Haunted Islands In The Gulf Of Maine

What is it about islands that make them ideal settings for ghost stories? Maybe it’s because an island is the perfect place to dispose of a body or bury treasure, or maybe there’s some truth to the lore than spirits cannot travel over water. Whatever the case, with over 3,000 coastal islands, Maine has more than its share of those that are haunted. The proposed book features twenty-one haunted islands off the coast of Maine. A partial list of hauntings includes the following: Outer Heron Island: Death, panic, and mysterious fog plague this island, which is home to a vengeful ghost guarding a lost grave and a legendary treasure linked to a sea cave embellished in strange hieroglyphics. Swan’s Island: A number of ghosts haunt Swan’s Island, but the most noteworthy is a spirit appearing as a young, disoriented girl who leads people to the cemetery in the village of Atlantic and then mysteriously disappears before anyone discovers her grave. Mount Desert Rock: The station at this remote rock in the ocean contains a demonic spirit that targets anyone who spends the night in one particular room, inducing petrifying dreams that reenact a tragedy that took place there. Roque Island: This private island, which contains a mile-long white sand beach, is inhabited by the ghosts of a 19th century patriarch, a maid, and a young boy known as Gus, who spent his life in a cage due to incurable madness. Sable Island: The graveyard of the Atlantic, with more 350 shipwrecks, Sable Island is haunted by the spirits of those who drowned there, those who were left to fend for themselves in a bloody penal colony, and two women, one who was murdered, and one whose lifeless body was desecrated to remove the ring she wore.

Forgotten somewhere between Bar Harbor, Maine, and New Brunswick, Canada, lies the most remote and mysterious section of the Eastern Seaboard. It is a region rich in stark beauty—and supernatural lore. The harsh landscape, with its rocky seaside cliffs and thundering surf and miles of dark, mysterious forest farther inland, lends itself to the ghost story. Overlaying the ghost tales gathered in this book is a sense of unspeakable horror and malice.

Maine has a rich supernatural history and ghost stories from the state are as varied as they are prolific. Freelance writer and reporter Tom Verde first became interested in such eerie occurrences while researching first-hand encounters with ghosts for a series of public radio programs. This book recounts some of the spine-tingling tales he uncovered in his research, including: •The dagger-wielding shade who terrorized a Portland couple •The murdered Indian who revisited Means’s Tavern •Famed diva Lillian Nordica, whose voice still echoes through the Farmington auditorium named in her honor •The hostile spirit who tried to frighten the tenants out of an Orrington house •Even an entire phantom ship, bound eternally for Freeport These are not fictitious creations of literary imagination. People from all walks of life—including many who were positive they would never believe in ghosts—attest to these encounters.

Following in the tradition of his first collection of ghost stories, Dark Woods, Chill Waters, Marcus LiBrizzi has researched and written a collection of 21 true ghost stories from the Acadia/Mount Desert Island region of Maine. All the stories stand out due to their frightening elements and legendary qualities, combined with historical background and eye-witness accounts. The collection also provides a kind of gothic tour guide, recounting stories in settings that readers can go and visit.

What is it about lighthouses that make them bastions of spiritual activity? Built for strength and permanence, they are nonetheless vulnerable, protecting lives yet isolated and remote. Unforgiving of human frailty, these outposts inevitably become the settings for tragedy—and for the spirits that linger on at the site of their ruined hopes, their sufferings, their obsessions. With its incessant fogs and infamously craggy coast, Maine has the second highest number of lighthouses in the country. Many of these 64 beacons are shrouded in wisps of rumor and mystery. There are ongoing strange and eerie events and occurrences that recall past violence or sadness—stranded crews who resorted to cannibalism, keepers driven to madness by unending days of blinding fog, children drowned in shipwrecks. Author Taryn Plumb explores the ghostly tales and mysteries surrounding Maine lighthouses. Some hauntings can be directly tied to a known historical event, while others seem to have no origin, yet all will enthrall you with their spookiness.

In one of the most famous paranormal events from Early America, the Nelly Butler apparition appeared to more than one hundred individuals on the coast of Maine in 1799-1800. While this ghost is among the most convincing apparitions ever recorded, no other haunting created such a storm of controversy, sparking accusations of fraud, witchcraft, and demonism. For the ghost known as Nelly Butler orchestrated a wedding, a death, and a sensation unmatched to the present day. The hauntings remain one of the great mysteries of history. The text includes accounts from eye-witnesses, letters by Abraham Cummings, and a critical introduction by Marcus LiBrizzi. An imprint of the University of Maine at Machias Press, the Library of Early Maine Literature reissues rare and important works in high quality editions with full supporting materials.

Tales of pirates, witches, and other amazing denizens of the state of Maine.

Celia Laighton Thaxter (1835-1894) was born in Portsmouth, NH. When she was four, her father became the lighthouse keeper on White Island in the Isles of Shoals. After resigning his post eight years later, he built a resort hotel on Appledore Island in Maine. The first of its kind on the New England coast, the hotel became a gathering place for writers and artists during the latter half of the 19th century. In her last year of life, Celia published this work, in which she lovingly describes her Appledore garden and its flowers. The flowers she grew in her cutting garden filled her own rooms and those of the hotel, and this work became famous for its descriptions of the old-fashioned flowers she grew there. Her island garden, a plot that measured 15 feet square, has been re-created and is open to visitors.

The dark woods of Maine have been the setting for many eerie and unexplained events, none more captivating than sightings of a giant hominid known as Bigfoot. But what makes this corner of New England such a perfect place for this cryptid to live? Learn about the ecology and geography that support the legend and meet the people forever changed by close encounters with it. From previously unpublished eyewitness accounts to modern-day media portrayals, author and illustrator Michelle Souliere presents this detailed history of the phenomenon and folklore that has lurked in shadows for generations.