USS Maine "1 Pounder" Gun | Milford

In the past, I've written about the abandoned WWII era airfield in Milford. Milford is also home to yet another 'attraction' of sorts, a relic from a different time raised from the bottom of Havana harbor: One out of the USS Maine's four Hotchkiss/Diggs-Schoreder 'One Pounder' light guns.

If you're unfamiliar with the USS Maine, let me give you the tl;dr (tl;dr is too long, didn't read in 'internet speak.')  Cubans revolted against the Spanish, and in 1898 we sent the Maine to protect our interests in the area. The ship exploded and sank. The official story is that five tons of gunpowder ignited, more or less obliterating the entire forward third of the vessel. That's the Navy's story. The vessel was recovered using some pretty impressive engineering skills and pieces of it are all over the country. 

One such piece of it is in Jordan Park, which is right off of Rt 2 in Milford.

You can see this gun (or some like it) in the photo(s) below, enlarged with sharpness/brightness adjusted.

Source from Imgur.

Arsenal Site | Essex Street, Bangor

Bangor State Arsenal | Lewiston Sun Journal, 1910

Nestled in the woods between the perennial sledding spot Essex St hill and the Broadway shopping center is the nexus of what could possibly have been one of the most tense moments that the city of Bangor had ever seen.

One political party had been in control of the state until 1878, at which point a politician of the opposing party was elected Governor. This man was Alonzo Garcelon, and after the Civil War he changed sides of the aisle - from Republican to Democrat. Like many newly-minted politicos, Garcelon tackled what he thought was a pressing issue for the time: voter fraud.

Here is where much of what I've found gets a little cloudy. Garcelon investigated the voter fraud and determined that Democrats, not Republicans, should have control of the legislature. Whether or not the perceived fraud had actually occurred is not known. As you can well imagine, lots of people really didn't like that. Republican (at the time) senator James Blaine went to Augusta with 100 armed men to 'protest' Governor Garcelon's findings. What did Governor Garcelon do? Call out the state militia to occupy Augusta and order the contents of Bangor's arsenal transferred to Augusta as well .

These actions, taken on Christmas day of 1879 were met with general furor. A civil servant transporting the arms/ammunition was stopped by a crowd of "well liquored woodsmen" who sought to fight back against what they saw as an attempt by Garcelon to entrench his power. They unhitched his horses and surrounded him, stating that they sought to hang him. The mayor showed up in the nick of time and informed the civil servant that he could not be responsible for the inevitable riot that would occur should he remove the arms from the Bangor State Arsenal and even went so far as to offer the civil servant police protection if he were to disobey the Governor's orders and return the weapons.

Buuuut...there's always some local yahoo who likes to make any situation worse: a man who shall remain nameless of Old Town armed himself (and others), came back, and tried to get the civil servant to bring the weapons to Augusta. No kidding.

The Christmas Day incident in 1879 blew over, only to have tensions once again exacerbated early in January by an over-zealous guard. Once again arms were ordered to be transferred from the arsenal in Bangor down to Augusta. This time the order came from Joshua Chamberlain. The guard had political allegiances to the Greenback party and did not recognize the authority of the current governor (Daniel Davis, at the time) He was promptly removed, and probably had more than that done to him...

A 'mashup' of an 1875 map from HistoricMapWorks & Google Earth. Arsenal visible by (under) highway.
Per HistoricMapWorks usage policy - not commercial use.

No evidence of this structures presence is currently in existence, if you drive around between Broadway and Essex Street, the most interesting abandoned thing you'll find is Mama Baldacci's.

The arsenal was built on land given to the state by Asa and Elisabeth Davis in 1838, shortly thereafter several executive 'warrants' were issued in favor of constructing a state arsenal on site. 1847 saw the state legislature resolve to make appropriations for military purposes. (Which is odd, as canteens dating from the War of 1812 were found there in 1902.) Despite some excitement in the late 1800s, the arsenal operated until the early 1900s, at which point it was abandoned completely. The Lewiston Evening Journal described it in 1910:

A large amount of arms were kept there, but six or seven years ago it was entirely abandoned. The guns which had been there were sent to the capitol to be cared for.

Since then the old arsenal building, the stable and ht eold brick powder house have been falling into decay. Even the old high picket fence which encloses the place is taking on a weatherbeaten and dilapidated appearance. Pickets are broken and falling off, the rusty old padlocks on gates, the hingest of which are even more rusty, are jokes so far s keeping folks off the grounds. For there are a dozen holes in the fence as easy to go thru as the gates themselves would be.

The arsenal site was returned to nature by 1927 when the "Arsenal Site Lot" was proposed as a State Park. Instead, it's where the highway runs through...


Timeline & Sources

• 1838: Asa and Elisabeth Davis gift the land.
• 1838:Warrant in favor of erecting state arsenal issued by Rufus C Vose. 
• 1847: State legislature resolves making appropriations for military purposes.
• 1849: State legislature authorizes repair and repainting of the state arsenal in Bangor.
• 1876: "Military property" removed from Portland and placed in the state arsenal in Bangor. 
• 1879: Arms removal is intended as a loyalty test to see if Bangor's citizens will obey civil authorities.
• 1879: A crowd tries to stop transfer of arms and ammunition from Bangor to Augusta. A talk of armed rebellion ensues.  Tensions boil over and a bunch of liquored woodsmen nearly killed a guy....
• 1880: Joshua Chamberlain expected to order arms from the arsenal to be removed and placed in charge of the city marshal, not the state.
• 1880: Chamberlain orders arms removed, the guard refuses -- recognizing only the authority of an unelected governor. He is forced to open the doors, the keys are changed, and he's replaced.
• 1881: The state rejects Sumner Bolton as the new keeper of the arsenal. 
• 1882: 50 cadet rilfes, breech loading and w/ bayonets are transferred to the Lewiston armory.
• 1893: The arsenal is almost closed. General Henry Mitchell tries to save it. 
• 1902: Lewiston Daily Sun reports that canteens from the war of 1812 were found at the Bangor Arsenal's 'obsolete stores' by Gen Farnham.
• 1903: A serial arsonist nearly destroys the arsenal.
• 1911: A book is written and sold detailing the history of the arsenal. The end goal was to turn the building in to a convalescent home.
• 1927: The arsenal apparently no longer standing, the lot becomes intended as a state park.

Abandoned Sawmill | Demeritt Forest, Old Town

UPDATED 08/26/14 -- Machinery information added.

Unknown to many, most of Marsh Island is connected by a system of trails maintained by the University of Maine. Many of these areas are multi-use, and one such is the Demeritt Forest on College Ave extension which provides a very picturesque environment in which to recreate while simultaneously providing a giant hands-on laboratory for some of the university students.

According to the school , this forest was acquired by lease in the 1930s, by deed in the 1950s and then given its current name in the early 1970s. According to informational material from the university -- this area has been used by the forestry program since 1939.

Apparently, someone's school project has been left behind for 50+ years:

 

Just off the beaten path, less than a quarter mile from where the Sewall Rd connects with College Ave you'll find the remains of what appears to have been a machine designed to use pulleys and cables to move logs. This "machine" is in several pieces which appear to include but may not necessarily be limited to:

• An engine mount and wheel. A large empty steel frame containing a large wheel which would have acted as a pulley and which has/had an articulated axle attached. 
• An electronic control box and sled (above, foreground). This control box was dated 1957, and looks like it may have had additional machinery underneath.
• A timber sled that looks like it had mechanical components at one time.
• Unknown sled component (below, identifiable by eye hook.) 

The fine folks over at /r/WhatIsThisThing have told me that this is small logging equipment often used for small, independent contractors. I get the feeling that this is in no way the remains of anything top of the line....These are my best guesses as to the function of these components. I know next to nothing about this industry, please feel free to set me straight in the comments.

A word regarding College Ave extension: unless you have a really rugged vehicle, air suspension, or in case you don't have to pay for maintenance on your own vehicle, you might want to avoid the Sewall to Stillwater stretch unless you like breaking things and being shaken around in a manner not dissimilar to a box full of puppies.

If you're sensitive about your weight avoid this road as well, you will  jiggle.