Stan Amster Photography – Scenic and Commercial Photography in Northern New England.

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Picture perfect day in Peacham Vermont

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I thought I would get out on a picture perfect day and head over to Peacham and a few other places in the NEK. The weather was perfect.

In 1763, Governor Benning Wentworth of New Hampshire gave a charter for the region to a group of proprietors, and the town was given the name Peacham (the etymology of the name is unclear). The original proprietors were speculators who surveyed the town, laid a few rudimentary roads, and divided it into lots, though the territory remained unsettled for some time.

 

In 1775, settlers, primarily from Connecticut and Massachusetts, bought the lots and built homes, developing the land for agriculture. The original settlers survived almost entirely through subsistence farming despite the long winters, hilly terrain, and rocky soil. Nine years later, records show a population of approximately 200 people. The first recorded town meeting took place in 1784, and selectmen were duly elected to govern the affairs of the town. Peacham was early on presented with a choice of having either the county courthouse or the county school, and the residents voted for the school. In 1795 the Caledonia County Grammar School received its charter, and the first school was established in a log structure on the Bayley Hazen Road, halfway between Peacham Corner and South Peacham.

 

In 1799, a library was established, which traveled from store to store. A congregational church was founded in 1794 – the first pastor, Leonard Worcester, was well known for his fiery sermons. His son Samuel went on to be an important missionary to the Cherokee people, creating the first typeface for the Cherokee alphabet and gaining lasting fame as the plaintiff in the supreme court case Worcester v. Georgia.

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Pemaquid Point Lighthouse in Bristol Maine

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Without a doubt, this is my favorite lighthouse in New England.

The lighthouse was commissioned in 1827 by President John Quincy Adams and built that year. Because of poor workmanship (salt water was used in the mortar mix), the lighthouse began to crumble and was replaced in 1835. The second contract for the construction stipulated that only fresh water be used. Keeper Isaac Dunham oversaw the construction and wrote in a letter to the US Lighthouse Establishment that the agreement was upheld and the work went well.

The original light was an Argand-Lewis parabolic reflector, lit with candles and with a visibility of 2 miles (3.2 km). Augustin Fresnel invented a superior way of focusing light in the early 1850s and most lighthouses in the US were converted to the Fresnel Lens, with Pemaquid Point receiving a fourth order Fresnel

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Sunset from Boothbay Harbor in Maine.

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Boothbay Harbor in Maine is one of my favorite harbors in Maine. It is peaceful and quiet with plenty to do during the summer and fall.

The town is in southern Lincoln County, at the south end of a peninsula in the Gulf of Maine, part of the Atlantic Ocean. It is bordered to the west by the tidal Sheepscot River and to the east by Linekin Bay. The town center sits at the north end of Boothbay Harbor, which joins Linekin Bay to the south, past Spruce Point. Townsend Gut, to the southwest, separates the town of Boothbay Harbor from Southport Island. The town is bordered to the north and east by the town of Boothbay, to the south by the town of Southport, and to the west, across the Sheepscot River, by the towns of Westport and Georgetown. The island community of Isle of Springs is in the western part of the town, and West Boothbay Harbor is in the west-central part of the town. Bayville is next to the eastern border of the town, close to East Boothbay. 

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Pemaquid Point Lighthouse in in Bristol Maine.

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Pemaquid Point Lighthouse. Commissioned by John Quincy Adams in 1827, this Maine lighthouse has the Fisherman’s Museum on the first floor in the Keepers House, and there is the possibility of renting the apartment on the second floor. The Pemaquid Point Lighthouse Park is located at the entrance to Muscongus Bay and Johns Bay, in the town of Bristol. The Town of Bristol purchased the park property from the Coast Guard in 1940 with the exception of the light tower. Pemaquid Point Lighthouse Park is managed by the Bristol Parks Commission.

Without a doubt, this is my favorite lighthouse in all of New England.

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Spring at the Green River Crib Dam in the Hamlet of Green River Vermont.

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The Green River Crib Dam is a historic 19th-century dam on the Green River in western Guilford, Vermont. Built about 1811, it is a reminder of the modest industrial enterprises once conducted in the area using the water power it provided, and is one of the state’s few surviving crib dams. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1995.

 

The dam is located in far western Guilford, upstream of the Green River Covered Bridge, which spans the Green River at the junction of Green River Road with Jacksonville Stage Road. The dam is about 110 feet (34 m) long, with a maximum height of 10.5 feet (3.2 m), and spans the river in a semicircle open to the downstream side. The material of the dam mostly logs and rubble, with plank facing. The abutments of the dam are now a combination of stone and concrete, the wing wall on the east side extending downstream toward the bridge, where it formed part of the foundation of a now-destroyed mill.

 

The earliest recorded documentation of a dam on this site dates to 1811, when Jonah Cutting is known to have a paper and linseed oil mill operating at the site. Some of the materials of the present dam may well date to this period. By 1856 the mill is only documented as being used for paper production. In 1869 a major flood apparently damaged the mill beyond repair, and it may also have damaged the dam; it washed out the bridge then standing just downstream. In 1871 Henry Stowe erected a lumber and grist mill on the site, which operated until 1918, when it was destroyed by fire. The dam has since then been maintained by private owners, forming a picturesque part of the small Green River village and a reminder of its modest industrial past.

Spring at the Green River Crib Dam in the Hamlet of Green River Vermont. Read More »