Deer Isle & Stonington Maine

DEER ISLE & STONINGTON MAINE BuyLocal Deer Isle-Stonington Chamber of Commerce HireLocal Support Our Island! P.O. Box 490 Deer Isle, ME 04627-0490 First Class Island Guide - 2017 Deer Isle-Stonington Chamber of Commerce 207-348-6124 • www.deerisle.com • [email protected] Nights and days came and passed And summer and winter List with DMVR’s team and see the difference! And the rain. And it was good to be a little island. www.RentalsMaine.com A part of the world Stonington : 40 Main Street And a world of its own All surrounded by the bright blue sea. —Margaret Wise Brown, “The Little Island” Over 25 years of specialized customer service! Rustic Camps to Premier Estate Rentals, Ocean Getaways and Quiet Retreats. We have a full range of choices. Homeowners: Looking to list your home as a vacation rental? Contact us for guaranteed bookings! 207-374-5444 855-367-5095 Photo by Ron Dahlen Blue Hill Peninsula’s most reliable Deer Isle-Stonington Chamber of Commerce rental agency P.O. Box 490, Deer Isle, ME 04627 Trusted since 1990! Little Deer Isle Welcome Center Open 7 days a week • 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. • May through October 207-348-6124 • Free WiFi www.deerisle.com • [email protected] Find us on Facebook: Deer Isle Stonington Chamber of Commerce Welcome! As you cross the Deer Isle-Sedgwick Bridge from the Blue Hill peninsula, you will find spruce- crowned pink granite ledges, quiet woods and numerous trails, surrounded by moss gardens. Photographic possibilities are everywhere, as ev- idenced by Ann Flewelling’s and Robert Harris’ photos on the covers and inside the 2017 Guide. We thank both of these fine photographers for sharing their expertise in such a generous way. Just over the bridge is our Welcome Center, staffed by friendly and informed volunteers available to answer any questions you may have. From the birdsong in April, to the warmth of the summer sun, to the crisp days of autumn and the quiet of winter—visitors are drawn to Deer Isle. Summer is the Island’s “busy season,” inclusive of a Lupine Festival, Fisher- men’s Family Fun Day, Lobster Boat Races, July 4th fireworks and events, plus numerous hiking trails, art galleries, restaurant fare and breathtaking views. (When you visit our treasure, please remember to take your trash and recycla- bles with you!) The heartbeat of Deer Isle is the local residents who have called the Island their home for generations. We invite you to embrace the character of the Island. You will create a lasting memory. Welcome to our beautiful Island! www.deerisle.com 207-348-6124 Ann Flewelling has been captivat- Bob Harris grew up in an old Co- ed by visual images of the natural lonial town on Narragansett Bay world since childhood. Though where he had a chemistry teacher formally studying photography who had graduated from Bates and related arts at The Southeast- College. That association led Bob ern School of Photographic Arts, and his wife, Ruth, to Bates. After The Maine Photographic Work- World War II service with the 84th shops and Haystack Mountain Infantry Division in Germany, he School of Crafts, Ann has been returned to Bates. From there he engaged in informal study since attended the University of Wis- childhood, driven by curiosity and consin in Madison and began a an inclination for active experimentation. By high school career in chemical research and development. Ruth and she had begun exploring microphotography of snow Bob retired to Ruth’s parents’ home in Sunset where they flakes, a fascination evolving into a science fair project were very active in community organizations. Bob and that ultimately took her to compete in the state science his family have pursued photography avidly and have fair. Today Flewelling shows her digital photography in digitized archives that capture Deer Isle scenes going Maine shops, galleries, and other venues. A practicing back to the 1930s. clinical psychologist and native Mainer, Ann lives with her husband, Charles Read, along the shore of the Baga- duce River. Cover photos by Ann Flewelling; interior photos by Robert Harris 1 Winter on the Island Many people ask what happens on Deer Isle during the winter months. Deer Isle is vibrant year-round. Life moves at a significantly slower pace in the winter months, but it is a time to rejuvenate and a time to enjoy all that surrounds us as the winter season follows the rewarding summer months of Island visitors. Next time you catch a bit of cabin fever, come on down and experience a sense of community on Deer Isle. We have three grocery stores, two libraries, a medical and dental center, and an airport. Some of our motels and inns are open year-round. Four restaurants served winter visitors and local residents in 2016- 2017, with everything from farm-to-table cuisine to comfort food and fresh Island coffee that is served up in Deer Isle village. (Snowflakes in the Guide’s ad section mark the establishments that are open all year.) The Stonington Opera House never slows down, showing first-run movies, art films and documentaries, plus live per- formances, drama classes, staged readings, workshops, music and more. Cabin Fever Theater stages an annual winter production at the Reach Per- forming Arts Center. For the fitness minded, the Island has a breathtaking set of cross country skiing trails open on public lands and walking trails. Healthy Is- land Project offers a “Move It to Lose It” program to stay fit. We have an active fitness center open all day, all year. The Island’s pickleball league is active year-round at the Is- land Community Center and welcomes everyone from be- ginners to experts. WinterFest is held the third weekend in January. It’s a family event with a bonfire, face-painting, a pickleball tournament and fireworks. In March, the Island hosts “Men Who Cook,” an evening of gastro- nomical delights prepared by 30 to 40 men who raise money for a nonprofit Island organization. Artists and artisans stay busy all winter long. Many of the Island’s galleries are open by appointment, and artisans sell their crafts at pop-up markets in the Odd Fellows Hall and local churches on Deer Isle and in Stonington. The Deer Isle Artists Association is open all year, and visitors are encouraged to stop in and chat with the artists or participate in their monthly discussions. We love our summer guests, and tourism—along with our local businesses, our artists and the lobstering industry—“floats” our Island. June, July and August see more than 1,700 visitors from all over the world pass through our Welcome Center on Little Deer Isle. If you are looking for the perfect place to relax and unwind, treat yourself to a visit to Deer Isle. Book a water view room, have a massage, indulge in fresh seafood and absorb the wonderful year-round character down on the Island. 2 A Short History of the Island By William A. Haviland For at least 6,000 years, Deer Isle was home to Indian people known as Etchemins, meaning “real people.” Their name for the island was “Place of the Lobsters,” Nsakek in modern Penobscot (the a is pronounced “ah”), derived from the word spoken by the natives of this area 400 years ago. Descendants of these original people continued to frequent the island well into the 20th century. The first Anglo settlers came to the island at the end of the French and Indian wars: William Greenlaw and his sons from Scotland in 1861, William Eaton and his family from southern Maine a year later. The Greenlaws established farms along the Reach from Torrey’s mill pond to Oak Point. The Eatons did the same at what is now Scott’s Landing. Other settlers eager for farmland soon filled the rest of the island as far south as Webb’s Cove and Crockett Cove. What is now downtown Stonington was considered worthless until the granite boom in the late 1800s. This boom led to the separation of Stonington from Deer Isle in 1897. Today, Stonington granite can be seen in numerous installations in cities up and down the east coast, from Boston and New York to Annapolis and Norfolk. The most famous is undoubtedly the stone used for the John F. Kennedy grave in Arlington National Cemetery. Although the settlers came here to farm, their overuse of fire to clear their fields led to a decline in the soil’s fertility, forcing them to find alternative subsistence pursuits. The opportunity they seized was marine commerce, and soon Deer Isle men, mostly in family-owned vessels, were sailing to ports all over the world. Yet farming was not abandoned, as it carried families through when shipping periodically fell on hard times. Fishing was not a major activity but rather a sideline carried out to augment family food supplies. One ex- ception was a fishing fleet in Southeast Harbor (South Deer Isle and Oceanville) that sailed annually to the Bay of Chaleur in Canada for mackerel fishing. Another was Isle au Haut, which split off from Deer Isle in 1868 to become its own town. By the end of the 19th century, Deer Isle mariners had gained such fame that they were chosen to defend the America’s Cup in 1895 and 1899. By then, however, sail was in decline, as steamships and railroads in- creasingly took over the movement of goods. So Deer Isle mariners made the transition to steam, and when the Panama Canal opened, the first merchant vessel through had a Deer Isle captain, as well as a canal pilot from Deer Isle.

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