Maine (ME).

• Region: New England
• Population: 1,385,340 (ranked 42nd) (2022 estimate)
• Capital: Augusta (pop. 19,066) (2022 estimate)
• Largest city: Portland (pop. 68,424) (2022 estimate)
• Number of counties: 16
• State nickname: Pine Tree State
• State motto: Dirigo (I lead)
• State flag: Blue field with the state coat of arms

Maine is the easternmost state in the United States and the largest of the six New England states in terms of area. It is bordered by only one other state, New Hampshire, as well as by the Canadian provinces of Quebec and New Brunswick. Maine's geographic isolation has resulted in relatively slow economic growth and the development of a distinctive, colorful regional character among its residents. The state is renowned for its natural beauty, and its rocky coast is dotted with scenic lighthouses, cliffs, inlets, and thousands of small offshore islands, all of which attract outdoor enthusiasts from far and wide and have earned Maine the nickname "Vacationland." Maine was admitted to the Union as the twenty-third state on March 15, 1820.

State Name: There has been some dispute among historians regarding the origin of the state's name. Some have argued that the name was chosen for its association with the French province of Maine, but evidence of any such intention is inconclusive. A more likely explanation is the fact that early land grants referred to the mainland as "the main," to distinguish it from the numerous islands off the region's coast. Maine earned its nickname, the "Pine Tree State," for its more than 17 million acres of pine forest. For years, New England residents have referred to Maine as "Down East," due to the fact that ships leaving Boston must sail east and downwind in order to reach the state's ports.

Capital:Augusta has been the capital of Maine since 1832 (Portland served as the state capital from 1820 to 1832). Located on the Kennebec River in the south central part of the state, Augusta was first settled by English Puritans in 1628 and was primarily used as a fur-trading post. Settlers flocked to the area during the eighteenth century, and Augusta was incorporated as a town in 1797 and chartered as a city in 1849. Today, the operation of the state government is the city's main economic activity.

Flag: Maine's state flag was adopted in 1909 and bears the state seal on a blue field. The seal depicts a sailor, representing fishing and commerce, and a farmer, representing agriculture. Between the two figures is a shield displaying a moose and pine tree, representing the state's wildlife and extensive forests. The North Star appears above the shield, and the state motto, "Dirigo" ("I direct" or "I guide") appears beneath the star.

Official Symbols

• Flower: White pinecone and tassel
• Bird: Chickadee
• Tree: White pine
• Animal: Moose
• Fish: Landlocked salmon
• Song: "State of Maine Song" by Roger Vinton Snow

State and National Historic Sites

• Bible Point State Historic Site (Bangor)
• Colburn House State Historic Site (Augusta)
• Colonial Pemaquid State Historic Site (Bristol)
• Eagle Island State Historic Site (Harpswell)
• Fort Edgecomb State Historic Site (Edgecomb)
• Fort Halifax National Historic Landmark (Winslow)
• Fort Kent State Historic Site (Fort Kent)
• Fort Knox State Historic Site (Prospect)
• Fort O'Brien State Historic Site (Machiasport)
• Fort Popham State Historic Site (Phippsburg)
• John Paul Jones State Historic Site (Kittery)
• Katahdin Iron Works (Brownville)
• Saint Croix Island International Historic Site (Calais)
• Storer Garrison State Historic Site (Augusta)

State-Specific Holidays

• Patriot's Day, Third Monday in April
• Indigenous Peoples Day, the second Monday in October

DEMOGRAPHICS

• Population: 1,385,340 (ranked 42nd; 2022 estimate)
• Population density: 44.2/sq mi (2022 estimate)
• Urban population: 38.6% (2020 estimate)
• Rural population: 61.4% (2020 estimate)
• Population under 18: 17.9% (2022 estimate)
• Population over 65: 22.5% (2022 estimate)
• White alone: 93.9% (2022 estimate)
• Black or African American alone: 2.0% (2022 estimate)
• Hispanic or Latino: 2.1% (2022 estimate)
• American Indian and Alaska Native alone: 0.7% (2022 estimate)
• Asian alone: 1.4% (2022 estimate)
• Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander alone: 0.0% (2022 estimate)
• Two or More Races: 2.0% (2022 estimate)
• Per capita income: $36,171 (ranked 23rd; 2022 estimate)
• Unemployment: 2.4% (2023 estimate)

American Indians in Maine: Of the more than twenty tribal nations of the Abenaki group that once lived in Maine, members Penobscot, Passamaquoddy, Micmac, and Maliseet peoples still live in the state. The state's Indigenous population was devastated in the early seventeenth century by wars and smallpox epidemics.

ENVIRONMENT AND GEOGRAPHY

• Total area: 35,380 sq mi (ranked 39th)
• Land area: 30,843 sq mi (87.2% of total area)
• Water area: 4,537 sq mi (12.8% of total area)
• Shoreline: 3,478 miles
• National parks: 4
• Highest point: Mount Katahdin (5,268 feet)
• Lowest point: Atlantic Ocean (sea level)
• Highest temperature: 105° F (North Bridgton, July 4, 1911; July 10, 1911)
• Lowest temperature: –50° F (Big Black River, January 16, 2009)

Topography: There are four unique physical regions in Maine. The coastal lowland consists mostly of salt marshes and a narrow, sandy coast, which virtually disappears toward the northeast, where rocky cliffs and hills continue right up to the water's edge. Maine's thousands of rocky offshore islands were created by the receding water from melting glaciers during the Ice Age. Including these islands, Maine has the longest shoreline of any other state except Florida and Alaska. The hilly belt, or piedmont, exists as a transition between the coastal and mountain regions and runs roughly parallel to the northeastern extension of the Appalachian Mountains. Maine's Longfellow Mountain range, an extension of the White Mountains of New Hampshire, covers the northwestern part of the state and contains nine peaks over 4,000 feet, including Mount Katahdin, the highest point in the state. The Eastern New England Upland, northwest of the coastal lowlands, is a high, broad plateau that slopes eastward beyond the mountains. The eastern part of this region is used for farming and produces the majority of Maine's considerable potato crop. The rest of the region is covered by pine forests and is mostly uninhabited. Maine has a higher percentage of forest cover than any other state.

Major Lakes

• Belgrade Lakes
• Flagstaff Lake (Artificial)
• Moosehead Lake
• Rangeley Lakes
• Sebago Lake
• Wyman Lake (Artificial)

Major Rivers

• Allagash River
• Androscoggin River
• Aroostook River
• Kennebec River
• Penobscot River
• Piscataqua River
• Saco River
• St. Croix River
• St. John River

State and National Parks: There are about 700,000 acres of parks and public land in Maine. Acadia National Park, located in Bar Harbor and established in 1919, was the first national park to open east of the Mississippi. The park covers more than 47,000 acres and features a scenic shoreline, coastal and mountain roads, and extensive hiking trails. Mount Cadillac, located within the park on Mount Desert Island, is the highest point on the East Coast (1,532 feet).

The most prominent of Maine's state parks is Baxter State Park, a wilderness preserve in the Katahdin region of central Maine. The 327-square-mile park is the largest in the state and boasts facilities for camping, hiking, and canoeing. Other popular Maine state parks include Aroostook State Park (Echo Lake), Quoddy Head State Park (Lubec), Warren Island State Park (Lincolnville), and Camden Hills State Park (Camden).

Natural Resources: Maine's most important natural resources lie in its forests and coastal waters. Valuable trees found in the state's forests include beech, maple, oak, spruce, white and yellow birch, and balsam fir. The population of white pine, once Maine's greatest resource, was depleted by the shipbuilding industry. The waters off the coast of Maine contain nearly every variety of North Atlantic fish, including cod, halibut, lobster, and other shellfish. Common minerals found in Maine include granite, limestone, sand and gravel, clay, lead, and peat. Northern Maine has large deposits of copper and zinc, but they are mostly undeveloped and difficult to mine.

Plants and Animals: Although 89 percent of Maine's land area was covered with forests in 2021, the state is also home to a wide variety of vegetation other than trees. Shrubs such as the speckled alder thrive in the state's swamps, and witch hazel, chokeberries, sumac, and thorn apples grow throughout the state on roadsides and other areas. Common wildflowers include the aster, black-eyed Susan, buttercup, goldenrod, harebell, hepatica, orange and red hawkweed, white oxeye daisy, and wild bergamot, lavender, knotgrass, and wild lily of the valley.

The moose, which appears on the state's flag, is one of Maine's most famous animals and is found in wooded areas along with black bears, coyotes, bobcats, squirrels, and rabbits. The state also boasts a healthy population of northern white-tailed deer that does not diminish despite hunting. Over three hundred types of birds are found in Maine, including eagles, hawks, grouse, owls, and turkeys. Sea birds, such as ducks, loons, and gulls, are abundant in coastal areas.

The state's lakes and streams are filled with trout, bass, northern pike, salmon, pickerel, perch, sunfish, and eels. Offshore waters are home to whales, seals, sharks, and other common North Atlantic marine life.

Maine lists the peregrine falcon, golden eagle, box turtle, roseate tern, piping plover, and grasshopper sparrow, among others, as endangered species.

Climate: Although Maine, like the rest of New England, sometimes experiences sudden and dramatic changes in weather, temperatures in the state are generally cooler than those in the rest of the United States. This is due in large part to the cold Labrador Current, which produces Arctic coastal winds and prevents Maine from being warmed by Gulf Stream currents.

While climate change has had an increasing impact, coastal areas receive an average of about 45.7 inches of precipitation, including rain, melted snow, and other forms of moisture, each year. These areas also experience heavy fog during the summer. Average annual precipitation in cooler inland areas is around 40.2 inches. The state's average annual snowfall is approximately 77.8 inches, with accumulations ranging from approximately 70 inches at the coast, to over 100 inches inland.

EDUCATION AND CULTURE

Major Colleges and Universities

• Bates College (Lewiston)
• Bowdoin College (Brunswick)
• Colby College (Waterville)
• College of the Atlantic (Bar Harbor)
• Husson University (Bangor)
• Maine College of Art & Design (Portland)
• Maine Maritime Academy (Castine)
• St. Joseph's College (Standish)
• Thomas College (Waterville)
• Unity College (Unity)
• University of Maine (Orono)
• University of New England (Biddeford)
• University of Southern Maine (Portland)

Major Museums

• Children's Museum and Theatre of Maine (Portland)
• Maine Maritime Museum (Bath)
• Maine State Museum (Augusta)
• Owls Head Transportation Museum (Owls Head)
• Penobscot Marine Museum (Searsport)
• Portland Museum of Art (Portland)
• Sailor's Memorial Museum (Isleboro)
• Wadsworth-Longfellow House (Portland)
• William A. Farnsworth Art Museum (Rockland)

Major Libraries

• Bangor Public Library (Bangor)
• Maine Historical Society Brown Library (Portland)
• Maine State Library (Augusta)
• Margaret Chase Smith Library (Skowhegan)
• Portland Public Library (Portland)

Media

The Bangor Daily News, the Northern Forecaster, and the Portland Press Herald are three of the state's most popular newspapers. Other major newspapers include Waterville's Central Maine Morning Sentinel, Portland's Maine Sunday Telegram, and Augusta's Kennebec Journal, which was founded in 1825 and is the state's longest-running newspaper. Many periodicals published in Maine, such as Down East and Maine Antique Digest, have significant readerships beyond the borders of the state.

Maine is also home to a large number of radio stations, dozens of television stations, and a multiple-station public broadcasting system that provides educational programming for the entire state.

ECONOMY AND INFRASTRUCTURE

• Gross domestic product (in millions $USD): 84,497.5 (ranked 43rd) (2022 estimate)
• GDP percent change: 1.8%

Major Industries:Service industries, concentrated mostly in large urban centers, contribute a large portion of Maine's gross state product. Taken together, the community, business, and personal service sectors employ more workers than any other industry in the state. Other profitable service industry sectors include the retail and wholesale trade as well as finance, insurance, and real estate.

Forestry, which remained significant to a large extent into the twenty-first century, was long the most important industry in the state in terms of value and employment. Private companies own most of the state's forests, which have provided the raw materials for many products produced in Maine. With many paper and pulp mills located throughout the state, Maine has been known for the production of paper products manufactured from softwoods. The abundant lumber supply also contributes to the manufacture of specialty wood products.

Maine's commercial fishing industry is among the largest in the nation. Maine is responsible for the majority of the US lobster supply. In addition to lobster, Maine fishing vessels bring in large quantities of cod, perch, pollock, flounder, and soft-shell clams. The state's chief fishing ports are Rockland and Portland, but nearly every town along the coast has a small to midsize fishing fleet.

The mining industry in Maine hinges on the production of construction materials, primarily sand, gravel, and limestone. Other important industries include shipbuilding, which has employed thousands of Maine workers each year since the eighteenth century, and food processing, specializing in the production of frozen fish and potato products, as well as packaged lobster, apples, and blueberries for export.

Tourism: One of the state's leading employers is the tourism industry, which supported more than 151,000 jobs in 2022. That year tourist spending generated $8.6 billion in revenue for Maine's economy. While the sector experienced an atypical decline in 2020 due to travel restrictions and decreasing demand related to the COVID-19 pandemic, the sector largely recovered throughout 2021 and into 2022 as vaccinations became widespread and public health restrictions mostly eased.

Tourists are drawn to Maine's coastal region for the abundant sandy beaches and rocky coasts, as well as the many small villages filled with quaint galleries, boutiques, and entertainment. The state's lakes, rivers, and streams are a popular attraction for fishing enthusiasts, and seafood lovers are drawn to the Maine Lobster Festival, which is held in Rockland each August. During the winter months, tourists flock to Maine's extensive network of ski resorts and snowmobile and cross-country ski trails. In the late 2010s and 2020s Portland also became increasingly known for its restaurant scene, which boosted the city's popularity as a dining destination.

Energy Production: With hydroelectric plants located on the Androscoggin, Kennebec, Penobscot, and Saco Rivers, Maine produces one of the highest amounts of hydroelectric power of the New England states. About 72 percent of the state's electricity was produced by hydroelectric and other renewable energy resources such as wind and biomass, mainly wood products, in 2021. Hydroelectric power accounted for the largest share of the state's renewable energy sector at 27 percent. The first peat-burning power plant in the US began operation in Deblois in 1989. The Maine Yankee Power Plant began production in Wiscasset in 1972, but serious safety concerns led to the decommissioning of the plant in 1997.

Agriculture: Approximately 5 percent of Maine's land area is used as farmland. The bulk of agricultural production occurs in Aroostook and Penobscot counties in central Maine, where the clay loam is conducive to farming. Crop farming accounts for the majority of the state's agricultural income, with potatoes and hay ranking as the most valuable crops. Maine produces millions of pounds of potatoes each year, placing it among the leading potato growers in the United States. Oats and hay, other profitable field crops, are rotated with potatoes in order to maintain the soil's fertility. Maine also produces much of the annual national blueberry crop.

Airports: There are around fifty public use airports in Maine, the busiest of which is the Portland International Jetport. The Bangor International Airport is distinguished as the closest US airport to Europe.

Seaports: The state's largest ports are Portland, Searsport, and Eastport, which is closer to Europe than any other US port. The Bath Iron Works, located in Bath, is among the largest drydock ship repair facilities on the East Coast. In addition to commercial shipping, the Maine Port Authority operates a passenger ferry service to Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, from both Portland and Bar Harbor.

GOVERNMENT

• Governor: Janet Mills (Democrat)
• Present constitution date: 1820
• Electoral votes: 4
• Number of counties: 16
• Violent crime rate: 110 (per 100,000 residents) (2022 estimate)
• Death penalty: No (abolished in 1887)

Constitution: Maine's present constitution was adopted in December 1819, several months before the state entered the Union, and it is based on the structure of the Massachusetts constitution. Amendments may be proposed either by a two-thirds vote in each house of the state legislature, or by a constitutional convention. Proposed amendments must then be approved by a majority vote in a general election.

Branches of Government

Executive: Maine's governor is popularly elected to a four-year term, with a limit of two consecutive terms. The state has no lieutenant governor's office. Other executive officers, such as the attorney general, treasurer, and secretary of state, are elected by the legislature to two-year terms.

Legislative: Maine's bicameral legislature consists of a 35-member Senate and a 151-member House of Representatives. Legislators are elected by popular vote to two-year terms, and the entire legislature convenes biennially. In addition to the 151 members of the House, the Penobscot Nation, the Passamaquoddy Tribe, and the Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians each send a nonvoting delegate to the House to represent the concerns of the state's American Indian population.

Judicial: The state court system in Maine operates at three separate levels: the supreme court, the superior court, and probate court. The supreme judicial court is the state's highest court of appeals, and deals with all civil and criminal cases. The court is comprised of a chief justice and six associate justices, all of whom are appointed by the governor for seven-year terms. The superior court handles all trials by jury as well as appeals from lower courts. Finally, each county in Maine has its own probate court, whose judges are popularly elected to four-year terms.

HISTORY

8000 BCE During the archaic era, American Indians first settle in the area that is present-day Maine.

3000 BCE The "Red Paint People," so named for the archaeological discovery of red ocher deposits found near their settlements, arrive in the Maine region.

700–1000Norse explorers led by Leif Eriksson land in Newfoundland and Nova Scotia and may have explored the area now known as Maine.

1497–99 Venetian Giovanni Caboto, at the behest of England's King Henry VII, explores the coast of Maine.

1524 Italian explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano embarks upon the first recorded exploration of coastal Maine and the surrounding area.

1605 French explorer Samuel de Champlain creates the first accurate maps of the Atlantic coast, including Maine.

1607 A group of English colonists, financed by Sir Ferdinando Gorges and Sir John Popham, establish the Popham Plantation at the mouth of the Kennebec River.

1614 English Captain John Smith visits the Maine coast.

1622 The British government's Council for New England grants a large tract of Maine land to Ferdinando Gorges and John Mason.

1634 The country's first sawmill is established near present-day York.

1641 Gorges establishes the community of Gorgeana (later York), the first English city chartered in America.

1651–58 The Massachusetts Bay Colony annexes all of the Maine settlements.

1677 After years of dispute, Massachusetts gains clear ownership of Maine, when it purchases the province from the Gorges family.

1688–89 Many Maine settlements are destroyed during King William's War.

1719 The first Maine potatoes are brought to the state by Scottish settlers.

1763 The Treaty of Paris is signed, ending the French and Indian Wars as well as all French claims to Maine.

1774 A group of Maine patriots burn supplies of British tea stored at York, in an event known as the York Tea Party.

1775 In the first naval battle of the Revolutionary War, fought in June off the coast of Machias, Maine, patriots capture the British schooner Margaretta; the British army sets fire to Falmouth (now Portland).

1785 The state's first newspaper, The Falmouth Gazette, is published.

1791 Portland Head Lighthouse, the oldest lighthouse on the Atlantic coast, is commissioned by George Washington and begins operation in Cape Elizabeth.

1794 Bowdoin College, the state's first college, is established in Brunswick.

1801 The state's first free public library opens in Castine.

1813 During the War of 1812, the HMS Boxer is defeated by the USS Enterprise in a naval battle off the coast of Maine.

1816 A record cold wave, popularly referred to as "1800-and-froze-to-death," sweeps across the state.

1819 Maine residents vote to separate from Massachusetts and adopt their own constitution.

1820Maine becomes the twenty-third state on March 15, with Portland as its capital. It is admitted to the Union as a free, as opposed to slave, state under the Missouri Compromise.

1832 Maine's state capital is moved from Portland to Augusta.

1842 The dispute over the border between Maine and Canada is settled as part of the Webster-Ashburton Treaty with Great Britain.

1846 Construction begins on the Atlantic and St. Lawrence Railroad, connecting Portland and Montreal, Quebec.

1851 Maine becomes the first state to effectively outlaw the production and sale of alcoholic beverages.

1855 Bates College, New England's first coeducational college, opens in Lewiston.

1861–65 Approximately seventy-two thousand Maine men serve in the Union army during the Civil War. Maine native and former US Senator Hannibal Hamlin serves as vice-president under Abraham Lincoln.

1866 The first veteran's hospital in the United States opens in Togus.

1887 Maine abolishes the death penalty.

1916 The Sieur de Monts National Monument is created. Three years later, it is renamed Lafayette National Park, and in 1929 becomes Acadia National Park. It is the first national park east of the Mississippi River.

1924 The state's first radio station, Bangor's WABI, begins broadcasting.

1934 Maine's prohibition law, on the books since 1851, is repealed.

1936 Maine is struck by the worst flooding in its history, resulting in $25 million in damage.

1939–45 Maine factories and shipyards produce uniforms and shoes, as well as cargo and combat vessels, for the US military during World War II.

1953 WABI-TV, the state's first television station, begins broadcasting from Bangor.

1969 The state legislature approves personal and corporate income taxes for the first time in Maine's history.

1972 The Maine Yankee Power Plant nuclear facility begins operation in Wiscasset but is closed in 1997 due to safety concerns; The Penobscot and Passamaquoddy tribal nations file a $300 million lawsuit against the state, claiming that their lands were seized through illegal treaties during the early nineteenth century.

1973 The US Supreme Court upholds a Maine law holding the oil industry liable for damages caused by oil spills.

1974 Maine voters elect the state's first Independent governor, Lewiston native James B. Longley.

1980 The US government settles the land claims of the Penobscot and Passamaquoddy by authorizing a payment of $81.5 million to the tribes.

1987 The Kennebec and Androscoggin Rivers flood Augusta and Lewiston, causing more damage than the record flooding of 1936.

1990 Maine is one of the last two states to repeal archaic "blue laws" restricting Sunday shopping.

1994 For the second time in state history, Maine voters elect an Independent governor, Angus S. King Jr. of Brunswick.

1998 Maine voters repeal the state's LGBTQ+ rights law by a narrow margin.

2005 A measure that would have repealed the state law outlawing discrimination against LBGT people is defeated by Maine voters.

2007 Strict federal fishing regulations aimed at protecting the numbers of cod, haddock, and flounder in waters off the New England coast cause significant financial damage to the Maine fishing industry. Maine legislators consider a $10.5 million dollar aid package to help support fisherman over the next three years.

2012 Maine voters approve same-sex marriage, which becomes legal on December 29, 2012.

2016 Maine voters approve the legalization of recreational use, retail sale, and taxation of marijuana on November 8, becoming the ninth state to do so.

2018 Maine voters elect a woman, Janet Mills, as governor for the first time.

2019 Maine becomes the fifth state to replace Columbus Day, named after Christopher Columbus, with Indigenous Peoples Day. The new holiday celebrates Maine's American Indian communities.

2020–2 Like the rest of the US, Maine contends with the COVID-19 pandemic. The state reports its first case on March 12, 2020, and throughout the year the state attempts to control the pandemic through lockdowns, travel restrictions, and other public health measures. Vaccination efforts throughout 2021 and 2022 help drastically reduce the death rate from the disease.

FAMOUS PEOPLE

Mali Agat (Molly Ockett), ca. 1740–1816 (Saco), Abenaki healer and craftswoman.

Leon Leonwood Bean, 1872–1967 (Greenwood) , Clothing retailer.

Milton Bradley, 1836–1911 (Vienna) , Publisher, board game manufacturer.

Joshua Chamberlain, 1828–1914 (Brewer) , Soldier, politician, decorated Civil War general.

Dorothea Dix, 1802–87 (Hampden) , Nurse, civil rights reformer.

John Ford, 1894–1973 (Cape Elizabeth) , Film director.

Hannibal Hamlin, 1809–91 (Paris Hill) , Fifteenth vice-president of the United States.

Sarah Orne Jewett, 1849–1909 (South Berwick) , Author, The Country of Pointed Firs (1896).

Stephen King, 1947– (Portland) , Popular author of horror, mystery, and science fiction.

Linda Lavin, 1937– (Portland) , Actor and singer.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, 1807–1882 (Portland) , Poet.

Pauline Hopkins, 1859–1930 (Portland), Novelist and playwright.

Hiram Stevens Maxim, 1840–1916 (Sangerville) , Inventor of the curling iron and the automatic machine gun.

Edna St. Vincent Millay, 1892–1950 (Rockland) , Poet.

George J. Mitchell, 1933– (Waterville) , Politician, US senator.

Marston Morse, 1892–1977 (Waterville) , Mathematician.

Alexander Parris, 1780–1852 (Hebron) , Architect, engineer.

George Palmer Putnam, 1814–72 (Brunswick) , Publisher.

Kenneth Roberts, 1885–1957 (Kennebunk) , Author, Arundel (1930), Northwest Passage (1937).

Edwin Arlington Robinson, 1869–1935 (Alna) , Poet.

Nelson Rockefeller, 1908–79 (Bar Harbor) , Politician, forty-first vice president of the United States.

Margaret Chase Smith, 1897–1995 (Skowhegan) , Politician, US congresswoman.

Gerald E. Talbot, 1931– (Bangor) , State legislator, African American civil rights activist.

John Hay Whitney, 1904–82 (Ellsworth) , Publisher, financier.

Joan Benoit Samuelson, 1958– (Freeport) , Marathon runner, Olympic gold medalist.

Victoria Rowell, 1960– (Portland) , Actor.

INTERESTING FACTS

• West Quoddy Head, a peninsula located near Lubec, is the easternmost point in the contiguous United States.
• Maine native Chester Greenwood patented the first pair of earmuffs on March 13, 1877, and mass-produced them in a factory in his hometown of Farmington, which was eventually nicknamed the "Earmuff Capital of the World."
• Maine is the only state with a single-syllable name and the only state that is bordered by only one other state.
• At 6,453 square miles, Aroostook County is larger than Connecticut and Rhode Island combined.
• In 2022 Maine was ranked as the second-safest state in the US, after Vermont, and was the state with the lowest rate of violent crime.
• Giant spinning ice discs formed on the Presumpscot River in 2019 and 2020.

Bibliography

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"Local Area Unemployment Statistics." Bureau of Labor Statistics, US Department of Labor, Jul. 2023, www.bls.gov/lau/latest-numbers.htm. Accessed 13 Sep. 2023.

"Maine." Bureau of Economic Analysis, US Department of Commerce, 31 Mar. 2023, apps.bea.gov/regional/bearfacts/. Accessed 4 Oct. 2022.

"Maine." Quick Facts, US Census Bureau, 1 Jul. 2022, www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/ME/PST045222. Accessed 13 Sep. 2023.

"Maine: 2020 Census." US Census Bureau, 25 Aug. 2021, www.census.gov/library/stories/state-by-state/maine-population-change-between-census-decade.html. Accessed 13 Sep. 2023.

"Maine State Profile and Energy Estimates: Profile Overview." US Energy Information Administration, 15 Sep. 2022, www.eia.gov/state/?sid=ME. Accessed 13 Sep. 2023.

Palmer, Kenneth T., et al. Maine Politics and Government. 2nd ed., U of Nebraska P, 2009.

"Tree of Facts." Maine.gov, 8 Sept. 2022, www.maine.gov/sos/kids/about/treefacts. Accessed 13 Sep. 2023.

Woodward, Colin. The Lobster Coast: Rebels, Rusticators, and the Struggle for a Forgotten Frontier. Penguin, 2004.

"2022 State Agriculture Overview: Maine." National Agricultural Statistics Service, US Department of Agriculture, 2022, www.nass.usda.gov/Quick‗Stats/Ag‗Overview/stateOverview.php?state=MAINE. Accessed 13 Sep. 2023.

James Ryan