Welcome to my Spoooooky Neighborhood


Advertisement
United States' flag
North America » United States » Maine » Bangor
November 6th 2009
Published: November 6th 2009
Edit Blog Post

The colors are muted this yearThe colors are muted this yearThe colors are muted this year

A cold and wet start to the year contributed to this end result
Bangor: The Queen City!

Did you know that Dorilus Morrison, the first mayor of Minneapolis, was a Bangor lumber merchant in the 1840s? It seems that Maine-Minnesota connections go back a long way.

On Halloween, I pedaled through town looking for some spoooooky decorations to photograph. I found a few houses that were decked out in creepy glamour. The trend seemed to be to throw spider webbing over conveniently located shrubs and hedges. Halloween was definitely in the air; it was somewhat chilly, and several small witches with brooms kept guard of their houses, waiting for darkness to descend upon their town.

I took the required as asked-after shot of Stephen King's house. The house had been dark until this week, when I saw lights on a few nights ago. The house and yard are very nice and well-kept, but I didn't feel like creeping closer to take a picture of the wrought iron fence out front. It seems like there's always a car crawling along slowly past the house, taking picture after picture. There was in fact one car doing exactly that when I biked past, so my picture was an afterthought.

I decided to be exercisey and bike over the Penobscot into Brewer to get a shot of the whole town. It was windy and clouds were rolling in, bringing a storm later in the day. The "downtown" of Brewer is somewhat charming, with its stylishly outdated buildings. See if you agree.

When I chose to bike down through town and over the river, I conveniently forgot that I'd have to bike back up the hill to home. Now, naturally I could have walked the bike up the hill. But that would have been so much wimpier than my lame attempt at riding my bike the whole way. I generally choose not to switch gears, making things more difficult for me. I also generally choose not to exercise, also complicating matters. It took much longer than it should have, because I took a detour halfway up to give my legs some horizontal pedaling time. When I finally made it back to my apartment, I promptly fell asleep for 2.5 hours. The hills are a bit steeper here than in Minnesota.


Additional photos below
Photos: 20, Displayed: 20


Advertisement

A few blocks northA few blocks north
A few blocks north

Part of the seminary, I think
A golf course south of my apartmentA golf course south of my apartment
A golf course south of my apartment

Bangor is nestled amongst some very nice topography
The endless McMansions filling suburbs across the country have nothing on East Coast homesThe endless McMansions filling suburbs across the country have nothing on East Coast homes
The endless McMansions filling suburbs across the country have nothing on East Coast homes

Of course, many of these houses have continued to build additions over the course of a hundred years or more


6th November 2009

Maine-Minnesota connection
Hey Emma Really enjoyed your post. I'm reading a doctoral dissertation on the history of the Minnesota River. It talks about how big-money people directed the transformation of the MN Basin into a place to produce commodities. Lumber barons were a big part of that, converting into lumber and cash the trees of the Big Woods that had been so carefully managed by the Dakota and previous residents of the eastern part of the basin. And the grain barons converted native prairie (again carefully cultivated by the natives) into wheat.
6th November 2009

tourtime
Thank you for the lovely tour! Looking forward to seeing this beautiful community in person.

Tot: 0.118s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 16; qc: 53; dbt: 0.0772s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1; ; mem: 1.1mb