Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Maine's Mid-Coast
Maine's Mid-Coast, an area stretching
roughly from Brunswick in the south
to Belfast in the east, is a region just now
coming into its own. For most of the latter
half of the 20th century only a few towns
along the coast here, such as Boothbay Har-
bor and Camden, were known as tourist
magnets. But all that has changed.
While the traditional stops are busy as ever
and still retain their charm, older, working-
class harbors such as Belfast and Rockland
have enjoyed a renaissance of sorts. Belfast
has shed its past as a chicken-processing
port and sports a lively downtown, pictur-
esque harbor, and popular train rides on the Belfast and Moosehead Lake
Railroad.
Rockland, once best known for the odors emanating from its many fish
processing plants, now hosts more windjammers than any other port on
the coast. It is home to the Farnsworth Museum and the Wyeth Center,
which harbor fine collections of Wyeths.
Camden's harbor is as crowded with visiting yachts as ever. And, the en-
tire region has benefited from the largess of credit card giant MBNA.
This success has translated into thousands of jobs in processing centers
in Camden and Belfast.
To be sure, quaint fishing villages such as Friendship, home of the be-
loved design class of the sloop of the same name, remain timeless in their
beauty and nod to tradition. Damariscotta, despite the growth of the
standard commercial strip outside of town, still boasts one of the friendli-
est old-style downtowns in Maine.
Standing on the tower of the lighthouse at Owls Head, a gentle sea breeze
out of the southeast, you may be lucky enough to spy the gray silhouette
of Matinicus Island off on the horizon. Here it takes little imagination to
picture what life was like here more than 100 years ago when most cargo
and passengers went by schooner or steamship.
Long narrow fingers of land, which escaped the mighty glacier's gouging
power, reach out into the sea at Phippsburg, Harpswell and Bailey's Is-
land. Intimate beaches and small state parks and natural areas await
discovery.
