[Roadside Relic] MEC Engine 470 | Waterville

(Link to the high res image gallery is at the bottom.) 

I'm a sucker for the weather beaten and disused. Even better if it looks like something that Tim Burton would doodle out of a steampunk nightmare. Here is an item that you're going to have to see soon if you'd like to see it in its current state, because its days are numbered. The last passenger steam train out of Bangor: MEC #470. A steam engine that serviced customers between Bangor and Boston from 1924-1954. What makes this machine remarkable within the context of the general state of the way things now are in Maine is that it was used exclusively for passenger rail service. No potatoes and no pulpwood. Also remarkable is the fact hat this was the last passenger train to depart from Bangor. 470 was given to the city of Waterville as a gift in 1962, by Maine Central Railroad which was celebrating its 100th anniversary. In 1970 it was moved to its current location where it now sits behind a fence in a park in Waterville.

Go see it now, in its charming rusted and weathered state before it goes away. Fortunately, this is going 'away' is more akin to being whisked away for a makeover. The New England Steam Corporation plans to get this 127 ton behemoth up and running again. Here's their Indiegogo pitch! They've come a long way since being set back by the city of Waterville due to asbestos concerns.


While it'll certainly be great to see this thing actually move under its own power, a little bit of melancholy comes with its potential removal. As a kid, I used to climb all over this thing. If there was a place to stand and something to hold on to I was there. This stopped when I got into the coal car and my sneakers couldn't provide adequate traction to get out, so naturally through child logic I concluded that my parents were just going to leave me there. This is why I didn't visit this machine between 1995 and 2015, I suppose.

Since it was first placed in its park in late 1970 it has been more or less deteriorating, and due to safety concerns it should be recognized that the fence currently in place around the site is for the benefit of the machine's new owners, and for the benefit of the proudly tetanus-free. It's new owners, The New England Steam Corporation, have some pretty graphic photos of the carnage wrought by Maine weather on their Facebook page.

I visited "old 470" on an overcast day in May. I didn't get many good shots because my choices were either shooting blind or trying to shoot through a fence. Here's the full res collection, and here are some of the nicer shots for your casual perusal.

 

These are only a few of the photos I took. The rest of the collection is here, and in full resolution.

Resources:

• Engine 470 on WikiPedia
• 4-6-2 Class information on WikiPedia
• New England Steam Corporation on Facebook
• New England Steam Corporation's website
• New England Steam Corporation's YouTube channel. (some seriously neat stuff here.)

Mystery '59 Ford Fairlane 500 | Strong

WARNING: THIS POST IS IMAGE HEAVY. IT MAY TAKE A MOMENT TO LOAD.

I spotted a sad 1959 Ford Fairlane 500 in the cold Maine rain.

Nothing historic here, just a feeling. 

This is what it would have used to look like:

Wikimedia Commons

...that's about it. Here are a few larger images.

[Roadside Relic] M60 Patton | Lincoln

WARNING: PHOTO HEAVY POST. MAY TAKE A MOMENT TO LOAD. 

Pardon my gimmick, but I think Summer 2015 will be my summer of Roadside Relics. New suspension and a new steering rack has a way of inspiring one to drive. And as you're driving into Lincoln via US 2 North, you may have to double take at what is parked behind the retirement home. A twenty two foot long Chrysler that gets one mile to the gallon and has a power to weight ratio of 15hp to the ton. While a giant Chrysler with such fuel consumption isn't all that unusual around here, this particular Chrysler is an iconic and ubiquitous vehicle that rolled off of an assembly line in Detroit in the 60s known as the M-60 "Patton." America's main battle tank during the Cold War period. Interestingly enough, Chrysler and Uncle Sam have had a very long love affair.

 
Wikipedia can tell you everything you want to know about this vehicle and more. Since this is a part of my "Roadside Relics" collection, I must inform you that this object is not at a park, and there isn't really a place for you to park unless you decide to get yourself a fantastic deal at Marden's! Signage indicates the lot is intended for their customers. If you don't like great deals, I'd recommend parking across the street (near the gazebo.)

Here are the remainder of the photographs of the tank.

Above you can see one of the differences between the M60 and its predecessor. The M-48 had a rounded hull while the M-60 has a beveled hull. I'm going to guess that this is because the armor would seem to be less likely to take as much damage if hit from an angle as opposed to head on. This design element reminds me of the Tiger II and its similarly angled armor.

While it's not in a park, I found I was able to get out of the car and walk around this without anyone giving me any trouble. Another difference that you can spot is that the M48 had five support struts to a side, compared to the M60's three. I couldn't find a tailpipe but I did find a heatsink. These 'blades' are to increase the surface area available for cooling. You have this exact same principle working inside of your computer right now. This gigantic 750 hp V12 may be air cooled.

[Retro Tech] 1952 Chambers 90C Gas Range

This is the second 'artifact' post I've written, the first of which was the Doomsday Shitter -- a civil defense relic from the University of Maine. The old/neat things that one can find here are not limited to concrete and wooden corpses of what used to be; something doesn't need to have held nuclear capsules to be interesting, sometimes pots and pans will suffice.

I got the ingredients, for your experience

Wintertime in Maine is one long gray rainy day. I've been trying to 'save' content for it all summer, but it's wearing as thin as my tolerance for snow. I was house sitting over the weekend bemoaning the dearth of things to check out this time of year when I realized I had a bit of a window into a different era just a couple of rooms away. Now, wintertime in Maine is a wonderful time to have access to a gas stove. Not only does it not require electricity to function, but it also provides you with a handy one way ticket to somewhere else. As a fan of all things retro I was thrilled to have the opportunity to house-sit for a friend who had an original Chambers model 90-C Gas range from 1952 in good condition.

After using it to (perhaps drunkenly) cook a meal or two, I realized what I'd been missing by using electric ranges all of my life. Having grown up in a trailer the late 1980s/early 1990s, suffice it to say that this device appeared near completely alien to me. No dials, no digital readouts, no holodeck inspired parallel lines that do nothing but scream "THE BEST 1993 HAS TO OFFER" No plastic, no numbers and no electricity. No safeties, no timers and no fucking around. Everything about this device is evocative of riding around in a car of the era, complete with the sense that if something goes wrong you can really hurt yourself.  Oh, and fire, did I mention all the fire?

Chambers with griddle up and broiler open.

Intimidating? Definitely.

Worth it? Absolutely.

First -- it's apparently impossible to heat a pan unevenly if you're using fire. Second, This device has features that I've never seen in an appliance before: the broiler/griddle combo with an adjustable bottom rack, and the heated (stock) pot well that takes the place of a fourth burner. The dimensions of the pot well are pretty narrow -- either stock pots were thinner back then (like Americans) or Chambers sold this unit with a 'built in' stock pot. Either way nothing fits, so it effectively adds one pound to the (proverbial) list of things that I won't do...

As I got over my inborn fear of losing my eyebrows or gassing myself to death, I had begun to realize the plastic trimmed, glass faced digital lies I'd bought my whole life. I found a handful of ways in which this half century old relic is indeed better than the black glass topped Ikea inspired, soulless hunks of steel and glass that you can buy at a department store. Plus, how could you not love these controls?

Here are the reasons why the Chambers 90C is awesome:

• You can hide in it in the event of a nuclear attack because it's heavier than Kelly Clarkson on a cheap swing set.
• You have a built in griddle and broiler in the exact same mechanism. And best of all, that mechanism is mechanical -- very mechanical. You get a nice satisfying "clunk" whenever you use it. It reminds me of the gearbox of a Mini Cooper S. 
• The knobs have crimped foil inlays. This (above) is how you do bling tastefully. 
• In stead of a fourth burner, you get a sort of little heated cylindrical cubbie in which you can place a stock pot. I'm going to guess this is because the crock pot wouldn't gain popularity until the 1970s. 
• Having one in your home would be like living at Nicky's.  
• The broiler has a depth adjustment, apparently. I didn't try it out because the handle for the adjustment felt pretty fixed in place, and I try not to break things that use gas and fire to function. 
• The oven part is pretty small, but the gas/flame shuts off when it's preheated. Once its heated, you stop using gas. This feature is pretty Priusey because it's green but makes you think that your machine is broken. 
• There's a huge online community for people who have/appreciate these appliances. More fan sites than you could shake a stick at provided you've got the diet and exercise regimen of a drag queen (adderall, lettuce, rinse, repeat.) But no joke -- even though there are only a handful of sites dedicated to these machines, there's some seriously useful information floating around out there.
• There is ample storage for things in a hole that might also be an oven. It's an oven with a cupboard in it.

 Here are some reasons why you might not want to own a Chambers:

• Rachael Ray has one. Not a 90C, but still a Chambers. Close enough. 

Just in case you wanted content that doesn't require you to read through the pithy ramblings of someone who can't even make a room full of stoned drunkards laugh, here's a photo of the whole unit...If I had one of these in any of my previous apartments perhaps I'd not be such a shitty cook.

The whole unit.

[Roadside Relic] AGM28 Hound Dog | Presque Isle & Limestone

Oh. More missiles.

I'm not doing my best impression of a "disappointed Kim Jong Un on Christmas morning", I'm just realizing that this is the fourth time I've written about these fascinatingly retrofuturistic airborne weapons. I hope that between the Snark base in Presque Isle, the Nike sites in and around Limestone and the Bomarc base in Bangor that you're not getting too awfully tired of my mild obsession with the technological progeny of Werner Von Braun.

Summer is coming so it's time to add a new roadside attraction from the age of atomic horror to the list: The AGM28 Hound Dog. Available for your viewing pleasure in Presque Isle and Limestone.

AGM-28 on display in Presque Isle (OC)

This is a distinctively different weapon than what we've covered before. Rather than being located at a stationary base either underground or in a hardened launch structure like the Nike or Bomarc, the Hound Dog was intended to be launched from a B-52 bomber while the aircraft was still out of range of the target area's defensive weapons. This weapon was not designed to destroy the bomber's primary target but rather to get there ahead of the bomber and damage (or destroy) the enemy's defenses.This weapon also carried a W28 nuclear warhead with a 70 kiloton - 1.5 megaton yield. Compare this to the Bomarc and its relatively measly 10 kiloton yield and you can see why these make rather interesting roadside monuments.

To give us a little perspective, according to NUKEMAP if a bomb this size were detonated in the center of downtown Bangor, the fireball would engulf the mall, Husson and over half of the airport. Still, it's a nice place for a picnic.,...

At Veteran's Park (OC)

This missile is located in Veteran's Park in Presque Isle. If you want a picnic, see this one. If you want to see a nicely painted up missile whose graphics are not mailbox letters, the Loring Military Heritage Center can help you there, and their museum is pretty fantastic too.

AGM 28 at Loring Heritage Center (OC)

Spaceport | Bangor Mall

Bangor Daily News

You're living on Bangor's east side and it's 1978. Ten years past the closure of Dow AFB, one of the town's farms had been transformed into a modern mall. Star Wars had just shown everyone that you could do action movies in space and reap in cash hand over fist. Texas Instruments had just released the first microchip, and the first Bulletin Board System was allowing people from all over the globe to dial in to argue about Star Trek and write creepy Redwall fan fiction from basements of pastel split level ranches everywhere.

While in a time of relative tumult, technology was making the world a lot smaller. The consumer computer revolution was just beginning, and computing power six times faster than what was used to track supersonic aircraft and control nuclear countermeasures only sixteen years prior had been dedicated to play Pac-Man.

Video games had gone from being a fledgling industry in 1971  to a loud and colorful "public health threat" by the late 1970s that would surely still make Brewer's city council blush even today. A hubbub grew surrounding these magic boxes into which kids could deposit coins and become transfixed. Even the Bangor Daily News had run a series of  essays from children running from themes like "Pac Man eats the brain" to "video games are no worse than sports." 

There's not a whole lot available on the Internet regarding Spaceport other than the ad above and various news stories related to various incidents, achievements and accidents there. Fortunately for us, Space Port appears to have been a chain which means that it's more or less guaranteed that a lot of what had gone on inside had been standardized to some degree.

In addition to the training video above, there exist several stories collected in the Bangor Daily News over the years that help paint an affectionate picture of a chain that provided a couple generations of us with memories in exchange for quarters. 

• An ad run on October 4th, 1978 gives us an image of the inside of a futuristic wonderland full of top of the line machines that would deliver us to places elsewhere. It touted Space Wars and Middle Earth.
• February 17th, 1983 saw a collection of children's essays about whether or not video games were a social problem on par with rock music and...rock music.
• A touching story from ten years later tells us of a gentleman with muscular dystrophy who received a pioneering piece of adaptive technology; a custom remote control unit that allowed him to play video games. The piece indicates it was one of the first devices of its kind in the country. 
• In 2005 Emily Burnham wrote about Dance Dance Revolution.
• In 2007, it caught fire.

Nowadays it's a head shop. If you want to play arcade games you've got to go to a sports bar so you can get your daily dose of other people's jukebox preferences while you do it. Personally, I preferred the cacophony of tens of arcade machines as they wildly vied for our collective attention.

Caswell Training Site Part 1 of 2 | Caswell

While I don't mean to be some kook who blogs obsessively about the largest SAC base in the country that was closed before he'd stopped believing in the Santa Bunny, here's yet another site that's a stone's throw away from Loring's weapons storage area. Unlike the remains of Caswell AFS to the east, or Loring's WSA to the south, it's a bunch of stuff in the woods. What apparently stands within the relatively dense forest between Loring and the Canadian border is affectionately referred to by one of my local sources as "The Octagon", a military training facility that is another site lending itself to Aroostook's 20th century legacy of potatoes, timber and nuclear weapons.

While the film features a bunch of folks doing kung fu in a training camp being trained by an Asian guy who is supposed to be Chuck Norris' brother, the real life "Octagon" in Aroostook county was an Army training facility that had begun life in 1947 when Strategic Air Command started to construct what was then called Limestone Army Air Base. It was used by the Maine National Guard from the 1960s through the late 1980s. The army's records indicate that there are five operational range and training areas at the Caswell site consisting of maneuver and training areas as well as firing ranges spread out over about a thousand acres. (Source)

Unlike some of the nasty surprises buried under Loring's WSA, the Army notes that all that we may find is 'current and historical small firing points and impact berms.' I didn't know what an impact berm was, so I asked my friend who is currently in the Army. It's a mound of dirt behind a target so that your bullets don't ruin someone else's day, or their face. 

Other than the Army report that I've linked above, the only other piece of evidence that I have of the existence of a training range in Caswell is from the Bangor Daily News from June 3rd, 1983 in which Major General Paul R Day decided to clue us in on what might still be out there...albeit 32 years after the fact:

The Adjutant General, Maine National Guard, is interested in procuring Architectural Engineering Services for Roads, Latrines and Tent Slabs at the Caswell training Site in Caswell Maine

Services required but not limited to are: Surveys, design (siting, preparation of plans, specifications and contract documents), construction (supervision, testing and as built drawings) These are for gravel road with drainage structures, latrine buildings and concrete tent slabs. 

The reported location of "The Octagon"

These renovations had come at the tail end of the facilities lifespan as a training site. Where might these newer structures be? I've combed the area for hours on Google Earth and have found a variety of oddities that may be consistent with its use as a troop maneuver and small arms training site.

There appears to be a rather extensive road network to the north of Willard and Butterfield Lake roads. The presence of the roads is indicated by a mixture of plain sight and man-made lines visible against the tree cover. There are logging roads in the area, but all of them consist of straight stretches and right angles. At several points bridges are visible that may be large enough for a vehicles other than those that are recreational. An example of the general condition of the roads as well as the type of bridge is visible in the photo above. The clump of trees to the right is the reported location of a horseshoe shaped, eight sided bunker of sorts constructed of railroad ties with two of its 'sides' opened.


While I am not entirely certain of the access status of this area, I do plan on trying to find out during the next open house at Loring. 

Project Bluebook Highlights/Documented UFO Sightings | Everywhere, Maine

EDIT: The site I linked to (The Black Vault) has been redesigned so my links are currently broken. I've not yet sorted through their new interface to find what it is that I need.

F-89 Scorpion Interceptor. Ca 1957

This isn't really a place/abandonment so much as it was a series of events whose only remaining Project Bluebook - a product of the heightened security concerns of the Cold War era. The "series of events" that I'm referring to aren't "sightings" but the reports taken as a part of this project. A guy named John Greenewald spent years sending hundreds of FOIA requests to the USAF regarding 'sightings' of unidentified flying objects. These were collected by the Air Force as a matter of national security considering the rapidly accelerating capabilities of the Soviets at the time. People would report 'sightings' of unidentified flying objects to the Air Force and their requests would be routed by mail, or rudimentary electronic messaging, to Ohio and the Air Force would send investigators or even jet interceptors out to investigate. He got nearly 13,000 records back, and according to news reports seven hundred were determined to be "unidentified" while many were classified as weather balloons, ball lightning, and even reflections of birds.

The results of his search have been archived online at The Black Vault as part of their Project  Bluebook collection. The results are about as searchable as Google Newspapers -- which is to say that they're generally legible but aren't perfect. Also, each of these is a scan of a paper record from anywhere from 64-47 years ago. So you don't have to do all the searching by yourself, I've linked directly to Maine related files (in PDF) and have provided a short summary for each. But for now, here are the highlights.

Fryeburg Academy Student Reports the Starship Enterprise to the Air Force 

The best of all of these is perhaps when a 17 year old male from Fryeburg reported an object that was fluorescent blue and "looked like the starship "Enterprise" on the television show "Star Trek" except it had wings." The Air Force would send a form in response to a report, or in some cases an investigator. In this case they sent a form, and the guy who reported the thing even drew pictures that include the bridge and the deflector dish. To the credit of the Air Force, it is noted on the official report up front that the guy changed his story about how long he was observing the "object."

It's more or less admitted up front by the perpetrators that the sighting was a hoax. Their enclosed letter (in shitty cursive) read the following: 

My name is [redacted] roommate. I am very interested in UFOs and my viewpoints are pretty scientific. My roommate saw something that defies explanation. [Redacted] who yesterday saw a sceptic (sic) now believes there is something up there. He and I are both sane and reliable people and in no way perpetrating a hoax. We are both willing to give you any information that you may need or want and are inviting you to send a man up that we can talk to and tell him what we saw.  

In response to this report, the Air Force sent the standard "117" form. These were the drawings included on the form when it was sent back...

This is definitely a relic of the 1960s because Jean Luc Picard wouldn't approve of such a waste of time. 

The Social Pages Say Millinocket has the biggest balls of all.

Scully's morning face.

This one is worthy of Mulder and Scully (since Warner Bros is more forgiving than Fox, all I dare to give you is Jim Carrey with Gillian Anderson's hair.)

Sometimes dirt gets vaporized as a product of a cloud-to-ground lightning strike that isn't sufficiently charged to be immediately visible. Ball lightning is formed as part of an electrochecmical reaction that attracts charged particles up the path of the lightning strike. At least according to the Daily Mail , which happens to be the only source of information I could find on ball lightning outside of Wikipedia and the Geocities page of someone who could stand some time apart from his short-wave radio.

One of the more mysterious Project Bluebook records related to Maine is about a ball lightning sighting in 1964 in Millinocket. This is a transcription of both the letters from the observers to the Air Force:

They held hands and he told me that they were so scared that he almost went through the car windshield. They described the ball of fire as being almost 2 1/2 feet in diameter. They describe the ball as bouncing when it came towards them and when it left it seemed to fly or flow away. I am interested in as much information about objects similar to this description. Would you please forward as much information as possible to the above address?

Letter #1. 1964. Sender Redacted

I have known my [redacted] has address an unidentified object no body has ever seen. This was on May 24th, 1964 approximately 9pm on the Millinocket Lake Rd vicinity of [unintelligible] lake. Another man were driving in a car towarde (sic) Millinocket lake and all of a sudden a ball of fire appeared on the side of the road it stood almost five minutes they got out of the car to get a better view of the fireball. Upon nother it was a fire ball then he became very frightened and ran back to the car. And this time the fire ball seem to follow then back to the car. The car would not start and they remain in it. And this the fire ball came within 5 or 6 feet of the car then moved off on another direction over.

Letter # 2. 1964. Sender also redacted.

This is one of the few genuinely spooky records because it has all the classic trappings of an X-filesian story right down to the car not starting. All that it's missing is David Duchovny's nose and a stopped watch.

Soviet Flyby over Presque Isle, or General Electric AN/FPS-8 malfunction?

Only about 5% of the 13,000 records is still considered to refer to an "unknown." An "unknown" status is a pretty big deal considering the Air Force told people they saw the star Arcturus four different times despite wildly differing descriptions, and that they even told a dentist that a series of lights he saw happened to be the reflection of birds. But this particular sighting is the perfect example of why Project Bluebook and its pursuit of little green men was seen as critical to national security.
This particular incident has two slightly contradictory reports attached to it. They both tell of a large radar contact picked up by the radar site in Caswell resulting in a sortie of two F-89D Scorpions from the 528th Air Defense Group of the 57th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron garrisoned at Presque Isle having been dispatched to 18,000' and 25,000' to look for the object after it had been identified by air-intercept radar. The first report identifies the incident as an equipment malfunction, while the second report includes details about interceptors and their loss of the object at 4,000 yards. A detail that was absent from the first report....

Caswell AFS - Radomes.org

The object was painted by air-intercept radar at Caswell and was also on the radar scopes of the F-89 pilots. Radar contact was held but no visual contact was made. According to the handy play by play provided by the USAF, the interceptors had crossed the path of the object and were about to converge on its stern quarter when the object simply went 'off the side' of their radar scopes when they were 4,000 yards away. Both ground and air radar observers had estimated the object was moving at over 500 knots (926 km/h or 575.39 mph.)

It's worth noting that the top speed of the MiG-15 was 1,000 km/h. On the other hand, it's also worth noting that Caswell's low altitude gap filler radar site in Bridgewater picked up nothing, and that Caswell had two brand new GE Radar units installed earlier in 1957. Regardless, this 'incident' was determined to have been 'unknown' making it pretty rare.

This isn't the only time that Caswell/Limestone show up in this collection of reports -- in 1958, observers at Caswell AFS spotted an object near their facility and requested a B52 from Dow AFB who was on a training mission at the time check it out. The pilot said the oblong object was motionless, while the tail gunner observed "rapid movement" with "erratic changes." It was seen from the air and the sky, but could not be picked up on radar. The final detail that makes the secondary Caswell 'incident' worth remembering is that the tail gunner's search radar died within seconds of spotting the object, as did the B52's intercom system.

 The entire collection: 

Below is every single Project Bluebook record in PDF from Mr Greenewald's "The Black Vault." I've also provided a summary for each.

• 1951 | Presque Isle - An airman saw Venus change color thanks to atmospheric refraction and had to fill out a 17 page form. This one also includes (accidentally, I believe) some information related to Bell Labs personnel and another "sighting." 
• 1952 | Presque Isle -  Weather observers as "PRESSUREISLE AFB" reported a circular orange object with four green lights observed via theolodite. It was determined to either be a "Moby Dick" weather balloon or Jupiter. Interesting to note in this one that correspondence refers to "Presque Isle AFB" and "Limestone AFB."
• 1954 | Pittsfield - A witness described a saucer, complete with dome, the sound of bees, and a whirlwind/cooling effect beneath it. The report is light on details, presumably because the claim is too perfect to be anything other than imaginative.
• 1955 | Augusta - A large, humming, blue/green spherical object was spotted from the ground and local radar. Investigating officer noted that the duration was 'long' for a meteorite and that it was probably a meteor. 
• 1955 | Bear Island - The Air Force facility at Charleston was doing some training with high altitude flares, which made some people in the Cranberry Isles think they saw a UFO.  
• 1955 | Brownville - A pulpwood truck driver and a schoolboy reported a round object was reported that changed colors as it changed altitude. An interceptor was sent up and passes were made, they were unable to find anything and were ordered back due to fuel status...after all this it was determined to be Arcturus. 
• 1955 | Charleston - A military person at Charleston AFS spotted an orange object that would dart back and forth in a straight line for about seven minutes. The first draft of the report (at the end) stated that the story was that it was a weather balloon. It is corrected to note insufficient data upon which to draw a conclusion. 
• 1955 | Lincolnville - Object "60 feet long and wide in rear. Flashing green, no sound" was determined to be a meteorite.
• 1955 | Old Town - "No particular shape. Reddish orange. Fog and Overcast." Somebody called the Air Force on the sun. 
• 1955 | Old Town - A glowing, red object was spotted that floated downward and disappeared. Strategic Air Command verified the object was a flare.
• 1956 | Medway - A black, pear shaped object 'emitting blue and yellow flame' was spotted for a few seconds by a sporting camp owner/pilot from Portage as well as three other persons.
• 1956 | Mexico - There's something strange in your neighborhood, who're you gonna call? Susan Collins, apparently. In 1956 someone had stated that a green orb had left a 'marking' on her children's swing set and decided to contact Margaret Chase Smith. The 'marking' was a manufacturers decal. The flashes of light that the person saw was from deer poachers. The air force classified the reporting person as "completely unreliable" and decided (perhaps rightfully so) that the reports were based on hallucinations. 
• 1956 | Pittsfield - A retired woolen mill worker saw Venus for the first time, apparently.
• 1956 | Presque Isle -  Military radar detected an object at 4000 yards, roughly the size of two planes. Nothing could be seen with the naked eye and the incident was classified as an equipment malfunction.  
• 1956 | Presque Isle - This appears to be a more detailed version of the above report. Unlike other incidents designated as 'probably aircraft', this report includes a statement that it was picked up on airborne radar...and the interceptors' radar lost contact at 4000 yards. It was tracked for three minutes and was clocked at 500 knots, which is nearly Mach 1. This report concludes that it was likely caused by an aircraft, however an attached letter indicates that since the pilots scope and the ground operators scope reported two different sets of conditions that it was likely an equipment malfunction. This one also inludes a document that none of the others have, placing it in the 'unknown' category.
• 1956 | Waldoboro - A cigar shaped object with lights does what cigar shaped objects with lights on them do. Acted like an airplane and disappeared. Classified by official report as probable aircraft.
• 1957 | Houlton - A B52 pilot saw a meteor about 10 miles S/W of Houlton. I know the report says "Hutton", but Hutton doesn't exist and people still think Bangor is Banger.
• 1957 | Livermore Falls - A small, round, red and white object that moved at a high rate of speed and then disappeared was reported and investigated. Official report states "cannot properly evaluate. However, probably an aircraft." 
• 1957 | Presque Isle - A round, white object zig zagged through the sky before disappearing into the clouds. Determined to be a balloon.
• 1957 | South Portland - Two B47 crews spotted an object at high altitude that kept a 'true' course and did not have trails. It was concluded that these crews saw Sputnik.
• 1958 | Bath (Caswell) AFS - A B52 pilot reported a multicolored stationary object 20k feet above his position, his tailgunner reported that the object was actually moving quite a bit. It was painted by AC&W radar and still classified as "aurora" even though the report states that the tail gunner's radar and intercom system had ceased to function within seconds of the sighting. No 'intercept' was made because the B52 had better things to do.
• 1958 | Belfast - An amber light is spotted from the ground. Investigators declare this a star that's being affected by dense fog (Arcturus to be specific), but the eyewitness account states that the light was bright enough to light up a rock wall. Brunswick NAS reported nothing. Dow AFB called the FBI, who knew nothing as well....
• 1959 | Greenville - A dime size disc with a red streak was reported and determined to have been a balloon whose streak was a solar reflection. Official report notes that "Radar coverage in the area is good, but no contact was made."
• 1959 | Loring AFB -  Another actually weird one. Folks from Ft Fairfield, a trailer park in Presque Isle, Air Police from Loring AFB and the Presque Isle PD all reported a "flying saucer" that couldn't be found once F-102's from VT got to the area. Radar contact made at Loring and Caswell....classified as a balloon. 
• 1959 | North Turner -  An elaborate description of a saucer with revolving blue lights, photos included. However, not photos of anything remotely related to a saucer with revolving blue lights.
• 1960 | Charleston  - Three objects were reported as bright flashes, one of which appeared to come from the ground. It was determined that Mars refracted as it came into view.
• 1960 | Dexter - Someone reported a round object with a tail...
• 1961 | Presque Isle - This is 22 pages of various sightings from the Presque Isle area. Mostly meteors, and you find that the USAF couldn't spell Sputnik. One particularly interesting incident (on page 17) tells of an object sighted by Vermont State Troopers and Bangor Police Department who radioed Charleston AFS for radar confirmation.
• 1961 | Union - A meteor is sighted....and recognized as a meteor. Nothing spooky about this one. 
• 1962 | Wells - A meteor and its trail are spotted. An odd detail about this one is that the observer's dogs reacted quite negatively to the object. 
• 1963 | Loring AFB - A B52 pilot saw a small object cross the path of Sagittarius. Largely an incomplete record as the report notes "further report to be submitted"
• 1964 | Millinocket - actually spooky - A ball of fire appeared on the side of the road and hovered there. Observers exited the vehicle, but got scared and returned. Upon their return the car wouldn't start and the ball 'flowed' away.
• 1965 | Bangor - Several objects were spotted above the fairgrounds. "Water assisted" take off training was going on at Dow AFB at the time and the Air Force intelligence report concludes that these were aircraft.  
• 1965 | Northeast Harbor - A flashing white and red light was spotted that moved away from observers and disappeared. Like the incident in Belfast in 1958, the Air Force classified this object as the star, Arcturus.
• 1965 | Sabbatus - An object in the sky was blinking and traversed the horizon. Instead of calling a congress person, this person wrote a letter to NASA complete with a (somewhat humorous) diagram. NASA wrote them back saying it was insufficient.
• 1966 | Brunswick - Brunswick NAS reported an object '15 feet thick' and circular with colored flashing lights around it. The official report concluded that this object was the planet Jupiter.
• 1966 | Brunswick - A round object with intense light was spotted by a student and an individual employed at Brunswick NAS. The object was determined to be possible meteor.
• 1966 | Kittery - A local saw a helicopter, called the Air Force and then never bothered to fill out the necessary forms. 
• 1966 | Newcastle - Several lights in the sky that interacted with a plane from Dow AFB was explained by the USAF as "Reflections from birds." 
• 1966 | Portland -  While unloading a truck someone looked up and happened to see a satellite go across the sky. 
• 1967 | Cutler - An observer sighted an orange object that made a whining sound and dropped lights from its bottom. The report is short since the investigation apparently wasn't conducted to regulations.
• 1968 | Boothbay - A rotating object with a sharp white/yellow center and a fuzzy green/blue outer edge was spotted and tracked by a sixteen year old for two hours one night. Despite having no attributes in common with the incidents in Belfast and Northeast harbor, this object was determined by the Air Force to be the star, Arcturus.
• 1968 | Cape Neddick - Someone saw a plane. But it was close to the shipyard so the government's report is 22 pages. 
• Unspecified Date | Fryeburg - Captain Kirk went up th'fayuh. Someone reported an object that was fluorescent blue and looked like the starship "Enterprise" on the television show "Star Trek" except it had wings. There are even pictures on the form sent by the Air Force. 

F-89 Image Credit.

Clark Thread Company/MacGregor Mill | So. Lincoln

Sgt Data?

A friend of mine once said that the absolute best thing that one can do for themselves upon arrival in Lincoln is to immediately turn around and go back home. I generally disagree and find that a bit unfair; Wing Wah exists and there's also a Marden's (personally I'd rather live in a town with a Marden's than without a Marden's). It's a town that's relatively picturesque. Lincoln has everything you'd really need to survive including a Hannaford and another liquor store with a slightly unnerving life sized wooden policeman out front. Visitors may find that its quaint main street is a great place to spend an afternoon attempting to back out of a parking spot that they foolishly pulled into. As of late and most unfortunately, what once was a mill town is now a town built around the remains of a mill. The only smoke stacks you'll see running now tend to be attached to diesel 4x4s (Lincoln really isn't a Prius town). Even though the mill has closed it's surviving, unlike some of its cousins to the north. 

Before Lincoln was all about paper, there were other wood-centered mills to the point where Lincoln used to have its very own Lewiston (or its own Brewer, depending on which congressional district you're reading this in) in the form of South Lincoln. Like Tannery 39, it was a settlement surrounding a specific industry that was large enough to have its own post office. The Annual Report of the Bureau of Industrial and Labor Statistics noted the following in 1898:

©Lincoln Historical Society | MaineMemory.net

The spool mill at South Lincoln proved to be one of the most interesting plants visited. John MacGregor, the owner, was born in Scotland and learned his trade in that country. When he first came to this country he went into the employment of the Clark Thread Company. He went to Lincoln in 1873 and built a mill there in 1875. Many additions have been made since that time and quite a village has grown up around the spool works. About fifty men are employed and from 2,500 to 3,000 cords of spool wood are required annually. No better spools are made in the world than are turned out at South Lincoln.

-Annual BLS Report. 1898

Quite a village indeed. A map from 1875 reveals the village of South Lincoln and its school, railroad access, and cemetery. Other documentation from around the same period indicates that there was a general store and that the town had its own post office. In trying to locate the location of the spool mill I realized that using the Penobscot River as a reference point wouldn't work since bodies of water tend to meander. So, I used the town's cemeteries as cemeteries don't tend to move unless you're that family from Poltergeist, or you live on Ohio street in Bangor (I'm being partially facetious as I'm assuming that bodies were moved when the interstate was built.)

HistoricMapWorks map overlaid onto Google Earth using cemeteries as a reference point. Non monetized content.

As you can see, the graphic is rougher than a  rap battle between Susan Collins and Diane Rehm. I admit that the accuracy of the above 'map' hinges wholly upon the cemeteries being correctly positioned relative to one another as opposed to something like the position of the European & North American railroad bed. What does it tell us? Someone's got an awfully neat back yard that may or may not include the foundations of a spool mill complex. I'd be surprised if there was nothing left considering that the mill predates 1874 according to MacGregor's obituary and persisted until at least the 1930s. 

Until I can make the choice between slowly cruising past someone's house a few times while peering into the woods, and sending a letter to a stranger asking to nose around in their backyard because my hobby is writing about stuff on the AOL Machine, I'm afraid I'm going to have to file this one under "lost." However it is going on my list of sites that I want to hit once we thaw out and we have days longer than the run time of the good Star Wars movies.