May 2023

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Features

101 Reasons to Love Summer in Maine

Piecing together your summer plans? Here’s a plethora of reminders why they ought to include regular rambles to every corner of the Pine Tree State.

By Hadley Gibson

A Spectacle of Abundance

As alewives return to historical migration routes, their restored runs are captivating wildlife watchers.

By Brian Kevin

What Was the Art Colony?

Maine’s towering role in American art owes, in part, to enclaves of artists gathering in out-of-the-way places. With the days of the rusticators long gone, how is the tradition holding up?

By Brian Kevin

Special Advertising Section: Freeport’s Future

For decades, outlet retail has anchored Maine’s most-visited downtown. Now, its champions say the next iteration needs more than big brands.

By Bridget M. Burns


Departments

North by East

Edgecomb’s champion oyster shucker honors the mollusk, Aquaboggan protects Maine’s oldest drive-in, a Maine Maritime Museum exhibit highlights an underwater mountain range, and a biography celebrates the life of Maine’s first Black state senator. Plus, in Maine Dispatches, a candidate for Maine’s state rock. 

Food and Drink

Milk Bottle Mixers make mouthwatering mixed drinks, a reinvigorated country store dabbles in refined cuisine, and an old bank becomes a bakery in Bethel.

Good Things from Maine

Woodworkers turn foraged wood into sculpted mushrooms, a Lewiston designer turns fabric into a dress worthy of the red carpet, and a statewide tour turns Mainers on to locally made pottery.

Maine Homes

renovated Searsport home with a spiritual and artistic past (and present), a Bangor garden with plentiful peonies, and Maine Preservation’s annual Honor Awards.

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Where in Maine

Maine Moment

Dooryard

Editor’s note, responses to March’s Where in Maine, the masthead, and more.

Columns

Room With a View.

My Favorite Place

Author Steven Rowley, on the South Portland Public Library. 

On Our Cover: Deer Isle, by Amy Drucker.

Additional Photos: Benjamin Williamson and Tara Rice