ROUTE 1 on Interstate 95, Do You? It’S a Fine Road, of Course — Wide, Those Memories, Sure

ADMIT IT, YOU DON’T remember the first time you drove today are more commercialized than when you made ROUTE 1 on Interstate 95, do you? It’s a fine road, of course — wide, those memories, sure. But you’ve paid a visit to a few of smooth, leads to some of our favorite places. We could do those outlet stores, to that nice new taproom in what without the tolls, but hey, we’re not here to speak ill about used to be the hay barn. And the places that matter the Turnpike. It’s just that the thing has no character. most to you? That one weird B&B, that diner with the No complexity. blueberry pancakes, that trail to the cove? They’re all Now U.S. Route 1 in Maine? That’s our kind of interstate. still around, and some of them look eerily identical to It has history — in fact, it was the country’s very first inter- how they looked 10 or 30 or 50 years back. That’s Maine’s state highway. It has grandeur — Federal-style mansions, Route 1 for you: old curiosities and new eyesores, speed the Camden Hills, Aroostook County farmland with great, up and slow down, stasis and change. yawning skies. It has contradictions — folks tend to call it The last time we did a Route 1 issue, we traced the Coastal Route 1, though more than a third of its 527 miles journey north to south, beginning in Fort Kent and Road Trip are profoundly landlocked. It has a cast of characters. It ending in Kittery. We’ve flipped it this time, just for the Heading north from Key West, Route 1 wends its way across 15 East Coast has a sense of humor. It has pie. heck of it, and we’ve woven in a few detours, since a lot states — but we’re confident Maine has the best of it. Let’s hit the road. You have distinct memories of trips along Route 1. of Route 1’s charm has to do with where you end up once Heck, you have whole stories about it. Parts of the road you turn off of it. Buckle up, friends, and enjoy the drive. ILLUSTRATION BY GWEN KERAVAL

68 downeast.com August 2018 69 Jo Johnson, keeper of her late husband’s vast trove of historical relics. MILE 15 Leavitt Better Than MILE 1–32 KITTERY TO You Found It M I IN OGUNQUIT, A 1924 THEATER GETS L ARUNDEL E

2 A 21ST-CENTURY SPIFF-UP. 3 Roughly The Long Renovation ax Clayton was capacity by almost 100 seats, but a quarter of literally raised Max and Emily took pains to pre- of a Quirky Landmark Maine’s annual in Ogunquit’s serve the building’s historic layout Leavitt Theatre. and left some of the original 1920s A Wells opthalmologist honors her visitors — all His dad, Peter, wooden seats in the new bar. husband’s memory by reviving the 35 million of owned the place, “When they built this theater, and when Max it was a sensation to see a moving beloved Johnson Hall Museum. them — focus was small, the family lived in an picture — people came from all If, in the last few years, you’ve driven past the M Johnson Hall Musuem — a curious little com- their trips on upstairs apartment where Peter around, so they put in more than had drilled a hole in the kitch- 600 seats.” Max says. “Now, every- Chain gang: pound that includes an old-timey gas station, a train caboose, a 19th-century schoolhouse and these first few en wall, covered by a curtain, one’s got a motion picture in their Drive the jail, and various other anachronistic structures miles along through which he could peek to pocket. So the bar is a way for this entire length — you’ve likely seen the sign out front: CLOSED make sure things were running business to survive in this town, of Route 1 and FOR RENOVATIONS. Jo Johnson hung it after the southern smoothly in the adjacent darkened this economy, and this culture.” her husband, Bill, died unexpectedly in 2014, theater. Some of Max’s earliest Naturally, you can still catch you’ll pass and prepping to reopen southern Maine’s most coast — where memories, he says, are of staring summer blockbusters. But Max, a multifarious museum has been slow going. three Pat’s Bill was an auctioneer and a world-class through the hole, eating Cheerios Massachusetts College of Art and there’s plenty of Pizzas, four collector of timeworn artifacts. Jo was skep- and watching movies. Design grad, and Emily, who teach- Renys, and tical when he first invited her up to his Boston culture, road- The family moved out when he es high school art, are hoping to apartment in the ’70s. “He said, ‘Oh, come up side oddities, was 4. Now, after taking over the grow the theater’s cred as a destina- 27 Dunkin’ and see my antiques and let’s play the piano,’” theater for his retiring father last tion for live concerts and readings, Donuts. she recalls. “I said, ‘Oh yeah, I’ve heard that and tasty chow year, Max is 32 and living in the arthouse films, silent films with before.’” The couple eventually moved to Maine, and Leavitt once more. The peephole’s piano accompaniment, and retro to go around. in the ’80s, they bought Elsie Libby’s Colonial gone, but at a glance, the place movie classics (they just wrapped a Tea Room, a once-posh, many-columned looks a lot like it did in 1976. In month of Jaws screenings). Max is former restaurant now on the National Register BY BRIDGET M. BURNS many ways, actually, it looks a lot still tearing tickets, like he did as of Historic Places. Over the years, Bill filled the PHOTOGRAPHED BY MOLLY HALEY like it did in 1924, when a pair of a teenager, but he’s also building 15 acres surrounding it with his various building Sanford entrepreneurs built the a sort of art installation out of the acquisitions, filled those with antiques and cu- theater, with its high, false-front theater’s historic projectors, and rios, and, in the ’90s, started giving tours for $5 donations. (Jo, meanwhile, set up her ophthal- facade and distinctive arched he wrought the new bar’s metal mology practice right in the tea room.) entrance. But inside, Max and his railings himself. Before he stepped Last year, Johnson reopened the 1923 Tea de facto general manager (and also in at the Leavitt, he was fabricating Room to host weddings and events (she re- his girlfriend), Emily Knight, are metal sculptures for public art vamped a former train station to accommodate getting creative. installations. bridal-party prep and ran electricity outside to For starters, they’ve cleared “My dad was like, ‘Why do you service tent parties). Soon, she plans to host a few public functions — high teas, concerts seating from the back of the theater want to take over? It’s going to be — so folks can get reacquainted with her late and put in the Leavitt Lounge, a a huge struggle, you’re successful husband’s sprawling collection. She’s giving craft-cocktail and snack bar with doing artwork,’” Max says. “But it’s herself two more years to restart tours (she The seats are 94 years couches and high-top tables, where undeniably cool. He gets that.” plans to bring someone on for the job). In the old. The coming attraction is 43. Cinema scion Max moviegoers can nosh cheese plates On September 1, catch the doo-wop meantime, drivers can still admire the eclectic Clayton is 32 — and and sip negronis while catching a revival group The Platters. On September grounds from Route 1 — and none of the historic melange will disappear. making over Ogunquit’s flick. And the bar keeps hopping 12, pianist Jeff Rapsis scores the 1925 storied Leavitt Theatre. “The décor isn’t changing,” Johnson assures. after the credits roll, with a late- silent filmHer Sister from Paris. 259 “This is in honor of Bill.” night food menu until 12:30 a.m. Main St., Ogunquit. 207-646-3123. 2713 Post Rd., Wells. 207-985-0015. The renovation dinged the theater’s levittheatre.com johnsonhallmuseum.com

70 downeast.com September 2018 71 The floor-to-ceiling sweets Bring Your Helmet MILE 28 displays at Kittery’s Yummies WHOLE Candy & Nuts (384 Rte. 1; 877- Arundel’s Bentley’s Saloon has welcomed bikers, 498-6643; yummies.com) have classic-car nuts, and others since race-car driver been enticing candy freaks for LOTTA 32 years. Out front, the bold red Bentley Warren opened it in 2004. Managing partner sign announces 10,000 pounds Lisa Zatalava dishes on the, ahem, freewheeling scene. YUMMY of goodies on the shelves inside. Turns out, that’s out of date. “So Bentley’s now 77. And he’s These women sign these bras — Second-generation owner Matt legendary here in New England it’s their bragging rights. They Brodsky brought us up to speed “These women for racing supermodified cars. come back and they want to on the booming bonbon biz. He’s raced the Indy twice, and show their friends. I don’t know sign these bras. he’s done other races all over how it originated; it just started. They come back the country, so he already had On the weekends there are this fanbase of motorsports a lot of bikers. But there are a and they want people that loved him. But he’s lot of people that come here in been a biker his whole life. And cars. A lot of them think, ‘I can’t MILE 3 to show their back in the ’60s and ’70s, there come to Bentley’s because I were a lot of places that didn’t don’t have a bike.’ It’s like, no, friends. I don’t welcome bikers. So he said, if I you can come. And once they ever have a bar, I want everyone get over that and realize they know how it to feel welcome. can, they do. flavors of saltwater taffy in stock We got this life-size metal We just had a group in here 23 originated; it hog on the table for $50. Now, from England. We’ve gotten just started.” everybody wants to come people from New Zealand. Italy. to Bentley’s and have their Poland. Canada, of course, 40,000 picture taken up on that hog. I that’s a given — they’re always pounds of candy on display (Says make jokes about it. I call it our here. The diversity still amazes Brodsky, “Unlike McDonald’s, we $10,000 hog now because of me. So in my mind, he accom- don’t change our sign.”) the insurance factor. plished what he wanted to do, The first time that Barbara to make everybody feel wel- Bush came here, she was with come and have a good time.” George and their daughter, Cruisin’ Night welcomes a Bentley’s Saloon: Doro. And we’re having lunch fleet of classic and antique founded by a race in the back bar, and Barbara cars, Tuesday evenings through car driver, often 1,200 necessitates looks at Bentley and she says, September 18. 1601 Portland pounds of showcase chocolates designated drivers. sold during the summer season ‘Bentley, may I ask, how did the Rd., Arundel. 207-985-8966. brassieres get in the rafters?’ bentleyssaloon.com

Keep On Truckin’ MILE 19 500pounds of candy sold daily, at You can’t go wrong with these picks from Congdon’s new food truck rally in Wells. minimum Since 1955, the same family has Tender, slow-cooked pork butt brisket. Get the jalapeño-ched- run Congdon’s Doughnuts in mixes perfectly with creamy dar wrap for extra kick. Wells. It’s a throwback kind of mac. Top with Sweet Heat, place, so last summer’s launch Fahrenheit 225’s take on a Honey-Dipped Blonde Ale, $7 of Congdon’s After Dark, a Memphis-style (tangy and Barreled Souls Brewing with 6,000 “food truck park” in an adjacent brown-sugary) barbecue sauce. Congdon’s Doughnuts. Daily. packages of Caramel Creams (aka, lot, surprised some fans. Its barreledsouls.com bull’s eyes) sold each year — the runaway popularity surprised Little Red Rooster, $12 Chris Schofield’s mom once store’s top seller, by units even the Congdon’s team, with Knew Potato Caboose. Daily. worked at Congdon’s, and the as many as 1,000 people turning knewpotatocaboose.com Barreled Souls head brewer up nightly to enjoy up to 10 food Can hand-cut fries be an still remembers stopping by trucks and a beer garden. “It’s entrée? For sure, brah, if they’re to help fold doughnut boxes. been like running a marathon topped with grilled chicken, Each barrel of this light, malty while you’re still learning to barbecue sauce, bacon, ranch, brew is soaked on 10 pounds of walk,” says Congdon’s After and scallions. This Grateful doughnuts for a week. Served Dark director Adam Leech. Dead–themed french-fry-mobile all classy, with a honey-dipped Below, some of our favorite will cure your munchies. doughnut hole on the rim. grub. (Call or check the web to varieties of Jelly Belly jelly beans confirm the nightly line-up.) Reuben, $11.50 Blueberry Cheesecake Ice sold in bulk Get fried: p m 45 4 . . 1100 Post Rd., Wells. 207- What-A-Wrap. Daily. Cream, $4 Deadhead- 646-4219. cadfoodtrucks.com Behold, a reuben that doesn’t Arundel Ice Cream Shop. Fri.– themed taters are ooze dressing all over your Sat. arundelicecreamshop.com among the Pulled Pork Mac & Cheese, $10 hands. That’s the beauty of a Wild Maine bluebs, a dairy mix Congdon’s Fahrenheit 225. Sun.–Wed. wrap — and of using homemade from Windham’s Baker Brook 30,000 After Dark fahrenheit225bbq.com corned beef hash instead of Farm, and no corn syrup. Yum. shoppers between Memorial Day offerings. and Labor Day

September 2018 73 MILE 67

MILE 53 Dan Kleban says Freeport MILE 33–85 is barrels BIDDEFORD of fun. TO BATH A sixth of Maine’s population lives in the 12 towns traversed by this, the most developed Maine Beer Company’s (and, dare we say, Flight to Suds-burbia urban) segment of Route 1 — which Why did one of the hottest breweries to come out of Portland’s craft beer boom pull up stakes doesn’t make it for Freeport’s Route 1 budget-motel district? any less weird In 2007, Cofounder Dan Kleban tells us why — and why he’s and wonderful a Route 1 so happy about it. stretch of road. shrunk a “Our initial instinct was: we are a Portland brewery, we want to little when its stay in Portland. But by 2012, we were occupying five different units in our Industrial Way space. This wasn’t a long-term BY MARY POLS course was solution. A good friend is kind of a lifelong Freeport resident and PHOTOGRAPHED BY MOLLY HALEY redrawn off of a builder, and he’d gotten word that a dilapidated motel right on city streets in Route 1 was going out of business, so he purchased it for pennies on the dollar. We were just chatting with him socially, and he Portland and said, ‘Maybe I could build you a brewery up there?’ merged with We thought, moving up to Freeport, are we going to try to at- tract the same kind of foot traffic? We did say to ourselves, ‘Okay, I-295. this is right off Route 1 — if there is anywhere in this state that izing. It’s pretty vital these Or you might pull up a stool at: Sunrise Café. Not much to attracts as many people as Portland, it’s Freeport.’ People will In Praise of days, with some of the state’s look at in its strip-mall digs, come in and buy cases and cases of beer. They’ll leave the car most fun places to eat (Elda, Rudy’s Diner. Serving the ba- but boy do they nail the home running with the family in it, and then they’re on their way — off, Palace, Miss Biscuits & Company) and hang sics with just the right amount fries. And they’ll get them up the coast. And not only do they stop again on the way back out (Elements bookstore, of griddle grease — good out with toast, two eggs, and down, they tell people about us when they get home. Portland, Engine gallery and creative burgers, eggs with big slabs coffee inside of five minutes. Then there are a lot of people who’ve shopped all day, and it’s space), just blocks off Route 1. of country ham — since late 475 Rte. 1., Freeport. 207- late afternoon, and they are just ready for a beer. and More And there in the middle is founder Rudy Ferrante opened 865-6115. It’s proven to be a very wise move for us. We’ve probably Palace Diner, cash only, with it in an old caboose in 1975. grown six or seven times, all told, in the amount of beer we’re Order up: Miss Greater Portland is a 15 stools and huge, fluffy- Cash only. 449 Main St., Brunswick Diner. Another selling. We’ve maxed out the footprint. I wish I was smart enough Portland diner egged breakfast sandwiches to claim that we knew all this was going to happen.” is among metro diner diner’s delight. South Portland. 207-775-1990. old lunch car, circa 1946, and and exquisite tuna melts. the rare Route 1 diner with Maine Beer Company recently wrapped a 23,000-square-foot Portland’s great expansion of their production space. Phase II, to be completed next old-school When Biddeford’s Palace Diner Everything from the caramel- Miss Portland. A 1949 dining dinner hours. Boldly boasts eateries. (18 Franklin St.; 207-284-0015; ized grapefruit to the potatoes car from the Worcester Lunch out front of the “Best Lobster spring, will see a substantially enlarged taproom. 525 Rte. 1, Freeport. palacedinerme.com) opened (baked, smashed, fried) is pure Car Company, with shiny Roll in Maine”; wisely includes 207-221-5711. mainebeercompany.com in 2014 (well, reopened — the magic and worth the (inevi- blue-painted porcelain every- “probably” in the fine print. state’s oldest dining car table) wait. Palace executes where and a knack for comfort It’s unexpectedly tasty, actu- launched its first iteration in diner food at chefy-chef levels, food and treats like malted ally, none too mayo-heavy and 1927), downtown Biddeford without turning the timeless milkshakes. 140 Marginal best with a side of lightly bat- was still, as they say, revital- space around it into a gimmick. Way, Portland. 207-210-6673. tered onion rings. Cash only. missportlanddiner.com 101 Pleasant St. 207-721-1134.

September 2018 75 Be Aware: the Tides of Marsh MILE 43 Scarborough Marsh, Maine’s largest salt marsh, is pretty to look at. It’s also, says Bates College geology professor Beverly Johnson, three to ten times more efficient than a similarly sized forest at grabbing and storing carbon dioxide, a major contributor to climate MILE 77 change. Scientists estimate that Maine’s tidal marshes (you’ll pass another nice one at the Cousins River in Freeport) sequester some 73,000 tons of CO2 each year — the equivalent of annual emissions from 15,000 cars. Here’s how they work. In Bath, Route 1 Trees, shrubs, and grasses moved 100 or absorb atmospheric CO and 1 2 store much of it in roots and so feet north rhizomes. Scarborough Marsh has For nearly a lots of cordgrasses and pitch pine. in 2000, year, the head 5 Salt water inundates the marsh when the 2 twice daily, and the saturated sat by itself, 1 soil has low oxygen concentrations. highway was 4 In the wet soil, organic matter transferred perplexing 3 decomposes slowly, for lack of oxygen-loving bacteria. Sulfate ions off the old travelers and 2 in seawater suppress other bacteria that create the greenhouse gas Carlton plenty of methane. Bridge over Old ditches and berms prevent the Kennebec Brunswickians, 4 tidal flow. Restoration efforts focus on removing them. River and who knew it Lying down on the job: artist Foxes don’t help sequester onto the simply as Matt Barter’s 3 5 carbon, but they are cool. eye-catching Scarborough Marsh wildlife newly Brunswick head. includes red foxes, whitetail That Big deer, minks, otters, and tons of constructed waterfowl, waders, shorebirds, and Wooden Head. grassland songbirds. Sagadahoc Bridge. Why Is There a Big Wooden Head by the Side of the Road in Brunswick? Roadside History: ARTIST MATT BARTER IS NOGGIN-AH KEEP US WONDERING. Danish Village n May of last year, Matt blank, but if you catch it from stratagem seems to be paying In the early heyday of Vacationland, the MILE 45 Barter started rolling his the right angle it can seem dividends. “A lot of people say, Eat your motels were sometimes . . . eccentric. heart out, giant cranial ambassador slightly plaintive — like some- ‘I’ve been driving by for a year Epcot: the down a steep hill outside one waiting. This is intention- and I had to stop and find out, Why was there a Danish-themed motel on Route 1 Danish his Brunswick home. He al. When Barter and his wife, what’s the deal with the head?’” in Scarborough? Village in Because the architect was Danish and apparently super proud of it. Scarborough, wanted his artwork to Rebecca, bought their house four That Big Wooden Head is not When Peter Holderson built the landmark Eastland Hotel for Port- in its prime. face northbound drivers years ago, he did some research Barter’s first head. In his studio, land hotelier Henry Rines in the mid-1920s, he talked his boss into as they round the curve on the area and learned the spot he keeps a wearable model. He’s adding a Danish Tearoom, modeled on one in the Old World town of that follows the Androscoggin had been a major portage for a tall man, and when he puts Ribe. When Rines wanted to build a motorist-friendly, colonial-style IRiver. He was prepping to open Native American tribes using the it on, it swallows him to the motel in Scarborough in 1928, Holderson convinced him instead to an art gallery behind his house, river. No one thinks much about shoulders, turning him into one stick with Ribe. The themed complex replicated the Danish town’s which sits on a long, narrow lot that history when rounding the of Maurice Sendak’s wild things. stucco-and-red-tile architecture, with 100 tiny cottages surrounding a town hall and fountain. fronting Route 1 at one of those corner northbound, he reck- He has a hand too, fashioned out notorious slowdown spots. The oned. “They just keep driving. of more laths. “I have this obses- Did anyone famous ever stay? head was to be an enigmatic lure. I thought, wouldn’t it be great sion with heads and hands,” he Eleanor Roosevelt spotted the place on her way to her summer Barter’s head is heavy, maybe to make a head lying on its side, says, “because it’s what makes us home on Campobello Island. “It looked attractive, and I thought it 250 pounds. He moved it with a looking upriver, almost like he’s human — our thoughts and our would be fun to try it,” she later wrote. She noted that she and her pair of dollies — “all the while waiting for the canoes?” actions, what we can do.” companions had some “perfectly good Maine lobster” in a dining room decorated with wooden shoes and staffed by Mainers in hoping it didn’t get away from For nearly a year, while Bar- Now hanging at Barter Art period Danish costumes. me,” he says. It’s made of wood, ter worked on the carriage-house House: a joint show of Barter including the laths he likes to dig gallery he now calls the Barter and his dad, Sullivan artist Philip What’s left of it? out of demolition jobs, and its Art House, the head sat by itself, Barter, paying tribute to Maine Not much! The Danish Village closed by mid-century, housed ship- interior armature looks like that perplexing travelers and plenty master Marsden Hartley. Take a yard workers in World War II and recovering alcoholics in the 1960s, of a boat, a sort of homage to his of Brunswickians, who knew right at That Big Wooden Head. then was demolished in 1976. But stop at Scarborough’s Memorial Park, just off Route 1 on Sawyer Road, and you’ll see the old brick family’s boatbuilding heritage in it simply as That Big Wooden Father and Son Tribute to Hartley, archway (with restored red tiles) that once welcomed wanna-be through October 1. 68 Cumberland Boothbay Harbor. Head. This spring, a sign finally Danes. It’s Scarborough’s lone tribute to the bygone motel, moved St., Brunswick. 207-460-1453. The head lies on its left went up, directing people to the in 2015 from a vacant lot a mile south on Route 1, where the fantasti- thebarterarthouse.com

cheek, its expression basically entrance, and Barter says the (ILLUSTRATION) IAN ROTHWELL POSTCARDS); VILLAGE WILLIAMSON (DANISH BENJAMIN cal Danish Village once stood.

September 2018 77 His name is Larry, and he is the crimson lord Cool Hand Crafts of Route 1. THE HUSTLE BEHIND THE WARES AT THE

MAINE STATE PRISON SHOWROOM. MILE 87 MILE 125 n the 1800s, Maine State Prison inmates worked in quarries. Later, they made horse-drawn carriages MILE 86–172 and sleighs. By the 1930s, they had a new niche: furniture and souvenirs. Today, the prison’s show- WOOLWICH TO room in Thomaston offers an intricate model of the U.S.S. Constitution, priced at $1,795, as well as toast- PROSPECT er tongs going for $1.50. In between, the inventory includes some 750 products, from toy lobsterboats Sure, Route 1 on to acorn-shaped birdhouses to Shaker-style bureaus. I“We’ve become a real destination,” prison industries the midcoast can manager Ken Lindsey said. “A lot of customers come back year after year. But just seeing the store, people don’t get a be a stop-and- sense for everything that goes on behind the scenes.” start affair, but At the prison, a few miles away, in Warren, Lindsey the drive leads walked past the entry desk, through a metal detector, and Route 1 over to a station where visitors get emergency pagers, then takes on 59 through Maine’s through a series of locking doors. “I call it a controlled chaos,” Lindsey said, taking in the smell of sawdust, the different loveliest coastal whining of table saws, the echoing thwacks of hammers. names villages and There are 8,000 tools here, including a chainsaw. “This in Maine, is a maximum-security prison, and the security officers including accesses sylvan really frown on the idea of misplacing tools,” Lindsey One Big Bug peninsulas far explained. “How many prison movies have you seen where Camden they have a chainsaw in the shop? Probably none, right?” Street in There’s a seriously enormous lobster on the roof of from the crowds. Some 140 men work under his supervision, earning Rockland, Woolwich’s Taste of Maine restaurant. Owner Candy Anyway, a few $1 to $3 per hour. “It can be anybody — we probably just walked by 10 murderers,” he noted, settling into his desk Belfast Road Gregory explains how it got there. chair. A number of his crew are on life sentences. Most will in Camden, tourist traps “We’re family-run and have blowers going 24/7. I named never really hurt Carved from eventually get out. “Are they all going to be woodwork- and Searsport been for 40 years. That’s why him Larry, after my brother. basswood ers after this? Probably not,” he said. “But they’re going Larry’s here: My daughter said I’ve been here since day one and inspired Avenue in anybody. by a painting, to have skills — people skills and job skills. You come to to me, ‘Mom, what do you want and took over in ’95, but my this sculpture prison because you did something wrong, and we work on Belfast. It is to do for the 40th anniversary? brother built the restaurant took an inmate getting you so that you don’t reoffend.” Main Street It’s got to be something big.’ and taught me everything I BY WILL GRUNEWALD 1,500 hours to In the late ’80s, early ’90s, my know. I don’t even dare tell you complete. Lindsey started working at the prison 30 years ago, PHOTOGRAPHED BY CODY BARRY in 14 different brother had a big inflatable how much this lobster cost. fresh off studying criminal justice at UMaine. “I enjoy towns, but crab on the roof — Buster the People would probably think AND BENJAMIN WILLIAMSON coming here every day,” he said. “I mean, it’s definitely a Crab — that you could lease for I’m insane. But he’s worth challenge. Inmates don’t want to be in prison. But we try to never Maine six months at a time. But my it — Larry’s doing a hell of a be a positive in a negative environment.” Street. daughter looked into it, and he job, and it’s been an amazing He sometimes runs into former wards, like one who doesn’t exist anymore. I said, summer for us. We’re hoping approached him at the Fryeburg Fair to show off pictures ‘Well, how about a lobster?’ to put him back up every year, She and my brother found this as long as the town agrees to of his wife and kid. He had a construction job, using some company in LA that could make it, because we did have to get a of the know-how he’d picked up in prison. “A guy like one, and the next thing you building permit. So far, so good that, with a family and an income, he’s not coming back,” know, it’s on the roof. I actually — no mishaps or anything. One Lindsey said. “That’s what we hope for.” had the company come out time, Buster the Crab flew right The showroom brings in more than $1 million a year and put him up there, because off and went in the water. Larry — enough to cover program costs. In peak season, it’s we weren’t really sure how to has 100 tethers on him. He’s not do it. We had to have a crane. going anywhere.” a constant bustle. “I wish I could have the inmates out He’s 700 pounds, 70 feet long, 161 Main St., Woolwich. 207- to the store to hear all the good comments about their and 12 feet high, and he has two 443-4554. tasteofmaine.com work,” Lindsey said, a door clicking shut behind him on the way back to the entry. Even at max capacity, the work- shop can’t always keep pace with demand. Those pricey Constitution models, for instance? A crew makes six a year, and they reliably sell out. The Maine State Prison Showroom is open daily. 358 Main St., Thomaston. 207-354-9237. maine.gov/corrections/industries

78 downeast.com September 2018 79 Beat of a West African MILE 165 gumbo at Mé Different Lon Togo (it’s as good as it Drum looks). MILE ∞ Togolese cooking marches into Searsport. Jordan Messan Benissan Up and down Day-Trip Detours brought a whole new range of cuisine to Searsport when the midcoast’s Route 1 on the midcoast is great for what it is and even better for what it leads to: he opened Mé Lon Togo last summer: sweet potatoes and many peninsulas, lighthouses, sunny beaches, and winding trails along the many-fingered coast. plantains tossed in apple-cider a patchwork vinegar; chicken in peanut LIGHTHOUSES BEACHES HIKES sauce made with tomato, onion, of small nature Pemaquid Point Light (3115 Bristol Swimming beaches get scarce north Up and down the peninsulas, a patch- garlic, ginger, anise seed, and Rd., Bristol; 207-563-1800) is such a of Portland, but Popham Beach (10 work of small nature preserves and cayenne; tapioca pudding preserves and dramatic sight, perched on cliffs at Perkins Farm Ln., Phippsburg; 207- public lands offers serene woodland cooked in lemongrass broth. the tip of its namesake peninsula, 389-1335) helps make up for the sand trails. For a striking view without too A member of the Ewe people, public lands that the U.S. Mint etched its visage on deficit elsewhere on the midcoast. Its much sweat, head out on the Cliff Benissan hails from Togo, offers serene the Maine State Quarter. It’s also just parking lot can get jammed on week- Trail (263 Mountain Rd., Harpswell; where he trained in traditional a stone’s throw from the white sands ends, but the beach is so sweeping hhltmaine.org), a 2.3-mile loop that drumming. He came to the U.S. woodland trails. of Pemaquid Beach and impressive that it never feels crowded. Farther tops out on a 150-foot bluff.Linekin to study French literature but Fort William Henry. Movie buffs, up the coast, you can lay a beach Preserve & Burley Loop (Rte. 96 in instead wound up traveling meanwhile, make pilgrimages to blanket between the rocky outcrops East Boothbay, 3.7 miles after turnoff the country doing African Marshall Point Light (Marshall Point at tiny Drift Inn Beach (23 Drift Inn from Rte. 27; bbrlt.org) offers a quiet drumming demos. Since 1999, Rd., Port Clyde; 207-372-6450), where Rd., St. George), where, if you get hun- reprieve from the bustle of Boothbay he’s been a music instructor at Forrest Gump’s coast-to-coast jog gry, you can always stroll up the road Harbor, with miles of paths mean- Colby College. In Waterville, he dead-ended at the Atlantic Ocean. to Drift Inn Canteen for a superlative dering past ponds, through birch and started experimenting in the lobster roll. pine groves, and out to the bank of kitchen. “I realized that I really the Damariscotta River. missed food from home,” he says. “I tried to cook what I’d learned from my mother, and after a while, I started to think wow, this really tastes good.” The food at Mé Lon Togo The Rockland Thirty years ago, Rockland’s identity was tied up in industry and fishing. Now, it’s a bustling tourism hub, chock full of smart (translation: I Love Togo) is Renaissance hotels, renowned arts venues, and chef-driven restaurants. What changed? These six moments were key to the city’s turnaround. modern West African, the product of Italian, German, and M French colonialism. “We adopt- I Cafe Miranda, In Good ed some cooking techniques L The SeaPro fish- Tom O’Donovan E waste rendering moving his Harbor Company, and Suzuki’s from Europe, but we kept our 1 plant closed, which Square Gallery from Sushi Bar all helped ingredients,” Benissan explains. 2 put Rockland on the 9 turned out to be ad- downtown Camden Although the menu features a dition by subtraction. to down-market culinary map. But few European dishes, like monk- In the short term, the Rockland seemed like when Primo owner fish ossobuco and a duck de city lost jobs, but it a head-scratcher at Melissa Kelly won a Provence, the most exciting op- also lost the perva- the time. Ultimately, James Beard Award tions are the ones Benissan grew sive odor of rotten it presaged a wave of for best chef in the up with, including his personal herring bits. new gallery openings Northeast, it locked favorite, gumbo: fluffy white rice that transformed the in the city’s rep as a buried under a mountain of crab, town’s Main Street. dining destination. chicken, beef, onion, peppers, and okra, cooked and spiced until the flavors meld into a rich, complex whole. 1988 1990 1992 1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014 2016 The cozy 1800s space has low-beamed ceilings, hardwood The previous sum- The Strand’s electric The new Center for floors, and a soft glow from mer’s Maine Lobster marquee went dark in Maine Contemporary flickering candles. The look is Festival lost money, 2001 when a nearby Art, with its eclectic exhi- pretty classic midcoast, but and organizers decided multiplex purchased bitions and installations, Benissan accented the dining the 42-year-old event and closed the theater. arrived to complement room with a few African flour- had run its course. But A part-time Rockport the realism and regional- ishes: a mask hanging here, a locals rallied to save family bought it back and ism of the Farnsworth’s shield there, and in the corner, it, and the festival has reopened it four years Wyeth-centric collection. of course, the drums that he still Rocklanders now justi- since grown into an later. Today, a nonprofit occasionally finds time to play. even bigger draw. fiably call their city the runs the vintage theater’s 375 East Main St., Searsport. “arts capital of Maine.” program of films, music, 207-872-9146. comedy, and more. ART: PETER DECAMP HAINES - PULL TOY, BRONZE. 12"X17"X6". $4,600, COURTESY OF HARBOR SQUARE GALLERY OF HARBOR SQUARE COURTESY BRONZE. 12"X17"X6". $4,600, HAINES - PULL TOY, PETER DECAMP ART: 80 downeast.com September 2018 81 A Life in Chains

MILE 199 MAINE SAYS GOODBYE TO A ROUTE 1 ORIGINAL. (WE’RE NOT CRYING, WE HAVE SAWDUST IN OUR EYE.) MILE 176 n the Fourth of July, — football all-star, law student, MILE 173–317 as fireworks cracked forester, sawyer, jiujtsu master, and screamed in ironworker — before settling in VERONA ISLAND We’re choking the sky behind him, Maine and devoting himself to his up: Chainsaw 75-year-old Ray true passion: chainsaw art. Murphy Roll Into Crosby’s TO CALAIS artist Ray Murphy hosts Murphy was bent claims he was the first to pursue his final shows over his workbench it, and there’s no disputing his And don’t skip these other six this summer. at his Route 1 studio renown. His work is found on all essential Down East seafood shacks. Traffic thins in Hancock. It was the end of an- seven continents. out beyond the Oother 14-hour-day, his fourth that More recently, I pulled up When Elton “Fat” Crosby and his wife, Margaret, opened their Bucksport seafood shack, just off week, with three more to go. After to Murphy’s cavernous ware- Penobscot Route 1, in 1938, the place was a squat white that, the wild-haired, gray-bearded house-cum-performance-space on building with fewer than a dozen menu items Narrows Bridge, Murphy figured to lean into anoth- Route 1 (you can’t miss the huge and a walk-up window. But over the years, says er seven-day week, and then an- screaming eagle painted on its side, Crosby’s manager Alex Pappas (whose great- and past the other, and then another. But come a chainsaw in each talon). I was a uncle bought the place from Fat Crosby), the the end of this month, Murphy few minutes early for the nightly restaurant’s popularity nudged it into a bigger turnoff for Mount building next door, which has since “Franken- says, no more. After September, the show and found Murphy alone steined” with multiple additions. Now 80 years Desert Island, self-proclaimed original Chainsaw outside, hunched over and covered Before U.S. in, Crosby’s Drive-In (30 Rte. 46, Bucksport; the services get Sawyer Artist® is hitting the kill in sawdust, dwarfed by the 400-seat Route 1 was 207-469-3640; crosbysdrivein.com) stretches switch, at least for his nightly live auditorium behind him. He pulled along the roadside like a little strip mall, and sparser and the shows, a Down East tradition going up a chair and invited me to wait officially the menu (which includes standout crab and back 30 years. with him, but the audience never designated lobster rolls and perfectly fried clams using the air gets saltier. original 1938 batter recipe) spreads out across Squealing here and there at the showed. They’ve been “fickle” the in November five long boards. “Yeah, it’s pretty crazy, we’re This is the real distant fireworks, Murphy paused last three or four years, Murphy 1926, much always busy,” Pappas says. “And word-of-mouth his work long enough to tell me says — another reason he’s bring- is the only advertising we’ve ever needed.” Down East about the show that has largely ing down the curtain. He’s consid- of the route coast: rugged, defined him — in Maine, anyway ering a move to Arizona with his in Maine was A few other favorites along this stretch of road: — and his pending retirement. longtime “sweetheart,” Cathy. The known as Union River Lobster Pot. Can’t beat the big ol’ briny, and a little Garrulous and wry, Murphy sprints cold makes it hard for him to saw screen porch in bug season, and the clam chow- off-center. from topic to topic, from a catalog now that he needs blood thinners the Atlantic der has racked up awards. 8 South St., Ellsworth. of his works, all rendered with a for his heart. Highway, 207-667-5077. lobsterpot.com chainsaw (some 78,000 sculptures, Watching the traffic whiz by, with Calais as Tracey’s Lobsters and Clams. Lobster cooked BY JOYCE KRYSZAK over a fire pit out back, big scoops of Gifford’s ice a 20-foot totem pole, 20 numbers we talked at length, Murphy inter- its northern PHOTOGRAPHED BY GRETA RYBUS etched onto a pencil, a dozen mittently animated and pensive. cream, and a Friday fish-fry that includes a trip back to the counter for seconds. 2719 Rte. 1, ladybugs so small they all fit on “I’ve always prided myself on going terminus. Sullivan. 207-422-9072. a dime), to an indictment of the at 110 percent, and I’m just not at “inept scribblers” who inaccurately that level anymore,” he says. He’s The Meadow’s Take-Out. Just your average Portuguese-influenced Down East lobster call him a woodcarver (he uses resigned himself to more than shack. Try the Portuguese baked stuffed clams, only chainsaws, no carving tools). one cancelled performance this simmered first in a chorizo, coriander, and cumin Even on the somber subject of why summer but resolved to make his broth by chef Ryan Roderick. 1000 Rte. 1, he’s packing it in, he shows an remaining shows count. Once he’s Steuben. 207-546-3434. impish humor. through, there may be nowhere left Bayview Takeout. An 11-mile detour off Route 1, “I had a heart attack in 2016 to see a chainsaw artist hew a chair but it’d be worth a longer drive for the paper and was dead for two minutes out of a solid log in 10 seconds or cartons so full of fried clams, shrimp, haddock, — that’ll get your attention,” Mur- inscribe a name onto a belt buckle and scallops, you can barely close them. The thin, phy says with a titter. “No bright while its owner is wearing it. crispy onion rings are perfect. 42 Bayview Dr., Beals. 207-497-3301. lights, though. I guess they forgot “I’ve always been my only to pay the electric bill.” competition,” Murphy says. It’s Riverside Take-Out. Festooned with fishing nets, flags, and other colorful bric-a-brac, a busy little A whole lot of Irish and not a brag, just a fact. “There’s stand with a massive haddock sandwich. Free one-quarter Shoshone, Murphy nobody else like me.” treats for dogs! 275 Main St., Machias. grew up on a Wyoming reserva- Catch Murphy’s final shows this 207-263-7676. tion, went to college on a schol- month. Nightly, 7 p.m. $10. 742 Rte. 1, New Friendly Restaurant. More diner than stand, arship, then careened through a Hancock. 207-460-5905. thechainsaw but locals line up for a lobster roll that overflows litany of vocations and avocations sawyerartist.com its bun. 1014 Rte. 1, Perry. 207-853-6610.

82 downeast.com September 2018 83 Obadiah’s in Machias: a great MILE 257 Castaway MILE 207 Roadside place to grab a coffee and scone Collector History: while feeling like you’re invading Mill Stream someone’s crazy Obadiah’s Bohemian Antiques cluttered attic. Café and Trading Post There’s more to this is strewn with flotsam. handsome antique shop Shipwreck-obsessed than meets the eye. proprietor Susan Wright tells us why. What is Mill Stream Antiques? Gorgeous Antique dealer Jeff Harden runs “The house was built around tin walls this shop (2141 Rte. 1, Sullivan; 1887 and abandoned for years and ceilings 207-422-3155), with owners Bob before I bought it. I named the speak to the and Judie Phillips, who bought place after one of the previous history at Mill Stream the house in 1983, taken by its owners. He’s buried in a pickle Antiques. Greek Revival architecture. barrel on Deadman’s Island. I feel protected and comforted What’s interesting about it? by Obadiah’s former occu- Locally, the 2½-story building pants. An old dress I found in has long been known as the the attic fit me perfectly, and a Cascade House. It was built photo I found under the floor- no later than 1824, and while it boards sits in a place of honor looks handsome from the road, Just how seriously should you approach the various statues, tributes, and on the bar. Down East step in to admire tin ceilings I was going for kind of a Landmark extraordinary edifices found along the Down East coast? Let our handy chart help and walls stained a greenish- shipwreck vibe with the place decode eight of our favorite Route 1 monuments. gold patina, plus timeworn, Gravitas Matrix — you know, castoffs — and wide-plank floors. for my café menu, I try to make What was it originally? it what you might eat if you MAJESTIC Housing for workers who ran were in a shipwreck and had the lumber mill that operated to use food from the cargo. We Fort Knox State on the stream out back. Historic Site have fun at the bar and on the outdoor stage. We keep it all and Penobscot What’s it been since? Narrows Bridge What hasn’t it been? Cascade kind of casual, but we can trick Formidable 1844 House has hosted a clock repair it out nice too. military fort and shop, a post office, a stable and I’m also the Washington imposing 420-foot County archivist, so I’m into Big Chicken Barn blacksmith shop, a boarding towers. 740 Fort house and tavern, a barber- history, and I find some pretty Knox Rd., Prospect. A 30,000-square-foot cool stuff, like invoices from chicken barn with shop, a gas station, an ice fortknox.maine Wild Blueberry Land the old ship manifests. That’s 150,000 books and a cream store, a feed and grain guide.com Gargantuan berry-shaped how I kind of got obsessed with St. Croix Island gazillion antiques and company, and a grocery mar- dome full of Maine-made Historical Site sculptures oddities. 1768 Buck- ket. Until Mill Stream Antiques them. Maine was connected to wild blueberry jams, syrups, Bronze sculptures depicting the sport Rd., Ellsworth. opened, it spent most of the the world by trade even in the pies, pottery, and more. interaction between the Passam- bigchickenbarn.com 1800s, and all kinds of expen- 1067 Rte. 1, Columbia Falls. last few decades abandoned aquoddy tribe and the first French and decaying. The Phillipses sive cargo was brought here: 84 St. Croix Dr., wildblueberryland.com settlers, 1604–1605. spent two years and $80,000 rum, spices. There was some Calais. nps.gov/sacr/index.htm fixing the place up. exotic cargo, like molasses and HISTORICAL HYSTERICAL brandy. I once found an invoice Have I heard of Mill Stream for mummy cloth. They used it before? to make paper — cloth makes Big Jim Wilbur the Lobster Are you a centenarian and/or a better-quality paper — but Forty-foot-tall cutout Eleven-foot fiber- fan of barbershop music? Local I think it was disrespectful of of a New England glass crustacean legend has it that a turn-of-the- the dead. fisherman in oil gear. leaned up outside century barber named Frank A lot of times, the crew took Held a sardine can when Ruth & Wimpy’s Carleton, who lived and cut hair their families along on the he went up in the ’60s, Restaurant. in the Cascade House, wrote ships, so women and children replaced with a lobster 792 Rte. 1, Hancock. the standard “Down by the Old trap after the canneries ruthandwimpys.com died in shipwrecks too. There all closed. 200 Main St., Mill Stream” in 1908, then sold were lots of shipwrecks around Prospect Harbor. it for $60 (the equivalent of here then, sometimes three $1,500 today) to a vacationing a week. It was a dangerous Linwood’s vaudevillian named Tell Taylor. profession. It still is.” Hansom House An outdoor stage literally in someone’s front yard, Taylor later claimed to have Obadiah’s hosts outdoor open Self-proclaimed “most absurd bar in the with a 1947 International Harvester perched on the written the song and is credited mics every Friday night through world,” chock full of Pez dispensers, weird stat- roof, a Ferris wheel, Sunday-night open-mic hoote- with its authorship. The roguish September. 35 Harwood St., ues, and other tchotchke, built in the woodshed nannies all summer. Rte. 1, ¼-mile north of Robbins Ohioan built a career off “Down Machias. 207-263-3999. of a 1787 homestead. 45 Main St., Dennysville. Point Rd., Gouldsboro. by the Old Mill Stream,” which facebook.com/sleemanrose was recorded by Bing Crosby and has sold millions of copies DOMESTIC of sheet music. 84 downeast.com September 2018 85 East Grand Lake is an undersung We All Scream family vacation spot par For What Now? excellence. A helpful Houlton Farms

MILE 375 Dairy Bar primer. An Aroostook County institution, Houlton Farms The world’s Dairy started pasteurizing and delivering milk 80 years ago, but the milestone to celebrate (as far MILE 318–466 largest scale as we’re concerned) came in 1983, when Houlton model of the Farms opened its Presque Isle dairy bar. Houlton BARING TO and Caribou locations soon followed, and today, solar system the legacy dairy is as known for its sprawling CARIBOU stretches menu of elaborate sundaes, ice-cream sodas, and frappes as for its rich, high-butterfat hard 40 miles serve (and butter, milk, and cream), made with It ain’t all coastal, from the help from Aroostook cows. A concise explainer on folks, and there marble-size some of the more esoteric offerings: scale replica Awful Awful Hard on Top. An Awful Awful is are surprises Houlton Farms’ thickest milkshake designation of Pluto, (made with soft serve and only a splash of milk). along this little- Add a scoop of hard serve on top, and you’re outside definitely going to need a spoon. visited stretch, Houlton, to Ain’t Life Grand Cruise. As in, through the Caribbean. Made with where the quiet the multi- your choice of hard or soft serve, a Cruise is a DEEP IN THE HEART OF TOMAH COUNTRY, EAST specialty sundae topped with pineapple and lakes and story sun at coconut, plus whipped cream, nuts, and a cherry. GRAND LAKE IS THE SEBAGO OF THE NORTH. UMaine at tumbledown Lyman Pizazz. Lemon-lime flavoring, soda water, on’t mistake East docks and strangers-turned-friends Presque Isle’s and sherbet, mixed up and topped with whipped cream and a cherry. Super refreshing and doesn’t villages of the Grand Lake for tossing horseshoes and sharing Northern have anything do with Lyman, Maine. northeast woods another sleepy campfire beers. There’s a heated pool Maine pond up north: a and arcade, plus a couple of narrow Star City/Shiretown/County Cooler. Like a Lyman Pizazz, but with orange soda instead of give way to scatter of anglers beaches, with loons and mallards Museum of lemon-lime. The name changes depending on and canoes; a swimming nearby. Science. Aroostook farm whether you’re ordering it in Presque Isle, dense, backcoun- Prefer a cottage? Cowgers’ Houlton, or Caribou. try shoreline; a Lakefront Cabins (26 Cowgers country. 792 Main St., Presque Isle; 207-764-6200. 131 long, rutted jeep trail for access. As Ln., Danforth; 207-448-2455; M Military St., Houlton; 207-532-2628. 98 Bennett Dr., BY BRIAN KEVIN Dgenerations of northern Mainers cowgerscabins.com) and Rideout’s I Caribou; 207-498-8911. houltonfarmsdairy.com L PHOTOGRAPHED BY can tell you, the 16,000-acre lake Lakeside Lodge (6 Waterfront Dr., E 4 MICHAEL D. WILSON (Maine’s eighth largest) comes Weston; 207-448-2440; rideouts.com) 4 alive in the summer with pleasure both offer rustic cabins and motor- 6 boaters and island hoppers, swim- boat, canoe, and kayak rentals. mers and water skiers (and yeah, Cowgers’ rates start at $350 per plenty of fishermen). Together with week (find that deal on Sebago), and neighboring Spednic Lake (our sixth Rideout’s is open to non-guests for largest), East Grand is the heart of family-style dinners of thick rib eyes what locals call Tomah Country, a or big slabs of ham. wooly playground of logging trails, Just passing through? Catch low ridges, and St. Croix headwa- a sweeping (and surprisingly ters along the Canadian border. undulating) panorama of East Grand But whereas accessing Spednic and Tomah Country at the Million can mean a dozen-mile drive along Dollar View Scenic Overlook. It’s narrow dirt roads, the western shore two overlooks, really: Across from of East Grand is rarely more than a the clean and modern First Settlers couple of miles from Route 1, with Lodge (341 Rte. 1; Weston; 207-448- four public boat launches and a mess 3000; firstsettlerslodge.com) find a of rental cabins within minutes west-facing view of distant Katahdin of the highway. For families, and interpretive displays on local Greenland Cove Campground history. The money shot, though, Fancy a Lyman (Greenland Cove Rd., Danforth; is 3 miles north, where a dramatic Pizazz? 207-448-2863; greenlandcove.com) east-facing lookout takes in the lake’s How about is a classic summertime RV village, many coves and the gentle hills on an Awful Awful Hard full of suntanned kids leaping off the New Brunswick side. on Top?

86 downeast.com September 2018 87 Waite, Waite, Take Refuge Do Tell Us Attention, trail junkies: the Moosehorn National Wayne Seidl and Joe Ruff moved Wildlife Refuge isn’t just for birders. to Washington County to farm in Hikers and bikers tend to give Headquarters Loop. A wildlife refuges short shrift as 3-mile loop from the park’s 2009 and soon found themselves recreation areas, but Moose- taxidermy-rich headquarters, running the town’s 107-year-old horn National Wildlife Refuge this bike-friendly route follows “I love this place, general store, selling everything offers more than 60 miles of old gravel roadways through I really do. You from produce and propane to MILE 317 trails and (car-free) dirt roads, woods and damp meadows bongs and camo hunting gear. In Calais crisscrossing some 29,000 where bald eagles circle over- can leave your acres of pristine habitat for head. For a longer day, spur We talked with Seidl about the and Baring, woodcocks, spruce grouse, trails lead off into the wilder- keys in your car quiet life in Waite. northbound waterfowl, raptors, and ness portion of the refuge (no migrating neotropical song- bikes), including a semi-steep at night. People “At the turn of the last century, Route 1 birds (not to mention moose, climb to an old fire tower there were 4,000 people living drivers travel bears, and other critters). For a atop the inaccurately named help each other.” in town. Six sawmills, a tannery, quick stretch of the legs on your Bald Mountain (it’s wooded), a furniture factory. Where you south, then road trip, try one of our favorite which adds about a mile-and- see woods, there used to be southwest, Moosehorn day hikes. a-half to your day. Trailhead hundreds of thousands of acres at Refuge Headquarters, off of potatoes and beans. Now, for about Greg’s Pond Trail. Combine Charlotte Rd., 2½ miles south there are 107 people. Most of 6½ miles, this flat, wooded trail near of Rte. 1. the names in the cemeteries refuge headquarters with the don’t mean anything to the following paved Woodcock Interpretive Conic Lake Trail. A short walk people living here now. bends in Trail for a 1.3-mile jaunt to an on a little-used, somewhat It can be a very quiet com- observation blind on a pond overgrown gravel trail in the munity, even though people the St. Croix noisy with frog song. Watch refuge’s wilderness section love their drama, oh my god. River. for the odd muskrat sliding leads to lovely Conic Lake, I lived in Key West, which is The by, and on the paved portion, where you may spot wood 28,000 full-time residents, on Moosehorn learn from placards about the ducks and black ducks dab- landscape is an island a mile-and-a-half wide long-billed (and threatened) bling in the shallows. It’s just and 3½ miles long, and out of a patchwork of woods and woodcock. Trailhead on Head- over a half-mile out and back. those, 14,000 are gay. In all the meadows. quarters Rd., off Charlotte Rd., Trailhead on Rte. 191, years I lived in Key West, I have 2½ miles south of Rte. 1. 1½ miles south of Rte. 1. never seen the drama that I see in this town of 107 people. ‘This one’s uncle did this to my M cousin 42 years ago.’ ‘This one I L is sleeping with my daughter’s E Big It’s a 6-mile detour to Grammy’s Country Inn (1687 Bangor Rd., Linneus; 207-532-7808), legendary ex-fiance’s mother’s boyfriend.’ 4 0 Whoop for its obscene portion sizes. Here’s how their whoopie pie measures up. (Scale is approximate!) They change beds around here 1 as often as I change socks. But I love this place, I really 4 inches 6 ½ inches 6 inches do. You can leave your keys in your car at night. People Wayne help each other. When we first Seidl, left, showed up, we talked to the and Joe woman who owned the store, Ruff run introduced ourselves and told MILE 343 the Waite her we were buying the place General Store, est. at the top of the hill. And I said, 1911. do you think there’ll be any problem in the community? She said, ‘That depends. Do you want to change things?’ I TEA SAUCER said no, we’re moving up here GRAPEFRUIT because we love it just the way it is. She said, ‘Welcome to the 4¾ inches 5 ½

neighborhood.’ 4 inches

That’s the way the whole inches town has been. We haven’t changed the store much at all. People here love variety, but they hate change.” The Waite General Store hosts the 7th annual Town IPHONE 6 of Waite BBQ & Yahd Sale on STARBUCKS GRAMMY’S September 1. 455 Houlton Rd., TALL CUP WHOOPIE PIE Waite. 207-796-2330. 88 downeast.com September 2018 89 MILE 494

MILE 467–527 True Believer M I ACADIA TO L E A VISIT WITH THE MAN BEHIND GRAND ISLE’S 5 FORT KENT 0 SPECTACULAR MUSÉE CULTUREL DU MONT-CARMEL. 7 all it providence: In from rain,” Cyr admits. “But even if Hog Haven Route 1 through 1977, when Don Cyr it’s something that’s going to cause Madawaska’s Four Corners Park the St. John was 29, he was driv- us problems, we have to figure out ing to Madawaska what to do to keep it as close to the is a (sometimes) quiet tribute Valley is a with a friend who original as possible.” to biker culture. asked whether there In four decades, Cyr’s associ- pastoral Here’s the Four Corners Tour, as it was estab- was anyplace he ation has raised and spent some lished by the Southern California Motorcycle journey into saw himself living $4 million, and Cyr estimates Association 35 years ago: You and your ride the heart of the permanently. They he’s spent another third of his have just 21 days to visit the four corners of the were in the Grand Isle village of own salary; he teaches art at the contiguous United States: Key West, Florida; state’s Acadian CLille-sur-St-Jean at the time, passing University of Maine at Presque San Ysidro, California; Blaine, Washington; and, the town’s lofty Roman Catholic Isle. Sometimes, he says, he’s gone of course, Madawaska on Route 1, the nation’s country, and it church, Notre-Dame-du-Mont- without meals in order to afford a northeasternmost point. Madawaska’s former postmaster was the first culminates with Carmel, which the diocese was piece of Acadian art to add to the Between half local to accomplish this, which is fitting, since America’s first about to shutter for lack of congre- vast collection, a tenth of which is and two- bikers used to take photos in front of the post gants. “There,” Cyr said, pointing to on display. Today, the Baroque-ish thirds of the office to prove they’d hit the checkpoint. Then, (or last) mile. the church rectory. Later, he grabbed basilica looks almost as it did the in 2000, Madawaskans Joe and Diane LaChance a newspaper and saw the space was year it was completed. residents of did it too — in just 16 days, riding 12 to 14 hours Bon voyage! for rent. Cyr, who just turned 70, You can’t miss the cathedral the St. John a day — and it gave them an idea: why not build something a little more special than the post has been in Lille ever since. coming into town; its scale dwarfs Valley speak office, to welcome bikers to town and encourage BY JESSE ELLISON In those 40 years, the rectory its environs. It’s hard to imagine a Valley French, them to stay a while? and church have become more time that Lille, population 90ish, After some fundraising, they found a plot of PHOTOGRAPHED BY Census MICHAEL D. WILSON than just a home to him. Shortly needed a structure so big. But the land with a fountain, perched on a slope on a after moving in, amid talk of the town once had 700 people, the numbers commercial stretch of Route 1. Madawaska Four church’s demolition, he proposed it parish encompassing both sides of Corners Park opened in 2008, the world’s only suggest, park dedicated to long-distance motorcycle become a cultural center dedicat- the St. John River, which flows lan- the Acadian riding (at least, as far as the LaChances know). ed to Acadian history. As a dual guidly just across the street. Most This year, the pair opened a small welcome American–Canadian national who days, visitors can find Cyr putter- patois center and gift shop. They’ve also raised money grew up in Presque Isle, he had a ing somewhere on site, ready to partially by selling the inscribed stones and pavers inlaid special interest. The bishop agreed talk about how he thinks Halley’s resembling around the fountain. Stones are color-coded and gifted the building and its Comet influenced the painting of — only those who’ve completed the tour can contents to a newly formed, Cyr-led the dark-blue sky and gold stars centuries-old purchase the red ones. For a site next to Tim Horton’s, where 1,200cc engines regularly non-profit, L’Association culturelle on the sanctuary’s ceiling, or how standard come roaring through, it’s a surprisingly lovely et historique du Mont-Carmel. he just discovered a particular French. little monument: one corner is dedicated to Since then, Cyr has spearheaded magic the light performs on the Acadian families, another to fallen bikers, and what a state official once joked to summer solstice. one stone marks the spot where the parents him is the longest-running resto- Cyr says he plans to keep of a young man killed in a motorcycle accident ration project in Maine — a massive working on the space for the rest scattered his ashes. Worth a stop, even if you’re not traveling on two wheels. and meticulous effort to rehab of his life. A recent visit found him 213 Main St., Madawaska. 207-436-7451. the 1910 church and rectory from standing next to a pile of pews and madawaskafourcorners.org their foundations up. He insists some scaffolding, pointing towards Thanks to that every detail be true to early- a spot on the back wall where a Don Cyr, the 1910 Notre- 20th-century specs, going so far as patch of pale-blue paint had flecked Dame-du- to remove a roof outside that was away. “Today,” Cyr said, “I think I’ll Mont-Carmel has found added to shield the building from paint this.” new life. the elements. “Of course, they put 993 Main St., Grand Isle. 207-895- it there for a reason — it protected 3339. museeculturel.org

90 downeast.com September 2018 91 Hello Dolly’s Borderline Personality MILE 508 Frenchville’s ploye palace Alan Cyr was born and raised in Van Buren and has worked and three other spots as a mechanic for the Border Patrol there for a decade. He that dare to ask, what if told us what’s changed along la frontière. pancakes were bread? “There really is no border ’80s, customs in Van Buren here. There is, but there isn’t. used to have two, maybe Ployes (pronounced “ploys”) I mean, I’ve got aunts and three employees there on a look a bit like pancakes or “I got a call uncles on the Canadian side. daily basis. Now, you go in and crepes, and they’re cooked We’re all the same. there’s probably ten working from batter on a hot griddle, saying, ‘You lied — When I applied for this job, per shift. Back then, they were but they’re not traditionally they asked if I had any money part-timers. They had full-time Route 1 a sweet breakfast dish. The you have money savory pastries are made in foreign countries. I said teaching jobs, say, and got follows the no. Then I got a call saying, these little part-time jobs from buckwheat — a popular in Canada.’ I said, ‘You lied — you have money in there. They might have had a St. John River rotation crop among Aroostook ‘Oh, well okay, Canada.’ I said, ‘Oh, well okay, firearm. Now, both customs for 45 miles County potato farmers — and if you consider them a foreign and immigration have firearms, typically just three other if you consider country.’ not only short ones but long — the truest ingredients: white flour, salt, I remember before 9/11, a lot ones. Is it enough? I don’t it stays to and baking powder. They’re them a foreign of times the customs people know. How secure do you want never flipped on the griddle, so wouldn’t even open the win- your borders? any waterway one side turns golden while the country.’ ” dow. They’d recognize us and It’s easy to get across. Just for its entire other is pocked with air holes wave us through. It’s a lot hard- swim or walk across the river. The eyes called “eyes.” Dolly’s Restau- er now. We only go over for a And the river divides from just length, have it: rant (17 Rte. 1, Frenchville; Ployes are purpose. It’s definitely hurt the above Fort Kent to Van Buren. 207-728-7050), serves ployes excepting an Acadian as the Acadians have been en- economy, probably going both The rest is all forest. Around delicacy. ways. I used to put 4,000 to Limestone, the snowmobile Florida’s joying them for centuries, as a 5,000 miles on the snowmobile trail is on the border. So people Indian River. substitute for bread, alongside in the wintertime. I was heavy from New Jersey or Connecti- a rich chicken-and-dumpling into the local snowmobile club, cut come up, they see these stew and/or spread with creton, and probably 40 percent of trails, and they cross into a spiced pork pâté. our members were Canadians. Canada without even knowing That’s all stopped. They don’t it. That happens all the time. Try these three other valley M cross here. ‘Red snowmobile, blue jacket, Meat Me in Aroostook I stops for the quintessential When I was a kid in the heading north.’” M L Acadian treat: I John and Mary Freeman, of Westmanland, have been doing the food truck thing E L ? Long Lake Sporting Club. Old E ? school and supper clubby, this 4 since before it was cool. Their Rib Truck’s claim to fame? The pulled-pork parfait, ? 8 lakeside restaurant serves 2 now a concession-stand staple and object of foodie cult cachet. ployes with every meal (with a dipping dish of syrup), churning Wide-open Barbecue Sauce out 1,200 a day during its busy country: The Rib Truck’s sweet and tart sauce has been a Locals like snowmobile season. 48 Rte. Alan Cyr have guarded secret since 1998, when the Freemans started 162, Sinclair. 207-543-7584. seen some hauling their mobile open-pit cooker around Aroostook longlakesportingclub.com changes along County. “The sauce we don’t talk about much,” John Voyageur Lounge. On the third the border. says. “We’re happy to sell it off the back of the truck.” floor of Inn of Acadia, a former convent turned hotel and Pulled Pork restaurant, ployes are served Cooked for 12–14 hours and seasoned simply with salt made-to-order for breakfast: and pepper. Twenty years ago, the Freemans had to plain (with butter and syrup) or give samples to people who had no idea what pulled wrapped, crepe style, around pork was. They concocted the parfait gimmick in 2008, berries or jam. 384 St. Thom- a few years before a ballpark vendor in Milwaukee as St., Madawaska. 207-728- offered a version that went viral and the concept took 3402. innofacadia.com the barbecue world by storm. Bouchard Family Farms. Baked Beans Selling ploye mix saved the “People drive 15 miles just for our beans,” John says. family farm during a rough He starts with pea beans and adds plenty of molasses patch in the ’80s. Today, the and bacon. Other pulled pork parfaits layer in mashed family grows and mills its own potatoes or even mac and cheese, but the Rib Truck buckwheat and sells an original finds beauty in simplicity. “Parfait is a French word, ploye mix and a whole-wheat and it means ‘perfect,’” John explains. “It’s the perfect version (plus buckwheat flour, combination of pork and beans and celebrates our for the gluten-free). Every French and Acadian heritage.” August, at Fort Kent’s Ploye Festival, the Bouchards help The Rib Truck sets up in Fort Kent, Madawaska, fry up a gigantic ploye, 12 feet Caribou, and Presque Isle. Check facebook.com/ribtruck across. 3 Strip Rd., Fort Kent. 207-834-3237. ployes.com IAN ROTHWELL (ILLUSTRATION) IAN ROTHWELL for a weekly schedule.

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