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Maine Travel

Katahdin (“highest land, nearest to the gods”) is the Abnaki Indian name for Maine’s loftiest mountain. And the name is apt, for Katahdin, nearly a mile high, dominates the surrounding hills and is the centerpiece of the state’s vast woodlands.

This majestic peak is but one example of Maine’s natural beauty — a beauty that does indeed seem near to the gods, or at least divinely inspired. Seven chains of lakes, more than 2,500 in all, spill across dark green forests like sparkling blue sapphires. In the northeast, vast fields of potato plants carpet the earth with white blossoms. In the southeast, the coastline twists and turns through an intricate network of coves, inlets, and islands at the edge of the indigo sea. And in the center of the state, densely forested mountains, Katahdin among them, cut an awe-inspiring profile against the azure sky.

Maine's Liberty Tool Company

While driving through the little town of Liberty on our annual visit to Maine I happened upon the Liberty Tool Company, a jewel of a hardware store that claims it's Maine's largest secondhand store. If you can trace a culture's history by its tools, as the owners claim, Liberty Tool would be the place to start. We marveled at the tools stashed to the ceiling, aisle after crowded aisle.

Eartha, the World's Largest Rotating Globe, Maine

Maps from the DeLorme Company helped us navigate countless backroads. So when we needed new ones, we headed for their headquarters in Yarmouth, Maine.

We'd only heard a little about Eartha, the world's largest rotating globe, which stands in DeLorme's lobby. But what an impressive sight to watch this 41-foot, 5,600-pound globe, tilted at the same angle as the planet, slowly rotate. The detail is phenomenal; the globe's 792 panels detail ocean depths, mountain ranges, road networks and urban areas--it's fascinating!