 Rockland Breakwater Light. |
Nickname: Pine tree state
State motto: Dirigo (Latin for "I direct.")
State tree: White pine
State animal: Moose
State cat: Maine Coon Cat
State bird: Chickadee
State fish: Landlocked Salmon
State flower: White pine cone
State insect: Honeybee
Capital: Augusta
Population: 1,274,923
Largest City: Portland (pop. 64,249)
 Mount Battie and Mount Megunticook overlook Camden Harbor. |
Tallest mountain: Mount Katahdin (5,268 ft.)
Largest lake: Moosehead Lake (40 mi. x 10 mi.)
No. of lighthouses: 62
No. of lakes and ponds: about 6,000
No. of rivers and streams: about 5,000
No. of acres of forest: about 17 million
No. of islands: about 2,000
No. of cities: 22
No. of towns: 424
No. of plantations: 51
No. of unorganized towns: 416
Fact: Maine is about the same size as all of the other New England states (Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont) combined.
 Acadia National Park's Sand Beach, seen from Great Head Trail. |
Fact: Maine has about 32,000 miles of rivers and streams.
Fact: Maine has 3,478 miles of coastline.
Fact: Maine grows 98 percent of the low brush blueberries in the United States.
Fact: York, Maine, is the oldest chartered city in the United States, chartered in 1641
Fact: Acadia National Park is the second-most visited national park in the United States.
Fact: Maine harvested more than 63 million pounds of lobsters in 2004, a value of more than $250 million.
Fact: Maine produced 74.5 million pounds of blueberries in 2000, more than any other state.
Famous Mainers: Author Stephen King, Sen. George Mitchell, Sen. William Cohen, Vice President Hannibal Hamlin, Sen. Margaret Chase Smith, Union Gen. Joshua Chamberlain, author Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, author Sarah Orne Jewett, poet Edna St. Vincent Millay, baseball player Louis Sockalexis, Sen. Edmund Muskie, Olympic gold medalist Joan Benoit Samuelson, mental health advocate Dorothea Dix, Oscar-winning director John Ford, baseball player Bob Stanley.
Upcoming Mainers: Actress Anna Belknap ("The Handler," "Medical Investigation," "CSI: New York"), comedian Bob Marley, musician Howie Day.
Famous "honorary" Mainers: Painter Andrew Wyeth, millionaire John Rockefeller, baseball player Mike Bordick, author E.B. White, actress Liv Tyler, actress Stockard Channing.
Movies and television shows filmed in Maine: "Peyton Place, (Camden, 1957); "The Man Without A Face" (Camden area, Bowdoin College; 1993); "The Preacher's Wife" (Portland, 1996); "Message In A Bottle" (Greater Portland area, 1999); "The Cider House Rules" (Corea, 1999); "In The Bedroom" (Camden area, 2001); "Pet Sematary" (Greater Bangor area, Mount Desert Island; 1989); "Creepshow II" (Greater Bangor area, 1987); "Forrest Gump" (Pemaquid, 1994); "Head Above Water" (Phippsburg, 1996); "Jumanji" (southern Maine, 1995); "The Langoliers" (Bangor, 1995); "Sarah, Plain and Tall" (Stonington, 1991); "Storm of the Century" (Southwest Harbor, 1999).
Movies and television shows set in Maine: Just about everything adapted from a Stephen King novel or short story, "Murder She Wrote," "Andre."