From our March 2025 issue
A tidal river runs through this quiet midcoast town. The Abenaki knew the place as Wessaweskeag, and the river still takes its name from a contraction of that word. On one bank sits an 1877 church, all aglow at night. On the opposite bank, there’s a reliable general store for the 1,500 residents and a cozy bed-and-breakfast for visitors. The town, now named for a major general in the Continental Army (plus a cardinal direction), sits on Precambrian and Ordovician rock and was once a hotbed for quarrying, sending granite to such estimable projects as Chicago’s Auditorium Building and Wall Street’s old National City Bank Building. Nowadays, the local economy relies more on what can be pulled from the sea, not out of the ground, and one big draw is an idyllic island lobster shack that fans will know for its superlative rolls, for sure, but also its superb blueberry bread pudding.