stories about Maine people, places, and culture
People
Saints & Sinners
At her pioneering staff firm, Margo Walsh offers dignity, trust, and a path forward for survivors of the opiod epidemic.
Queen of the Kennebec
Rafting pioneer Suzie Hockmeyer's wild ride.
Mother Hen
With a popular blog and several books, Lisa Steele is spreading the gospel of (pretty) backyard chicken keeping. We pay a visit to her Dixmont hobby farm and meet her garrulous brood.
Places
A Village for All Seasons
The vitality of one Mount Desert Island village rests on the ties that bind locals and summer folk.
A Summer Place
Pemaquid Beach is a village more by tradition than present-day reality.
Nowhere Land
A speck of a village at the northernmost tip of Maine, Estcourt Station is (sometimes literally) the place you can’t get to from here.
Don’t Dis ’Gusta
In Augusta, a new crop of entrepreneurs is transforming what was once a shabby, empty downtown.
Issues & Politics
Shattered
A historic process is exposing injuries inflicted by Maine's child welfare system on generations of Wabanaki people — and illuminating a way forward to bring healing and change.
A Breaking Wave
What can baby lobsters tell us about the future of Maine's $1 billion industry?
Free the Udders!
Maine’s landmark food-sovereignty law empowered towns to regulate their own dairy/pickle/poultry trade. So how is it changing the way farming communities do business?
A Chat with Olympia Snowe
The former Maine senator speaks about gridlock and hyperpartisanship on Capitol Hill — and what we can do to shape a more productive government.
Culture & History
Strange Pilgrimage
In 1866, a group of sensible Down East farmers and their families packed their houses and sailed to the Holy Land to await the Second Coming. Within a year, it had all gone wrong.
Mailboxes to Beat the Plow
Aroostook County’s big snows inspire some wacky inventions.
Maine's Nastiest Little Fishery
Down east fishermen once hauled in drums full of slime-spewing hagfish by the thousands. Might they someday again?
Opening Day at Havey Quarry
Anticipation is in the air as miners dig for Maine’s state mineral (and weird rocks).
Homes & Gardens
Out of the Woods
An expansive, serene haven emerges from decades of taming a stony forest in Lincolnville, Maine.
Meadow Mist
A tidal pond sets the tone for a peaceful blue and green garden in York.
The Sand Castle
A Bar Harbor couple spends roughly $400 a year to heat their house, which has three-foot-thick walls — made of dirt.
Ten Architects Who Shaped the Way Maine Looks
They often worked on the cutting edge of aesthetics and engineering, creating structures that continue to elevate our daily lives.