On Thursday, August 10, 2023, John Goff gave a presentation on the history of steamboats in Harpswell. To view the presentation, recorded by Harpswell Television, click here. The early 19th Century saw the commercial spread of steam engines and steamboats for transportation of both goods and travelers. By the 1840s technological improvements such as the… Read more
We loved these photos that exemplify summer in Harpswell. Thank you to the 23 photographers who sent in 148 photos for our photo project! For more about the project, click here. Read more
This has been a year of travel, allowing me to view large numbers of fascinating species, many of them for the first time. It is my habit to make notes when in the field, both to record numbers of creatures but also species I have seen for the first time so I can do my… Read more
By John Gormley, originally published in the Harpswell Anchor Paul Joyce, at the helm of a 21-foot center-console motorboat, slowly maneuvered the vessel away from the dock at Bowdoin College’s Schiller Coastal Studies Center on Orr’s Island. Standing next to the captain was David Carlon, a professor of biology at Bowdoin who for the last… Read more
Harpswell Heritage Land Trust held its Annual Meeting of the membership on July 18. We elected new trustees and officers and thanked long-time trustee Lynn Knight for all her work on the board, including her time as Board President. Land Trust members elected Judy Wallingford and Ed Robinson as new members of the Board of… Read more
It’s 1926. In Maine, a pioneer forester is completing purchase of several plots of land on Great Island with the plan of managing them for timber production. A Portland politician has just left the governorship, and after years of trying to persuade state government to create a park, he’s determined to buy a mountain and… Read more
Wild turkeys in the backyard again, this time five large gobblers. Normally the birds pick their way along, grabbing a seed or an insect that catches their sharp eyes. This time the smallest tom was either feeling his oats, or he was tired of being picked on by the larger birds. Turkeys always have a… Read more
Since Harpswell Heritage Land Trust was created 40 years ago, our world has seen dramatic changes in almost every area we can think of—healthcare, travel, agriculture, communication and the list goes on. During the last twenty or so years we have come to depend on the pocket-size devices we call cell phones. We really should… Read more
You may think you already know Ed Robinson. After all, he is a prolific writer, whose prose on the natural world appears in books, newspapers and frequently in Harpswell Heritage Land Trust newsletters like this one. (Scroll down just a bit, if you doubt me!) But did you know that Ed started his working life… Read more
Harpswell Heritage Land Trust (HHLT) closed on the new Anna M. Tondreau Preserve on June 12. This will be the land trust’s 19th preserve with public access in Harpswell. The acquisition was initiated by the owners’ deep commitment to conserve their family land and honor their mother’s memory. Five siblings – Beth Tondreau, Claire Tondreau,… Read more