With island life, the issue is usually the weather. Matinicus Island lies 23 miles out to sea, the most remote inhabited island on the Atlantic seaboard. Adventurous early retiree with lots of time yet limited money. Fish and Wildlife Service's Maine Coastal . In the summer of 2009, a violent incident between lobstermen on the remote Matinicus Island in Maine would change the close-knit community forever. Matinicus is a small community by any measure, but it's hard to count how many people actually live there. The ferry returns to Rockland within about an hour of arrival on most days. Our May window was timed on Tuesday to arrive one hour before highest tide and on Thursday one hour after highest tide. First there's the setting: Matinicus Island is the furthest out of Maine's populated islands with an official population of about 50. . The whole thing had been somewhat casual. A few yards away, alongside the traps still piled by the garage, two of the three Hussey children took turns dousing one another with a garden hose. New Hope Midcoasts Community of Hope Matching Challenge: NEW GOAL AND UPDATE! Its like the way they know their bottom: The trenches and channels and rocks, theyve known them since they were boys. It sits on a private 40 acre, ocean front lot of rugged Maine land. It doesnt come in here, she said, and that was the end of that. The wind gusted to 70 mph on Sunday near Matinicus Island, about 20. So we went back to get more instructions. The inn is an old house which over the years Bill has added to and worked on himself. A saddening has happened here, Suzanne Rankin says. The plane banked and then passed back over the island providing a great view from a vantage we obviously had not previously enjoyed. We were sitting together in her schoolroom, surrounded by books, wall maps, crayons, and computer tables, talking about all the people on the island who had helped create the projects her students had shared. He defied them: set 400 traps around Matinicus, reportedly with his father-in-laws blessing. As the natives are fond of saying: You live here because you love it, or you dont live here at all. This isnt a place that could exist on the mainlandor, probably, even 10 miles closer to it. It seems that most people out there already know where they are going. We made it back eventually. (Only? He rubbed people wrong. Expedited delivery doesnt exist. You had to fight then, too, but it seems like the rules were more moral. Inside and outside temperatures were the same at around 50 degrees; it was late May. Matinicus Isle is the most remote year-round island in Maine, located 20 miles off Owls Head in the Midcoast. Bill is Matinicus oldest resident, lives fulltime there and has for the past 32 years. During the winter, the ferry crosses once per month, and increases to roughly four times a month during the summer. Island Living and Accommodations: During the field season, 4-6 people live and work on the island. Weve got no use for police out here; were just fine policing ourselves, one local told me. There was a time when that wouldnt have mattered much; 50 or 60 years ago, with an island population just shy of 200, there were other ways to make a living here. He collapsed in a pool of blood at his stepbrothers feet. Some managed to get along by operating small farms and raising their vegetables, cattle, sheep, poultry and pigs. ([He] was my personal hero, blogged journalist Crash Barry, a former Matinicus lobster-boat sternman. Their current ship, at 75 feet and drawing 7 feet, is the Sunbeam V (there have been four other Sunbeams since 1912), and she had arrived in the harbor that day. Still, after years of islanders begging, Doc, really---cant I just describe it to you over the telephone? because a trip to the mainland physicians office would run over $500 in transportation, hotel, and lost worknot including the doctors billfinally the doc is in agreement that yeah, that probably would be a good idea. Even after a hard sleep during mid afternoon, I slept better there at night than I had in many years. Bill has an arrangement with a young guy who works as a stern man on a lobster boat. Yep, we know. Or maybe Vance Bunker cut them, or maybe both of them did, or neither; it can be foggy off Matinicus in the early mornings. People do more than one thing.) And doing for themselves what has to be done since no one else is there to do it for them. Not anymore, anyway.. Damn, we have a lot of cardboard here. There's no garbage collection on the island and no dump, so what does one do with lobster shells and claw remains? Thats how things are when you have to fight to survive. If you had something heavy to pick up and transfer, then just wait for high tide. My teacher friend had somewhat prepared me for life on this remote island -- no paved roads, stores, restaurants, or even bars. The wind gusted to 70 mph (115 kph) on Sunday near Matinicus Island . Maybe not. We experienced it primarily with just its population of year round residents, only slightly increased by summer folk, the two of us mainly. Its also the biggest reason why, whenever theres an event at the schooljust about any event at any time of day that involves the five or six kids there30 people are apt to show up. He was a nice guy and came in for a sit and a talk, after both ends of the bargain had been completed. Whole families moved away entirely, but still showed up to haul their traps. It will not come every day. She was the new teacher in a one-room schoolhouse on Matinicus Island. Thirty years ago, he moved to Matinicus, Maine's most . He dont slow down, he wakes up one morning, looks out his window, and sees hes got four flat tires. You are also agreeing to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Wake up to the day's most important news. school that is overseen by a part-time superintendent and a three-person school board. But islanders know that no matter how important you are, how rich you are, how loud you are, how much you stomp around the flying service office yelling, Do you know who I am? there is nothing anybody can do about the delay. In a tiny office, you pay your $60 upon landing. A couple of lobsters and a slew of crab claws for the new school teacher and her special visitor. And these did not prevent really restful nights. And then, at a little before 6:00 on the morning of July 20, 2009, one of the men, Chris Young, boarded Vance Bunkers boat, accused him of cutting his traps, and, Bunker would say later, threatened to kill him. Essentially, Main Street just turns into a gravel airstrip at the north end of the island. In fact, less than 100 people live there year-round on this island that covers an area of less than 10 square miles. Call (207) 596-2202 for more information. The inn doesnt have a sea view but I think the ocean couldnt have been more than 20 or so yards away from the trees that lined the property. Admittedly, Matinicus Isle isn't a major tourist attraction in Maine. He tried his best, as they all do here, to stay clear of the subject of the shooting. www.islandinstitute.org/waypoints, FOR DATA QUESTIONS, CONTACT: She had just finished her second and final year as the islands teacher; her six students had ranged from kindergarten through sixth grade. Matinicus is one of a vast necklace of islands, more than 3,000 in all, spread out along the Maine coast as far north as the Bay of Fundy. Literally, physically sick.. ), Out on the water, Nat said, Youre close to your work, youre wet, its noisy, its real, sort of like farming must have been at one time. Lisa, for her part, talked about the silenceYou listen carefully, you hear individual things: the wind, the bell buoys, the generator at nightand the spareness of day-to-day life: That whole Walmart mentality, theres none of that out here. All this Philbrook explained to me one rainy spring morning, as we sat together in the cab of his pickup, parked that day at the Matinicus dock, the site of the shooting in July 2009. The community has some workforce housing, primarily for people sterning on lobster boats. You say.) Explore the property's rocky shoreline, tidal pools, and spruce . It was an arresting image, blurring the lines between the forced limitations of poverty and deliberate choices in how one goes about life in a remote place like this. Most are aggravating, to be sure, but a few really are for the better. I do understand that an office visit is the standard of care, and ought to be, so no disrespect intended. I had only a half hour before it departed so I said my goodbyes, agreed to be a pen pal to the students, and walked to the airstrip, picking and eating an apple along the way. He was full of great stories and had a way about him that reminds one of a kindler, gentler Burgess Meredith in the Rocky movies. They had since been taken to the mainland due to health issues and probably have passed away now. While youre at it you can also paint the dogs nails. The Matinicus Rock light station is the hub of the living quarters and serves as a kitchen, dining room, office, and sleeping quarters. Although he still does business on Matinicus and hauls traps in its waters, he lives year-round on the mainland now, his island home of 30 years up for sale, his life there a lifetime now behind him. Miller is Vance Bunkers son-in-law; he married Bunkers daughter Janan several years ago, bought a house on Matinicus not long after, and had been lobstering island waters ever since. His second shot hit Chris Young in the neck. One of the first indications how Matinicus differed from our experiences on Monhegan were all the pick up trucks on board the ferry. And speaking of the mail-plane -- it was my only way off the island. Being the school teacher in this very tightly knit island community apparently has its benefits! 2023 BuzzFeed, Inc. All rights reserved. One couple, in addition to having an amazing vegetable garden, has the only cows on the island (4), as well as chickens, ducks, and turkeys. Matinicus Island, the largest land mass in the archipelago, spans approximately 2 miles (3.2 km) in length and 1-mile (1.6 km) in width for an area of about 720 acres (290 ha). The ship lurched upwards as the dump truck with its heavy load drove off the ferry, onto the ramp. And the old gasoline engines got traded in for diesels; the boats were faster now, so you could set your traps twice as far out. Together we drove up Maines coastal highway, Route 1, initially encountering the morning shift heading to the Bath Iron Works, but little in the way of summer crowds since this was still before Memorial Day. We could fly out whenever we wanted; we told them we could be ready to leave by noon. Their cottage had a kitchen and then a small room with a couch and a sitting chair. They began spending parts of their own summers. For over 100 years they have visited islands along Maines coast (originally focused on the lighthouse keepers on small rocks and living with no outside support at all) bringing health care, companionship and simply attention to some of the States most isolated communities. Nowhere shall we be judged for lack of sartorial splendor. Things had been the same a long time. The little one-room K-8 schoolhouse, viewed by just about everyone as the islands truest pulse, has rarely had more than 10 or 12 students; in recent years the average has been more like half that. He had been an island man for most of his life. Twelve or 13 of them, I guess, came in and told stories, showed photos, shared their memories, she said. Theres no going back. CW: domestic violence, death of animals About the host: Writer Crash Barry lives near a cannabis grove in the foothills of western Maine.
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