2005: The Year That Was
Mainers went to the dogs ? in a good way ? and to war in Iraq, lost an air base and gained a racino, and still found time to take a swim in January.
[Photoshoot]
Talk about chilling out! Nearly 500 people dashed into the waves last January 1 at Old Orchard Beach for the seventeenth annual Lobster Dip to raise funds for the Maine Special Olympics.
Frigid temperatures and the threat of a blizzard persuaded offshore fishermen, including this ice-encased New Bedford-based trawler, to seek shelter in Portland Harbor even as new catch limits and fears about declining groundfish stocks further complicated the commercial fishing industry.The danger of the dependence of Bath Iron Works, one of Maine's largest employers, on Navy contracts was demonstrated when reports surfaced that the Pentagon wanted to reduce the number of destroyers it buys in upcoming years, a potentially devastating development for the shipbuilder.
Early last year the Air Force began disassembling one of the state's last relics of the Cold War, the backscatter radar facility in Moscow (the Maine town) designed to detect missiles thousands of miles away.
Maine's reputation as a pet sanctuary and source of new homes for unwanted dogs from the South was reinforced when Mainers (including three Down East employees) welcomed dozens of pets abandoned along the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina.
It was a sweet homecoming for Sergeant Scott Eggleston, of Madison, and his wife, Holly, when the 133rd Engineer Battalion of the Maine National Guard returned from a yearlong tour in Iraq.
Jackie Dorr drains water from a crate of steam-cooked sardines at the last surviving sardine cannery in Maine, the Stinson Seafood plant in Gouldsboro. In the 1890s Maine had some fifty sardine canneries.
Credit card giant MBNA transformed many Maine communities with the 3,000 jobs provided by its call centers, including this one in Belfast, but uncertainty now surrounds the company's future following its sale to Bank of America.
The surprising friendship that developed between former Presidents Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush during their joint tsunami relief project brought Clinton to Kennebunkport for a visit at the Bush compound on Walker's Point and a round of golf.
Mainers from Limestone to Kittery — where welder Ed LeClair shouted his support for Portsmouth Naval Shipyard — rallied to save military installations targeted for closure in the latest round of base cuts. In the end, only Brunswick Naval Air Station was put on the final closure list.
Annual alewife runs, such as this one at Damariscotta Mills, have become signposts in the recovery of rivers and streams once too polluted or blocked by dams to support the species.
A rainy start to summer and rising gasoline prices didn't dampen everyone's vacation plans. Temperatures soared into the upper 90s in July.
Plum Creek Timber Company's plans to develop 975 vacation homes and two resorts in the North Woods around Greenville have sparked significant opposition from environmental groups and local residents such as Joan Wisher.
The final remnants of the old Maine Yankee Atomic Power Plant were torn down and hauled away from the Wiscasset site this summer, leaving only a well-guarded storage facility for nuclear waste.
Organized gambling came to Maine in November with the opening of the state's first slot-machine racino in Bangor. Approved by voters two years ago, the racino is supposed to generate income to support the harness-racing industry in Maine.
Talk about chilling out! Nearly 500 people dashed into the waves last January 1 at Old Orchard Beach for the seventeenth annual Lobster Dip to raise funds for the Maine Special Olympics.
Frigid temperatures and the threat of a blizzard persuaded offshore fishermen, including this ice-encased New Bedford-based trawler, to seek shelter in Portland Harbor even as new catch limits and fears about declining groundfish stocks further complicated the commercial fishing industry.The danger of the dependence of Bath Iron Works, one of Maine's largest employers, on Navy contracts was demonstrated when reports surfaced that the Pentagon wanted to reduce the number of destroyers it buys in upcoming years, a potentially devastating development for the shipbuilder.
Early last year the Air Force began disassembling one of the state's last relics of the Cold War, the backscatter radar facility in Moscow (the Maine town) designed to detect missiles thousands of miles away.
Maine's reputation as a pet sanctuary and source of new homes for unwanted dogs from the South was reinforced when Mainers (including three Down East employees) welcomed dozens of pets abandoned along the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina.
It was a sweet homecoming for Sergeant Scott Eggleston, of Madison, and his wife, Holly, when the 133rd Engineer Battalion of the Maine National Guard returned from a yearlong tour in Iraq.
Jackie Dorr drains water from a crate of steam-cooked sardines at the last surviving sardine cannery in Maine, the Stinson Seafood plant in Gouldsboro. In the 1890s Maine had some fifty sardine canneries.
Credit card giant MBNA transformed many Maine communities with the 3,000 jobs provided by its call centers, including this one in Belfast, but uncertainty now surrounds the company's future following its sale to Bank of America.
The surprising friendship that developed between former Presidents Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush during their joint tsunami relief project brought Clinton to Kennebunkport for a visit at the Bush compound on Walker's Point and a round of golf.
Mainers from Limestone to Kittery — where welder Ed LeClair shouted his support for Portsmouth Naval Shipyard — rallied to save military installations targeted for closure in the latest round of base cuts. In the end, only Brunswick Naval Air Station was put on the final closure list.
Annual alewife runs, such as this one at Damariscotta Mills, have become signposts in the recovery of rivers and streams once too polluted or blocked by dams to support the species.
A rainy start to summer and rising gasoline prices didn't dampen everyone's vacation plans. Temperatures soared into the upper 90s in July.
Plum Creek Timber Company's plans to develop 975 vacation homes and two resorts in the North Woods around Greenville have sparked significant opposition from environmental groups and local residents such as Joan Wisher.
The final remnants of the old Maine Yankee Atomic Power Plant were torn down and hauled away from the Wiscasset site this summer, leaving only a well-guarded storage facility for nuclear waste.
Organized gambling came to Maine in November with the opening of the state's first slot-machine racino in Bangor. Approved by voters two years ago, the racino is supposed to generate income to support the harness-racing industry in Maine.
