It's possible there were human Haddocks in Maine well before the Puritans settled Massachusetts, according to SeacoastNH.com historian J. Dennis Robinson. In an article first published in 2003, he checks the surprising claim that four brothers from Scotland with the last name Haddock may have come to the New World in 1610 searching for timbers to use for the English navy's ships. A Haddock family tale says the four spent a horrible winter in a rock-lined cave on the shore of the Piscataqua River somewhere in South Berwick. While no direct evidence survives, Robinson puts together some good circumstantial information, including the fact that some early New England settlers lived in shelters that were at least partially underground. And there's the tempting possibility that the Haddock brothers could have been part of the failed Popham colony that fell apart in 1608 and either never left Maine (some persistent legends claim not everyone went home to England) or did go home and then returned to Maine.
>> READ: "Groundfishing in New England faces a bleak present and an uncertain future" by Deirdre Fulton <<
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The cluster of small shacks that comprise Jim's Smelt Camp in Bowdoinham look like a tiny shantytown; were that it was so — I would move right in.
- Eat more Maine scallops and pollock, and less imported, farmed salmon and shrimp
Fresh Maine sea scallops (dredged by day-boats or caught by divers) are everywhere this fleeting season, rebounding after a collapse that prompted a three-year-moratorium.
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Folks, I'm just an American groundfish ...
- Exploring deep within
Hannah Holmes, the Maine-born, Portland-dwelling science writer, naturalist, and friend to all animals has turned her lens deeply inward in her latest book, The Well-Dressed Ape: A Natural History of Myself .
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How has Maine's term-limit law, restricting legislators to eight consecutive years in office, been working since it was approved by voters in 1993?
- Why we live here
By now, we've all heard what the people at Forbes magazine have to say about why Portland is at the top of its annual "America's Most Livable Cities" list. We apparently scored a lot of points on a "leisure index."
- Letters to the Portland editor: May 1, 2009
Is Rick Wormwood an inbred Maineiac as some would speculate?
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If you're planning a trip to Vacationland this summer, be sure to bring your galoshes — the "gay storm" that's been satirized all over the Internet rolled into Maine last week.
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This past Earth Day, President Barack Obama, speaking at an Iowa wind-turbine factory, delivered a gusty peroration. "The nation that leads the world in creating new energy sources will be the nation that leads the 21st-century global economy," he said. "America can be that nation. America must be that nation."
- Photos: Stetson Wind in Maine
Photos of Stetson Wind in Washington County, Maine
- Get smart
There are lots of theories about what's wrong with Maine's economy.
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