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Monhegan Island coast of summer - part ten

Ten miles off the coast, in the Gulf of Maine, is Monhegan Island.

It has a year-round population of about seventy. It has been an important way-point for inhabitants of the region; both the indigenous people of what became known as New England, and settlers from Europe. The small island is prized for its rich fishing grounds.

One of the southernmost homes on Monhegan stands on a bluff overlooking Lobster Cove.

Fishing and lobstering are still an important part of the micro-economy, but Monhegan today is mostly a summer tourist destination. And many of the tourists stay only for the day after taking a one hour ferry ride from Maine's rocky coast.

The wavy glass of the older homes reflects a light familiar to those who study the Maine paintings of Andrew Wyeth.

I have long known of Monhegan Island, but had never traveled there until late July of this year.

There is a well-protected harbor, a small village and about twelve miles of hiking trails through woods and along cliffs that are protected by the Monhegan Associates Land Trust, begun in 1954 by Theodore (Ted) Edison, the son of inventor Thomas Edison. Ted Edison formed the trust after learning of plans to subdivide and fully develop the entire island. He succeeded in preventing that development.

The trails are rough, rocky, narrow in some places, but well-marked. You can buy a map on the island for a one dollar donation. It can take a day or more to cover the entire circuit by foot.

Above: The former keeper's house on the grounds of the Monhegan Lighthouse is now a museum of island art and history.

From the old lighthouse, and Horn's Hill at the center of the island, you can see full views of the village, the harbor, a meadow, and the cemetery. From the cliffs on the northern end, and along the western edge, you can see far out into the Atlantic, and watch the sun slowly burn its way over the horizon at dawn and down again at the end of the day.

The waters around the island can be treacherous. Swimming off the cliffside of the island is discouraged, as is kayaking. Near Lobster Cove is the remains of a tug boat (D.T. Sheridan) that ran aground in the 1948.

You can see the coast of the mainland from Monhegan Island, but you do so with the sense that you are in an unforgiving wilderness. The rocks, the woods, the crashing waves, the dirt roads and shingle style homes, which mostly have the look of elaborate shacks not meant for year round habitation, give you the feeling that you are roughing it. You have traveled back in time to the edge of a period when life here was not quaint, but hard. It is not difficult to imagine the challenge and it is invigorating.

The only vehicles on the island are old pickups and golf carts owned by full-timers. There is spotty phone service and very slow internet connections. There are a few small hotels and some home stays. I stayed at the Cracked Mug, a four bedroom, bed and breakfast that opened just this year. Morning coffee was a perfect way to pierce the early chill. Breakfast on the porch, looking across the harbor to Manana Island, is worth the full price.

Quaint and natural are the two qualities that attract artists to the island every summer. On most days, you can find at least a few set up with easels, palettes and brushes creating their unique interpretations of island life, or Monhegan's natural beauty. At certain times, the roads are lined with painters, whose work, if stitched together, would likely create a panorama.

Simple architecture, accented by single-pane, multi-light windows.

What would it be like to live here for a summer? What would it be like to live here through the winter to next spring? The island covers about four and a half square miles and its village roads are filled daily with tourists from the mainland during the warmer months. But once the last boat leaves in the late afternoon, and even before, there is no shortage of solitude if that's what you seek. Here, it is possible to ignore the chaos of our time.

Scenes from the island. Bottom: View from Main St., skipping over the harbor, to neighboring Manana Island.

Monhegan Island was the northernmost stop on my journey along the Coast of Summer. Fall comes early here as it does in most of Maine.

While southern New England enjoys the last few weeks of summer temperatures, here, the sun hangs lower in the sky. The whales are beginning to move south. Residents have begun to stock their provisions for the winter. A handful of people who seek a quiet place to think, write, or paint will come ashore to experience the raw wonder of this lonely point at a safe distance from the rest of the world, and wait for spring's return.

Above: The Monhegan Lighthouse. Built in 1824.

Monhegan Island. Lincoln County, Maine.

© Dean Pagani 2020

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© Dean Pagani 2020

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