Stephen King turns up down under

Thanks to Loren Coleman for pointing out this funny little King of Horror tidbit in an article from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation:

Stephen King mistaken for vandal in Alice
August 16, 2007

One of the world's most famous authors, Stephen King, was mistaken for a vandal in an Alice Springs bookstore on Tuesday. Dymocks store manager Bev Ellis says a customer saw the horror novelist walk into the store.

Once inside, King found copies of his books and began signing them.

"As the owner of a bookshop, when you see someone writing in one of your books you get a bit toey," Ms Ellis said. "So we immediately ran to the books and lo-and-behold here was the signature in several books. We sort of spun around on our heels, [saying] 'where did he go, where did he go'."

Ms Ellis says she saw the author standing in the fruit and veg section of the supermarket across the road.

"So I went over and introduced myself ... He was lovely, very nice, charming," she said. Ms Ellis says she asked him if he was staying long in Alice Springs and he just smiled. "[Then I said], well if we knew you were coming we would have baked a cake."

King signed six books in total. The customer that mistook the author for a vandal bought one. Ms Ellis plans to give the remaining five copies to community groups who can auction them off to raise funds.

King's rep in Sydney confirmed that they did not know the author was currently in Australia. Ms Ellis says King was travelling with a friend.
[Source]

Dark Shadows returns to the screen

Fans of the Dark Shadows television series are in for a sweet surprise -- Johnny Depp has done some Hollywood magic and is opening the creaky, locked gate of Collinwood up to the public once again! Guard your necks, and lock your doors, and.... well, it wouldn't hurt to buy some garlic and a satchel full of crucifixes along with your summer sunscreen! Read on...

Depp Steps into Shadows
by Josh Grossberg
Fri, 27 Jul 2007 04:15:25 PM PDT

Johnny Depp has never shied away from dark films like Dead Man, The Ninth Gate, Sleepy Hollow and From Hell. Now he's really found a role he can sink his teeth into. The actor is teaming with Warner Bros. on a movie version of the classic supernatural soap opera Dark Shadows, with Depp playing lead vampire Barnabas Collins.

Depp has long counted himself among the legion of Dark Shadows devotees and has stated in past interviews that he's dreamed of playing Barnabas ever since he was a kid. Through their respective production companies, Depp and Graham King purchased the rights to the spooky ABC serial from the estate of the show's mastermind, Dan Curtis, according to Variety.

The groundbreaking Dark Shadows ran for 1,125 episodes from 1966 to 1971, chronicling the strange goings-on around the mysterious Collins family in their estate in Maine. Populated by myriad macabre characters, including vampires, witches, werewolves, ghosts and zombies, the show spawned a cult following, numerous fan conventions and various attempts to resurrect the program after the network put a stake in it.

Curtis directed House of Dark Shadows, a 1970 movie adaptation starring Jonathan Frid, who originated Barnabas in the series. Curtis later updated Shadows in 1990 with a new TV series that lasted one season with Ben Cross in the immortal role. Another short-lived remake, not supervised by Curtis, featured Alec Newman as the head vampire and aired in 2004.
...
King and Depp will produce the film from a screenplay by Bruce Robinson (Withnail and I).
...
The Dark Shadows news was just one tidbit to emerge from Warners' presentation at Comic-Con in San Diego on Friday, as the studio offered previews of some of its highest profile 2008 releases.

[Read full article here: Source]

Maine State Film Commission, are you listening? We're getting a little tired of having Vancouver, et al, beat us out as settings for things that are supposed to be set in our home state.

Tales from Lighthouse Keeper's Children

Many of you may be familiar with the purportedly haunted Wood Island lighthouse. Recently, some surviving children of one of the lighthouse's keepers from the distant past sat down to tell some of their tales to an appreciative audience in Saco. You can read about it here at the Haunted Lighthouses blog, where tales of Spectral Keepers of the Lights and news about haunted lighthouses are faithfully kept alight. Click here to read the article.

For more on the investigation of Wood Island's hauntings, click here.

Photo from the CyberLights website, which has more photos of the lighthouse, video, directions, etc.

Horse Dies after Mystery Attack

Thanks to Amos Quito over at New England Anomaly for picking this up. A sad story, and another question mark on the board of possible mountain lion encounters in northern New England of late.

Officials Say Mountain Lion Unlikely In Horse Attack
Family's Show Horse Fatally Wounded

WHITEFIELD, N.H. -- A Whitefield family said Monday that their beloved show horse was attacked and killed by a mountain lion, but experts said that's not possible.

Shirly Smith said that something attacked her 15-year-old palomino, Miss Dixie, nine days ago.

"She was just whinnying, and then we saw blood everywhere," Smith said.

The Smiths moved their other horses inside after they found Miss Dixie with scratches and gouges in her flesh.

"We got cold towels to put on the worst wounds on her chest to stop the bleeding," Smith said.

Despite emergency surgery, the horse didn't survive.
...
"Just judging from the width on the flank, it could possibly be a bear," Fish and Game Officer Matt Holmes said. "Considering what animals inhabit the area, that was the only thing I could come up with."

The Smiths said they believe a mountain lion could be responsible, but experts said that's unlikely. The Fish and Game Department gets about 100 reports of mountain lion sightings every year, but they said it has been 100 years or more since mountain lions roamed the Granite State.

Wildlife expert Rob Calvert said that he believes a bear might have startled the horse, setting off a chain of events that fatally injured her. Because of his finding, the state will pay for the Smiths' veterinarian bills, which added up to $600.
[Click here to read full story: Source]

Photo of Miss Dixie from WMUR site.

Self Immolation in Kittery

Strange news out of Kittery, Maine, as a man sets himself on fire and calmly kills himself on a Kittery sidewalk.

Suicide by fire may have been planned
By Karen Dandurant
August 13, 2007 2:11 PM

KITTERY, Maine — A Kittery man who set himself afire Sunday afternoon was troubled and may have been considering suicide at least 24 hours earlier.

According to a local gas station owner, Nathan C. Gagner, 27, of 135 Whipple Road, had come in on Saturday to purchase a gas can and razor blades, then returned the following day to fill up the can with gas.

On Sunday, at 4:03 p.m., police received a 911 call advising that a man in the vicinity of 75 Whipple Road had poured gasoline over his body and set himself on fire while sitting on the sidewalk.

Kittery Police and Fire Departments responded to the scene extinguishing the fire. An ambulance transported Gagner to Portsmouth Regional Hospital where at 5:30 p.m., he was pronounced dead.

Police said that according to family and friends he had been suffering from depression. Chief Ed Strong said he has known Gagner all his life, that he grew up in Kittery.

“His parents are good friends of mine,” said Strong. “I talked with them and Nathan had been depressed. He was having issues and was on medication at times. He recently had suffered a breakup of a relationship.”

Ken Lewis, owner of the Exxon gas station where Gagner bought a gas can and then filled it with gasoline said he had been in there the day before.

“He came in on Saturday to get a gas can and razor blades,” said Lewis. “He paid for them and then put them back on the counter and left them.”

One employee, Tyler Eidell, said he saw Gagner earlier Sunday, riding a bicycle.

“He seemed fine to me then,” said Eidell.

Both men said Gagner was local, a person they often saw.
...
“When a customer ran in and said a guy set himself on fire, I knew it had to be him,” said Lewis.

Katie Bayer of 66 Whipple Road said Gagner was calm as the flames consumed him.

Bayer, 15, was looking out of her bedroom window late Sunday afternoon and watched from the beginning as the man walked to a spot on Whipple Road across from her house, poured gasoline over himself, and set himself ablaze.

Bayer said she didn’t see the gas can at first, when the man first stopped walking. She saw him pouring something over his head and thought it was water.

“I thought it was a homeless guy taking a bath,” she said.

The man looked like he was in his 20s, with long brown hair, the teen said.

“All of a sudden he just burst into flames,” she said. “He didn’t scream. He sat there calmly with his arms crossed. It looked like he was meditating.”

She said she and her brother tried calling 911 but all the operators were busy. By that time, cars had pulled over on the side of the road, and she thinks they were all calling too.

While she was watching, neighbors across the street came out with a fire extinguisher and then a hose, and put out the fire.

“I was shocked,” she said of the incident. “I couldn’t believe someone would do something like that. People do a lot of things for strange reasons, don’t they?”
...
Sgt. Ken Grimes at the Maine State Fire Marshal’s office said the incident was over when Dan Young, their senior investigator arrived.
...
Grimes said they have seen suicides by fire before but it’s usually done in private, in a home or a car.

“I never remember one happening in such as open public place,” said Grimes.

Police say Gagner committed “suicide by fire” and say their investigation is complete.

[Read the full article by clicking here: Source]

There is a second article online, also at Seacoast, written by one of the first bystanders to come upon the scene. An interesting read.

As we drove back to Eliot, we noticed an intense fire approximately in a 6-by-6 area, at least 10 feet high, on the sidewalk across from the entrance to the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard. I stopped 50 yards short, noticed no traffic, evaluated that the blaze was contained, and proceeded by crossing the center line. It wasn’t until we were directly in front of the roaring blaze that we noticed him, sitting like a buddha. Only his face and chest were visible. He was statue-like, serene, showing no signs of discomfort as the fire was consuming his body.

Click here to read the full account.
Photo of location of suicide by Deb Cram, from Seacoast Online.

Dangerously cute! The bobcat's secret weapon.

Oh, man... these guys were powerless against this ferociously adorable feline!

Baby bobcat wanders into auto parts store
August 6, 2007
SANFORD, Maine --A kitten that wandered into an auto parts store on Monday elicited oohs and aahs from onlookers.

But this was on ordinary kitty. It was a feisty, frightened bobcat.
The tiny feline entered VIP Auto shortly before 8 a.m. as Jason Hamilton of Sanford arrived to buy new tires.
"It just came walking in. I tried to call him like a normal cat, but he wouldn't come," Hamilton said.
The bobcat wandered the length of the store before heading into the bathroom, where it hid behind the toilet before employees closed the bathroom door.
Sanford police officers dispatched to the scene looked at the animal, agreed that it looked like a bobcat, and notified the Maine Warden Service.
Warden Alan Curtis, who was in town, theorized that the bobcat kitten had come in from the woods at the rear of the store.
"It's only a few weeks old," said Curtis, who estimated its weight at a pound or two. "It's probably scared to death."
After donning thick, welding-type gloves, Curtis brought the kitten out in a red plastic basket. It was then transferred to a cardboard box, with a lid and air holes, and was headed to the Maine Wildlife Park in Gray.[Source]

Photo credit: Tammy Wells, Journal Tribune

Mystery Airship of Maine 1915

Guest post by Loren Coleman!

For those that think the early 20th Century's "mysterious airship" reports only occurred in the Midwest, here's an example, via my friend Jerome Clark, for Maine.

Loren Coleman
http://www.cryptomundo.com

----------
Daily Kennebec Journal
March 2, 1915

Maine Gossip

[excerpt]

The mysterious airship has been seen again, this time over South Portland, and the direction which it took when it left this vicinity substantiates the story relative to the craft which appeared Feb. 21 in the Portland Press.

It will be remembered it was reported that a couple of young men had built a machine that would run as well in cold weather as warm and were experimenting with it in this section, having their hangar in a secret place up the Mountain division of the Maine Central Railroad.

When the airship appeared over South Portland a respectable citizen who happened to be out of doors was attracted by the noise of the motors and it was so near to earth that he could hear two men talking. They appeared to be trying to get their bearings as they sailed about and flashed their searchlight, and finally when they had crossed the Fore river, they turned the machine and went off in the direction of the mountains at a great rate of speed.

ADDITIONAL NOTES from Michelle:
It is interesting to note that it was a Portland, Maine, publisher (Leighton & Frey Souvenir View Co.) who produced a lithographed booklet titled "California Midwinter International Exposition San Francisco; California January 1st to June 30th 1894." Among this pamphlet's wondrous features is a curious contraption not dissimilar to that credited with the rash of "mystery airship" sightings on the West Coast in 1896, two years later. This is pointed out by Jesse Glass, who kindly provides a scan of the image inquestion on his webpage, with notes. "On page eight appears an enigmatic drawing, and an equally enigmatic title, which says, simply: 'This machine will fly.' Beneath it we see what is unmistakably a cigar-shaped dirigible with a wing-like, rotary appendage, presumably repeated on the opposite side, not visible to us (see Illustration). [Source]

This is not the only tie to Maine encountered in this peculiar saga. Early reports about the inventor of the airship included this information: "... the inventor was a wealthy native of Maine who had sought the seclusion of the West, settling at Oroville in 1891. Using parts manufactured in the East and shipped to his home, he had spent one hundred thousand dollars on his creation. He finally completed the airship and flew to Sacramento and on to San Francisco." Purportedly, this man was one Dr. E. H. Benjamin, a nonpracticing dentist. Later stories contradicted and refuted various parts of this initial announcement. [Source]

Giant "footprint" inspires speculation

Tracy over at the Yahoo Group mailing list "Haunted Maine" dropped me a line to point out this great story over at the Bangor Daily News:

Newly exposed ledge 'footprint' inspires legends
By Rich Hewitt
Saturday, July 21, 2007

PROSPECT - When crews blasting ledge for the Penobscot Narrows Bridge crafted a new path for Route 1, they never suspected they would create a new attraction beside the bridge.

Their blasting unearthed a granite seam in the ledge that looks remarkably like a human footprint, toes and all.

The digit-al image hovers high above the road near the top of the ledge, attracting the attention of passers-by and generating some theories as to how it got there.

Alvion and Cindy Kimball of Orland have suggested that the footprint is a remnant from an old American Indian legend surrounding the spirit Glooscap and how he tamed the winds around the Penobscot Bay area.

It’s a good tale, having little to do with petrified feet, but the Kimballs have made a connection.

Glooscap enjoyed hunting from his stone canoe in the region, but there came a time when the wind blew so hard, he and the people could not go out to sea. The winds came from Wuchosen, the Great Wind Bird who lived atop a large rock at the end of the sky. Wuchosen created the wind by moving his wings.

Glooscap traveled to the end of the sky, climbed the rock and asked Wuchosen to have pity on the people and be easier with his wings. When Wuchosen refused, saying he would continue to move his wings as he chose, Glooscap became angry and seized the great bird, bound his wings and threw him into a ravine where he could not move.

The winds quieted and the people were happy, but soon the dead calm resulted in stagnant waters that were so thick that even Glooscap could not paddle. He went back to Wuchosen, carried him back to the rock and untied one of his wings. Since then, the winds have been quieter on Penobscot Bay.

The footprint, according Cindy Kimball, is the proof in the pudding that the legend is real.

"When I first saw it, I said to Alvion, ‘It’s a perfect footprint,’" she said. "We thought it was left by the god climbing up the mountain to reach Wuchosen."

Kimball, who is executive director of the Bucksport Bay Area Chamber of Commerce, said visitors to the area have noticed the foot and asked about it. Most don’t see it while driving because they are looking at the bridge across the Penobscot River, she said. But they do notice it when they visit the Penobscot Narrows Observatory.

"Everybody says it looks like a footprint," she said.

The big foot — as opposed to Bigfoot — is not the only outstanding part of the human anatomy represented in the area.

The famous, or infamous, leg on Jonathan Buck’s monument in a nearby cemetery on Route 1 in Bucksport has attracted visitors for years. There has been some suggestion that the footprint is linked to Buck, a Revolutionary War colonel, and the supposed curse cast on him by a condemned witch that caused the imprint of a leg to appear on the granite monument over his grave.

Coincidentally — or is it? — Buck’s grave is scheduled to be rededicated next week in the Buck Cemetery on Main Street in Bucksport. The rededication is to take place at 10:30 a.m. Friday, July 27.

That Buck lived during Revolutionary times, long after the witch trials took place in Massachusetts, and that he never condemned a witch, has not diminished the tale over the years, nor has it stopped the visitors despite the disclaimer posted by historians.

So, perhaps the foot is indeed that of a forlorn witch in search of its leg and will wander from its spot on the ledge across the new bridge to Bucksport to join the offending appendage for eternity.

Tom Doe, the state Department of Transportation project manager for the bridge project, however, offers a scientific explanation. The strip of granite in the ledge, he said, is an inclusion, a remnant of volcanic activity in the area many millennia ago.

Where the granite seam is today was once a crack in the surrounding rock. When molten material rose up from deep inside the earth, it filled the crack and hardened into granite, creating the inclusion, which remained hidden until the bridge blasting exposed it.

But why let the facts get in the way of a good story?
[Source]

Photo from the Lewiston Sun Journal website, credited to Bangor Daily News, taken by Gabor Degre.

For I am a Pirate King !

Pour, O Pour the Pirate Sherry; Fill, O Fill the Pirate Glass !

Aye! We sea-goin’, rum-lovin’, rope towin’, treasure seekin’, riot causin’ Mainers needn’t look far a’t’all for our own pirate past! There’s a story right here, and it brings this Portland Pirates fan away from the ice rink and up from the West End, out to where the real-life pirates roamed the Maine coast: Pemaquid Point. We wind the clock back to the early 1630s, when even more than a hundred years before the most feverish battles took place in this part of the world between France and England, the land known as Acadia had already become a stage for this rivalry for resources. Exemplifying Maine’s own place in the scurvy annals of sea piracy is the unusual personage of Dixie Bull. The dread swashbuckling Dixie Bull was New England’s very first pirate.

Avast! -and to what do we owe this acquaintance? The occasion in the form of The Age of Pirates, sponsored by the Colonial Pemaquid Museum, featured Maine author and performing historian Jim Nelson, leading the charge in full pirate regalia. The swaggeringly jovial Nelson played the role of the gravelly sinister Dixie Bull, giving the large audience an introduction to the English merchant turned pirate whose unknown fate is as conspicuous as his audacious nature.

With all hands and hooks on deck, we’ll look first at Dixie Bull’s era. Many of our smart and savvy Strange Maine readers will recall that 1620 was the year of the Pilgrims’ landing at fabled Plymouth Rock. The establishment of the Massachusetts Bay Colony followed later. This year, here in Maine, the year 1607 is being invoked in recognition of 400 years since the beginning of the Popham Colony in today’s Phippsburg (near Bath, Maine). A ship called The Virginia of Sagadahock was the first sailing ship built in North America. The nearby town of Castine was the location of the trading post called Penobscot, which was operated by the Plymouth colony. Such settlements and events were connected to the value of the Atlantic cod fisheries, coveted by the sea-going European powers. Just downeast of Castine and Phippsburg is Pemaquid, at that time known as Jamestown, a major trading center for New England which was fortified. Fort William Henry stands guard at Pemaquid Harbor, and Pemaquid Light is the lighthouse you’ll see on the Maine quarter (ya dassn’t spend lest ye don’t get another!).

(Below: The original foundations
from the 17th century fortification
at Pemaquid)

Edging a few knots nearer to Dixie Bull’s years, we come to 1631, the year Sir Ferdinand Gorges, a old pal of Sir Walter Raleigh, obtained his patent to set up a plantation in the Agamenticus region of what is now York County. Among the recipients of land grants from Gorges was a Londoner named Capt. Dixie Bull. That same year, Dixie Bull arrived in Boston, and sailed the coast of Maine, trading with the native people- English knives and beads for valuable fur pelts. Briefly put, our adventurous Dixie Bull plied the coast dealing for furs until a year later, in 1632, his ship was robbed of all its valuable merchandise while docked in Penobscot Bay. Such wares had been sought by the English and French alike. Nay! Even the vessel itself was seized, leaving Dixie Bull and his crew destitute. Filled with vengeful rage, Dixie Bull returned to Boston, and raised a mob of accomplices, referred to by the prim Puritans as "disreputable types," to join him in recouping his losses by piracy.

Our snarlingly merry Mr. Nelson, bedecked as Dixie Bull gestured to himself, "am I a pirate, or am I just a gentleman adventurer?" Indeed, the crowd hollered "Pirate!" back to the man, who had a large Jolly Roger snapping in the wind, aloft above his head. We were then reminded of the notably crude and brutal life of the common sailing deckhand. Hearing the details of their foul conditions and the timeless lure of revolt brought to mind the words of Jasper Petulengro, the gypsy, in George Borrow’s The Romany Rye, who observed "necessity has no law." Evidently, poverty and desperation would drive many to the life of a pirate. "A pirate’s life is a short life," Nelson unashamedly rumbled, "but a merry one, indeed!" Quite so, as Dixie Bull’s piracy, all along the Maine coast may have lasted but another two years. His defining feat was to audaciously attack and loot the fortified Jamestown (Pemaquid), in 1632, taking all its treasure and burning the place to the ground. Between swigs from his flask, our Dixie Bull described how pirates usually attacked and emptied other ships: "firing a cannon into a broadside is like eating peanuts," he growled, "once ye start, ye can’t stop." Along with one of his pirate cohorts, he demonstrated how firearms had to be reloaded for each shot, and how Dixie Bull sword-fought during the sacking of Pemaquid.

Consequently, Dixie Bull’s marauding ways drew the attention of England and the Colonial government. Without precedent, the first armed naval expedition ever mounted by a British colony came in the form of the fleet that was sent to pursue Dixie Bull. Governor John Winthrop of the Massachusetts Bay Colony was alerted that "Dixie Bull and fifteen more of the English, who kept about the east, were turned pirates." The pirate band eluded the hunting expedition and sailed south, via Cushing Island (off the coast of Portland) and Richmond Island (near Cape Elizabeth and Scarborough), headed for the Virginia colony then known as "that nest of rogues, whores, dissolute and rooking persons." Before the pirate hunters retreated to Strawbery Banke (present-day Portsmouth, New Hampshire), they caught three deserters from Dixie Bull’s crew on Richmond Island. And the mysterious stuff of stories and ballads (see "The Minstrelsy of Maine" book) really begins here. Where did the "Dread Pirate Dixie Bull" go? To London? To the gallows on the Tyburn docks? To the Caribbean, where Buccaneers terrorized the waters? To Machias, the town that was later to be the nest of Sam "Black" Bellamy? Nelson leaned in and suggested, "how about Freeport?" And Dixie Bull’s buried treasure- Cushing Island? Richmond Island? Damariscove Island? In my own curiosity, I asked our "Dixie Bull," who had taught the crowd how to sing "Haul Away, Joe," of his fate. After a swill from his jug, he said, "I can’t recall; It was a long time ago."

EVENT: Loren Coleman speaking today!

July 24, 2007 at 1:00 - 2:00 PM, Curtis Memorial Library, 23 Pleasant Street, Brunswick, Maine. A Teen Zone Event now open to all ages.

Searching for Bigfoot with Loren Coleman:

A YNK Teen Summer Program event. Do you believe in lake monsters, hairy ape-like creatures who live in US forests, and the Mothman? Then you are interested in cryptozoology. Learn more about it at this event presented by Loren Coleman, the director of the Museum of Cryptozoology in Portland, ME.

Coleman has been searching for Bigfoot, Nessie, and other creatures since 1960. He has visited almost every state and province in North America, and been on expeditions to Lake Champlain and Loch Ness.

He is also the author or co-author of over two dozen books including: Mysterious America (2007), The Field Guide to Bigfoot and Other Mystery Primates (2006), Bigfoot! (2003), Mothman and Other Curious Encounters (2002), and the awarding winning (YLA-ALA) Cryptozoology A to Z (1999) that you can check out from your library.

Wicked Sweet Maine Tattoo!

I received an e-mail earlier this week from Chris Bossom, who lives out in Denver, Colorado, but grew up in Maine, where his family still lives. Last week he put ink to skin in tribute of his home state, and was kind enough to share the dazzling results with us!

Chris had one request: "If you use it if we could give proper credit to the artist as well – her name is Heidi Scheck and she’s a tattoo apprentice at Twisted Sol and this is only the 10th tattoo she’s done." No problem, Chris, it looks like she's off to a great start!

Chris also mentioned that oddly enough, he was not the only one in Colorado hankering for a hunk of Maine: "When I went into
the shop to see the sketch Heidi had done, there were 2 other stencils for other people's Maine/Mom tribute tattoos, one of which was put on the leg of my other tattoo artist Sandi, who also grew up in Maine, and the other for another random client. Weird that they got 3 Maine tattoo requests in one week!"

Those of you who have been keeping up on the blog for a while may remember that back in September 2006 we posted about another stunning Maine tattoo, belonging to the proud chest of Angus, Earl of Portland. Read that post here if you missed out. I'm still working on the design for my own. Stay tuned for that later this year! (P.S. Gift certificates for work from Wil Scherer at Sanctuary Tattoo here in Portland gladly accepted!!!)

Muggling Along - Mugglefest Portland!

Well, in case you aren't surrounded by friends and family who are mad about Harry Potter, here's some information about Mugglefest, being held in Portland, Maine, to coincide with the release of the final (?) Harry Potter book, Deathly Hallows. I'll be in the James and Lily Potter Memorial Library, a Hogwarts branch of the Portland Public Library, working to set up Friday morning and then until 4:00pm! The Library will be a "quiet" area where folks can chill out in between having fits about all the coolness that's been set up for attendees of the festival. Watch out for the two-headed snake!

WHAT: MuggleFest
WHEN: July 20 to July 21, 2007 -- Friday 1 p.m. - Sat. 1 a.m.
WHERE: Portland Company Complex, 58 Fore St., Portland, ME 04101
FMI: http://mugglefest.org/

Wizards and Muggles alike can celebrate the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the final book in J. K. Rowling’s spectacular series. Ride the Hogwarts Express (also known as the Maine Narrow Gauge Railroad) to join your fellow Harry fans in a re-creation of Diagon Alley, the street where wizards meet (and shop!). Sample a Chocolate Frog, try out a wand or a wizard’s cape, and enjoy games, roving actors, and music -- and pick up the new Harry Potter book as the clock strikes midnight! Fri. 1 p.m. - Sat. 1 a.m.; $12 (event is now SOLD OUT!). Parking off-site.

This event promises to be a huge lot of fun, especially for those of us who would really love a trip down Diagon Alley, packed with purveyors of magic goods and sundries, for ourselves.

The Mystery of the Witch's Grave

Photos by Michelle Souliere (c)2007

This article first appeared in the May 2007 issue of the Strange Maine Gazette as the first project of my new drive to produce original research articles. This one in particular was a devilish project, full of false leads, obscure scrawlings, and ruined graves. Read on...
.........................
One of the many urban legends of Maine that I have dug up is from my own home, Portland. The city houses a handful of large cemeteries, in various states of repair. The oldest and smallest are the Eastern and Western Cemeteries, located on the East End and West End of Portland, respectively.

Like any too-urban graveyards, they have suffered the same ravages as the city that surrounds them. Eastern Cemetery, until a recent revitalization, was weed-grown and kept under lock and key because so many vandals have made off with the old slate headstones, breaking off the eerie hand carved skull and crossbones artwork to take home.

Western Cemetery became the focus of a campaign to ban dogs from the graveyard in 2001, and epithets were hurled about, including the labeling of Portland as the “Desecration Capitol of the World.” The pet owners’ unleashed canines were finally barred from Western Cemetery, their antics relocated to a vacant lot behind the St. John Street neighborhood.

In 2003, the Western Cemetery Restoration Project was launched by Greater Portland Graves, and the mausoleums along the back slope of the grounds were repaired. The project is extensively documented, tomb by tomb, with before and after photos on their website.

Photo: An anonymous man perches atop the Western Cemetery mausoleums with a 40 oz. bottle of beer on a sunny March afternoon.

Today, despite these good intentions, the cemetery still looks neglected. Large 40-ounce beer bottles are smashed across the tombstones, vagrants perch on the mausoleum roofs to drink more beer and liquor in broad daylight, and the graveyard is a jumble of broken glass and shattered headstones, with a distinct air of desolation and abandonment.

In amongst the more staid gravestones of slate and limestone, there is one that stands out. Not only is it an impressive grave, even lacking its top spar, but also it is the subject of rampant rumor amongst various youths and adults of the area who are intrigued by the odd and wondrous. What do they say?

Some of them say it houses a witch’s grave, others say a vampire. More reasonable explorers of the truth point out that the prominent cross that mounts the sarcophagus and the use of the word “diaconus” in the Latin inscriptions that wreath the stone indicate the man buried there is a deacon.

The speculations could only have been encouraged by the elaborateness of the grave. Crowned by what must have at one point been a cross (now whittled down to a “T” shape) decorated here and there by Celtic knotwork in rough hewn russet stone, the monument stands out amidst the rubble of broken limestone grave markers in its iron fenced plot.

The cross is mounted on a decorative base covered with a raised pattern that looks like some strange cellular structure. Latin scripts in an ornate typeface (which may explain some of the errors in transcription) are found all over this base, which extends from under the cross to form the frame of a bevel-topped sarcophagus. Only the very bottom of the cross that was carved on its surface remains. The raised pattern and the exquisite Latin text have drastically deteriorated, and whether this is because of vandals, or simple weather and age, it is hard to tell.

Intrigued by the stories, and then mystified by the craftsmanship lavished on the monument itself, I set out to find out what the truth of the matter was. Initially this led me to many dead ends.

This grave is attributed to a “W. A. Baker” in Virginia Greene’s handwritten manuscript from 1938 that transcribes the cemetery’s population stone by stone, held at the Maine Historical Society. This erroneous moniker is repeated in William B. Jordan, Jr.’s book, Burial Records 1811-1980 of the Western Cemetery in Portland Maine (1987).

Add to this decades-long tradition of error and omission the fact that Greene’s transcriptions of the grave’s epitaphs are sketchy at best – hard to read, often wrong, with substantial segments of the text left out.

There was no death certificate on file in the library’s Vital Records archive for a matching Baker, nor in the Maine Historical Society’s collection of obituaries.

In fact, on closer inspection of newspaper notices of the time, it is revealed that the grave is that of the Rev. John W. C. Baker – an entirely different first name and second (now become third) initial from the given records that everyone refers to as a matter of course.

After consulting with the local Episcopal archivist, Elizabeth Maule, I discovered that his full name was Rev. John White Chickering Baker, and that he perished of consumption (the romantic Victorian term for the wasting disease of tuberculosis). When he died in 1871, he was only 33.

The reason I couldn’t find any death certificate for him in the Maine vital records was because he died overseas, in England.

The Eastern Argus of February 27, 1871, contains an article describing how “the last sad rites were performed over the remains” on the 25th:

The remains which were brought from England by the steamer of last week were encased in a gable top casket of English oak wood, upon the top was a red cross running nearly the entire length.

From the remains of the monument visible today, one can see that the theme of design used in the coffin was continued on its stone housing.

The Latin inscriptions on the stone are still visible today, though some are almost completely obliterated.

Requiem Aeternam
Dona ei Domina
Et lux perpetua
Luceat eis.

Via crucis -- Via lucis

O vos ...
Orame pro Anima Johannis
W. C. Baker
Diaconi qui namus
Jan(?) 13, 1837 - Feb 1, 1871

The grave remains a romantic, gothic monument to a bygone day, and the tragic death of a young man of the cloth, far from home, and long before his time was due.

The rumors will no doubt continue to circulate about the dead man’s mythical character, if simply because his ruddy sandstone monument stands out intriguingly, tall and strong even if broken, ornate among the mostly plain and sober white and gray stones of the rest of the cemetery’s populace.

People will linger in its shadow, leaving pennies and other offerings at the base of the stone, and the young deacon will find his final resting place kept company many a night by living souls, unable to stay away because they are curious about him.
Beyond the romantic aura of the Reverend Baker, of interest remains the folkloric connection between tuberculosis and vampirism in Maine and other New England states’ history (see our June 2006 issue article, Medical Cannibalism in Penobscot County). Whether this is an ingredient in the rumors remains to be seen.

However, in long and in short, I will continue to dig into his story and see what other details emerge, and I will correct what I can in the extant records that has been handed down in muddled and erroneous form.

EPILOGUE:
Since I published this article in the Strange Maine Gazette this May, I have been able to add one more story to the list of urban legends associated with this grave in Portland’s Western Cemetery.

A friend of mine who moved to Portland in her early adulthood during the 1980s told me that one of the first local legends she heard was about that very grave.

Friends told her the rumor that if a person stood on the grave at midnight during a full moon, the soul would be sucked out of your body.

This is exceedingly ironic, considering the grave belonged to a young deacon.

More details as warranted!

Honeycomb Hideout in Farmington, Maine

The Sun Journal provides insight into a fantastic tale of indoor beehivery at the Farmington USM campus. Photo from Sun Journal, more at site of full article.

Built-in beehive found in old house
By Donna M. Perry , Staff Writer
Monday, July 16, 2007

FARMINGTON - Robert Brackley Jr. believes an old beehive discovered in a house he and his crew are dismantling was man-made and built into a wall of the structure, which he suspects was built in the late 1800s.

Brackley, of New Vineyard, the owner of Brackley's Nostalgic Restorations, is dismantling what was known as the Thomas House on the campus of the University of Maine at Farmington. The wood flooring, bricks and other material from the old house, which is located behind the Psychology House, a former church on Main Street, will be used in Brackley's restoration projects.

Brackley climbed up the stairs to the second floor of the house Thursday, sweat dripping from his face. He set up a ladder on a piece of wood spanning several floor joists before he climbed up next to the formerly active beehive built between wall studs near a chimney.

When they had started to tear the roof off the building, Brackley said, they found some boards that had some honeycomb on them. He began to wonder if they had bees, since he had raised them before and this was a tell-tale sign.

With more boards removed and more light let in, they could see what looked like a built-in hive.

He believes the house was built between 1870 and 1890.

All the evidence points to the beehive being built into the wall. It was active more than a hundred years ago, he said.

It was so symmetrical it looks like it was man-made, Brackley said.

There is a wooden plug near the bottom of the hive, firmly set in the hole Thursday, that would have been how the bees entered the hive, Brackley said. Honeycomb was still on the outside of the hive before it was torn down.

"It seems bizarre," he said, but it looks like the people built it into the wall and when they wanted honey, they would go up and get it.
[Source]

Some Police Blotter Shenanigans

Courtesy of the Police Log from the Kennebec Journal Morning Sentinel's Saturday, July 14th edition, an assortment of tidbits from south of Portland:

IN CARATUNK, Thursday evening, a caller reported a dog bit someone on Main Street. (Ow.)

IN WATERVILLE, Friday at 12:36 p.m., an Elm Street caller reported that her estranged husband called and told her he was sending another woman to beat her up.

8:29 a.m., a Leighton Street caller reported that two strange men were near his home. Police warned a man for trespassing. (If police got calls every time someone saw strange people near their home in Portland, they'd never get any rest!)

8:14 a.m., an Elm Street caller said he believed his neighbor broke his car antenna during the night. (I bet he met with a poor reception.)

7:41 p.m., a Water Street caller told police that someone was in his house taking his food, but he did not wish to file a report. Police warned the caller about misusing the 911 emergency line.

11:49 a.m., a Rice Rips Road caller said he had a video of his neighbor committing indecent exposure. (...and he just happened to be filming?)

IN WINSLOW, Thursday at 6:16 p.m., police received a call from a woman who said she was on probation and had just hit someone. (Whoops!)

Naked Driver Stopped By Police

A police officer pulled over a speeding car in Fryeburg on Sunday night and found the driver to be severely lacking in the clothes department. Patricia Buck, 61, was driving naked, while her passenger, Douglas Litchfield, 59, was fully clothed. Both said Buck's clothes had been "washed away in a stream." No mention was made of how this happened or why Litchfield did not bother to give her his shirt to cover up.

The pair ended up leading the police on a car chase and were charged with driving to endanger and operating under the influence. Read the full story in the Sun Journal.

EVENT: Loren Coleman at Fort Knox

Those of you interested in the Psychic and Paranormal Faire being held at Fort Knox, here is some information about Loren Coleman's appearance as keynote speaker there:

Loren Coleman will give two talks (introducing cryptozoology through the recent cryptid events in Maine), during each mid-morning. Then he will deliver brief overviews of cryptozoological items he will have with him, followed by questions and answers sessions on the Maine reports, as well as on Bigfoot, Black Panthers, Sea Serpents, other cryptids, and general cryptozoology.

He will talk on the subjects he has covered during his 40 years of writings, including those in his newest book, Mysterious America: The Ultimate Guide to the Nation’s Weirdest Wonders, Strangest Spots, and Creepiest Creatures (NY: Paraview Pocket - Simon and Schuster, 2007).

Coleman will have several of his old and new books available, and/or will be happy to sign any of your own.

Venue Name: Fort Knox State Historic Site
Address: 740 Fort Knox Road, Prospect, ME 04416

Dates: July 21st, 2007 — July 22nd, 2007

Times: 10 AM until 4 PM, both days.

Fees: Normal Fort Knox admission fees apply (see below at the website) and a $2 donation is requested to help defray event costs.

Website: fortknox.maineguide.com/

[for more info, read the full article here: Source]

The Faire is billed as a one-of-a-kind opportunity to "meet with people who believe in things unusual. This unique event features renowned crytozoologist and author, Loren Coleman, psychics, ghost hunters and dowsers." Unfortunately, I have been unable to discover a more concrete list of events scheduling -- if anyone has gotten their hands on one, I'd love to post it, so let me know!

Man Disguised as Tree Robs Bank

With bank robbery seemingly on the rise, a robber in Manchester, NH has managed to set a new low in remaining inconspicuous while committing a holdup.

On Saturday morning, James Coldwell walked into the Citizens Bank on Elm Street disguised as a tree. The questionable outfit consisted of tree branches duct taped to his head and body. That is not a sweatband encircling his cranium in the surveillence photo - it's duct tape.

Reports stated that when Coldwell wasn't waited on quickly enough, he pushed in front of another customer and demanded the teller fill a bag with money. No weapon was displayed and Coldwell managed to disappear before police arrived...even though he was on the street with branches taped to him, and Elm Street is essentially treeless.

The leaves in his tree hat obscured part of his face, but not enough to prevent someone from recognizing him on a tv news story. An anonymous tip naming Coldwell as the man in the photo led to his arrest late Saturday night. To add insult to injury, the news report I saw reported witnesses stated that the robber smelled really bad.

I'm at a loss as to why he would think dressing as a tree was a good idea. Hopefully the newspapers will follow up on this story and Coldwell will make a statement as to why he chose to use this disguise.

photo: Fox25 article

Crazy laws in the Pine Tree State

Well, there are about a million websites listing this and that crazy law put into effect in this and that state. So here goes -- a list of all the weird laws I can find from Maine. It was bound to happen sooner or later!

Please note: I cannot vouch for the accuracy of these items, it is just a quick canvass of the current contents of the web. Also, clicking on the source links may lead you to sites with pop-up ads and so on, so exercise caution and be forewarned.

If anyone finds any of these inaccurate (which seems more than likely in some cases), or knows better particulars of the laws mentioned, please feel free to post a comment with the info, or just email me with the info. Yeah!

Portland, Maine, city council passed a law against tickling a girl under her chin with a feather duster. [Source]

Shotguns are required to be taken to church in the event of a Native American attack. [Source]

You may not step out of a plane in flight. [Source]

After January 14th you will be charged a fine for having your Christmas decorations still up. [Source]

The most money one can legally win gambling is three dollars. [Source]
In Rumford, it is illegal for a tenant to bite his/her landlord. [Source]

In Waterville, it is illegal to blow one's nose in public. [Source]

Maine licenses condom sellers and the license must always be on public display. [Source]

Vermont, Alaska, Hawaii, and Maine are the four states in the U.S. that do not allow billboards. (Hooray for that!) [Source]

It is illegal to marry the spouse of a grandparent in Maine, Maryland, South Carolina, and Washington, DC. [Source]

In Huberson, Maine, it is illegal to eat five potatoes in a meal without giving one to each of your pigs. [Source]

Did you know that In Maine it is illegal to catch a lobster with your bare hands? [Source]

In Maine, it is illegal to own an armadillo. [Source]

In Maine it is illegal to push a live moose out of a plane, however the law does not appear to have any jurisdiction over dead mooses. meese. Whats the plural form of moose? [Source]

In Maine, it is illegal to sell a car on Sunday unless it comes equipped with plumbing. [Source]

In Augusta to stroll down the street playing a violin is against the law. [Source]

It's illegal to clean salmon along Maine's upper Kennebec River. Enforcement of this law has been made easier for many years by the fact that, because of a dam, there are no salmon on the upper Kennebec River. [Source]

In Portland shoelaces must be tied while walking down the street. [Source]

In Maine it is illegal to wear a helmet when driving a car. [Source]

In Maine it is illegal to walk your alligator in public. [Source]

Funky sculpture in the Maine wild

Brian Westbye blogged about one of Maine's many interesting wild outdoor sculpture sites back in May. These sites creep up on you as you drive the back routes of the state. Often you will find yourself muttering, "What the DEVIL was that?!" after catching a glimpse of SOMETHING STRANGE out of the corner of your road-obsessed eye. Luckily, Westbye has also included some photos of these particular suspects, which lurk in the woods of Whitefield, Maine, so you can rest easy for the moment.

Read his post here!

More crazy and wonderful sculpture can be found up the coast of Maine in Deer Isle, at the location of Nervous Nellie's Jams and Jellies. I posted on Roadside America about it in 2002. You can read my article here, and also see a sample photo of the wild sculptural concoctions. Since that trip many moons ago, I have met Peter Beerits, the mad genius responsible for this three-dimension hoedown of phantasmagoria, through my job at the front desk of the Portland Public Library. He is a pleasant fellow indeed. I'll have to get up there and see what else he's cooked up someday soon!

He talks about his sculptures here on his website, and includes a link to more photos of select sculptures with a list of many of his characters described.

Frozen in time like an old potato

Potatos rank high on the list of things associated with the state of Maine, so it should not come as a huge surprise that they figure in the history of the state. However, few of us actually know many of the specifics of Maine potato history. Hearken, and learn. Let it be noted that the nation's first frozen French fries were manufactured in Maine. State authorities have a chance to save the facility where this momentous occasion occurred as a historical property, with a little help.

Old frozen foods plant among endangered historic properties
June 29, 2007
LEWISTON, Maine --A vacant factory in Washburn that was the production site for the nation's first frozen French fries was among six sites included Friday in Maine Preservation's annual list of the state's Most Endangered Historic Properties.

Taterstate Frozen Foods, which operated from 1941 to 1958, has potential for an agricultural museum and new agricultural businesses, the nonprofit group said. It identified the property as a Brownfields site, which indicates that its reuse may be complicated by the presence of a hazardous substance or contaminant.

The announcement of this year's listings came at a news conference at the Bates Mill No. 5 Weave Shed in Lewiston, one of the listed sites. Others include the former Gerald Hotel in Fairfield, the Hubbard Cotton Store in Hiram, the Buck Memorial Library in Bucksport and the Hancock County Sheriff's Home and Jail in Ellsworth.
...
[Click to read full article here: Source]

More on this year's list of endangered properties here, including photos.

Loren Coleman on Nessie

There's a great clip of Maine cryptozoologist Loren Coleman in a June 1st tete a tete on the Paula Zahn show available on YouTube. While both experts gave a good showing in the discussion of new footage of the alleged Nessie, it is notable that one of them makes a comment about otters being the source of most "lake monster" sightings, which sent my roommate and I into a fit of giggles. We couldn't help imagining a group of otters in a huddle: "Okay you guys, get in line -- we're going to mess with the tourists again!" Ah, well... to each his own.

There's a full rundown of the event here in a post by Loren on Cryptomundo, and a pre-broadcast post about his thoughts on the upcoming appearance. Good job, Loren!

Frogs Dug Up in Thomaston

This strange episode is reported in Cyrus Eaton's 1865 History of Thomaston, Rockland, and South Thomaston.

About a quarter of a mile from the left margin of Mill River near the site of the clothing mill, at the head of a gully, Simeon Blood, Senior, in digging a well, discovered, at the depth of about thirty feet from the surface, some small masses of matter resembling stones with earth adhering to them. These, on examination, proved to be frogs; and one of them, when warmed by the sun and air, hopped off with the usual agility of the species. They were probably, whilst hibernating in the mud, covered over by a deposit of earth brought by a flood or current of water, and buried too deep for the ensuing Spring to reach and re-animate; but at what epoch, and by how many successive deposits of earth, who shall pretend to say?

Portland schooner with sea serpent tale to tell

Loren Coleman's post on Cryptomundo about a historical sea serpent eyewitness account is worth a read! Crewmen on the Portland schooner Edward Waite landed in Philadelphia and told their story to the press.

From the Plattsburgh [NY] Sentinel, May 30, 1884: "We were so much interested that I forgot to call the captain, who was below asleep, but all of the watch saw the thing as plainly as I can see the schooner there in the next dock. It was a sea serpent and no mistake." The complete article, with description of the monster, is here on the Cryptomundo page. Thanks Loren!

Bones in the mossbed - what next?!

A group of 10 biologists performing a field study on a type of wetland moss were surprised to find human remains suddenly appearing within the scope of their survey. Photo by Kate Collins of the Bangor Daily News shows the view from the scenic overlook on Route 9 in Aurora where fragments of a human skull were discovered on Monday, June 25.

Biologists stumble upon human skull, jawbone while studying moss
By The Associated Press wire report
June 26, 2007 01:22 PM

AURORA — Maine State Police have launched an investigation into a human skull and jawbone that a group of biologists stumbled across while studying moss samples in rural Hancock County.

The remains were found last week near a scenic lookout off Route 9 in Aurora, said spokesman Stephen McCausland. They belong to an adult male and are least two years old and possibly older.
...
[full article here: Source]

But that's not all... another article, this time in the Bangor Daily News, mentioned that this is the SECOND such event of human remains being found in Maine in recent weeks.

The skull found in Aurora was the second discovered in eastern Maine last week, according to police.

McCausland said another human skull was found in Milbridge last Wednesday by a surveying crew that was doing work on a private way off Rays Point Road.

"That one appears to have been buried and there was some wood nearby to indicate that there was also a coffin," he said. "It’s looks like it was a case of a burial site that was disturbed."

The skull in Milbridge appeared to be much older and was of less concern than the case in Aurora, according to McCausland.
[full article here: Source]

Crime spree group was in Maine in 2006

A group of assorted drifters who were recently brought to ground in Wisconsin spent part of their travels in Maine. Authorities are now attempting to track their activities over the last few years. The dirty deeds culminated recently in the murder of one of the group and the torture and imprisonment of her 11-year old son. Police discovered this when following up tips about a separate case of child abduction that had been connected to the group. Reportedly the group wound up in Wisconsin because they wanted to see snow.

"Larry Hartle, who lived with his wife, Sandy, next door to Sisk and Clark at 2005 Elm Ave., said Clark told him she operated an online sex business and read Internet horoscopes. He said he found that odd, though, because Sisk and Clark were always asking to use the Hartles’ phone and computer." [Source]

"Hahn said the group, with Sisk, traveled to Maine and purchased airline tickets to Alaska in November 2006. They didn't make that trip and instead arrived in Wisconsin in January. [Source]

"Hahn said investigators were trying to piece together the group’s activities and whereabouts across the country. 'We could have victims from all over in different parts of the country. Fortunately, it ended here,’ he said." [Source]

Explosive crime caper!

Back in February I posted on the upswing in daring thefts of catalytic converters (read article here). But recently two Maine youths went on a stealing spree at a New Hampshire junkyard that caused some unexpected alarm.

Junkyard owner tells of scramble to find thieves who unwittingly took an explosive primer
By CLYNTON NAMUO
New Hampshire Union Leader Correspondent
Saturday, Jun. 23, 2007

MILTON – Few people know better than junkyard owner Roger Libby the sort of weird things that are left in old cars.

So when Libby, a former ammo supply sergeant in the Army, found what appeared to be a small explosive primer in a car last week, he thought little of it and slid the charge, which looks like a shotgun shell, into a catalytic converter he was working on. He figured that he'd deal with it later.
...
Tuesday morning, Libby, who said he is a former Milton police officer, discovered the catalytic converter in which he stored the explosive primer had been stolen, along with 41 others. He and his business partner, Eddy Parret, sprung into action, trying to find the valuable car parts, not to mention the lost explosive.
...
Libby and Parret next checked with nearby junkyard owners, one of whom said kids driving a Chevy pickup had tried to sell some catalytic converters.

From there, Libby and Parret said they were able to track down at least two of the kids, both of whom confessed and told them where the parts were taken, allowing police to trace them to Madbury and Haverhill.
...
Libby declined to name the two youths who confessed, saying only that one was a minor and one wasn't, and both were from Maine.
...
[full article here: Source]

A 'Bloodless War'? Check the books!

Ever wonder about mention you might have heard of "Aroostock's Bloodless War" over one of Maine's northern boundaries with Canada? Well, there's a great writeup about it over at the Strange Maps blog, complete with .... you guessed it .... a MAP!

Don't neglect to scan through some of the comments on the post, many of which are equally interesting.

While you're there, take a moment to pop over to another important Maine cartographical landscape -- Stephen King's Maine! Strange Maps did their second post ever on it -- yeah, Maine ranks up there.

Pet caskets booming business in Albion, Maine

Mainers have long been lauded for their ingenious use of knowhow to make a buck. This April, Matthew Dow of Dow's Wood Products made a splash on the AP wire when an article about his personal business venture arrived in the media. His idea? Custom-made caskets for Mainers' beloved pets. And why not?

Visit the Dow Wood Products website here.

Click here for a complete interview with photos Source

UFO in Vassalboro, Maine?

A letter to the Kennebec Journal raises the question! Is there anyone else out there who saw something interesting on the night of June 16th?

Regarding a possible U.F.O. in the sky on Saturday night (June 16) at 9:45 -- I saw a very bright light overhead moving slowly west to east over Vassalboro.

The light lit up the sky enough to catch our eyes and then, as we followed it moving slowly, it suddenly took off at an amazing rate of speed, faster then anything we've ever seen.

Did anyone else, curious or crazy, report this?

Robert Bryson
Vassalboro

maine02465[at]msn.com

Original article here.

Weekly Photo: Davy Crockett of Maine

Our last photo was of factory workers coming out of the old Calderwood Bakery on Pleasant Street in Portland, changing shifts way back in 1937.

Here is another photo, courtesy of Abraham Schechter, who runs the Portland Public Library's Portland Room. This time our photo is a Munjoy Hill photo, taken in 1955. Who is our intrepid young explorer, our young Davy Crockett? What did he discover about Portland during his reconnoitering mission? Is his perch still there today? Click on the photo for a larger version to inspect details.

Haunted Boothbay Opera House

The Ghosts of the Prairie has an interesting entry on the Boothbay Opera House:

The Boothbay Opera House
Boothbay Harbor, Maine

The Boothbay Opera House building was originally constructed back in 1894 and for many years, it housed the local headquarters for the Knights of Pythias, a fraternal order in line with the Freemasons. Later on, the building was turned into a theater and has hosted every story of entertainment imaginable for this small Maine town, including minstrel shows; plays; movies; town meetings and basketball games.... and if you believe the stories, it has also played host to a ghost.

No one knows who this resident spirit may be, although some have an idea, but he is said to haunt the second floor room that was the meeting place of the Knights of Pythias. Since 1949, visitors to the building have spoken of a strange presence in the room. It is usually said that the piano that is located here will play by itself, as if some spectral piano player is manipulating the keys. Different witnesses also recounted the same thing happening in 1957, during a town celebration and again in 1977.

Some believe that the ghost may be that of a man named Earl Cliff, who played the instrument for programs in the theater in the early 1900’s, but no one really knows for sure.

Boothbay Harbor is located east of Brunswick, Maine on the southwestern coast.

© Copyright 1998 by Troy Taylor
[Source]

Other mention of this haunted location online include a 2004 mention on a chatboard by member Gislebertus of an EVP from an investigation there: "The best EVP I ever heard was a tape I heard while we were investigating the Boothbay Opera House. The guy was from the New England Paranormal Assoc. played it and in the background you could hear everyone in the background talking about things that had been going on in the house... It was very informal and the people were sitting about 10 feet from the recorder. All of a sudden you hear this male voice go "HEY" clear as a bell and louder than the other people in the room. They didn't hear it at the time, it needed no enhancement as it was clearer than the other voices. When he played it, it freaked out one of my students so badly she had to leave."

Hail to the Chief

You might notice him as an anomaly on the landscape, while speeding north on I-295 between Yarmouth and Freeport- and surely you've had a detailed look while tooling along Route 1 which runs exactly parallel to the highway. Minutes north of the world’s largest rotating-and-revolving model of the globe ("Eartha," at the Delorme Map Company: http://www.delorme.com/about/eartha.aspx ), stands the Freeport icon everyone calls The Big Indian. PC language notwithstanding, he’s always been “The Big Indian,” and for us locals, The B.F.I. More often than not, the “F” is for “Freeport,” particularly in the company of children.

Driving by the Big Guy,

and considering the marketing circus that Route 1, Freeport has become, you might wonder how long he’s been standing guard as it were only a smoke signal’s puff away from Staples Cove and the Harraseeket River. Indeed, he is a landmark in our common knowledge: “Goin’ to the Muddy Ruddahh? If you pass The Big Indian, ya went too fahh,” or “Take a left at The Big Indian.”

The 40 foot statue isn’t a Maine native, but was commissioned by the owner of the old Casco Bay Trading Post, a moccasin-selling business which occupied the Freeport site back in 1969. The owner, Julian Leslie, had sought out the Pennsylvania sculptor of the 12 foot tall raincoated fisherman at Brown’s Motel in Boothbay Harbor, to have the Indian statue fashioned. Even in transit to Maine, The Big Indian made news. En route from Pennsylvania to Maine, on the New Jersey Turnpike, the flatbed truck hauling the Indian drew so many picture-taking and gawking commuters the State Police had to make the driver pull over and continue the trip after dark. Lying on its back like a sleeping giant on a rolling semi, a New Jersey State Police Chief phoned Leslie saying, “Your Indian created the biggest traffic jam on the New Jersey Turnpike.” (Portland Evening Express, 6/23/89).

The property- and The Big Indian- have since changed ownership several times. In 1989, when the retail area was owned by Levinsky’s clothing store, Phil Levinsky had the sculpture restored. The B.F.I.’s facelift included structural reinforcement and a repainting using weatherproof marine paints to bring back the Indian’s bright colors. The restorers even had to pull arrows out of the beleaguered Indian that had been shot by Bowdoin College archers. As the social landscape shifts in southern Maine, The Big Indian has seen it all- once standing in front of a Native American goods store, to clothing outlets, to a ski equipment company, and now an image-marketing firm.


(Remember: Big Indians appear closer in mirrors.)

Mystery Beast on the loose again?

Loren Coleman wonders, meanwhile a second lethal attack occurs...

Here is the first article from the Portland Press Herald:

Killings of sheep blamed on dogs
A coastal Maine farmer puts his losses at $10,000, saying several ewes were intended for breeding.
By ELBERT AULL, Staff Writer
June 4, 2007

Police said they believe a group of dogs is to blame for an overnight attack that killed more than a dozen sheep this weekend in Wiscasset.
...
Farmer Lee Straw left the carcasses out near the road Sunday while he waited for an insurance company official to photograph his losses.

"It's kind of too bad that people have to look at them, but if they'd keep control of their dogs, they wouldn't," said Straw, who runs Straw's Farm in Newcastle.

The sheep were part of a flock of around 30 at a pasture on West Alna Road.

Straw said he got a call around 5:30 a.m. Sunday from a West Alna Road resident who said the sheep were loose on his property.

He drove to Wiscasset from his farm in Newcastle and discovered the rest of his sheep running loose, along with several carcasses.

Only a couple of the 15 dead sheep showed signs of having been eaten, usually a telltale sign of a coyote attack, Straw said.

"These were just chewed up and left," he said.

The attacks were the worst for Straw in three years. He said he lost 17 sheep to a group of dogs in 2004, but police never found the dogs.

Police, along with Straw and the pasture's owner, said they believe a group of area dogs either jumped or pushed over the farmer's electric fence and went after the sheep. They said they do not believe the attack was the work of coyotes because few of the sheep were eaten.

"It has to be dogs, and more than one, because one wouldn't do that much damage," Officer Kathy S. Williams said.

Williams said no one in the neighborhood reported hearing the overnight attack, and police have no suspects.

She said the dogs probably toppled the fence, which delivers an electric shock on contact, to enter the pasture. She said the sheep were valued at around $2,000.

Straw said he believes the canines jumped his 4-foot fence. He said because about two-thirds of those killed were intended for birthing lambs, they would have been worth $10,000 over the course of several years.
...
[Click here to read full article: Source]

And here is the second article, from this morning:

Farmer loses 14 more sheep to dog attacks in Wiscasset
Police and game wardens try to discover whose dogs are responsible.
June 5, 2007
By ELBERT AULL, Staff Writer

The second dog attack in as many days decimated a flock of sheep in a pasture in Wiscasset on Monday, said police and game wardens.

West Alna Road residents found carcasses scattered throughout the neighborhood after the attack, which killed 14 sheep in the same pasture where more than a dozen sheep died the night before.

"Somebody has to know whose dog it is," said Lee Straw, 52, of Newcastle, a farmer who owns hundreds of sheep.

Police and game wardens spent much of Monday searching for clues to help find the dogs that are suspected of killing 29 sheep since Saturday night.

Investigators took hair samples and sent one carcass to a lab to measure bite marks.

Jeff Hunter, who lives about 50 yards from the sheep pasture, discovered the carcasses during a morning walk.

"I was having my coffee and cigar and I found another sheep dead next to my driveway, in a ditch," Hunter said.

He looked toward the fenced-in pasture on Bob Horne's property on West Alna Road and saw another carcass.

Hunter called Horne and the warden service. "What I saw was ugly," he said.

Investigators believe that a group of dogs, not coyotes, are to blame for the killings, said Mark Latti, a spokesman for the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife.

Few sheep were eaten, and coyotes attack prey for food, police said.

Straw, who runs a farm in Newcastle, has kept a flock of ewes on Horne's property for the past five years.

The flock trimmed and fertilized Horne's 30-acre field in return for the free stay.

It was an arrangement that ran smoothly until this weekend.

"We've never had this kind of kill on my fields," he said.

Horne said he checked on the flock after Sunday's Red Sox-Yankees game, which ended around midnight. The sheep looked fine, he said.

When morning came, Horne said, he and Hunter found carcasses "all over the neighborhood."

Straw said he believes that the same group of dogs was involved in both attacks.

He said that if investigators identify the dogs, his insurance company will likely seek damages from their owners.

Straw lost 15 sheep in the first attack and 14 in the second. The attacks whittled his flock on West Alna Road from 30 to just one.

Many of the sheep were pregnant ewes. Straw said they could have produced offspring and goods worth $20,000 during their lives.

Straw buried most of the carcasses on Monday, except two that had not been found and another that was sent to a laboratory.

On Sunday, he left a group of carcasses from the first attack near the road while he waited for an insurance official to catalog his losses.

Straw and Horne covered those carcasses with a tarp on Sunday night. He said he regrets not watching the flock overnight, with rifle in hand. He and Horne thought foul weather would deter predators.

"It was raining, and we thought we had them in a tight area," Horne said.
[Source]

Lisbon Woman Owns Indecipherable Book

Viviane Dyer bought a weird book at a Farmington Falls auction in 1968. She's had it examined by academics and theologians, and no one can figure out what language it's written in.

"Rest milady!" wrote A. Baillargeon, in a 1983 response to Dyer. His letter was postmarked from the Vatican. "This semantic usage is impenetrable to all but long-bearded (Indians) who have toiled a lifetime in deciphering these languages."

Baillargeon told Dyer an archivist identified the flowing lettering as an obscure Indian dialect. Since his response, however, other scholars have said it's derivative of ancient Greek or perhaps a Slavic tongue.

Pere Raymond Giguere, a Dominican priest in Montreal, analyzed the text in 1980. His correspondence included conclusions the text is possibly Russian, but with the additional possibility of African origin.

Giguere's experts, to no avail, analyzed the book against 576 languages in which the British and French Bible Societies publish, he wrote. Its symbols seem to be derived mostly from Latin characters, the experts said, but with an apparent alphabet of 31 unique letters, as opposed to Latin's 26. [Source]