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. 

Loring WSA - Part 3 of 3: A Return to Nature

If you're here to read, there's stuff below. If you're here for pictures, there is an album here. 

While I wrote about the origins of "Site Easy" , plugged John Garbinski's North River Depot novel and explored some of the lore surrounding a UFO incident, I had yet to visit the actual site of Loring's Weapons Storage Area/Site Easy/North River Depot. Thanks to the Dept of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife as well as the dedicated veterans and other individuals involved with the Loring Open House, I was able to see the site for myself as it is now: a part of the Aroostook National Wildlife Refuge.

Mind you that this is a wildlife refuge primarily and that even though the DIF&W has trails in the area, that the weapons storage area is not a normal attraction -- I have the folks behind Loring's Open House to thank for acquiring access and getting everything sorted with the Dept of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife. If not for the folks behind the open house, my choices would have been "hike on designated trails" (not exactly my idea of 'fun') or "trespass on federal property." (even less fun.) Seriously, we're lucky that these structures are still standing and that the federal government occasionally allows access --

Places that are not marked trails are labeled as federal property and are no trespassing. There are potentially some serious hazards here and even though the DIF&W won't shoot you on sight like the Air Force would have back then, I can't imagine going there without permission and being caught would be a lot of fun.

Now that that's out of the way...let's have a look at what a once top secret nuclear research facility looks like after it's been reclaimed by nature:

What's striking about what's left of Site Easy is how little is actually left despite the number of remaining structures.

Traveling into the site you'd have no idea that the large pond you pass by on your way in was once just woods, or that the colorful and buzzing marsh you also pass used to be one of the bases most secured areas.

Earthen coverings of concrete bunkers that once held enough firepower within them (collectively) to annihilate a substantial part of this continent have been turned into an untamed carpet of various grasses and wildflowers. You don't get a whole lot of wide open spaces like this in Maine (potato fields don't count) and this is one of the more pleasing that I've seen.

The access road to the site.

One of the pillboxes in front of the vamp house. The structure to the right was where nuclear materials were inserted into containment devices and stored until ready to be united with their delivery vehicle. There is no second story, it's 17' of solid concrete.

Toward the rear of the runway, and part of the wildlife preserve. To the left you can see the doors to the subterranean "mole hole" where alert bomber pilots would stay.

Our tour guide said that these pipes were for an old nuclear dump, apparently a vessel carrying nuclear armaments was damaged at sea - exposing their warheads to corrosive salt water. The material may be buried here.

Here's Loring's massive hangar. To the left may be the terminus of the Searsport-Limestone pipeline.

Another of the research buildings.

The "mine shop." An assembly area of some kind.

I've taken several other photos of the base in general and shall post them here soon in an imgur album.

If you want to find out more, here are some great resources:

• LoringAirForceBase.com 
• NortheastRuins.com
• ColdWarRelics.com

Bankers Electrical Protective Co. Boxes around the state -- a running post.

This is a collection of neat little alarm boxes I've noticed on buildings in a few towns. They're from Bankers Electrical Protective Association, an organization that first applied for a patent on this type of alarm system in 1916 and mentioned in industry periodicals by 1918.

I know very little else about them other than that I find them interesting, and aesthetically pleasing.

An alarm box spotted in Mars Hill.

Alarm box in Bangor -- Courtesy triple-exposure.blogspot.com

This Brewer alarm box has seen better days.

Astoria Lunch Sign | Norumbega Pkwy, Bangor

 
Picturesquely nestled between Central and Hammond streets you'll find Norumbega Parkway, it's a great place to spend your lunch hour and DowntownBangor.com describes it as:

Located off Franklin/Central/State Streets; Parkway separating the Kenduskeag Stream. Amenities: benches, public art, garden. Features statues of Lady Victory (WWI Memorial) and Hannibal Hamlin (15th Vice President of United States) by Brewer native Charles Tefft.

However, among the more historic things to examine hidden behind some trees is an original Astoria Lunch sign:

High definition photo courtesy of Triple-exposure.blogspot.com

The Astoria was still around as far as the late 1940s, and even though the site had some relation to the Brady Gang, the holes you see are for neon lights -- not bullets. Below is a photo from 1945 featuring the business that this belonged to - although it doesn't feature the sign. There's a copy inside of Bagel Central and a much larger version inside of TD Bank on Stillwater Ave.

Feel free to share any additional information about the Astoria Lunch you may have on the Century Maine Facbeook group. I'd love to learn more.

Banks Auto Supply | Park St, Bangor

If you have ever had the pleasure of waiting to turn left onto Harlow from State, you've likely laid eyes on Bangor's art-deco old telephone building. In the shadow of that building is now some form of call center where Banks Auto Supply used to be.

I don't know a whole lot about Banks Auto Supply, other than that's where "Al" Benner (of Al Benner's Mobile Home fame) got his start. And that it was likely owned by Earl C Banks  who may have come into ownership after his tour as a Private in WWII, but other sources have it recorded as being founded by Earl and George Banks in the mid 1930s. (If anyone wants to set me straight, I encourage you to do so in the comments, this isn't my day job and I'd love to learn.) 

The photo below was taken in the mid 1930's. I have no names, but the location is more recognizable if you note the steeple in the background as belonging to John Bapst.  The roof of the building to the right has changed, but the window spacing is still the same.

Banks Auto Supply relocated from its Park St location (pictured above) to 281 Main St in the late 1940s and remained in operation on Main St until 1975 when the City of Bangor acquired the parcel by eminent domain for its fire station to the tune of  $150,000 -- which adjusted for inflation in 2014 would come to $663,289.96.

From the Bangor Daily News, 10/2/70

Small Livestock Operation | Penobscot County, Undisclosed Town

Sometimes an abandonment sneaks up on you. A friend of mine recently purchased a parcel of land behind his property and found a surprise. We were measuring the new property line and ended up following a gravel packed driveway in the woods that went nowhere to find a disused, very small 'farm' that had been behind the property he'd owned since the early 1980's, and he'd been unaware of it for all this time.

Granted, the 1970s assumption is going off of the map of the original subdivision that explicitly stated no commercial activity and no trailers, considering this 'farm' had its own parcel and wasn't too far the property line of the previous owners' neighbors it may be a safe bet that it may have pre-dated the subdivision.

I spoke with a few locals who indicated the previous landowner had roosters a few cows, and a bull. The site is severely overgrown with small hardwoods and moss that indicate a wet environment, it would have been hard to imagine grazing even a few goats here. Nevertheless, photos are below and I have next to nothing about this site other than that animal feeders, pens, cages, and fences are still present.

The first that we found was a two story structure with an animal pen in the bottom and a ladder leading upward. Considering neither of us were featherweights, I was unable to photograph the upstairs. On the left you can see a ladder (the end of which is out of frame) as well as the remnants of what appeared to be a second story deck. I'm not quite sure on exactly when I had my last booster for tetanus, so I didn't find out. Inside we found an old air conditioner, a hole full of garbage, and a scale....

As the property has a new owner, I may be able to rummage through the remainder of the refuse located inside the two story shack and see if someone had lived inside at one point, or if it was merely storage/living space above an animal pen. A local source tells me that in the mid 1990s this used to be the 'hide out' of a local recidivist, it's not impossible that someone could have eked out a meager living on an unapproved structure on a subdivision in the middle of nowhere.

Upon hearing of the possible tale of adventurous recidivism, I did some digging and found a Bangor Daily News article from 1997 indicating that two individuals had escaped from minimum security work detail and were possibly found here in a search that "included helicopters, dogs, and more than half a dozen police agencies" according to the Bangor Daily News.

There were several other various "pens" around for different sized animals. Small hardwoods have grown up around the side, making it impossible to determine if animals had been grazed here or if the site's previous owners had fed their livestock with other resources. One thing that did stick out was a child's swing set. Whenever this was built and used, someone has fond memories of this place.

The barbed wire creates a line that splits the parcel in half.

Below, are some of the various 'pens' located throughout the property. The pens, the two story structure and its fallen patio, the swing set and some buckets/feeders are all that is left of what someone had tended for quite some time. There is room for five small animals and a few stand-alone pens for medium sized animals. A rusted dog crate is also present onsite.

The pen with the fallen in roof in the photo above is on the very edge of the opposite property line, and the free-standing pens stretch off into the veritable cornucopia of tetanus. As we were leaving, we noticed that someone may have indeed lived here, at least for a little bit.