Yankee Jigs and country dances: Weddings on the Cranberry Isles

Hugh L. Dwelley's "A History of Little Cranberry Island, Maine," p. 119, has descriptions of the first wedding known to be held in the Cranberry Isles, plus social events on Islesford:

When British Captain William Owen visited the Isaac Bunker family on Great Cranberry in 1770, he performed a wedding and then noted that "a great time was had by all." ... Island neighbors attended []. Very likely someone played a fiddle or a banjo. Rum, cider, and a haunch of beef were consumed and Captain Owen wrote: "The evening was spent in Yankee jigs and country dances, much innocent mirth & social glee."

Life on Islesford

When we went up to Maine in April to do some wedding planning, we had a fantastic dinner at Dan & Cynthia's house with their friends Bruce and Barb Fernald. The meal was excellent, and the company was even better. It was the first time we had seen Barb since the day after we got engaged--she was having dinner with Dan and Cynthia when we arrived at the restaurant, and so she was among the first in the world to know about our engagement (not only that, as the local society columnist, she was the first to publicly record it, in the July 27, 2006 edition of the Mount Desert Islander!)

Little did we know that Bruce and Barb were famous! I recently picked up this charming little book called "The Secret Life of Lobsters" by Trevor Corson, and it turns out Bruce and Barb are major characters in it. Here's how the book starts:

The morning sky was glowing pink in the southeast but a chill hung in the salt air. The grumble of a truck engine echoed across the harbor. Bruce Fernald's rust-encrusted Ford pickup skidded to a halt in the gravel near the fisherman's co-op on Little Cranberry Island. ...

A century earlier, three hundred Maine islands had been home to year-round communities of fishermen and seafarers. Little Cranberry Island was one of just fourteen such year-round communities that remained. A mile and a half long and shaped like a pork chop, it lay among four other small islands that together formed the Cranberry Isles. Nestled just south of the larger island of Mount Desert, the Cranberries were visible to hikers in Acadia National Park as a cluster of green slabs on the ocean.

Little Cranberry Island had been Bruce's home for most of his fifty years, and he'd spent most of his adult life trapping lobsters around the island's shores. ... Down the main street was the Protestant Church. In the other direction was the Catholic chapel, where a fisherman's net hung behind Jesus, the fisher of men. Bruce Fernald attended neither, but if the lobstering didn't improve, it was possible he'd begin attending both.

Off-Season at the Islesford Dock Restaurant

Some of you may recall that we went up to Maine in April (right after a freak snowstorm!) to do some wedding planning. Back then we posted a video of different places to stay in Southwest Harbor. Now that all of you have booked rooms you might get something out of watching that again (or maybe not).

Another video we took was out at the Islesford Dock Restaurant with the proprietors (and our friends) Dan & Cynthia Lief. The Islesford Dock is not only where we're having the reception it's really the spiritual home of the wedding.

So in the video, Dan & Cynthia talk a little about the restaurant and the time when Amy stayed up with them in 1999. Back then, right before Amy went to Investcorp (and mere months before she met me!), Amy hung out at the bar (with her pet chameleon George) every day for weeks, went on lobster boats, and had in general had a great time with Dan (her old boss at Goldman Sachs) and Cynthia.

The quality isn't too great (it was taken on our digital camera), but it's okay to watch.

We're going up to Maine again this weekend and hopefully we'll get some good footage of what it looks like in-season!

Hugh L. Dwelley's "A History of Little Cranberry Island, Maine," p. 184, describes the lobster business on Little Cranberry in recent years:

After 1996, Maine fishermen were limited by law to fishing gangs of no more than 1200 traps. At Islesford, this was not a hardship. A usual gang, fished by captain and sternman in a 36-40 foot diesel-powered boat, ran more like 700 wire-box traps. There were about fifteen boats out of Islesford and three out of Great Cranberry. Catches were good with the fisherman being paid from $3 to $5 per pound. In 1998, the co-op purchased 565,393 pounds of lobsters which it subsequently sold to individuals and mainland dealers at a good profit. In 1996 and 1997 the co-op invested a significant amount to substantially rebuild and strengthen its dock.

A triumphal parade: End of war on Islesford

From Hugh L. Dwelley's "A History of Little Cranberry Island, Maine," p. 170:

On July 3, 1944, a U.S. Navy blimp went down while searching for a German submarine near Mount Desert Rock. The wreck of the blimp was towed into Bunker's Head Cove where divers removed bodies and the gondola and the engines salvaged. Few herring visited the cove in late 1944 or for years after and many blamed oil that leaked from the blimp's engines.

Japan surrendered on August 10, 1945 and World War II was over. The Islesford community celebrated. Hillis Bryant rang the bell at the Congregational Church and islanders gathered to hear a talk of thankfulness from Ray Dwelley, church president. As the young people left the church, they piled onto Irving Spurling's wagon or fell in behind it. Irving, tipping his hat and urging on his plodding horse, Peggy, led a triumphal parade around the square. In the evening, Coast Guardsman Calvin Alley led a group to Sandbeach and burned an effigy of Tojo at the water's edge. To end the celebration, Mary Morse distributed fireworks to island youths. Islanders serving in the military were safe and would be home soon!

Get Some Sarse: The Islesford Congregational Church

From Hugh L. Dwelley's "A History of Little Cranberry Island, Maine."

On September 1, 1898, the Islesford Congregational Society was formed ... Ground was broken for the church on November 7, and the cornerstone was laid on December 30th. ... Construction of the Islesford Church was under the supervision of the island's master builder Alonzo J. Bryant and it proceeded rapidly. The handsome new building was prominently situated on Colonel William Hadlock's "ledge lot" near the center of the community. On August 4th, 1899, Vincent Bowditch wrote: "The new church is nearly finished and a stained glass window was put up yesterday. A 'memorial' window to the soldiers in the Civil War, but some of the names inscribed represent living men. Colonel Hadlock's idea, apparently not wishing to be 'left out in the cold'. Speaking of the window, Charlie Jarvis evidently thinks it a piece of extravagance. When 'Geo. Hen' (George Henry Fernald) said to me: 'it cost $81.00'. Charlie remarked: '$81.00 -- thunder!, the next time they ask me for church contributions, they'll get some sarse.'"

Anti-Jinxing the Weather for This August

One memorable passage in "The Secret Life of Lobsters" records a party at the Islesford Dock Restaurant towards the end of August. Let's hope August 2007 doesn't have the same storms August 1996 had! (but check this out)

The hurricane warning crackled over Bruce Fernald's radio aboard the Double Trouble two days before the end of August 1996. The storm was a monster and approaching Little Cranberry Island quickly. ...

The day the hurricane was to arrive a stiff breeze raced across the harbor. The men spent the afternoon hauling small boats out of the water and battening down equipment on the co-op wharf. ... When the rain came crashing down in leaden sheets across the harbor and the ocean frothed white out of the west, the fishermen knew they were inside the leading edge of the the hurricane, and there was nothing more they could do.

Still in their rain slickers and dripping wet, they congregated in the bar at the end of the restaurant wharf to watch the storm come. It was the final day of the restaurant's summer season, when the owners held their customary closing night for the islanders--no tourists allowed. Leftover beer would flow for free until the kegs ran dry. Clutching pints of Harpoon ale and Budweiser, the fishermen sat with their backs to the bar, gazing out through the windows while the rising tempest buffeted the wharf on its pilings and pulled their pitching boats tight on their mooring lines.

Ferries to Little Cranberry Island

Obviously no one can get on and off Little Cranberry without a boat. That's why everyone on the island always knows exactly when the ferry comes and goes. We've scheduled a charter boat to get people to the wedding (4 pm from the upper town dock in Southwest Harbor!), but if you decide to come out to the island early, you'll be on one of the ferries. Virginia Thorndike's "Islanders" describes the ferry business to the Cranberries:

A lot of freight has to be carried out to the Cranberry Isles, in addition to all the people who want to come out or go ashore. Less than half an hour is scheduled for the boat trips between the Cranberries and [Mount Desert Island]; the islands are well connected through relatively protected water. ...

One or two barge trips a week usually take care of the needs of the islands during the winter--fuel, construction lumber, bait for the co-op in Islesford, and trash on the return. In summer, "it's just as fast as we can do things," says David Bunker. There are three trips a week just carrying trucks of lobster bait.

Walking up the Main Road on a sunny summer afternoon: Tourism on Islesford over the years

Hugh L. Dwelley's "A History of Little Cranberry Island, Maine," pp. 147-148, describes day trippers out to Islesford:

In the 1940s and 1950s and earlier, a tourist family or a couple walking up the Main Road on a sunny summer afternoon, was a curiosity to be peered at or remarked upon. While the Islesford Ferry made trips to and from Mount Desert two or three times a day, nearly all its passengers were natives or summer residents well known to everyone. ... In 1998, the National Park reported 11,905 visitors to the Islesford Museum between June and September. While most came no further than the museum and the nearby restaurant dock with its gift and pottery shops, a good number walked or rode bikes across the island to Gilley Beach, with stops at the store for pizza [sadly, not open in 2007! -ed.] and a post card, or at Dan and Katie Fernald's art gallery or to snap a picture of the church.

These are the Day Trippers -- the latest layer of tourists to visit Islesford. No longer are they unexpected as they walk up the Main Road or down the Back Road, but they still may be subject to a remark or two. By 5 p.m. they are gone and the island belongs to its residents.

One-Armed Job: Settling Islesford

A few guests are staying in a house near Eagle Point, which is the northwest corner of the island (on your left as you come into the dock). They may be interested to learn that the first white settlers to Little Cranberry landed there. From Hugh L. Dwelley's "A History of Little Cranberry Island, Maine," pp. 16-17:

One-armed Job Stanwood is thought to have come to Little Cranberry in 1762 and Benjamin Bunker to Great Cranberry. Ted Spurling tells us that Stanwood and Bunker were both veterans of the 1745 First Battle of Louisburg where Stanwood lost an arm. Both came from communities in Sussex County, Massachusetts as did Some and Richardson. They may well have known one another before they came.
...
Governor Bernard returned [to Little Cranberry] in 1764 to survey his grant more fully. Wendell Hadlock wrote that: "His [Bernard's] surveyor took his departure from Sutton's Island to a spruce tree on Job Stanwood's Landing Place on Little Cranberry Island." Thus is Job Stanwood's presence and even the place of his landing (near Eagle Point) confirmed.