Five Fun Facts of Maine

Being a Mainer my whole life, I like to think I've discovered some fun (and weird) things about the Pine Tree State.

And having discovered some fun (and weird) things about Maine, I like to think they're worth sharing.

This may be the Land of the Lobster or the Stephen King State; but Maine, I assure you, has even more intrigue than those commonly known facts. So read below to find out and expect to see more down the road!

And if you ever come to Maine in the summah, remembah to head down to the haahhbah, considah doin' the Mainah thingy-doo and drink a beeah, maybe gobble some chowdah by the watah (if you can find paahhkin). Yeeezus Chryse! Life is too shooaht not to enjoy the finah things, bub!

#1: Maine has a population that nearly equals to that of Dallas, Texas.

Source: World Population Review

According to World Population Review, the population for Maine stands at a little more than 1.33 million people. The population of the city of Dallas rivals the population of the entire state of Maine, standing at slightly more than 1.31 million. This makes Maine one of the lesser-populated states in New England - though it is by far the largest in square miles - with most of the inhabitants living in the southern portion of the state in Greater Portland, and it's likely due to the varying landscapes and rugged, forested territories (Maine is the most forested state in the country, according to the same source). It also ranks 48th out of 50 in population growth.

This is probably why some people might ask, "Maine? What the hell's in Maine?"

#2: Maine has a staggering amount of breweries for only 1.3 million people, and yet it was the leading state of prohibition in the 19th century.

Source: Google Maps

In 1851, according to the Portland Press Herald, "Maine became the first state to ban the manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages, though an exception for 'medicinal, mechanical and manufacturing purposes' kept many liquor wagons rolling." The law was so groundbreaking and nationally renown it became known as "the Maine law." Portland Mayor Neal Dow, who was dubbed the “Father of Prohibition,” pushed the law through the Legislature, spearheaded the national temperance movement and ran for president on the Prohibition Party ticket in 1880.

Maine's pioneering of prohibition was soon emulated by many other states and countries, leading to the passage of the 18th Amendment in 1919 and the beginning of national Prohibition the year after. Thirteen years later, in 1933, the nation's law was repealed after disastrous consequences stemming from the law, from everyday dissidents who knowingly broke the law to riots that ended in violence, such as the one in Portland. This event became known as the Portland Rum Riot of 1855, when a mob of angry citizens stormed Portland City Hall because they suspected Dow had been selling liquor that was stored in the basement. The riot ended in one person dead and seven wounded.

Even though the state law was repealed following the riot, it was re-enacted in various forms and finally installed in the state constitution until the national repeal in 1933.

Officials remove illegal liquor from a ship docked at the Grand Trunk Wharf in Portland Harbor in the 1920s.

Source: Portland Press Herald

Now, Maine ranks among the top five in states for most breweries per capita, defeated only by Vermont, Montana, Colorado and Oregon, according to Statista.com. It boasts more than 90 breweries in a state of 1.33 million people, or about 7 breweries per 100,000 people.

Portland alone has been crowned the "beer city of America" in some magazines and news outlets, because it now has the most breweries per capita in the country - ironic for a city whose 1850s mayor led and championed the Prohibition movement in America. In 2016, Portland boasted 17 breweries and at this point is even closer to 20. That's one brewery for every 4,000 people. Then there's surrounding areas, such as South Portland and Westbrook, that offer their own breweries.

Yup, we now have mooahh beeah than Ashville, Nooaath Caroliner. I guess we here in Maine need some way combat the harsh and unforgiving winters. Whatever ales ya, yanno?

#3: Two Mainers contributed significantly to the Civil War: one spearheaded the abolition movement and another led the Union to victory in the Civil War.

If you've ever heard of Uncle Tom's Cabin, or the Union victory at the Battle of Little Round Top in Gettysburg, you've probably heard of two notable figures associated with them: Harriet Beecher Stowe and Joshua Chamberlain, respectively. And they were both Mainers.

Stowe, the author of Uncle Tom's Cabin, actually wrote the best-selling and incendiary anti-slavery novel in her Brunswick home, a town just 30 minutes north of Portland. As anyone familiar with the 1852 classic might know, Uncle Tom's Cabin was not just a but the literary catalyst in the Civil War era, igniting national conversation, fueling the abolition movement (and no doubt infuriating the champions of slavery) and laying the groundwork for the Civil War. It even went on to become the best-selling novel of the 19th century.

It's been reported that President Abraham Lincoln, upon meeting Stowe, teasingly said to her, "So this is the little lady who started this great war." The story is largely apocryphal, however.

President Lincoln and Harriet Beecher Stow meet for the first time.

Source: Pinterest

The term "Uncle Tom" has now effectively been installed in the lexicon of people internationally, and it's almost invariably employed in a pejorative fashion to insult black people who "ally" themselves with white people because the eponymous character in the novel was subservient, obedient and sympathetic to his slave owners and mistresses.

As for Chamberlain, there is probably just as much to appreciate about the great historical figure as Stowe. Aside from Stephen King and Stowe, there has been possibly no more illustrious Mainer than Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain.

Chamberlain, who grew up in a rural part of Maine, studied at Bowdoin College (coincidentally in Brunswick, where Stowe has been immortalized) and eventually earned a job as a professor at the same school. When the Civil War was beginning to erupt, Chamberlain felt an imperative to leave his role at Bowdoin and volunteer for the Union Army. He did so, and with virtually no training, he was very quickly appointed to command the 20th Maine Infantry, likely due to his prestige as a professor.

He eventually went on to play a major role in the war.

During the Battle of Gettysburg - arguably the most significant battle of the Civil War - Chamberlain and the 20th Maine occupied Little Round Top, a rocky hill in the Pennsylvanian town. Here they were attacked by Confederate forces, but they were overwhelmed and out of ammunition. Chamberlain ordered the soldiers to attach bayonets and charge down the hill to defend it, and that's precisely what they did, winning the battle and ultimately securing a victory for the Union at Gettysburg.

Joshua Chamberlain leads the charge down the hill of Little Round Top in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

Source: HarrisGameDesign.com

It wasn't long after this battle that Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered to Union General Ulysses Grant at the Appomattox Court House in Virginia. And Chamberlain was appointed a role here, too: he had been selected to preside over the parade of the Confederate infantry as part of their formal surrender.

According to Thomas Desjardins in his book Joshua L. Chamberlain, as the Confederate soldiers marched down the road to surrender their arms and colors, Chamberlain, on his own initiative, ordered his men to come to attention and "carry arms" as a show of respect. Chamberlain described what followed:

"Gordon, at the head of the marching column, outdoes us in courtesy. He was riding with downcast eyes and more than pensive look; but at this clatter of arms he raises his eyes and instantly catching the significance, wheels his horse with that superb grace of which he is master, drops the point of his sword to his stirrup, gives a command, at which the great Confederate ensign following him is dipped and his decimated brigades, as they reach our right, respond to the 'carry.' All the while on our part not a sound of trumpet or drum, not a cheer, nor a word nor motion of man, but awful stillness as if it were the passing of the dead."

Now that's some stuff we Mainers have to be proud of.

#4: Maine's only national park, Acadia, was the first national park to be created entirely by donations of private land, and the first to be created east of the Mississippi.

Acadia National Park attracts almost 3 million people each year, and in 2015 it surpassed the 3 million mark, according to the Bangor Daily News.

That's because Acadia is renown for its beguiling splendor - mountains that are situated next to the Atlantic Ocean, a myriad of activities to do from hiking and biking to kayaking and fishing (and more, of course), and its flagship peak, Cadillac Mountain, where people gravitate to to be among the first in the country to watch the sun rise from the east.

Unlike other national parks in America, however, Acadia was the first to be formed exclusively by donations of private land, according to Acadia Centennial.

A view of the Atlantic Ocean along the coast of Acadia National Park

Source: Self (Garrick Hoffman Photography)

"It was countless foresighted and stewardship-minded individuals at the turn of the 19th century," the Acadia Centennial website reads, "that created the first eastern national park, recognizing its singular natural beauty and ecological value and the need to protect it in perpetuity. . . . Equally important to the creation of Acadia National Park are countless individuals, some known and some lost to history, who constructed Acadia’s historic system of footpaths and hiking trails, who labored on the carriage roads, and who generously gave properties they had purchased or inherited so they might be protected and enjoyed by all for generations to come."

I reckon we owe some thanks for the generosity and altruism of those donors and volunteers, eh? Thanks, merci, gracias, grazie, etc. And plenty of high fives!

#5: Thanks to the efforts of former U.S. Senator Ed Muskie in the mid-20th century, we enjoy greater protections of the environment today.

Muskie, a Rumford, Maine native, was a salient figure in spearheading the 1960s environmental movement and international environmental policy. In fact, he was "the grandfather of modern environmental legislation" according to Bates College, where he attended, served as class president and graduated from, because he sponsored the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act. These acts "fundamentally established our federal government’s duties to preserve and protect the environment," according to Bates.

U.S. Senator Ed Muskie

Source: CNN

Muskie served as the Chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Environmental Pollution, and because of his reputation as a champion of environmental protection, he became known as Mr. Clean on Capitol Hill.

As a result of Muskie's tireless efforts to protect the environment, "our children are growing up in a more healthy and beautiful America," said Sen. Max Baucus, D-Montana, on the Senate floor in the wake of Muskie's death in 1996.

One might say Ed Muskie was EDvironmentally-friendly. Heheh.

Additional fun fact: Aside from Hannibal Hamlin who served as Vice President to Abe Lincoln in the 1860s, Muskie got the closest a Mainer has ever come to holding high office in the United States. In 1968, he was nominated as Vice President to Hubert Humphrey, the Democratic Presidential Nominee, but ultimately lost - marginally, and maybe even tragically - to Richard Nixon and Spiro Agnew.

Sources:

http://worldpopulationreview.com/states/maine-population/

http://www.pressherald.com/2011/10/02/when-maine-went-dry_2011-10-02/

https://www.statista.com/statistics/319978/craft-beer-breweries-per-capita-in-the-us-by-state/

https://smartasset.com/mortgage/best-cities-beer-drinkers

https://bangordailynews.com/2017/01/18/news/hancock/acadia-smashes-park-visitation-record-in-2016/

http://www.acadiacentennial2016.org/about-acadias-centennial/history-of-acadias-founding/

http://www.bates.edu/news/2014/03/27/muskie-100-birthday-six-things/

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/301319031297018582

http://www.harrisgamedesign.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?t=5206

http://cdn.cnn.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/120824060745-opinion-gallery-4-horizontal-large-gallery.jpg