coffin and George Irish. In Maine, heavy rain and powerful wind gusts knocked out power for more than 50,000 homes and businesses on Monday morning. You learn what real need is. We share with everybody the exasperation of delayed gratification. But he passed on the news that the ferry was broken, they were waiting for a part and there was a 50/50 chance it wouldnt run that day. www.islandinstitute.org/waypoints, FOR DATA QUESTIONS, CONTACT: We stayed at what was once an inn, but now the innkeeper has retired. Sunset on Matinicus (Photo courtesy Gary Peabody), An island haircut: Eva Murray gets her hair trimmed by her husband Paul Murray, the Phone Man. (Some people talk about family trees; what we have here is a wreath.) Their son, Nick, now 30 years old and a captain himself, has been lobstering since he was 8. He would survive: his hands mostly paralyzed, his left arm no longer of much use, his lifetime earning power reduced by $2.4 million, according to the lawsuit he would file. Their cottage had a kitchen and then a small room with a couch and a sitting chair. Its their legacy; theyve been working it for generations, says Marty Malloy, the lobster buyer, who lives on the island with his wife and twin boys. Five hundred traps was now a manageable load. He tried his best, as they all do here, to stay clear of the subject of the shooting. Theres a war going on in coastal Maine, where renegade crustacean gangs are forcing people to grope for their guns, was how one national magazine painted the scene, ludicrously, late last year. She was a Ripley, she had a store here once, she was married to an Ames. It goes on and on: this person, that house, this husband, that wife. Were probably not going anywhere except the airstrip to collect the milk order anyway. Your spouse, the kid next door, more or less any random citizen can cut your hair; you just park on a kitchen chair in the dooryard. She was the new teacher in a one-room schoolhouse on Matinicus Island. As of fall 2020, the school has no enrolled students but stands ready to hire a teacher and welcome children as needed. Birthdays, anniversaries, national holidays, religious observances, and scheduled hooliganism are routinely postponed on islands to work around storms, fog, FedEx, visiting grandparents, and possibly the Coast Guard. The day we talked, a warm May day in the front yard of the couples island home, hed just put his boat in the water for the season. It was a walk along and then at the end of the Main Street, where the school, church, parsonage/post office and cemetery are. There is nowhere to wear those cute shoes. High heels are a complete waste of money; youll never use them. A gentler time, I guess youd say. He says he isnt angry, but its hard to believe him, and his wife says no such thing. Two hundred years worth of clan-based survivalsix or seven generations of Youngs and Ameses and Philbrooks, and the few who have joined themfighting, marrying, burying, and working with one another, on a 700-acre island, has built up a very thick crust. The dates begin in the early 1800s, though most are later, between 1850 and 1910, growing fewer with each decade after that. As the ferry cautiously made its way into the picturesque Matinicus Harbor, there was simple beauty all around. P.O. We passed Bath, Wiscasset, Darmascotia, Thomaston, and Big Als Super Value Store, all places worthy of a stop or detour. If Im buying for my own table, I guarantee you, theyre going to come from Matinicus.. Just so delicate. It is one reason islands like Matinicus can still be populated at all. Today he makes his living on the island, doing carpentry jobs and occasional legal work, collecting taxes, helping out at the schoolhouse, and hauling lobsters from a motorless, oak-and-cedar peapod-style rowboat he calls the Sweet Pea. Still, after years of islanders begging, Doc, really---cant I just describe it to you over the telephone? because a trip to the mainland physicians office would run over $500 in transportation, hotel, and lost worknot including the doctors billfinally the doc is in agreement that yeah, that probably would be a good idea. You have to want to be here, really want it, Nat Hussey said to me early in my first visit. Not like today, with computers, where the process works in reverse , And you know what? Wake up to the day's most important news. It needs them, its always needed them. The speck of earthnearly 22 miles from the mainlandis reachable by charter boat or plane or a short row from the nearby fishing community of Matinicus Island. This winter, only 20 people are living on Matinicus. (Also off the coast of Maine, but somewhat closer to the mainland.) A judgement free zone. The gravel road, the islands spine, runs its dusty, almost unbending course through the old-growth spruce interior: from the tiny dirt airstrip in its clearing at the northern tip (shorter by 50 feet at high tide, they say), past the empty church and schoolhouse, the sad little pile-of-stones monument to the islands first white settler, Ebenezer Hall (Killed by Indians, June 6, 1757), and the two dozen or so hardy, mostly modest homes that cluster at uncertain intervals at the intersections of dirt side roads. In the photo, the harbor boats seem smaller, and humbler, than I remember. There is an Automated Weather Observing Station (AWOS) at the airport. Staying overnight allows the visitor to experience the peace and isolation of a remote island after all the day-trippers have left. You dont see that other places. Now there's an island for unwanted and banned books, too. Turning into their drive meant putting my back to a view of the many islands crowding the western half of Casco Bay. Metinic Island is a 330 acre island in Knox County, Maine, southeast of Port Clyde on the mainland and west of Matinicus Island. Should one miss that, next stop is Antarctica. A nice lady sitting on a log in an apparent quest to obtain the only cell signal on the island assured us that we had only one more fork to go, to the right. Were living it, every one of us, every single day. Never in this so-called modern era has there been so much bread baking and chicken-keeping. This was roughly contemporary. Memories, connections, personal histories. The little one-room K-8 schoolhouse, viewed by just about everyone as the islands truest pulse, has rarely had more than 10 or 12 students; in recent years the average has been more like half that. We circled the island and headed across the water toward Owl's Head. There have been so many changes to school. A man drives too fast, we tell him to slow down. But there was never any doubt about whom we were talking. As we have done for years, loads of people now order what they want for delivery. All of this is free of charge. On summer Saturday nights on the boat dock, Hussey and his guitar lead dance parties that turn out the whole island. A couple of lobsters and a slew of crab claws for the new school teacher and her special visitor. This is not a place fixed up to fit into someone elses idea of what an island off the coast of Maine should be like. Matinicus is a remote, largely forgotten island community of defiantly independent souls. Part of HuffPost News. Then it didnt matter if it was your worst enemy; you were there for thembecause you knew youd need the same if it was you. It was good enough to have our gear get a ride from the first truck that went by. A friend of mine had recently taken a job on a tiny Island, 24 miles off the coast of Maine. school that is overseen by a part-time superintendent and a three-person school board. And its antithesis: An out-of-the-way summer idyll a world apart from bustling Bar Harbor, was a typical depiction several years ago. No cars, few people, great hikes (most of the island is a forest preserve) wonderful sunrises and sunsets and the quiet that only comes from being miles out to sea. Since there are no stores, except for a "bakery" which operates out of a residential kitchen in the summer, many islanders have their own gardens. It will not come every day. The harbor there is too shallow at any other time for the larger-than-fishing-boat-sized ferry. Belong anywhere with Airbnb. Breakfast was supplied by Bill and included his homemade English Muffins. The Island of Matinicus is some 20 miles southeast of Rockland, ME. Probably also its future, whatever that may be. Its very hard. According to Bill, there is no evangelical pressure, which he appreciates. Working his way around Saris occasional outbursts (Yes, Im bitterI dont expect my closest friends to go against my family, and do it publicly Easy now, youre getting yourself worked up ), hed told me his story of how it had all come to pass: how his son-in-law had played by the rulesHe married my daughter, they bought a house thereand had still been run off the island; how hed gone to see Chris Youngs stepfather, futilely, to try to settle the dispute; how hed feared for his life, and later for his daughters (The man threatened to kill me); how Youngs and Amess civil suits, (the former settled this year, the latter still making its way through the courts) could take most of what he and Sari had; and, finally, how the island was no longer home to him, and his friends were no longer his friends. There is no dry cleaning. If you need to flag this entry as abusive. You almost have to be devoted to choose to live in such a place: some 15 miles off the coast (23 miles by ferry from Rockland); no year-round stores, or bars or eateries, or doctors or policemen or paved roads, and only one industry; where the fog drops around you like a curtain for days at a time, the same three families have been fighting the same fights for 200 years, and the ferry comes once a month in winter. Lobstering was a tougher business in those days: The boats were slower; you couldnt set your traps more than a few miles out from the island; and you had to haul them up by hand. A bright sun peaked over an island across the sound and it promised to be a clear day, one where the blue in the sky will be surpassed only by the deeper blue reflecting from the water. Seurasaari ( Swedish: Flisn) is an island and a district in Helsinki, Finland, known mostly as the location of the Seurasaari Open-Air Museum, which consists of old, mainly wooden buildings transplanted from elsewhere in Finland and placed in the dense forest landscape of the island. Thats how we found ourselves on this ferry, which now was making its way to Matinicus, thankfully with a stern wind and following seas. He collapsed in a pool of blood at his stepbrothers feet. Essentially, Main Street just turns into a gravel airstrip at the north end of the island. Which was around 15 minutes. While we work hard to keep you informed about the Midcoast community, how citizens cope and thrive, we need your help, too. With the cod and haddock now gone as predators, the Maine lobster harvest had more than doubled: from 20 million pounds a year to close to 50 million. Does that make any sense? Admittedly, Matinicus Isle isn't a major tourist attraction in Maine. These are very typical sea views on Matinicus. After drinking the scalding top half of a cup of tea, and partly filling my backpack with a few days worth of clothes, I drove the mile down towards the point to pick up another cousin, Harold. Crabs that are found in lobster traps are relieved of their claws and returned to the briny depths to regrew them. A mile and a half down, past all but the last of the houses, where the island starts to narrow and you begin to think you can smell the ocean again, you come to the cemetery. Many of the apples are quite sour, but there are also good ones, and the locals know where they are! Anyway, heres wishing us all peace in the New Yearand a month of Sundays, and the plumpest tomato, and maybe just a little scheduled hooliganism. Though there are two sandy beaches out there which we did not get to. You have to understand: This bottom, for these guys, its like the family farm. Organized, continuous and full time missionary work has gone way out of style. He made a call to a lobsterman who also had the islands inventory of propane tanks. Open to all, supported by readers. Thirteen years ago, he bought his own. This is not just a learning curve for the patient, by the way. Hah; welcome to the real world. Weve got no use for police out here; were just fine policing ourselves, one local told me. Thats just how it works.. Which we planned to do. You may have noticed that there is a lot less bothering with deodorant and hair coloring, and a lot more commitment to having surplus ice cream in the freezer. As the evening of our second night approached, while we waited for a fisherman to deliver a bucket of 4 lobsters, we heard outside the rumble of a lawnmower. Matinicus Island lies 23 miles out to sea, the most remote inhabited island on the Atlantic seaboard. "Living on a small island means you need to be creative," says Suzanne Rankin, the keeper of local history and lore, and it certainly has birthed a wonderfully whimsical and supportive group for the ladies of Matinicus. Bunker repelled Young with a can of pepper spray. The small open, car ferry makes the 23 mile, two and a half hour crossing only 20 to 30 times a year, running once a month in winter, but twice now in May. Cottage Connection of Maine Vacation Rentals Since 1993. Lots of stuff like that, stuff they lost 50 years ago on the mainland, its still the same way here., It was a long while before any of us mentioned the shooting. We set out at 10 am in hopes that by noon we would be there. During the winter, the ferry crosses once per month, and increases to roughly four times a month during the summer. It tells of Indians, settlers, famous storms, and old shipwrecks, as well as a long-ago girlhood of apple fights and ice-cream making and homemade kites made of brown wrapping paper and miles of trawling line. Nearly every home on the island has a copy. Though even some of those may take extended winter vacations in places like Florida. But how about other trash? He was new. That's the island way! Explore the property's rocky shoreline, tidal pools, and spruce . Its needed, no one else is doing it and it works. MATINICUS, Maine The snow had begun falling overnight, and fell throughout the day, draping the towering pines and the lobster traps, stacked up on land for the winter, in blankets of white. Not everything is neat and tidy, some stuff is downright falling apart if it no longer is being used. The runway is usable year round, and permission is needed to land. She told me about how, when an octogenarian member of the Ames clan had died not long before, a local writer, Eva Murray, had come to the school to talk to the children about his life, so theyd understand something of the history of this person theyd known. I asked about the shooting: Had she discussed it with the children? You cant even bring bikes unless you demonstrate you are passing through. Spend your days strolling the island and collecting seashells on quiet beaches, and your evenings relaxing in a comfortable living room with a flatscreen TV. There were many sorts of birds, not just gulls. Find unique places to stay with local hosts in 191 countries. The Magazine. [3] The elevation ranges from 0 to 100 feet (30.5 m). Part of the reason there are so few ferries is that there are so few people living out there. These mainly line the shore, providing a year-round bulwark against the weather, while a greater diversity of deciduous trees fills the interior areas. There was activity on the dock and cars lined up waiting to board as we pulled in and docked. Call Josh Ames at (207) 366-3128. You want to be a part of the community, put your kids in the school here, support the island, pay into itthats one thing. As the natives are fond of saying: You live here because you love it, or you dont live here at all. Nowadays you can even text in a photo of that hangnail. He used to work for the Maine Department of Corrections. I was struck by the variety of wildlife and plants. Physicians are also being forced to adjust to a reality where not every hangnail must be seen in the office. Then last year, with what happeneda man opening fire on the public dock. If you have your own boat, moorings are available for rent. We would have received a ride for ourselves as well had either of us thought we could manage to jump into the back of a pick up truck already filled with a lot of stuff, plus other people. We didnt do very much. Call (207) 596-2202 for more information. The trip takes over 2 hours. He had built for them a small bridge over a creek to cut their well trips down by around 50 feet, but they didnt use it. We made it back eventually. On Prom Night three summers ago, he was the one in white tie. Being an early retiree, with lots of time on my hands, I was happy to accept her invitation to visit and experience the island life.
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