History of Tremont, Maine
From
A Gazetteer of the
State of Maine
By Geo. J. Varney
Published by B. B. Russell, 57 Cornhill,
Boston 1886
** Maine historical sketches **
Tremont, in Hancock County, embraces the south-western portion of Mount Desert Island. Tinker’s, Moose, Hardwood, Grott’s and Longley’s Islands are also within its limits. The feature from which the town takes its name is the three contiguous peaks of Beech Mountain, and east and west peaks of the Western Mountains. Dog Mountain has been carefully prospected with spade and pick, for money hidden by Captain Kidd. The peak known as the “Lover’s Scalp” has, on its eastern side, an almost perpendicular descent of 900 feet to the waters of Soines’ Sound. The other mountains of Tremont are Dog, Flying, Bald, Burnt and Mount Gilboa. Dog Mountain is 670 feet in height; Flying Mountain, 300; Bald Mountain, 250; Burnt Mountain, 175; and Mount Gilboa, 160. South West and Bass are the chief harbors, and the villages on these are the principal centres of business in the town. On Heat’s Stream is a saw-mill, and upon the outlet of Seal Cove Pond is a grist-mill. Both streams empty into Seal Cove, which is a safe and convenient harbor. The production of the saw-mill is about 250,000 M. of lumber, and several hundred thousand staves annually. There is also a shingle-mill on Bass Harbor Stream. Some ship-building is done at both Bass and South West harbors. At the latter place is a factory for canning fish, and at West Tremont is a fish-curing establishment; also the large brick-yard of the Tremont Brick Co., and a boat-builder’s shop. The “staff of life” to the people of the town is found chiefly in the sea.
Fernald’s Point on Somes’ Sound near the northern border of the town is thought by many to be the site of the ancient “St. Sauveur,” the settlement of the colony sent out by Madame de Guercheville in 1613. “About half across the isthmus and a little up the hill (Flying Mountain), so as to command the water on either side without losing its shelter, are two holes in the ground which are shown as the ruins of the Frenchmen’s cellars. They are a few rods apart, running north and south, 10 to 12 feet long at present, from 2 to 3 feet deep, and of varying width. They seem to have been gradually filled in from the hill above, and overgrown with grass. On the very day of our visit (1866) a spruce, some eight inches in diameter had been cut down in one of them. The old man who was our guide said the cellars were there in the time of his grandfather, who was the first settler, and he always said that they were the remains of the French colony.” Stories of the discovery of gold buried by the French are rife, like those of pirates’ treasures further south. A bank of shells near North East Harbor, on the opposite side of the Sound, probably marks the neighborhood of an Indian village; and Indian relics of various sorts are not uncommon. Tremont was set off from Mount Desert and incorporated in 1848, under the name of Mansel, from Mount Mansel, the name given to the island by Winthrop’s company of emigrants to Massachusetts Bay in 1630; it having been the first land discovered by them. See Eden.
Tremont has two churches, a Congregationalist and a Methodist. Thirteen public schoolhouses, and school property to the value of $13,500, furnish the means of youthful education. The valuation of estates in 1870 was $262,353. In 1880 it was $361,419. The population in 1870 was 1,822. In the census of 1880 it was 2,011.
Wednesday, August 30, 2006
Monday, August 21, 2006
Hartmann Model Railroad Museum
Visiting the Hartmann Model Railroad Museum with kids is a mixed bag. On one hand there are all kinds of exciting things to look at but on the other there is a lot of expensive things around and the staff is rather up tight about kids. Its kind of a shame because the hobby of model railroading needs to constantly feed itself with new hobbists and where are they going to come from if not from todays kids?
"On a trip to North America in 1991, Swiss natives and model train enthusiasts Roger and Nelly Hartmann fell in love with New Hampshires Mount Washington Valley. Three years later, they moved their extensive train collection and hobby shop into two new 8,000-square-foot buildings" -- The Boston Globe
The Hartmann complex includes the museum, a cafe (I didn't see where this was), a crafts store, a hobby shop and an outdoor ride-on train.
We started at the museum which costs $6 for adults and $4 for kids. Which I guess is ok, with kids you might spend 45 minutes to an hour looking at the collections of model trains and collectible cars and airplanes. Right up front the staff sets the tone for the museum giving instructions on how the 10 or so layouts operate by pushing a button and then the trains run for three minutes and don't push the button multiple times and so on. In other words, don't break our stuff they seem to be saying. My son was interested in watching things move and not so much in looking at all of the display cases so if you went without kids you might spend a lot more time looking around then week did. Although the amount of stuff on display is kind of mind numbing. There is just so much to take in all at once. The museum might have been set up with some dividing walls to provide white space and give ones eyes a place to rest but then the staff couldn't keep such a watchful eye on everyone I suppose.
Of course after doing the museum kids naturally want to ride on the outside train. Unfortunely this is not included with the admission price and you can't directly purchase a ticket for the train. Instead they make you go into the hobby shop and buy some overprices item from a specific table (like a $7.50 bookmark). Then one adult and one kid can ride. Once in the hobby shop they cruelly make it clear to the parents of the kids that the store contains many "dangerous" and "expensive" items an kids need to be kept on a short leash. I guess by dangerous they mean to the parent's wallet.
This policy sets up needless problems between parent and child. 1. The child really just wants to ride on the train and just wants to get out of the store as soon as possible or 2. they want to buy a $600 train set that they see on the shelf.
Most of the stuff in the hobby store is extremely high end (i.e. expensive) European train equipment in the hundreds of dollars range. Since my son is getting older I was very interested in looking around the shop and thinking about bringing my trains out of the attic, unfortunately the shop did not have any kid friendly area to entertain my son so that I could take in all of the stuff in the shop.
My suggestion to the owners of the shop would be to carry kid friendly wooden train stuff like Thomas the Train. And provide an area where kids could play with the wooden train layouts. No doubt they would sell tons of this stuff and keep the kids in a safe area away from all of the "dangerous" and "expensive" adult toys.
If you don't encourage kids to get into model railroading then where are you going to get your future customers???
Over all the place is great especially if you are into model railroading but as the parent of a small child I felt uneasy being their because the staff seemed to be so uneasy with kids visiting the place.
"On a trip to North America in 1991, Swiss natives and model train enthusiasts Roger and Nelly Hartmann fell in love with New Hampshires Mount Washington Valley. Three years later, they moved their extensive train collection and hobby shop into two new 8,000-square-foot buildings" -- The Boston Globe
The Hartmann complex includes the museum, a cafe (I didn't see where this was), a crafts store, a hobby shop and an outdoor ride-on train.
We started at the museum which costs $6 for adults and $4 for kids. Which I guess is ok, with kids you might spend 45 minutes to an hour looking at the collections of model trains and collectible cars and airplanes. Right up front the staff sets the tone for the museum giving instructions on how the 10 or so layouts operate by pushing a button and then the trains run for three minutes and don't push the button multiple times and so on. In other words, don't break our stuff they seem to be saying. My son was interested in watching things move and not so much in looking at all of the display cases so if you went without kids you might spend a lot more time looking around then week did. Although the amount of stuff on display is kind of mind numbing. There is just so much to take in all at once. The museum might have been set up with some dividing walls to provide white space and give ones eyes a place to rest but then the staff couldn't keep such a watchful eye on everyone I suppose.
Of course after doing the museum kids naturally want to ride on the outside train. Unfortunely this is not included with the admission price and you can't directly purchase a ticket for the train. Instead they make you go into the hobby shop and buy some overprices item from a specific table (like a $7.50 bookmark). Then one adult and one kid can ride. Once in the hobby shop they cruelly make it clear to the parents of the kids that the store contains many "dangerous" and "expensive" items an kids need to be kept on a short leash. I guess by dangerous they mean to the parent's wallet.
This policy sets up needless problems between parent and child. 1. The child really just wants to ride on the train and just wants to get out of the store as soon as possible or 2. they want to buy a $600 train set that they see on the shelf.
Most of the stuff in the hobby store is extremely high end (i.e. expensive) European train equipment in the hundreds of dollars range. Since my son is getting older I was very interested in looking around the shop and thinking about bringing my trains out of the attic, unfortunately the shop did not have any kid friendly area to entertain my son so that I could take in all of the stuff in the shop.
My suggestion to the owners of the shop would be to carry kid friendly wooden train stuff like Thomas the Train. And provide an area where kids could play with the wooden train layouts. No doubt they would sell tons of this stuff and keep the kids in a safe area away from all of the "dangerous" and "expensive" adult toys.
If you don't encourage kids to get into model railroading then where are you going to get your future customers???
Over all the place is great especially if you are into model railroading but as the parent of a small child I felt uneasy being their because the staff seemed to be so uneasy with kids visiting the place.
Santa's Village in Jefferson, NH
Last weekend we took a mini vacation one of our favorite places - the White Mountain National Forest region of New Hampshire. We check out a few attractions that we hadn't visited before - Santa's Village in Jefferson and The Hartmann Train Museum in North Conway.
Santa's village was surprisingly good. Its close to being on par with the excellent Story Land in Jackson which is an all time favorite theme park in my family but Santa's Village comes very close. Like Story Land, Santa's Village is very clean and very well landscaped. In fact on a very hot day Santa's Village is even better than Storyland because it is heavily treed so there is lots of shade. The only bad things about Santa's Village is the theme with which may not appeal to older kids or non-Christians since its all about Santa and Christmas. For the adults who get annoyed by Christmas songs in Decemeber it is very strange hearing them on a hot summer day in August. But there are a full day's worth of rides (we didn't check out any of the shows which if you go by Story Land standards - can be rather lame in these small time amusement parks) but their were a nice variety of rides - nothing too scary for little kids except for the Humbug ride which my seven year old refused to go on and from all reports was indeed rather scary. Stand out rides were the Santa's Sleigh mono rail that gives a birds eye view of the park, the excellent antique cars and the adults favorite the bumper cars. There is enough variety here and the lines are shorter then at Story Land at least on the Sunday we went. If you like Story Land give Santa's Village a try, just don't wait too long or the kids might not be into the Santa theme.
Santa's village was surprisingly good. Its close to being on par with the excellent Story Land in Jackson which is an all time favorite theme park in my family but Santa's Village comes very close. Like Story Land, Santa's Village is very clean and very well landscaped. In fact on a very hot day Santa's Village is even better than Storyland because it is heavily treed so there is lots of shade. The only bad things about Santa's Village is the theme with which may not appeal to older kids or non-Christians since its all about Santa and Christmas. For the adults who get annoyed by Christmas songs in Decemeber it is very strange hearing them on a hot summer day in August. But there are a full day's worth of rides (we didn't check out any of the shows which if you go by Story Land standards - can be rather lame in these small time amusement parks) but their were a nice variety of rides - nothing too scary for little kids except for the Humbug ride which my seven year old refused to go on and from all reports was indeed rather scary. Stand out rides were the Santa's Sleigh mono rail that gives a birds eye view of the park, the excellent antique cars and the adults favorite the bumper cars. There is enough variety here and the lines are shorter then at Story Land at least on the Sunday we went. If you like Story Land give Santa's Village a try, just don't wait too long or the kids might not be into the Santa theme.
Bar Island Sand Bar
This time of year it seems that weekly the Bar Harbor police have to deal with some touron who doesn't understand the concept of tides and gets their car stuck on the sandbar over to Bar Island. Usually its someone trying to be oh so macho with their new SUV.
Thursday, August 10, 2006
Sea Coast Fun Park
Update: Sept. 2006 Friend of mine recently visited the park and report that significant changes have been made to the running of the water slides. Radios between the top and bottom attendents are in use and the timing of the sliders has improved greatly.
----------
As you recall our experience earlier in the summmer....
I had a rather disturbing visit to the Sea Coast Fun Park water slide park today. My six year old was getting clobbered at the end of the slide by larger kids being let down the slide after him too soon.
The problem is that kids of different sizes travel at different speeds down the slides. Also kids on mats move faster than kids without mats.
After the second time my son was pushed under water by the wake of the large kid coming behind him, I spoke to the lifeguard on duty about the timing on the water slide. That should have fixed the problem but... later when it happened a second time I spoke to the lifeguard again and he said basically "What do you want me to do about it I don't have a radio."
A lifeguard at a waterslide/pool with no contact with the person at the top of the slide or anyone else in the park?
The third time it happened I took matters in my own hands and walked up to the top of the slide and explained to the attendent what was going on. I did not feel that the attendent had the mental capability to understand what I was saying so I sought help from the manager.
I spoke to the "manager", a kid named Alan (who someone said is the son of the owner) and explained the serious safety issue and suggested that as in other water parks I have visited the slide be clear before the next person was sent down. He said that it didn't need to be clear and wanted to know what I wanted him to do about it. Did I want attendent fired on the spot?
All I wanted was the safety issue to be looked at, fixed and for someone in this park to actually care if someone got hurt or not.
Alan treated me as an annoyance so I asked for his supervisor's name and number.
I called "June" who appears to be at the park in Windham.
She basically said "I'm three hours away what do you want me to do about it."
Her attitude came across the same as Alan's "hey things happen, don't get so upset" rather than focusing on the serious safety issue that will lead to someone getting seriously hurt.
Another parent in our group also spoke to June in an attempt to explain how concerned we were about the situation and the lack of interest from the park employees to actually fix the problem.
A water park focused on safety would have clear communications from the top and bottom of the water slide and managers who are concerned about their customers safety.
SeaCoast Fun Park has neither.
-----------------------------------------------------------
About the Sea Coast Fun Park:
This fun park features mini-golf, go cart racing, a climbing wall, paint ball and the water slides. The water slides cost $15 for an all day pass. The two slides empty out into a small pool which also has open swimming in the other half. We've tried the mini golf on a previous outing and it's expensive and not recommended. The greens are not very level and each hole ends up taking six to eight shots to complete.
----------
As you recall our experience earlier in the summmer....
I had a rather disturbing visit to the Sea Coast Fun Park water slide park today. My six year old was getting clobbered at the end of the slide by larger kids being let down the slide after him too soon.
The problem is that kids of different sizes travel at different speeds down the slides. Also kids on mats move faster than kids without mats.
After the second time my son was pushed under water by the wake of the large kid coming behind him, I spoke to the lifeguard on duty about the timing on the water slide. That should have fixed the problem but... later when it happened a second time I spoke to the lifeguard again and he said basically "What do you want me to do about it I don't have a radio."
A lifeguard at a waterslide/pool with no contact with the person at the top of the slide or anyone else in the park?
The third time it happened I took matters in my own hands and walked up to the top of the slide and explained to the attendent what was going on. I did not feel that the attendent had the mental capability to understand what I was saying so I sought help from the manager.
I spoke to the "manager", a kid named Alan (who someone said is the son of the owner) and explained the serious safety issue and suggested that as in other water parks I have visited the slide be clear before the next person was sent down. He said that it didn't need to be clear and wanted to know what I wanted him to do about it. Did I want attendent fired on the spot?
All I wanted was the safety issue to be looked at, fixed and for someone in this park to actually care if someone got hurt or not.
Alan treated me as an annoyance so I asked for his supervisor's name and number.
I called "June" who appears to be at the park in Windham.
She basically said "I'm three hours away what do you want me to do about it."
Her attitude came across the same as Alan's "hey things happen, don't get so upset" rather than focusing on the serious safety issue that will lead to someone getting seriously hurt.
Another parent in our group also spoke to June in an attempt to explain how concerned we were about the situation and the lack of interest from the park employees to actually fix the problem.
A water park focused on safety would have clear communications from the top and bottom of the water slide and managers who are concerned about their customers safety.
SeaCoast Fun Park has neither.
-----------------------------------------------------------
About the Sea Coast Fun Park:
This fun park features mini-golf, go cart racing, a climbing wall, paint ball and the water slides. The water slides cost $15 for an all day pass. The two slides empty out into a small pool which also has open swimming in the other half. We've tried the mini golf on a previous outing and it's expensive and not recommended. The greens are not very level and each hole ends up taking six to eight shots to complete.
Monday, August 07, 2006
Martha Stewart's Picnic Boat
Sailing around Seal Harbor this past weekend we also got a gander at Martha's "Skylands II" picnic boat. Unlike every other Hinckley picnic boat I've seen her's stands out because its painted a creamy color instead of the traditional dark blue.
http://www.hinckleyyachts.com/
Here is what she says about the boat:
"When I finally did buy my house, which looks over the sea and the many, many islands that beckon one to venture forth and visit, it came with two deepwater moorings in a small, secluded harbor. (Seal Harbor - Ed) I set out on my search for the perfect boat for the first-time boat owner, fully aware of all the complexities and wary of the fact that a novice had a lot to learn about the region's convoluted coastlines, lobster traps, invisible rocky outcroppings and ledges and very unpredictable weather patterns.
I was fortunate that friends did not steer me wrong or even slightly astray, and that there are extraordinary boat makers and shipbuilders in Maine. I was invited on many day trips aboard all sorts of vessels: sailboats, dinghies and yachts. One in particular tickled my fancy, a craft known as a picnic boat – a traditional, sleek, fast, roomy boat at 36 feet long. Because of something called a jet drive, it can glide safely through the coastal waters of Maine – it has no propellers to tangle in lobster-pot lines Former President Bush just cuts right through them with his obnoxious cigarette boat and then pays off the lobstermen for the damage. -- Ed or seaweed beds.
I tried this type of boat, and ordered one for delivery the following year. I was so happy, choosing the color of the hull and the upholstery for the cushions, outfitting the modest but very workable galley and ordering the most important parts of the boat – the navigational tools and electronics.
We christened the boat Skylands II and in the ensuing years have used it well and often. We've gone whale watching, antiquing in Blue Hill and picnicking on the neighboring islands off the coast of Mount Desert Island. It takes just a few minutes to get to the boat and load on the hampers and coolers, and off we go."
From a CNN show on Martha:
STEVE KAISER, HINCKLEY'S BOAT COMPANY: She basically said if the dogs liked the trip, she was going to buy a boat.
COLLINS: The Hinckley Boat Company has felt the queen's touch. A year ago, Stewart and her beloved chow dogs showed up and took a fancy boat out for a spin.
KAISER: She basically said if the dogs liked the trip, she was going to buy a boat and sooner or later, she did.
COLLINS: Steve Kaiser ended up selling Martha a 36-foot Hinckley picnic boat, but being Martha, it wasn't a simple sale.
KAISER: And I got a call from a producer and they said they would like to film the boat being built and being the conservative down east boat builder, my immediate reaction was how do we get out of this? I think somebody finally shook me a little bit and said, you know, this could be a good thing, to have a film of the boat being built.
COLLINS: Not surprisingly, Martha got her way and millions of her viewers saw her one of a kind egg-colored boat being built.
KAISER: Please do the honors.
COLLINS: When it came time to christen the boat, Martha gave it a good whack.
(APPLAUSE)
COLLINS: For the Hinckley Boat Company, it was a noise heard around the world.
KAISER: Absolutely, the phone just rang continuously, but that was a nice problem to have.
COLLINS: Stewart uses her boat while at Skylands, her summer retreat on Mount Desert Island, Maine. Skylands is a 61-acre estate. Made of paint granite, it sits high atop a hill far above the common man. To visit, one must drive up a narrow, winding, pine-laced road. It is very, very private.
The moss near her estate made it into a magazine article and Skylands; a new paint line was developed. This pale yellow, Cadillac Sunrise, was named for a nearby mountain where Martha has greeted the dawn.
During the day, Stewart can walk century old carriage roads designed and built by John D. Rockefeller, an earlier island resident. Stewart has found the road to fortune wherever she has traveled.
Martha Stewart's "Skylands" Edsel Station Wagon
This weekend we spotted Martha Stewart's classic Edsel Ford Station Wagon downtown in Northeast Harbor. It's not hard to miss its a beauty! Big, brightly painted -- certainly makes a scene in this small little village. It even says "Skylands" on the side just to make sure you know to whom it belongs. I'm not sure of the story on the car but I think I read that it came with the house when she bought the old Edsel Ford estate in Seal Harbor and she had it restored. It really is a knockout!
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