10. “You Can’t Explain It to Anybody” | October 2024
By Jesse Ellison | Photos by Sofia Aldinio
After a mass shooting took the lives of 18 people last October, families, friends, and survivors were left to process their grief and trauma in myriad ways. For one couple, that meant endeavoring to reopen the bowling alley where the shooting began.
9. The Art of Being Jeffery Becton | January 2024
By Jesse Ellison | Photos by Cig Harvey
Long content to toil in obscurity from his quiet perch on Deer Isle, the septuagenarian master of photomontage drives fast, takes chances, and wonders whether he’s getting somewhere.
8. The Upstream Battle to Preserve Maine’s Lucrative Elver Fishery | October 2024
By Michele Christle | Photos by Nolan Altvater
Some observers suspect that the number of baby eels migrating up Maine rivers is declining. Passamaquoddy fishermen have taken conservation into their own hands.
7. The Modern Master of Wabanaki Basketry | June 2024
By Virginia M. Wright | Photos by Jason Paige Smith
Jeremy Frey is the subject of the first-ever major retrospective of a Wabanaki artist. Amid the hype, he’s still able to lose himself in the steady rhythm of weaving in his home studio, where he’s forever cognizant of tribal basketmakers’ challenging history and tenuous future.
6. 76-Year-Old Harold Crosby Hopes You’ll Take a Skate on the Wild Side | January 2024
By Will Grunewald | Photos by Tara Rice
For the lifelong Whiting resident, some things never change — not his Bean boots, not his skate blades, and certainly not his love of skimming up and down the ice on the Orange River.
5. In Columbia Falls, a Proposal for the World’s Tallest Flagpole Caused Quite a Flap | July 2024
By Nora Saks | Illustration by Jon Krause
The centerpiece of a sprawling new veterans’ memorial park and tourist attraction sparked a debate over the character of the community — and spurred fresh plans for the town’s future.
4. Long Way Home | April 2024
By Susan Hand Shetterly | Illustration by Jada Fitch
A lost dog, a loving family, and a lesson in letting go.
3. What Would Tribal Sovereignty Mean for the Wabanaki? | March 2024
By Rachel Slade | Photos by Tara Rice
For more than 40 years, the tribes in Maine have had to play by different rules than other indigenous groups across the country, and they have suffered in tangible ways as a result. Now, a push for greater tribal autonomy has come to a head.
2. The Wild and Woolly Life of a Maine Sheep Shearer | March 2024
By Will Grunewald | Photos by Greta Rybus
When sheep need to be shorn, there’s a good chance Maine farmers are going to call Jeff Burchstead. Last shearing season, photographer Greta Rybus tagged along for Burchstead’s visits to far-flung flocks.
1. This Classic Maine Mountain Should Be a Skiers’ Paradise | February 2024
By Adrienne Perron | Photos by Dave Waddell
Instead, years of ownership issues, deteriorating infrastructure, and unrealized ambitions have reduced Big Moose to a shadow of its former self. Can anyone give the old resort a much-needed lift?
Happy New Year from all of us at Down East!
