Low tide at Port Clyde

The area we are in is called Maine’s mid-coast. I am not sure why but Port Clyde seems to be a very well-known place even though it lacks the bustle and plethora of shops of Boothbay Harbor or the cultural scene of Rockland. Maybe that’s the charm. 🙂

When I was a very much younger child I visited Port Clyde (along with other Maine locations) with Mom and Dad, so I was curious to see what might be recognizable, or not. I recalled tall docks with lobster traps (and I guess back then the traps were wood?), a few shops and a green building.

Ferry to Monhegan Island departs from Port Clyde

Seaglass was lying around waiting for us to pick up those precious pieces; a few even looked old and were properly smoothed by sand and water.

Linda Bean’s Lobster Traps called to us. What the heck are those you say? I’d been seeing ads in the paper for Linda Bean’s café; was this a Bean of THE L.L. Bean fame? Ah yuh, sure was. We wandered into the most inviting and practically only shop in town, the Port Clyde General Store and yes, it was green.  Roughly equal parts grocery, café, and gift shop, the upstairs contained a small art gallery. On the wall leading up I stopped to admire Andrew Wyeth’s “Christina’s World”, one of the best-known American paintings of the middle 20th century. It depicts a woman lying on the ground in a treeless, mostly tawny grass field, looking up at a gray house on the horizon; a barn and various other small outbuildings are near the house. I’m sure you know this painting; if I do then anyone would! ( my reason for mentioning this painting will become clear later)
So back to lobster traps; not the type the lobsters crawl into, but edible ones that less creative preparers term lobster ravioli! They scored extremely high on our list of favorite lobster ravs; the filling really was nearly all lobster.

Delightful reading all over the package

Linda Bean’s Edible Lobster Traps

The Marshal Point Lighthouse sits on the point; dare I suggest it’s called Marshall Point? Just a couple miles south of Port Clyde. As you can see the lighthouse and keeper’s house were separate and back in the day the walkway was covered. This must have been one of the cushier outposts; not on a rocky god-forsaken island, pleasant living accommodations and a not horribly tall lighthouse to manage.

Marshall Pt Lighthouse- constructed 1832

Forrest Gump fans may recall this walkway.

The house and kitchen addition are now a (free) museum with easy on the eyes displays of local industry, mainly lobstering and quarrying. Family history is important too and we got a huge kick out of seeing our name many times.

How clever is this display of a family tree?

In late 80’s we found and drove around Rackliff Island

Our ancestors were very advanced!

Part of the extensive genealogy research that Russ’s dad compiled, was finding Rackliff Island, located between Rockland and Tenant’s Harbor. I’d remembered that years ago (BB- before Benj) we drove up to spend a few days near Ogunquit, staying at a motel in Wells. The drive to Rackliff Island had to have been long and sans GPS- imagine! But we found it by asking around once we got to Thomaston and drove over a short causeway to a pine tree forested island with a few homes and many lots for sale.

Are these “Rackliff”s related to William Rackliff (Rackleff) or to Russell William Rackliffe? Not sure, but we have enough data to continue the research should the urge overcome us.

One room contained genealogy and notebooks full of local info.. and a gorgeous water view

Also in this room sat a table and on it a notebook with pictures and info about the locale filming of the tiny scene in Forrest Gump where Forrest (but Tom’s brother Jim really did the scene) during his coast to coast run, arrives in Maine. Inspired, we watched the movie that night. Near the end is a scene where Jenny approaches her childhood home which is now dilapidated and loaded with bad memories. She begins throwing rocks at it, then collapses on the ground, a la “Christina’s World”. I didn’t make the connection at the time, but a fleeting sense of recognition poked my subconscious.

When we checked it out, wow did that movie have even more historical nods than we’d caught. Savannah, of course was the setting for Forrest on the bench but although the story is set in Alabama I wasn’t sure that the filming happened there. Russ (who has more time and a better, faster iPhone) is our resident researcher and asked me to guess where most of the movie was filmed (the town, Forrest’s home, etc) and digging deep…   I answered, Beaufort, SC! The look he gave me- astounded and amazed!! Eyes could not have been wider- how did you know? Oh just a WAG, but an educated one- hey we’ve been through there more than once. This was just days after I correctly named the location (Wrightsville Beach, NC) of another movie. But I’ve digressed.

Wyeth’s “Christina’s World” was indeed the model for that scene and when you see them side by side; it’s uncanny. Do you think that painting hung for easy viewing at the General Store on purpose? I do. The painting location was Cushing, which is across the St George River from Port Clyde; very local.  Click here to go to Artsy’s Andrew Wyeth page and enjoy more fascinating Wyeth artwork.

Motorhome Annie’s recent musical selections: XM 59 Willie’s Roadhouse, XM 17 James Taylor.

From the iDevice: Kingston Trio, Solid Ground album by Izzy Bradburn, Patsy Cline, Spyro Gyra (formed in the late 1970’s in Buffalo, NY)

Please don’t think I am imitating an alewife!

I admit to much-liking the small towns around us; the smaller, older homes, many with plaques proclaiming a pre-1800 date. But when I recall that winter comes in a big way to the northeast, not to mention that the recent epic winter remains a topic of conversation, Maine never makes the list of possible states where we’ll settle down.

Y’all might think the place you live is interesting, maybe even unique, or the birthplace of some well-known person, but I ask you, does your town have an alewife ladder???

Is this thing, 1) a ladder for the tavern-owner’s wife to use to escape drunken brawls; 2) a ladder that leads to the hold in a fisherman’s boat; or 3) a man-made method that allows alewives to migrate to fresh water when a dam blocks their way? Ok that was easy.

But what is an alewife?

They are an anadromous type of herring or shad, which means they live in saltwater but return to fresh water to spawn. They are ten to sixteen inches long; the front of the body is deep and larger than other fish found in the same waters, and its common name is said to come from comparison with a corpulent female tavern keeper. Adult alewives are preferred bait for the spring lobster fishery in Maine, but are typically eaten in smoked form, if at all. Years ago they were salted, packed in barrels and shipped to the West Indies and, more recently they were filleted, pickled and shipped widely as a specialty food. Think I’d pass.

We routinely pick up all the local free newspapers available and for two days over the holiday weekend, the Damariscotta Mills Fish Ladder Restoration Festival would be in full swing. With fresh doughnuts available in the mornings, how could we resist?

We always seek out yummy doughnuts- have you noticed ?

Damariscotta Mills, located in the Towns of Nobleboro and Newcastle (north of Rte 1 as opposed to south, where we are), was settled in 1729. A double sawmill was built at the head of the falls between fresh water Damariscotta Lake and the tidal headwaters of the Damariscotta River. Great for the town but lousy for the alewives who couldn’t make their annual migration to fresh water. The legislature said “tut, tut, let those alewives pass” but not until 1807 did the towns construct the ladder and a very basic one at that.

Today’s ladder, which is undergoing an extensive restoration since 2007, rises 42 feet from the bay to the lake. It is composed of 76 resting pools separated by weirs that each rise 8-10 inches. Many have wire covers to keep the seagulls from catching an easy meal. More than one half million will ascend the ladder to spawn.

The upper Lower section of ladder

View from group of people in prior photo, looking left up the ladder

The fish ladder touches on private property- good or not?

The alewives enter the Damariscotta River in late April and get to the ladder in early May. They wait patiently, coloring the water dark, for their turn to navigate up which, even with the ladder, isn’t easy and only the strongest are successful. Once in the lake each female produces 60,000 – 100,000 eggs which hatch in 3-6 days. Seaward migration occurs between July and November. The juveniles descend the ladder in large schools, typically backing down rather than swimming head first. Now, that I’d like to see.

The fresh water lake at the top

The fish are still harvested here, starting the second week of May, and sold as lobster bait which helps the Maine lobster industry in the spring when other fresh bait is scarce.

Harvesting begins second week of May- lots of scooping.

The festival offered activities and food for all ages, especially the kids. We didn’t hang around long as Port Clyde called out so we missed the poetry reading and music. A woman who lives nearby wrote a bluegrass style song, “Journey to the Lake”; one line goes, “Hungry osprey are waiting to greet them and the eagles’ circling over the bay.” Not only do the fish need strength, they need luck.

osprey enjoy alewives too

A flock of seagulls hung out (it being low tide when we were there) in the shallows before the ladder area, trying their best to snag a treat.

Gulls try hard to snag a fish