Maine Icons: 50 Classic Symbols of the Pine Tree State

Matthew P. Mayo · Jennifer Smith-Mayo

May 2011 · Rowman & Littlefield

About this ebook

Maine is many things to many people—a haven in a world of headaches, a fir-stippled paradise where summer comes slow and easy, a place that is heartbreaking to leave and a relief to return to. It is the way life should be. More specifically, Maine is 3,500 miles of enchanting coastline, the 5,267-foot elevation of Mount Katahdin, and of course her hardy, friendly folks. Maine Icons illustrates the quintessential symbols that make Maine so fascinating and unique.

Profiled here are fifty classic symbols of this extraordinary state, revealing little-known facts, longtime secrets, and historical legends. From bean hole beans to L.L.Bean, here’s the inside story about the very things that give this state its character.

Did you know that the annual Maine Lobster Festival includes a parade, a lobster-crate race, and more than 20,000 pounds of lobster cooked in the world’s biggest lobster boiler? That it was a woman, Cornelia Thurza “Fly Rod” Crosby, who became the first licensed, registered Maine Guide in 1897? Or that the earmuff was patented in the 1870s by young Chester Greenwood, who went on to be named one of America’s top fifteen outstanding inventors? For Mainers and newcomers alike, Maine Icons will be a treasured keepsake of this charming state.

About the author

Photographer Jennifer Smith-Mayo, and her husband, writer Matthew P. Mayo, have lived in Maine for two decades—and counting! Jennifer specializes in photography of fine dining, rural living, and farming in the US, England, Ireland, Italy, and Scotland. Matthew is author of a number of novels and non-fiction books, including Bootleggers, Lobstermen & Lumberjacks: Fifty of the Grittiest Moments in the History of Hardscrabble New England.