First there's the setting: Matinicus Island is the furthest out of Maine's populated islands with an official population of about 50. . Everyone knows that the kids are the future of the island, Heather Wells told me when I met with her last summer. Maybe not. The tiny house was the office of Penobscot Island Air, a small company that provides air service to some of the Maine islands just offshore including Vinalhaven, North Haven. A man is partially paralyzed. Its also at this stage of things that the silence sets in. I had two 10-year-olds this year already laying traps. If someone had to deal with climbing up or down due to the tide level at the moment, well, so be it. When outside we could hear some nearby cows, but neither that sound nor their atmosphere made it into our bedroom windows. The harbor itself was unmistakably a working place. When we were out for an afternoon walk we missed Bills monthly visit by the nurse from the Maine Seacoast Mission. Which was around 15 minutes. He had to pay his dues. You can't go anywhere on the island without running into an apple tree; they are everywhere. State agencies and nonprofit organizations have tried to stem the loss of year-round populations by giving islanders guarantees of a certain. (The tiny store, launched in July 2008, lasted three seasons, but with too few patrons to cover costs, would finally close at the end of last summer. Vance and I were kids together. I know as an EMT that the best patient care generally means close contact and the human touch. She is the islands historian, the clerk-secretary of its church, and a member of its school board. The room where we ate meals and sat most of our time in comfy chairs had been built by him. The world across the waterAmericahad not yet quite arrived. All of this is free of charge. In picturesque Rockland, $23 bought me one-way passage on a small ferry. MATINICUS ISLAND, Maine (AP) There's an "Island of Misfit Toys" in the popular holiday classic. In winter the Sunbeam will do some icebreaking for the harbors she visits. No more. One of them brought in some old buoys, maybe from when he was a kid, Im not sure, and showed us how they were made. FORE MORE DATA ON MAINES ISLAND AND COASTAL COMMUNITIES VISIT: They had since been taken to the mainland due to health issues and probably have passed away now. Part of the reason there are so few ferries is that there are so few people living out there. Open to all, supported by readers. Today, theres not a lobsterman on the island under 50 whos ever had to scrape for a living. There could have been a pound of meat in each tail alone ($10 each). At some point Janan Miller yelled Hey! and pointed the shotgun at the stepbrothers. They began buying their groceries thereand the island store, open a century, went under. At one point as we talked, another pickup pulled up in front of us, and a womanJune Pemberton, once a teacher on the island, now one of two women to captain a lobster boatgot out and began unloading traps. With island life, the issue is usually the weather. He drives slower after that.. You may have noticed that there is a lot less bothering with deodorant and hair coloring, and a lot more commitment to having surplus ice cream in the freezer. Three months earlier, the islands post office had burned down. There are two private ferries on the island: Matinicus Excursions (207) 691-9030 and Penobscot Ferry and Transport (207) 691-6030. The Matinicus Rock light station is the hub of the living quarters and serves as a kitchen, dining room, office, and sleeping quarters. You have to understand: This bottom, for these guys, its like the family farm. Inside and outside temperatures were the same at around 50 degrees; it was late May. As the evening of our second night approached, while we waited for a fisherman to deliver a bucket of 4 lobsters, we heard outside the rumble of a lawnmower. Nowhere shall we be judged for lack of sartorial splendor. He responded by threatening a ramming; they put two shots across his bow. In the photo above the airstrip is to the left, the Main Street runs across (see the church) and the harbor is on top. Most materials are accepted, but old lobster traps are not interestingly. He was new. [13] Matinicus Isle is located approximately 1 mile (1.6 km) north of Criehaven Isle. It was COVID-19 vaccination day on Matinicus, which sits farther at sea in the open Atlantic than any other inhabited American island. The shooting happened over lobster traps: who has a right to them, and where. Their cottage had a kitchen and then a small room with a couch and a sitting chair. A working lobsterman's island, it has a small year-round population and few of the ameni. The runway is usable year round, and permission is needed to land. Matinicus boat owners began wintering in Florida, or buying second homes on the mainland. A two-man boat would come in with a three-day haul of 4,500 pounds, worth $14,000 or more. That is all that counts. Matinicus may appear to be a quaint, sweet little New England town, but that's not the whole story. Physicians are also being forced to adjust to a reality where not every hangnail must be seen in the office. Matinicus and Monhegan are the only year-round islands powered by diesel generators. We circled the island and headed across the water toward Owl's Head. (Pilot: thats not a step and moments later thats the brake line youre stepping on) Not helped by the fact that once inside and with an expression of real accomplishment written across my face, the pilot politely informed me I was in his seat. Im forever getting helped, by this person or that. The community has some workforce housing, primarily for people sterning on lobster boats. There is nowhere to wear those cute shoes. High heels are a complete waste of money; youll never use them. Now youve got the big fishermen with their fast boatsAlan Miller, hes got two boats, hes not a young guy anymore, hes already made his moneywho come in not caring about anything, just looking to fish some sweet waters.. The DIY appliance repair (with the indispensable tutelage of You-Tube) is a bit trickier, but you will get it. Thanks to our readers and especially our supporters who help to keep PenBayPilot.com an open and accessible community hub. Many of the better-off sorts are coming to understand what weve known all along, which is that nice clothes, stylish clothes, new clothes even clothes different from yesterdays clothes and makeup and a well-maintained professional haircut do not matter. They also provide sporting events, cultural enrichment such as concerts, island schooling for kids, scholarships, a food pantry and other vital services to these places. Of these, the ferry is the clear bargain winner, at $11 for an adult round trip. Not even one. But we did get out for some walks as well, though we did not try and canvass the whole island. When half of them were cut two weeks later, he was sure he knew by whom: a pair of stepbrothers, Chris Young and Weston Ames, both in their early forties, with 400 years of island ancestry between them. One doesnt just follow the water as I had assumed. And these did not prevent really restful nights. My teacher friend had somewhat prepared me for life on this remote island -- no paved roads, stores, restaurants, or even bars. We would hope for the best. But also of cut traps, knife fights, boat rammings, death threats, and ancient feuds. Cottage Connection of Maine Vacation Rentals Since 1993. Whole families moved away entirely, but still showed up to haul their traps. Today, two years after putting a bullet into the neck of another lobsterman, in defense, he says, of his daughter, Vance Bunker is a pariah on the island: legally acquitted but privately unforgiven, widely but quietly reviled. He had been an island man for most of his life. Fish and Wildlife Service's Maine Coastal . A fight was still just a fight, was still among family, could still be atoned for. Just about any Matinicus story you read (and there have been dozens, especially since the shooting) is going to have you believe that its either a rogue outpost of inbred, gun-happy cowboysPirate Island is a common referenceor a quaint little throwback to some simpler time. Without a grid tie to the mainland, the Matinicus Plantation Electric Company generates all the islands electricity with diesel fuel. I feel for him, I really do. Our vague impression had been that Matinicus was an island suited to those who think perhaps that Monhegan may be a bit too crowded. Both of us had always wanted to go, so we resolved to find a time in the next year to head out there. Matinicus, being the island community it is, naturally depends on the surrounding ocean to provide a living for its people. We had been at the correct place. The name Matinicus means "far-out island" in Abenaki, and Penobscot People used the island while fishing and sealing. Producer/Host: Crash Barry This week on Tough Island, Maine, a tragedy strikes the sheep living on Wheaton Island and an island wedding where Captain Edwin and Crash show up wearing the same outfit. As the most remote island in Penobscot Bay, 22 miles southeast of Rockland, Matinicus Island is a wonderful place to take a deep breath and relax. In any event, we took off into a beautiful day over the top of Penobscot Bay. Crabs that are found in lobster traps are relieved of their claws and returned to the briny depths to regrew them. Shortly, I arrived at the white school house and was enthusiastically greeted by the teacher and entire student body (grades 1 through 8) -- two brothers and their cousin! Although he still does business on Matinicus and hauls traps in its waters, he lives year-round on the mainland now, his island home of 30 years up for sale, his life there a lifetime now behind him. The protagonist, Gil Hodges, has gone to the Island . And with the new hydraulic trap haulers, all you had to do was twist a handle and up they came. CW: domestic violence, death of animals About the host: Writer Crash Barry lives near a cannabis grove in the foothills of western Maine. Being an early retiree, with lots of time on my hands, I was happy to accept her invitation to visit and experience the island life. Second Fig is perched at the end of a grassy road in a field dotted with apple trees overlooking the sea on the remote island of Matinicus. If you marry one of our daughters, you can usually fish here, too. Maybe they could make it out tomorrow. The rest of the world is learning, as we have always understood, that holidays are adjustable, celebrations flexible, no exceptions. What a glorious natural classroom! We dont have any of those here. You learn how little you need. The Island of Matinicus is some 20 miles southeast of Rockland, ME. She was a Ripley, she had a store here once, she was married to an Ames. It goes on and on: this person, that house, this husband, that wife. The most popular property types are House (49 listings) and Apartment (38 listings). Today, fishing is still a central part of island activity, operating out of a harbor with a breakwater and a public wharf. That was the way it workedbefore the boats got fast enough so a man could live in one place and fish in another. But things settled down Monday morning and for the first time in four days we heard the roar of the arriving plane buzzing over the island before landing. It was a walk along and then at the end of the Main Street, where the school, church, parsonage/post office and cemetery are. Theres no going back. Or maybe Vance Bunker cut them, or maybe both of them did, or neither; it can be foggy off Matinicus in the early mornings. Hes in his late fifties, a big man with thick arms, a droopy, graying mustache, and a warm but very certain way of saying things. All those generations. Islesboro, and our destination, Matinicus Island. Thirteen years ago, he bought his own. I was struck by the variety of wildlife and plants. You hear this a lot on the island: that the old ways are the best ways, that the surest route to the future leads through the past. You walk. Though not born here herself-she arrived with Tom less than 30 years ago, which makes her almost an interloper by the islands way of seeing things-she can trace her own ancestry here back nearly to the settlements beginning: to Phebe Young, who came with her husband in 1763. There was a time when that wouldnt have mattered much; 50 or 60 years ago, with an island population just shy of 200, there were other ways to make a living here. This is Aunt Belles house, [someone will say]. The sun had grown quite hot and the route along dusty gravel roads required choosing between a number of left and right hand forks, all unmarked. Most Matinicus residents are self- employed, with fishing and construction being the most common industries. Slow, very slow, we are. Which we planned to do. We set out at 10 am in hopes that by noon we would be there. But things were changing, and he couldnt deal with that, I guess. All rights reserved. We were nestled in a small clearing with fresh breezes blowing through the house. After drinking the scalding top half of a cup of tea, and partly filling my backpack with a few days worth of clothes, I drove the mile down towards the point to pick up another cousin, Harold. But islanders know that no matter how important you are, how rich you are, how loud you are, how much you stomp around the flying service office yelling, Do you know who I am? there is nothing anybody can do about the delay. Me longer than Harold, much longer. I loved seeing that. The passing vehicles crush them, paving the road with red shells. Box 648 Shes in her late sixties, an attractive, courtly woman with frosted gray hair and blue, intelligent eyes. If Im buying for my own table, I guarantee you, theyre going to come from Matinicus.. April at Bradys, new menu, a Decades Dance, & Pints & Puppies!! You dont just let someone come in and take that away from you.. And we did. But a bad hurt has happened. Or even just get a cup of coffee and some conversation. The man was a lobsterman but not terribly successful it seems. Memories, connections, personal histories. He tried his best, as they all do here, to stay clear of the subject of the shooting. The first of these was on a Tuesday and the next that following Thursday, which would permit a two day stay on the island. Every man and woman on the island showed up with an ax to clear a fire line, a shovel to dig trenches, or a box of sandwiches; old men too feeble to swing axes strapped packs on their backs and sprayed down nearby trees. We would have received a ride for ourselves as well had either of us thought we could manage to jump into the back of a pick up truck already filled with a lot of stuff, plus other people. Maine. No cars, few people, great hikes (most of the island is a forest preserve) wonderful sunrises and sunsets and the quiet that only comes from being miles out to sea. On Matinicus, where the lines were drawing tighter, they told Vance Bunker that his son-in-law, a mainlander, was no longer welcome to set his traps. A friend of mine had recently taken a job on a tiny Island, 24 miles off the coast of Maine. (Also an electrician and married to the baker, who also had been schoolteacher, currently a writer, a pilot, and medical technician. He was a nice guy and came in for a sit and a talk, after both ends of the bargain had been completed. One day life was good: full, straight-ahead, uncomplicated. When Charlie first came here all those years ago, they cut his traps, too. Born and raised in pre-WWII/ pre-discovered Nantucket, then served in the post WWII navy, then lived for awhile on Peaks Island in Casco Bay and now here. Well, it has happened: after two decades of writing about this place, and seeing people still react as though life on an unbridged, offshore island is indeed peculiar, and that full-time island residents are some sort of oddball societal enigma, some psychological aberration or cute anachronisminsert heavy use by other journalists of the inaccurate term unique lifestyle hereand after endless lame comments from mainland friends about how they couldnt live without this or that convenience or comfort, the muck boot, as it were, is on the other foot. This isnt a place that could exist on the mainlandor, probably, even 10 miles closer to it. So was his wife, Jananwho had seen from her window the men converging on the harbor, and had brought with her a 12-gauge shotgun she would claim she didnt know how to use. Then at the next meeting, they go and change the rules.. Although he still does business on Matinicus and hauls traps in its waters, he lives year-round on the mainland now, his island home of 30 years up for sale, his life there a lifetime now behind him. So I next called Penobscot Island Air in Rockland. Granite shorelines mostly. We really had very little planned. If you had something heavy to pick up and transfer, then just wait for high tide. It is one reason islands like Matinicus can still be populated at all. According to Bill, there is no evangelical pressure, which he appreciates. About a year ago, as we were discussing our next such Monhegan trip, Harold and I shared that we had never been out to Matinicus Island, actually a small archipelago, somewhat further out from Monhegan. Nobody notices that your teeth are two shades whiter, either. Id heard by now the story of his familys early years: how his grandfather had been a rumrunner on the island during Prohibition, hiding the bottles in deepwater puddles; of his father, a lobsterman, and how hed met Vances mother, whod come there to work as a nurse; how hed started pulling traps as a teenager and never stopped; how it used to be that when you had an argument with a neighbor, you got over it real quick, cause you needed each other more than you needed to stay mad.. The name Matinicus means far-out island in Abenaki, and Penobscot People used the island while fishing and sealing. Shes a little like a rainbow herself: stout and graying but full of wonderful old stories that paint pictures and cast spells. Matinicus Island. Its as though the clans in their way were a sort of monarchy: a continuum of ascendant families whose generations of canny, devoted stewardship will somehow see the way through. And Id do about whatever I had to do to see that doesnt happen, he said. The wind gusted to 70 mph on Sunday near Matinicus Island, about 20. Its hard to guess what order was applied. A line has been crossed that was never crossed before, Suzanne Rankin says. Of course rubber boots, work gloves, oilskins, hoodie sweatshirts, Stabilicers, and Smartwools are always in style as are hand-knit socks, ridiculous multi-colored reading glasses, and flannel anything. Once, nearly 20 years ago,he was the captain of a lobster boat,the Jan-Ellen, that pulled three doomed tugboat sailors out of a January sea on a night when the storm swells were eight feet high and the wind chill was 50 below. . He had a bad reputation. While Matinicus Rock is not a hospitable place, it was a necessary place for a lighthouse, situated as it was in a busy shipping lane roughly twenty miles off Maine's shore. See Up the coast without a car for details. In the summer there might be 200 people staying on the island; in February, as few as 35. Then shed left, and returned again as a young wife and mother when her husband first took up hauling traps: Weve always had to fight to hold on to what we had, always. A man drives too fast, we tell him to slow down. Island Living and Accommodations: During the field season, 4-6 people live and work on the island. So its hard, whats happened. There are a thousand stories like this. Many of the apples are quite sour, but there are also good ones, and the locals know where they are! Medals followed, and media stories, a standing ovation on the floor of the Maine State House, a citation in the Congressional Record. There were many sorts of birds, not just gulls. Theres a name among islanders for people like that: fuel savers. It isnt a good way to be known. 2023 Island Institute. Contributors control their own work and posted freely to our site. With everything else about 2020, it aint the weather. And hes the one who brought the guns to the argument., Three summers ago, the summer before the shooting, the island got together and threw itself a high-school prom: men, women, and teens, many in 30-year-old tuxes or too-tight, floor-length dressesone guy even in white tierocking out to Boogie Fever in the church basement under crepe paper and string lights, popping flashes, selling raffle tickets, drinking spiked punch from a bowl in a neighbors yard. I regretted that, not because I wanted to intrude on his nurses visit, but because I wanted to learn more about this group first hand. Hes not a part of the community; he never has been, Philbrook said to me. Belong anywhere with Airbnb. Some managed to get along by operating small farms and raising their vegetables, cattle, sheep, poultry and pigs. Every boat on the island, and Vance Bunker in his plane, worked the sea for days, while the islands wives walked the shore in search of clues. And everyone was welcome. [Vance Bunkers wife, Sari] dont see that, I dont think. Everything you need or desire comes in a cardboard box. And I needed the break, having been traveling for almost a month at this point. Harold had bested me in bringing less, simply a large beach towel draped over his shoulders (Douglas Adams would be pleased) and some peanut butter crackers. Its the same with everyone here. You may have noticed that there is a . But from what we witnessed, islanders work and live there in those ways that they wish. The tiny library on Matinicus. No cars, few people, great hikes (most of the island is a forest preserve) wonderful sunrises and sunsets and the quiet that only comes from being miles out to sea. Some of the newer stones are engraved with a lobster boat. It is worthwhile to keep in mind that this couple lived there until fairly recently, in this century. There's no garbage collection on the island and no dump, so what does one do with lobster shells and claw remains? Common amenities in Finland are Sauna, Terrace, Fireplace and Water View. I cut a few of yours [traps], you cut a few of minethat was always going onuntil the time came when somebody lost their boat or their roof blew off in a storm, the islander says. But there was no time for a fire in the old stone hearth. (Photo courtesy Robin Tarkleson), Matinicus (Photo courtesy Kimberly Peabody), Matinicus below (Photo courtesy Kimberly Peabody), Knitting socks is so 2020 (Photo courtesy Eva Murray), Eva Murray: Baking bread and watching chickadees, Eva Murray: A trip with Honor Flight Maine, Eva Murray: Tenants Harbor and Matinicus Island combine effort for shoreline cleanup, Without an Agenda: talking with the crew of the Sunbeam, Without an agenda: talking with the crew of the Sunbeam, Eva Murray: Island winter weather, food, and the owls, Eva Murray: An accidental twitcher birding on Matinicus Island. That isnt the law. Greed, thats whats behind all this, Vance Bunker would tell me months later. The next ship wasn't scheduled for several weeks so I would return to the mainland on the "mail-plane" in four days -- weather permitting! The walk to the airstrip was a bit farther than what we had managed already (more than double), being at the other end of the island. Domestic Violence Roundtable Discussion: Register Now for May 19th in Knox County, Kacie Orff, New Community Outreach and Experience Director at The Lincoln Home, The Lincoln Homes Community Outreach Director, Brigit Cavanagh, Retiring, Retirement Planning - How to Win at Retirement Savings FREE, Benefit Concert in Warren on May 21st 3:00pm. Rankin lives, with her husband, Tom, in a 200-year-old farmhouse along a gravel road, the only through road here, midway between the school and the church. She has skillfully woven the plot into the background of living on a small island off the coast of Maine, supported mainly by the lobster industry. Its a break in the family , I dont know what to think anymore. Located 22 miles off the coast of Maine, Matinicus Island is home to about 100 residents, according to the Associated Press (AP). Gets a lot of rides in trucks, especially on icy winter days. Shoot me, you stupid bitch! Weston Ames may have said, at about the same instant he grabbed for the gun. Upon returning to the school, we found a surprise left at the door by the brothers' uncle, who just happens to be a lobsterman -- imagine that. The plane banked and then passed back over the island providing a great view from a vantage we obviously had not previously enjoyed. The pair find inspiration amid . You learn what real need is. On summer Saturday nights on the boat dock, Hussey and his guitar lead dance parties that turn out the whole island.

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