We were delusional,” Michael Boland says of 1999, the year he and his wife, Deidre Swords, opened Havana, on Bar Harbor’s Main Street. “We shot too high. For the entire first summer, we decided we’d change the menu every single night.” And while using local, organic produce is so commonplace these days that “it’s almost lost its meaning,” Havana has done that since its early days, hosting special dinners with no ingredient from more than 100 miles away — no olive oil or pepper and only salt harvested in Lubec. Plus, that was all at a time when a nice night out in Bar Harbor probably meant a lobster dinner or steak and potatoes. No matter. For legions of locals and travelers alike, Havana became the go-to for upscale eating on Mount Desert Island, and the restaurant counts some notable somebodies among its guests — President Barack Obama has stopped in for dinner, as has Martin Scorcese. Martha Stewart, a seasonal resident of nearby Seal Harbor, comes in multiple times every summer. In the first year of the pandemic, when restaurants across the country were in crisis mode, Esquire published a list of 100 restaurants that America “can’t lose” — Havana was the only place in Maine to make the list. 

Despite its name, Havana isn’t really a Cuban restaurant, but rather, per its website, “American fine dining with a Latin flair.” Brazilian, Mexican, and Spanish influences produce dishes like paella with local seafood or rack of lamb with chimichurri. “Ironically, we’ve never been to Cuba,” Boland says, “but we joke that Havana is a much better name — more evocative, more romantic — than Guatemala City or one of the many other destinations we’ve been.” 

Boland attributes much of the restaurant’s early success to an exceptional opening chef and lucky timing — another fine-dining establishment went out of business just as they opened, and Havana swept up both its general manager and much of its clientele. As for staying power, Boland credits his staff’s “unrelenting focus” on hospitality, even as the restaurant has far outgrown its original, intimate 35-seat footprint (and added a casual outdoor Latin grill next door). Plus, silver-bearded bartender Mark Duffy still serves the impeccable mojitos and caipirinhas he’s been whipping up since the day Havana opened — Boland estimates they sell as many as 10,000 of the former every year. Another fixture is Bob Lombardi, a bassist who plays in a jazz duo every Saturday night at Havana. This year, he turns 95. What’s more classic than that?

318 Main St., Bar Harbor. 207-288-2822.

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For thousands of years, my Penobscot ancestors have been coming to Mount Desert Island — a place we know as Pemetic, meaning “range of mountains” — to hunt, fish, clam, and forage and to celebrate the beauty and abundance of coastal living. We’ve been linked to this place since time immemorial, the creation of Pemetic rooted in our legends. While the recent centuries of European settlement on Mount Desert Island have interrupted many of our coastal lifeways, our connection to its lands and waters has remained steadfast.

When tourism to Acadia National Park began to pick up in the early 1900s, Wabanaki people sold handmade baskets along the roadside. When I was a child, my father and I spent a lot of time in Bar Harbor and shared a tradition of visiting Sand Beach during the winter. And we eagerly anticipated the annual Maine Indian Basketmakers Festival, in Bar Harbor, where we gathered to sing, dance, eat, carrying on our cultural traditions. During my university years, when I brought friends from away to visit the park, my heart filled with pride that my ancestors knew this place so well.

But it wasn’t until last winter that it dawned on me that I had never really had the chance to get to know Acadia on my own — and that there were many places on the island I’d never seen. Suddenly, I felt a strong urge to strengthen my relationship with this part of my ancestral homeland. So I spent the next few months devoting almost all of my free time to park adventures, driving to MDI week after week from my home in Orono and using friends’ seasonally closed Bar Harbor inn as a base camp. What I found was a rich and vivid land- and seascape, as fascinating as it was frigid, made all the more magical for the lack of visitors. Here are a few of my favorite experiences.

Sunrise Along Ocean Drive

A sharp wind cut through the morning air as I perched on a rock awaiting sunrise at Boulder Beach, one of the pocket beaches scattered along Acadia’s Ocean Drive. Bundled up in layer after layer, I was glad I’d also remembered to pack hand and toe warmers: the cold was no joke. Overlooking Otter Cliff, Boulder Beach faces east and basks in the morning light, its tumbled rocks encased in ice and reflecting the dawn. On this January morning, the extreme cold (a windchill of 14 below) created a phenomenon known as sea smoke, which forms when the air temperature is colder than the surface of the seawater. As the golden daylight filtered through it, those moments of bitter chill were worth it. Watching the gilded sea smoke dance atop the churning Atlantic was one of the most surreal experiences of my life.

This part of the Park Loop Road remains open year-round, and along the stretch between the park entrance station and Otter Cliff Road are several dramatic spots to admire a sunrise, including Sand Beach, Thunder Hole, Monument Cove, and Boulder Beach. These hibernal beachscapes, sculpted with ice features and rosy granite dusted in snow, are part of what make winter in Acadia truly extraordinary.

Skiing and Snowshoeing the Carriage Roads

In February, after one of the biggest snowfalls of the year, I hopped in the car and made a beeline for the carriage roads, a 45-mile network of wide trails, constructed of broken stone in the early 20th century. Because they were built to maximize scenery — with gentle-enough grades for horses — they’re perfect for skiing and snowshoeing. Portions of these roads are groomed by volunteers with Friends of Acadia, the park’s nonprofit conservation partner. I headed to what’s known as the Hadlock Loop, outside Northeast Harbor, where the trail is surrounded by evergreen trees bowing down in tiers of twinkling snow. Along with glimpses of the beautiful surrounding mountains, skiers on Hadlock Loop encounter three historic stone bridges: Hemlock, Waterfall, and Amphitheater. I spent all day admiring winter vignettes, until the late afternoon sunlight reminded me that daylight and tides are the island’s only timekeepers.

Two trailheads with parking areas access the four-mile Hadlock Loop: Brown Mountain parking area, on Route 3, across from Lower Hadlock Pond, and Parkman Mountain parking area, about a mile north. If those lots are full, there’s roadside parking at the Norumbega Mountain trailhead, between them, and a connector trail to the carriage roads. Walkers are also permitted on the groomed trails, but they should steer clear of the established ski tracks (and avoid leaving postholes in deep snow).

My other favorite winter carriage-road routes include the loops around Eagle Lake and Jordan Pond. The former is slightly longer, at six miles, with views of Cadillac and Pemetic mountains, among others, while the latter is just over three miles and offers the iconic view of the rounded twin peaks called the Bubbles.

Sunset on the Quiet Side

While Ocean Drive is the perfect spot for sunrise, the best views of sunset are found on the west side of the island, known as the “quiet side,” for its comparatively light summer traffic — although in winter, of course, it’s all quiet. Two of my favorite places to enjoy an Acadia sunset are from Bass Harbor Head Light, in Tremont, and along the nearby Ship Harbor Trail, in Southwest Harbor. Perched at MDI’s southernmost point, the 1858 Bass Harbor Head Light is one of Maine’s most often-photographed lighthouses, sitting on a pink-granite cliff and awash, in the evenings, in golden-hour light. If you’re up for a short hike, the gentle 1.3-mile trail at Ship Harbor leads through boreal forest and along exposed ledges overlooking the impressive swells of the open Atlantic. Find both along Route 102A, between Bass Harbor and Seawall Campground.

Know Before You Go

As I did most of my adventuring alone last winter, safety was top of mind. I never leave the car without packing some ice cleats in my bag, as portions of any Acadia trail can be very slippery. In addition to all of the winter wardrobe basics — a wicking base layer and waterproof outer layer, hat and gloves, decent boots — I find hand and toe warmers essential, as well as extra socks and gloves. Always pay attention to weather forecasts, particularly the wind speed and direction — nothing is colder than a winter windchill! — and prepare for changing conditions. The National Park Service recommends bringing a hard copy of a detailed trail map on any hike, as well as a headlamp or flashlight (not the one on your phone, as phone batteries drain quickly).

The park’s visitor center, campgrounds, nature center, and lone concessionaire (the Jordan Pond House) are all closed through May. So are the fee-collecting entrance stations, but visitors are nonetheless required to have and display an entrance pass, purchased at recreation.gov, from local chambers of commerce, or from a machine in the Hulls Cove Visitor Center parking lot. A $30 vehicle pass covers seven days of access. Hospitality options around MDI’s gateway towns are much diminished in winter — the Bar Harbor chamber maintains a helpful list of year-round businesses.

Before last year, I never considered myself a “winter person”; in fact, quite the opposite. During my time in Acadia, however, I challenged myself to become more resilient in these colder conditions — and not only did I gain a new appreciation for my ancestral homeland, I fell in love with the season and the quiet beauty that comes with a Maine winter.

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A piece of metal weighing six or seven pounds fell from the sky and landed near a Capitol security officer. The Federal Aviation Administration suspected it came off a plane on an international route but, as of press time, had not found the source.

Bar Harbor

The Abbe Museum, Maine’s only Smithsonian affiliate and a repository for Wabanaki history and culture, hired Cherokee Nation citizen Betsy Richards as its new executive director. She previously worked at a social-justice nonprofit in New York.

York

On York Beach, 50-year-old comedian Dane Cook proposed to 23-year-old fitness instructor and aspiring singer Kelsi Taylor. She said yes.

Westbrook

Happy Wheels, a roller rink formerly in Portland, reopened three years after closing. New co-owner Derek Fitzgerald grew up skating at the original location in the ’70s and ’80s.

Jackman

Heavy rain destroyed a culvert in Jackman, necessitating a 143-mile detour to bypass the washed-away section of road.

Camden

Historian David McCullough, a longtime seasonal resident, passed away at age 89. McCullough’s work twice received a Pulitzer Prize and twice a National Book Award, and in 2006, President George W. Bush awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Cafe Miranda, nearly as defining a Rockland landmark as the breakwater lighthouse, with its funky, neon vibe and flavors as big as the helpings, closed after 29 years in business due to the strain of kitchen-staff shortages.

Liberty

At Lake St. George, Belmont Boatworks launched a prototype of the first commercially available entirely solar-powered powerboat, a 24-foot Solar Sal model, which the Maine boatyard built for Sustainable Energy Systems, an upstate New York boat company.

Castine

Town officials rebuffed a proposal to turn the historic keeper’s cottage at Dice Head Light into an Airbnb-style short-term rental. The current tenant is a local kindergarten teacher who doesn’t mind that the grounds are open to visitors during the day.

Boothbay

Home-schooled high-school junior Emma Markowitz won an award at the Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair, in Atlanta, for her work using honey’s antimicrobial properties to treat white line disease, which causes hoof deformities in horses.

Bangor

Senator Susan Collins listed her 4,250-square-foot Bangor house for $727,000 (it’s down the street from Stephen King’s old house). A spokesperson said the senator and her husband were looking for something smaller, with more yard for Pepper, their black Lab.

Bar Harbor

Acadia National Park officials halted restoration work on the Duck Brook Road Motor Bridge for a month for fear of disturbing any mother bats and their young residing in gaps in the stonework during pupping season.

When the pandemic upended the state’s tourism scene, Maine hoteliers didn’t hunker down — they got busy: acquiring, building, renovating, reinventing. We checked in with some of the ambitious proprietors who make the state’s hospitality sphere sizzle and visited new and updated properties all across the state, from a complex of captains’ houses to a mountain yoga retreat to a reinvented MDI resort. Starting rates listed here are typically for the off-season, with summer rates running 20 to 80 percent higher and varying with date and capacity. Peak summer 2022 may well be booked up already, so look at weekdays and ahead to late summer and fall — and always make your reservations as early as possible.

Blind Tiger

163 Danforth St., Portland
9 rooms starting at $250

Lark Hotels reopened what had been the Danforth Inn, on Portland’s West End, in February 2020, just before the pandemic’s arrival gave the Massachusetts-based boutique hotelier an unsought pause to keep finessing its concept for the 1823 Federal-style mansion. “I’ve always loved that property,” Lark president Rob Blood says. “The most beautiful architecture, and the details inside are amazing.” Still, Lark didn’t want the space to be a period piece. “We wanted it to feel like a house,” Blood says, “like your well-connected friend’s home in Portland.” It does, if your friend happens to love eye-popping statement light fixtures and keep her pantry chock-full of indulgent artisan snacks and drinks. Both the guest rooms and the ample, plush common spaces are bright, mod, and eclectic, with cool art everywhere (much of it, Blood says, sourced from Route 1 antique vendors). Each room includes a note from a different Portland creative-class VIP, sharing favorite spots around town. “Blind tiger,” by the way, is Prohibition slang for a speakeasy, and the inn’s subterranean billiards room retains the feel of the illicit gin joint it was a century ago.

Perks: impressive complimentary breakfast spread; loaner picnic baskets; fireplaces in all but one guest room.

The Bayview Hotel

111 Eden St., Bar Harbor
26 rooms starting at $395

The team from Bar Harbor’s Swan Hospitality Group more or less hasn’t stopped renovating since taking over the Bayview Hotel for its 2019 season. New furniture and fixtures, new tile bathrooms, splashy new linens and floor coverings, bright new walls and botanical-print wallpapers, even a new roof. From the pop-art deer paintings in the lounge to the topiary dogs and twig chandelier in the lobby, suffice to say that if you knew the somewhat drab Bayview before, you won’t recognize the bright, fun, woodsy-campy boutique property it’s become. New this summer: a smart gift shop full of Maine-made trinkets, buzzy books, and chichi toiletries, run by Northeast Harbor’s Main Street Mercantile, as well as an expanded food menu in the Rusticator Lounge, which serves vegetarian and vegan fare (and has a great wine and bubbly list). What hasn’t changed from the old days? Every room still has a balcony with a knockout ocean view. It’s a pricier stay than some neighboring properties outside the heart of Bar Harbor, but the Bayview is a terrific MDI splurge.

Perks: some rooms pet friendly; shuttle to Village Green; complimentary breakfast.

The Claremont

22 Claremont Rd., Southwest Harbor
38 guest rooms, plus 12 cottages and cabins and 2 rental homes starting at $300

In September 2020, as tourists were gingerly returning to MDI and Acadia National Park, Kennebunkport hotelier Tim Harrington bought Southwest Harbor’s storied Claremont Hotel, established in 1884. Overlooking Somes Sound, the one-time getaway of the Gilded Age gentry was grand but tired, and a renovation in the neighborhood of $15 million has turned it into a mash-up of old-school gentility and contemporary bougie opulence. The guest rooms are seaside chic, big on pastels and patterned wallpaper and textiles, while the cottages and cabins affect a sort of winking, designer take on a Maine camp, with fieldstone fireplaces and white subway tiles, wicker rockers and faux-fur ottomans. The playful feel — call it “mod rusticator pastiche” — extends to the rentable canopied cabanas, dockside bar (styled like a fishing camp), and clubby game room, with its table shuffleboard and wall-mounted giant Scrabble board. For decades, the hotel was known for hosting the Claremont Classic national croquet tournament, and one of its courts has been lovingly maintained (with gear and lessons available), while the other has become a heated infinity pool with a truly breathtaking view of the sound.

Perks: full-service spa; loaner bikes; on-site fine-dining restaurant; concerts and movie nights.

The Inn on Winter’s Hill

33 Winter Hill St., Kingfield
20 rooms starting at $149

JennyBess “JB” Dulac, a corporate lawyer turned yogini and hospitality maven, has been running yoga and wellness retreats out of a picturesque rental property in Phippsburg for years. This summer, she’s shifting her practice from the coast to the mountains, having just taken over the Inn on Winter’s Hill, a Georgian Revival–style mansion built in the 1890s by Amos Winter Sr. (whose son and namesake founded nearby Sugarloaf Mountain Resort). On six acres abutting the Carrabassett River, the building was designed by local boys Francis and Freelan O. Stanley, inventors of the Stanley Steamer motorcar, and Dulac’s first upgrades included the addition of a roomy yoga annex and a thorough renovation of bathrooms across the property. Further facelifts, she says, will involve making the rooms “a little less Queen Anne, a little more mountain-rustic” (also, the addition of a pool), but for now, the vibe in the main house is elegant colonial (with a more relaxed, country-style aesthetic in the adjacent barn building). Guests rub shoulders with mat-toting participants in the yoga residencies, and writers’ retreats are in the works for later this year.

Perks: trails across the property; yoga and meditation classes; private dining available.

The Brooklin Inn

22 Reach Rd., Brooklin
4 rooms starting at $175

On the outside, it’s an unassuming 1920s bungalow that could be mistaken for a nicely kept residential home. On the inside, the vibe is all Wyeth farmhouse, with four pleasantly spartan rooms — down from five since Pi Piraeus and Jenny Lewandowski took over in 2019, renovating the upstairs so that every room has an en suite bath with new tile, fixtures, and plumbing. There’s nothing ostentatious about the Brooklin Inn, although the menu in the dining room and pub are a bit elevated, showcasing what’s local and seasonal in a pocket of the midcoast known for both fishing and organic farming. The pandemic prompted Piraeus and Lewandowski to mow the field out back and set up picnic tables for outdoor dining; it’s now the perfect spot to toss a few balls on the bocce court while enjoying a glass from the list of small-production wines. Guests seem drawn to the backyard on summer evenings, never mind that the inn is less than an hour from Mount Desert Island. “Most of our guests are here to explore a quieter part of the Maine coast,” Lewandowski says.

Perks: pet friendly; complimentary breakfast spread; short walk to the Brooklin General Store.

Mill Inn

5 E. Main St., Dover-Foxcroft
6 rooms starting at $162

When Dover-Foxcroft’s long-shuttered Mayo woolen mill reopened as a mixed-use complex in 2015, the industrial-rustic mash-up of the Mill Inn was a Maine-hospitality unicorn: a stylish boutique property in an undersung destination for well under $200 a night. The exposed wood and plumbing, the weathered-wood furnishings, the vintage bobbins and other decorative mill bric-a-brac — it all felt very authentic and connected to place (and, yeah, very Instagram friendly). After the pandemic closed both the inn and the café downstairs, they took a troublingly long time to reopen. When they did, last winter, the inn was under new management, run by Experience Maine, a Portland-based travel concierge dipping a toe into the lodging sector. The company isn’t touching the simple, pitch-perfect décor, just adding a few elements to make longer stays more practical in a town with limited amenities: microwaves and mini-fridges, plus a help-yourself closet full of extra bedding, toiletries, cutlery, and the like, as the self–check-in property has no reception. Also new: packages aiming to introduce some of the Piscataquis Valley’s cooler local businesses. Guests might arrive to find welcome gifts from Borestone Soap Co. or Bob’s Sugarhouse or gift certs to Milo’s Bissell Brothers brewery or Dover’s yummy Peace, Love, and Waffles.

Perks: great baked goods, coffee drinks, and lunches at the Mill Cafe downstairs.

OneSixtyFive

165 Park Row, Brunswick
16 rooms starting at $149 in the carriage house, $199 in the main house

Eileen Hornor ran the Brunswick Inn on stately Park Row for 11 years before the pandemic forced an atavistic pivot. Built as a private home in 1848, it had once been a boarding house for Bowdoin College students, and in fall 2020, with residence halls partially closed, Hornor welcomed students again. Then, in March 2021, an accidental fire in a student’s room caused extensive smoke damage. At first, Hornor was devastated. “Then, I had an aha moment,” she says. “I realized it was the opportunity to make the hotel of my dreams.” The reborn inn retains much of what’s made it a perennial Down East Best of Maine Readers’ Choice pick: cozy common areas with books and board games (Brunswick-opoly, anyone?), rocking chairs on a wraparound porch overlooking food trucks and concerts on the town mall. But the refresh brought handsome new fixtures and tile floors to the (once-linoleum) bathrooms and a bolder aesthetic to the rooms, with smart antique furnishings offsetting contemporary palettes and patterns on fabrics, walls, and floors (bye-bye carpeting, hello rich wood and stylish rugs). A former breakfast nook is now Pub165, where guests and the public sip craft cocktails on an overstuffed leather couch or by the yawning fireplace, while snacking on charcuterie, crudités, and more.

Perks: if you prefer contactless, the cute carriage house is self–check-in (with its own self-serve snack bar); full-service breakfast (not included in rates).

Where to Stay Soon

The Lincoln Hotel

17 Lincoln St., Biddeford
33 rooms starting at $275

A former textile mill transformed into an industrial-luxe, loft-like urban hotel, complete with a rooftop pool, gallery space, and an outpost of Batson River Brewing & Distilling. Expect tall windows, lots of exposed brick, and flat-screens and gas fireplaces in every room. Taking reservations for August.

Salt Cottages

20 Rte. 3, Bar Harbor
30 cottages, 10 motorcourt rooms starting at $340 for cottages, $279 for rooms

Slated for July, a swish revamp of the 1940s Colony Cottages. Once-homespun cottages, with kitchenettes and porches, are updated to plush, while details around the outdoor pool, game room, and retro snack bar play up mid-century charm. From the folks who remade The Claremont, in Southwest Harbor, and guests have access to the substantial grounds and amenities there.

Lockwood Hotel

9 Main St., Waterville
53 rooms starting at $149

New from the ground up, the contemporary hotel is part of Colby College’s investment in downtown Waterville, which includes a dorm and an in-progress arts center. Art by photographer Tanja Hollander, sculptor Bernard Langlais, and basket weaver Jeremy Frey adds some Maine character. Aiming for August, but the excellent Front & Main restaurant is open now.

Queen Anne’s Revenge

39 Holland Ave., Bar Harbor
29 rooms starting at $249

A pair of adjacent former B&Bs reopening in June as a single boutique property. The former 19th-century summer cottages have plenty of history, but the vibe is playful and modern, with gold-leaf doors, vivid patterned wallpapers, and a lighthearted Age of Sail motif that finds decorative globes and krakens popping up in unexpected places — there’s even a rum bar.

Kennebunkport Captains Collection

6 Pleasant St., Kennebunkport
45 rooms starting at $196

Another new project from Lark Hotels, this micro-campus of historic mansions in a residential neighborhood has its roots in 2004, when Lark founder Rob Blood bought what was then the Captain Fairfield Inn. Back then, other innkeepers ran B&Bs in three other 19th-century captains’ homes nearby: the Nathaniel Lord Mansion, William Jefferds House, and Acton Patterson House. Gradually, Blood bought them up, and last May, Lark reopened all four under one banner. After a $25 million investment in the purchase and extensive renovations, each house now has its own distinct personality: the James Fairfield House is modern and bright, with bold colors and furnishings; the Nathaniel Lord Mansion is sumptuous and stately, with dark woods and four-poster beds; the William Jefferds House is all white-and-cream interiors bathed in sunlight; and the four-bedroom Acton Patterson House feels like a breezy summer home, a whole-house rental for groups. Common spaces are shared, and guests are encouraged to explore other mansions. “To me, the Jefferds House feels like summer,” general manager Kristen Caouette says, “but when I walk into the Nathaniel Lord Mansion, I just want to cozy up with a bottle of wine by the fireplace.”

Perks: yoga classes in a carriage house; fireplaces in most rooms; loaner beach chairs and bikes.

The Craignair Inn by the Sea

5 3rd St., Spruce Head
21 rooms starting at $199

Ask Lauren and Greg Soutiea why they purchased the Craignair Inn, at the end of a peninsula in St. George, out of the 20 different properties they looked at all across New England, and if you happen to be on the inn’s lovely covered deck, they’ll just gesture around silently at neighboring Clark Island and the picturesque coves on either side. You can’t beat the Craignair’s location, and since the Soutieas took it over, in 2019, they’ve done a lot to help guests soak in the surroundings: put in that deck, added 170-square-foot balconies to rooms on the inn’s second floor, and leveled out
the back lawn, adding picnic tables and firepits to facilitate hanging out. They’ve also renovated guest rooms and bathrooms across the nearly century-old property, which includes eight hotel-style rooms in a former chapel and 13 cozier ones in a building that once housed workers quarrying granite on spruce-studded Clark Island — now a Maine Coast Heritage Trust preserve, accessed via a pedestrian causeway. The Causeway is the name of the inn’s terrific restaurant, where the Soutieas have added, among other things, an outdoor walk-up bar for cocktails and ice cream.

Perks: complimentary full-menu breakfast; beach and trails; rooftop solar panels providing some 80 percent of the inn’s energy usage.

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Freshman Cooper Flagg led the Nokomis Regional High School boys’ basketball team to its first state championship, and ESPN ranked him the third-best prospect in the country for the 2025 college recruiting class.

Bangor

Stephen King took some flak on Twitter for an easy salmon recipe he posted, which required only olive oil, lemon juice, and three minutes in the microwave. “Don’t knock it if you haven’t tried it,” he replied.

Dinner: Get a nice salmon filet at the supermarket, not too big.
Put some olive oil and lemon juice on it.
Wrap it in damp paper towels.
Nuke it in the microwave for 3 minutes or so.
Eat it.
Maybe add a salad.

— Stephen King (@StephenKing) April 20, 2022

Millinocket

The site of the former Great Northern Paper mill, which closed for good in 2014, was rebranded with the name One North. A California tech firm’s massive data center is slated to open there next year, and an aquaculture project has been proposed as well.

Columbia Falls

Wreaths Across America founder Morrill Worcester announced plans to erect the world’s largest flagpole by 2026. It would be taller than the Empire State Building, its flag would be bigger than a football field, and the donor-funded project would cost upward of $1 billion.

Prospect

Actress and model Brooke Shields became a board member and the chief brand officer of Prospect Farms, maker of hemp-based wellness tinctures.

Bar Harbor

The driver of a Ford Bronco with New Jersey plates got stuck on mudflats between Bar Harbor and Bar Island. After two tries at towing it — and several intervening high tides that swamped it — inflatable bags were used to float it out.

Philanthropists Peter and Paula Lunder acquired a statue of Abraham Lincoln for the Colby College Museum of Art for $1.15 million. The 40-inch-tall bronze was cast from sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens’s original model for an 1887 monument in Chicago’s Lincoln Park.

Bar Harbor

Firefighting crews from as far as Old Town, more than an hour away, responded to a massive blaze at the grand old Bluenose Inn. The hotel was closed for the season, and nobody was injured, but the fire significantly damaged the 1886 property.

Augusta

A Maine Department of Transportation hard hat was found some 3,300 miles away, in a tangle of seaweed on a beach in Trondheim, Norway. The man who recovered it contacted MDOT via Facebook, and officials told him to go ahead and keep it.

Islesford

Painter, puppet maker, and children’s-book author and illustrator Ashley Bryan passed away at age 98. A Harlem native and a Cranberry Isles resident since the 1980s, Bryan was renowned for his depictions of African and African-American cultures and of the natural world.

Portland

The Portland Museum of Art announced plans to grow the size of its campus more than twofold, by turning the former site of the Children’s Museum and Theatre of Maine into a six- or seven-story building with a rooftop sculpture garden, galleries, and classrooms.

Brunswick

When Wild Oats Bakery and Cafe cashier Sandy Arsenault, a fixture of the popular lunch spot for 13 years, faced unexpected and overwhelming medical bills, a community fundraiser brought in more than $30,000 to help her cover expenses.

Jon Wilson sold WoodenBoat magazine to two longtime employees 47 years after founding the publication in an off-the-grid cabin in nearby Brooksville. The sale also included the company’s two other magazine titles, shop, and boatbuilding school.

Bar Harbor

At final count, Acadia National Park racked up more than 4 million visits last year, exceeding the previous year’s total by more than a million and the previous record high by half a million. Booming shoulder-season travel contributed most to the increase.

Boothbay Harbor

A wayward Steller’s sea eagle was spotted in the Boothbay region, the first of its species recorded in the Lower 48. The large birds, with wingspans up to eight feet, are native to northeastern Asia and number only about 4,000.

Whiting

Josh Pond’s strawberry preserves got a 2022 Good Food Foundation award. The nonprofit foundation honors products that mix quality with sustainable and responsible practices. Rockland’s Bixby Chocolate, Freeport’s Maine Beer Co., and Biddeford’s Atlantic Sea Farms also won.

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Bath

The Bath Iron Works shipyard completed its third and final Zumwalt-class destroyer for the U.S. Navy. For the past decade, the distinctively angular hulls and deckhouses — designed to evade radar — made the ships plenty conspicuous from Route 1’s Sagadahoc Bridge.

Portland

The Portland International Jetport announced that its main runway would close for two months, for $13.7 million worth of repairs and upgrades, starting in mid-April. The closure is expected to force some flights to reschedule.

The Golden Age of Maine Pizza Is Now

From old-school parlors to chi-chi Neapolitan joints to brick ovens on trailers, Vacationland has more and better pie purveyors than ever before.

By Will Grunewald, Brian Kevin, Adrienne Perron, Joe Ricchio, and Joel Crabtree

Downhill from Here

A snow (and speed) lover’s guide to Maine sledding.

By Jennifer Hazard

Burn So Bright

In Maine, heating with wood is more than a tradition — it’s a way of life. In an excerpt from her new memoir Woodsqueer: Crafting a Sustainable Rural Life, Gretchen Legler reflects on the pleasures of the hearth — and of the labor that keeps the home fires burning.

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Special Advertising Section: Aging

How advocates for older adults are working to make the Pine Tree State more livable and sustainable for retirees. Plus, a guide to retirement communities.

By Jennifer Van Allen

Departments

North by East

A Brunswick aerospace company plans rocket launches down east, a Michigan company adds Maine ski terrain to its portfolio, and an essay collection considers Maine’s role in the organics movement. Plus, in Maine Dispatches, a hemisphere-trotting lobster buoy.

Food and Drink

On MDI, a restaurateur turned salumist opens Colvard & Company. In Waterville, Front & Main is a hotel restaurant without the hotel guests. All over Maine, they’re parsing the new “right to food” amendment.

Good Things from Maine

Six Maine-made charcuterie boards that are ready for their close-up, three Maine-made cards for your valentine, one Maine-made oud that’s unlike any other stringed instrument.

Maine Homes

The never-ending renovation of a Newcastle schoolhouse and the everlasting ardor behind three historic love nests. Plus, Maine Preservation’s new executive director talks plans for the enduring nonprofit.

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Where in Maine

Maine Moment

Dooryard

Editor’s note, reader feedback, responses to December’s Where in Maine, and more.

Columns

Room With a View.

My Favorite Place

Cookbook author Chris Toy, on Merrymeeting Bay.

On Our Cover: The state of Maine pizza, by Derek Bissonnette.

Additional photos: Benjamin Williamson, Sienna Clough, and Danielle Sykes

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An unnamed donor paid off the mortgage on the headquarters of Women for Healthy Rural Living, a small community- health nonprofit, and provided funds to turn the previously volunteer executive-director job into a salaried position.

Portland

After a tie — 8,529 votes apiece — Brandon Mazer defeated Roberto Rodriguez for a council seat via tiebreaker: the city clerk drew a name out of a bowl she brought from home. Then, a recount overturned the result in favor of Rodriguez.

Roberto Rodriguez has won a Portland council seat after he and challenger Brandon Mazer initially finished in a tie following two rounds of ranked-choice instant runoff voting last week: https://t.co/FxXyb70z5K

— Maine Public – Celebrating 60 Years! (@MainePublic) November 10, 2021

Westbrook

A roadrunner hitched a ride on a moving truck from Nevada. Local police caught the stowaway and took it to Freedom’s Avian Haven bird rehab center, where an extra-warm habitat was prepared for the desert dweller until it was sent back home.

Gardiner

A flatbed carrying 50 beehives rolled over on Route 24, creating quite a buzz. As bees swarmed, the driver, uninjured, arranged hives by the side of the road, hoping that the little pollinators would return.

Bar Harbor

The Princeton Review named College of the Atlantic the greenest school in the country for the sixth year running, for its recycling and conservation efforts, sourcing of local food, use of renewable energy, and other sustainability programs.

Farmington

The largest array of solar panels in New England commenced operation. At 490 acres, it’s expected to generate enough electricity to power 17,000 homes per year.

Solar farm in Farmington touted as the biggest in New England.https://t.co/FusviJXM2R pic.twitter.com/tIMg4Re6FH

— NEWS CENTER Maine (@newscentermaine) November 22, 2021

The Watson Settlement Bridge, spanning the Meduxnekeag River since 1911, was one of Maine’s nine remaining historic covered bridges until it was destroyed by fire this summer. Investigators ruled the blaze a case of arson.

York

Tammy Ramsey, a host at the Union Bluff Hotel, received $100 and an apology signed pseudonymously by “an embarrassed customer” who had sworn and stormed out after waiting longer than expected for a table. She split the tip with a coworker.

Bar Harbor

A section of Breakneck Road, a walking and biking path in Acadia National Park, was buried under thousands of pounds of rock when a six-foot-tall beaver dam just upstream from a waterfall collapsed, triggering a massive slide.

Farmington

UMaine Farmington fish physiologist Timothy Breton and a team of students identified a previously undiscovered fish gene. Understanding of the gene has potential applications to biomedical research.

Meddybemps

The state of Maine returned a 3.2-acre waterfront parcel to the Passamaquoddy tribe. The site, on Meddybemps Lake, has been an important part of tribal canoe routes for millennia.