Down East June 2006

June 2006

The table of contents from the June 2006 issue of Down East.

Features

In the Shadow of the Border

For people living in the St. John Valley, the war on terror has had an unexpected casualty – their traditional way of life.

  • By: Virginia Wright
  • Photography by: David A. Rodgers
 

The People’s Poet

Maine’s new poet laureate, Betsy Sholl, finds poetry in the most unlikely places.

  • By: Michaela Cavallaro
  • Photography by: Russell Kaye
 

Grow Wild

Native Maine plants liven up landscapes that have grown a little too tame.

  • By: Kim Ridley
 

Swan’s Song

Forgotten by history, neglected by the state, beautiful Swan Island in the Kennebec faces an uncertain future.

  • By: Edgar Allen Beem
  • Photography by: Kevin Shields
 

Mister Quick Jaws

Why did the snapping turtle cross the road? Scientists can’t rightly say.

  • By: Ken Textor
 

What a Ride!

For thousands of cyclists and volunteers, the annual Trek Across Maine is more than just a worthy fundraiser – it’s a three-day traveling party.

  • By: Abby Zimet
  • Photography by: Randy Ury
 

Give My Regards to Berwick

The Hackmatack Playhouse, Maine’s most organic summer theater, specializes in homegrown talent.

  • By: Rob Sneddon
  • Photography by: Amazeen
 

Departments

Where in Maine?

A June day at this central Maine state park looks so inviting that you want to swim all the way to the mountains in the distance. Better to wait until a lifeguard is on duty, though, and the cool waters warm a bit. This photograph doesn’t lie — the lake is a picture-perfect one, located about ten…

 

North by East

Opinions, advisories, and musings from the length and breadth of Maine.

 

Talk of Maine

A plan to register every farm animal in the state has farmers seeing red.

  • By: Jeff Clark
 

Letters to the Editor

The Empire Strikes Back

 

Editor’s Note

My great uncle was the parish priest in St. Agatha, up near Madawaska and the Canadian border. His name — I kid you not — was Father Romeo Doiron. My family is of Acadian descent, having migrated a century ago from New Brunswick to work in the shoe factories and textile mills of southern…

  • By: Paul Doiron
 

Guide to Maine Antiques

From the earliest cartographers who tried to make sense of Maine’s vast wilderness and jagged coastline to printmakers such as Winslow Homer and Currier & Ives, the Pine Tree State has provided the source material for printed matter since Mr. Gutenberg’s…

 

Conference Bird on a Wire

More like lots of birds. Novice and experienced birders alike can look for any number of species, ranging from American bittern to yellow-bellied flycatcher to arctic terns, on the field trips that make up much of the American Birding Association’s annual conference, held this…

 

Message Behind a Mill Closing

Maine Sunday Telegram, Portland – The recent news that Georgia-Pacific was closing its mill in Old Town had been expected for months. But that doesn’t make it hurt any less. The announcement sent another shiver of uncertainty across a region reeling from years of upheaval in the paper industry. Should…

 

The French Connection

Portland’s Mims serves brasserie-style food with a local flair.

 

Over Easy

Breakfast isn’t the biggest challenge in opening a Down East B-and-B.

 

Eye of the Beholder

In 1937 a photographer in York Harbor paid tribute to the big business of beauty.