Introduction - Adventure Guide to Maine - page 45

ill. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow called Portland home, while the
poet Edna St. Vincent Millay lived in Camden. Harborside was the
place picked by authors Helen and Scott Nearing for living the good
life. The late Senator Margaret Chase Smith , whose declaration of con-
science helped stop Senator Joseph McCarthy's communist witch hunt,
brought Maine's homespun wisdom to national attention. It was former
Senate Majority Leader and Maine Senator George Mitchell who
brought the best hope for peace to Northern Ireland. Secretary of Defense
and former Maine Senator and Representative William Cohen contin-
ues to serve. Former President George Bush cherishes time spent at his
summer retreat at Walkers Point in Kennebunkport.
And finally, while Maine has been at a least seasonal home for too many
notable authors and artists to mention, one of the best selling of all time,
horror-meister Stephen King , lives in a suitably Gothic mansion in
Bangor.
Ghosts & Legends
Every state has its ghosts and legends. Maine is no exception. From tales
of undiscovered pirate treasure on offshore islands to witches and curses
the harbors and hollows of Maine sport no shortage of the unexplained
and supernatural. Shipwrecks too have left their mark, with drowned
souls reportedly still searching the earth for peace.
Many country inns are also said to be haunted, but how much of that
relates to matters spiritual and how much to matters of marketing
remains undecided.
Haunted History
In the early 1700s Judith Howard , a woman familiar in the ways of
herbal healing, was reported to be a witch. Children living nearby in
Casco Bay, off modern-day Portland, were warned to keep their distance.
When she died in 1769, islanders did not follow her wishes when they
buried her. Strange occurrences and unexplained phenomena followed
for two years until she was dug up and moved two miles to the place
where she had asked to be buried.
In Bucksport, Col. Jonathan Buck was local magistrate when the body
of an unidentified woman was found cut to pieces. One leg was missing.
Being it was the mid-1800s and the justice system not yet refined, Col.
Buck quickly produced a culprit, a hermit living on the edge of town. As
the hermit was being put to death he reportedly called out to his accuser
that “the leg will follow you to your grave.”