Since 1992
Print and digital marketing
By Joe Valente
While it may seem like the Ice Age is slowly creeping up on us with our summers here in Maine seemingly getting shorter and shorter every year, not to mention chillier, all is not lost for us Mainers. Here are some fun (and funny) facts about this great state we live in.
Did you know Maine is one of the 10 coldest states in the country?
Maine has long been famous for its harsh winters and chilly springs. Point in fact: In January 2009, the state experienced it’s coldest day to date, hitting -50 degrees Fahrenheit in Big Black River.
True to form, however, we learned to adapt. Why? Because Maine is the mother of snow inventions! With such claims to fame as the snowplow, an earlier version of the snowmobile, and of all things, earmuffs, it is little wonder we are well equipped to handle the colder months.
Our ancestors should be sleeping peacefully in their graves if they knew all their hard work was not for naught. After all, it is said Maine’s earliest inhabitants are believed to have been Ice Age hunters. But some things that they learned while trying to survive the Ice Age died with them; as of the 2013-2014 winter season, Maine announced its estimate for the moose population to be in the neighborhood of 76,000. We should be glad the iconic moose — well known as a vital part of our cherished state — is thriving in spite of the cold we have experienced. Still, our ancestors are surely feeling unsettled with the lost of our elite hunting skills.
While we are still on the subject of cold and chilly, let me point out another lesser known fact: You can be charged a fine for leaving your Christmas decorations out after January 14, so don’t get too tinsel happy.
We Mainers sure love our stomachs. Maybe it’s to help us fight the onset of winter? Ironically, it’s during the warmer months when we fatten ourselves up with blueberries and lobsters. Did you know Cherryfield is the blueberry capital of the world? Maine is the single largest producer of blueberries in the country, responsible for a whopping 98 percent of the crops in the United States. Not to be outdone, our good friends — the lobsters — also have made a name for themselves. The Maine Lobster Festival, held once a year for a week, helps bring in nearly $1 million in tourism cash to the state and boasts at least a thousand volunteers to help haul more than 20,000 lobsters weighing 25,000 pounds total. Those are some pretty big numbers.
Let’s not forget a couple of minor — but still interesting — facts about food (and drink) Maine can brag about. Rockport is known to be the birthplace of the doughnut hole, and the Allagash Brewing Company in Portland produces 45,000 barrels of beer each year. Pretty cool, right? While we are on the topic of Portland, I should mention Portland, Ore., was named after our once-capital city. The Oregon Portland was founded by two New Englanders — one from Massachusetts, the other from Maine. After a coin flip, Francis Pettygrove got to choose the city’s name. He named it Portland after his hometown.
Back to the subject of big numbers. Did you know that with a total area of 33,215 square miles, the state covers nearly as many square miles as the other five New England states together? The Maine coastline alone runs about 3,500 miles long. That’s more coastline than the state of California. Aroostook county alone covers 6,453 square miles — greater than the combined size of Connecticut and Rhode Island together.
Here’s another lesser-known fact, but still big: The residents of Bryant Pond were the last in the country to use hand-cranked phones. In 2008, they honored their last stand by unveiling a 14-foot tall candlestick phone, thought to be the tallest in the world. Oddly enough, it is also little known that Maine was the largest producer of toothpicks. A whopping 90 percent of the country’s toothpick supply was produced right here in our backyards. Literally. Since then, all the toothpick factories in Maine have been shut down. Maybe we needed the firewood instead.
Before signing off, I’d also like to inform everyone to be very careful when you step out of a moving plane — in the air. Yes, you read me right. It is against the law in Maine to step out from a plane while in flight. Go figure. Maybe our Ice Age ancestors are rolling in their graves after all.
