USA - Maine - Portland Head Light

Portland Head Light, is a historic lighthouse in Cape Elizabeth, Maine. Completed in 1791, it is the oldest lighthouse in the State of Maine.

Sent by Char from Maine, USA.

Portland Head Light is a historic lighthouse in Cape Elizabeth, Maine. The light station sits on a headland at the entrance of the primary shipping channel into Portland Harbor, which is within Casco Bay in the Gulf of Maine. Completed in 1791, it is the oldest lighthouse in Maine. The light station is automated, and the tower, beacon, and foghorn are maintained by the United States Coast Guard, while the former lighthouse keeper's house is a maritime museum within Fort Williams Park.

Construction began in 1787 at the directive of George Washington and was completed on January 10, 1791, using a fund of $1,500, established by him. Whale oil lamps were originally used for illumination. In 1855, following the formation of the Lighthouse Board, a fourth-order Fresnel lens was installed; that lens was replaced by a second-order Fresnel lens, which was replaced later by an aerobeacon in 1958. That lens was replaced with a DCB-224 aerobeacon in 1991. The DCB-224 aerobeacon is still in use.

In 1787, while Maine was still part of the state of Massachusetts, George Washington engaged two masons from the town of Falmouth (modern-day Portland), Jonathan Bryant and John Nichols, and instructed them to take charge of the construction of a lighthouse on Portland Head. Washington reminded them that the early government was poor, and said that the materials used to build the lighthouse should be taken from the fields and shores, materials which could be handled nicely when hauled by oxen on a drag. The original plans called for the tower to be 58 feet tall. When the masons completed this task, they climbed to the top of the tower and realized that it would not be visible beyond the headlands to the south, so it was raised another 20 feet (read more).

USA - Maine - Acadia National Park - Boulder Beach

BOULDER BEACH

This famous beach in Acadia National Park in Maine, USA is strewn with egg shaped stones smoothed by the relentless erosive actions of pounding waves.

Sent by Daniel from Massachusetts, USA.

My other two Acadia National Park postcards are here and here.

Boulder Beach is great for shooting with a ND filter as the waves create a soft, milky flow. Be careful though a getting to the beach some effort. You are walking on rocks and boulders and the footing is very unsteady. After scrambling down a steep incline, However slow and steady and the effort will be worth it. It can get pretty crowded so go early and stake your spot (read more).

USA - Maine - Acadia National Park - Otter Point

Otter Point - Acadia National Park
Spruce forest at the ocean's edge.

Sent by Lyn, a postcrosser from Maine, USA.

This is from Wikipedia : Acadia National Park (ANP) is a National Park located in the U.S. state of Maine. It reserves much of Mount Desert Island, and associated smaller islands, off the Atlantic coast. Originally created as Lafayette National Park in 1919, the first National Park East of the Mississippi, it was renamed Acadia in 1929.[2]

The area first was inhabited by the Wabanaki people.

In the fall of 1604, Samuel de Champlain observed a high-notched island composed of seven or eight mountains rising to bare-rock summits from slopes of birch, fir, and pine. In spite of many changes over nearly 400 years, the area remains essentially the same.

The landscape architect Charles Elliot is credited with the idea for the park. It first attained federal status when President Woodrow Wilson, established it as Sieur de Monts National Monument on July 8, 1916, administered by the National Park Service. On February 26, 1919, it became a national park, with the name Lafayette National Park in honor of the Marquis de Lafayette, an influential French supporter of the American Revolution. The park's name was changed to Acadia National Park on January 19, 1929.

From 1915 to 1933, the wealthy philanthropist John D. Rockefeller, Jr. financed, designed, and directed the construction of a network of carriage trails throughout the park. He sponsored the landscape architect Beatrix Farrand, with the nearby family summer home Reef Point Estate, to design the planting plans for the subtle carriage roads at the Park (c.1930). The network encompassed over 50 miles (80 km) of gravel carriage trails, 17 granite bridges, and two gate lodges, almost all of which are still maintained and in use today. Cut granite stones placed along the edges of the carriage roads act as guard rails of sort and are locally known as "coping stones" to help visitors cope with the steep edges. They are also fondly called "Rockefeller's teeth".

USA - Maine - Mapcard

MAINE FACTS
Maine - "Pine Tree State"
CAPITAL - Augusta
AREA - 33,125 square miles
POPULATION "1990" - 1,227,928
MOTTO - "Dirigo" (I Direct)
FLOWER - Pine Cone
ANIMAL - Moose
CAT - Maine Coon
INSECT - Honeybee
BIRD - Chickadee
TREE - Eastern White Pine
23rd State admitted to the Union.

Sent by Monica, a postcrosser from Maine, USA.

USA - Maine - Aedes Vexans

The Mosquito (Aedes Vexans).

Sent by Jamie from Gardiner in Maine, USA.

This is from Wikipedia : Aedes vexans is a cosmopolitan and common pest mosquito. It is a known vector of Dirofilaria immitis (dog heartworm); Myxomatosis (deadly rabbit virus disease); and tahyna-virus, a seldom-diagnosed Bunyaviridae, a disease which affects humans in Europe with fever which disappears after two days, but afterward can cause Encephalitis or Meningitis. Aedes vexans is the most common mosquito in Europe, often composing more than 80% the European mosquito community. Its abundance depends upon availability of floodwater pools. In summer, mosquito traps can collect up to 8,000 mosquitoes per trap per night.

Aedes vexans is the most aggressive mosquito in Europe.

USA - Maine - Acadia National Park - Cadillac Mountain

Cadillac Mountain's Eastern View.

Sent by Mary from Baltimore in Maryland.

This is from Wikipedia : Cadillac Mountain is a mountain located on Mount Desert Island, within Acadia National Park. With an elevation of 1,528 feet (470 m), its summit is the highest point in Hancock County, and the highest within 25 miles (40 km) of the coastline of the Eastern United States.

Before being renamed in 1918, the mountain had been called Green Mountain. The new name honors the French explorer and adventurer, Antoine Laumet de La Mothe, sieur de Cadillac. In 1688, De la Mothe requested and received from the Governor of New France a parcel of land in an area known as Donaquec which included part of the Donaquec River (now the Union River) and the island of Mount Desert in the present-day U.S. state of Maine. Antoine Laumet de La Mothe, a shameless self-promoter who had already appropriated the "de la Mothe" portion of his name from a local nobleman in his native Picardy, thereafter referred to himself as Antoine de la Mothe, sieur de Cadillac, Donaquec, and Mount Desert.

From 1883 until 1893 the Green Mountain Cog Railway ran to the summit to take visitors to the Green Mountain Hotel on the summit.[3] The hotel was burned down in 1895. Also in 1895, the cog train was sold to the Mount Washington Cog Railway in New Hampshire.

There are various hiking trails to the summit of Cadillac Mountain, some more challenging than others. There is also a paved road to the top.

Cadillac Mountain is commonly believed to be the first location in the United States to be struck by the sun's rays each morning. Driving or hiking to the summit of Cadillac Mountain to see "the nation's first sunrise" is a popular activity among visitors of Acadia National Park. However, Cadillac only sees the first sunrise in the fall and winter, when the sun rises south of due east. During most of the spring and summer, the sun rises first on Mars Hill, 150 miles (240 km) to the northeast. For a few weeks around the equinoxes, the sun rises first at West Quoddy Head in Lubec, Maine, the easternmost town in the United States.

On a clear day, it is possible to see Mount Katahdin, Maine's highest mountain, to the north and the Canadian province of Nova Scotia to the east, both over one hundred miles away.