 Our Midcoast Maine Community
Whether summer or winter, spring or fall, outdoors or indoors, nature or culture—regardless of your preference, life in Midcoast Maine offers unmatched possibilities. Spanning Knox, Lincoln, and Waldo counties, the Penobscot Bay area is famous for its scenic views, sailing and hiking, museums and restaurants, lighthouses and blueberry barrens, safe harbors, coastal hills, and quiet, accessible islands.
The Midcoast, while proud to show off its rich historical heritage, enters the 21st century with a modern outlook, a lively arts community, and a wealth of educational and recreational activities for all ages. It's also home to a famous windjammer fleet, numerous boatbuilding companies, and the lobster capital of the world.
Culture
Fine art aficionados will appreciate The William A. Farnsworth Art Museum in Rockland, with its frequent Wyeth family exhibits, as well as The Center for Maine Contemporary Art, in Rockport—along with numerous other galleries and exhibitions.
 Music-lovers will want to check out Bay Chamber Concerts, featuring and eclectic mix of classical, jazz, world music, and dance. Based in Rockport, Bay Chamber Concerts has recently expanded its area venues. Those venues now include the newly restored, historic Strand Theatre, on Rockland's Main Street—offering the best of independent and world cinema, documentaries, and classic/retrospective films.
Speaking of theater, The Midcoast has plenty: Camden Civic Theatre (whose home is the historic Camden Opera House), Belfast Maskers in Belfast, and Waldo Theatre in Waldoboro.
The area is also rich in museums, such as the Maine Lighthouse Museum and Gateway Visitor Center™, in Rockland, which houses the largest array of lighthouse lenses anywhere. The Owls Head Transportation Museum sports a respected collection of pioneer-era aircraft and automobiles. Montpelier, in Thomaston, is a painstaking recreation of the mansion of Revolutionary War hero General Henry Knox, whose original home once stood nearby. Then there's Penobscot Marine Museum, in Searsport, with its impressive tributes to the Age of Sail.
Fans of lighthouses have plenty to visit, including Marshall Point Light, in Port Clyde, Owls Head Light, the Rockland Breakwater Light, Pemaquid Point Light, in Bristol, and Indian Island Light, at the entrance to beautiful Rockport Harbor.
Many of the Midcoast's smaller communities host active historical societies. Here's just a sampling: Lincolnville Historical Society, Union Historical Society, Vinalhaven Historical Society, Nobleboro Historical Society, Thomaston Historical Society, The Cushing Historical Society.
 Recreation
If you like to stay active, you won't run out of things to do in the Midcoast Maine region—beginning with the state park system. Camden Hills State Park is criss-crossed with scenic hiking trails that culminate with awe-inspiring views of Penobscot Bay from atop Mount Battie and Mount Megunticook. Damariscotta Lake State Park affords swimming on one of the area's most popular lakes. And Birch Point Beach State Park in Owls Head features a crescent-shaped saltwater picnic beach with scenic island views.
The area's many other lakes and ponds—such as Chickawaukie Lake in Rockland and Rockport, Seven Tree Pond, in Union, and Megunticook Lake in Camden—offer swimming in warmer months and ice-skating (or -fishing) in winter. Winter sports enthusiasts can also enjoy downhill skiing at the Camden Snow Bowl and the popular cross-country skiing trails in the scenic woods of Tanglewood 4-H Camp in Lincolnville.
If you're looking for indoor recreation, there's plenty of that, as well. Midcoast Recreation Center in Rockport has a tennis center and ice arena, Penobscot Bay YMCA, also in Rockport, offers swimming, health and fitness, and children's programs.
 Sails dot Penobscot Bay on any summer day. Its harbors are home to dozens of daysailers, a large windjammer fleet, and other passenger-carrying vessels—including whale-watching tours and puffin cruises. Its wild shores and forests make the area popular with hunters, birders, and environmental conservation groups. For instance, the community supports a number of conservancies whose mission is land preservation and/or limited public access, among them Georges River Land Trust, Coastal Mountains Land Trust, Medomak Valley Land Trust, and Aldermere Farm in Rockport. Rockland's non-profit Island Institute champions the ecology and conscientious development in the Gulf of Maine—particularly on its 15 island communities.
 Intellectual Life
Midcoast Maine offers plenty to keep the mind busy, as well. Global affairs take center stage at the annual Camden Conference and are a chief focus of the non-profit Institute for Global Ethics, also in Camden—as is the techno-centric Pop!Tech conference.
Learning and educational opportunities present themselves at: Rockport College, whose focus is photography, film, and the visual arts; University College at Thomaston, part of the University of Maine System; as well as The Lincoln Street Center for Arts & Education and Penobscot School in Rockland. There's also a varied selection of training programs in other fields: seamanship and boatbuilding at Atlantic Challenge, in Rockland; fine woodworking at The Center for Furniture Craftsmanship, in Rockport; herbal and healing arts at Avena Institute and Namasté Institute, both also in Rockport.
For young people, there's Kieve in Nobleboro and Herring Gut Learning Center, a marine education center in Port Clyde—just a couple of many such opportunities.
And of course most local communities have active public libraries, among these Rockland, Camden, Tenants Harbor.
Fairs & Festivals
Seasonal events are a sign of the vitality of this unique community. The Maine Lobster Festival, held on the Rockland waterfront in early August, is perhaps the best known of these. But there's also the increasingly popular North Atlantic Blues Festival, presented in July, the traditional Union Fair and Blueberry Festival, a week-long late-August agricultural fair, and Windjammer Weekend, celebrated in Camden Harbor over Labor Day.
  
Other Resources
 Chambers of Commerce
The Rockland–Thomaston Chamber of Commerce
Camden-Rockport-Lincolnville Chamber of Commerce
Belfast-Area Chamber of Commerce
Damariscotta Region Chamber of Commerce
Transportation
Maine State Ferry Service
Knox County Regional Airport
Newspapers
Village Soup
The Courier-Gazette
The Camden Herald
 Republican Journal
The Free Press
Magazines
Down East Magazine
Maine Boats & Harbors
Schools
Maine Public Schools on the Web
A comprehensive alphabetical listing on the Maine Department of Education's website, including:
MSAD 28, Five Town CSD, Maine School Union 69
Appleton, Hope, Camden, Lincolnville, Rockport
MSAD 5
Rockland, Owls Head, South Thomaston
MSAD 50
Cushing, St. George, Thomaston
MSAD 40
Friendship, Waldobor, Warren, Washington, Union
 Vinalhaven School System
MSAD 34
Belfast, Belmont, Morrill, Northport, Searsmont, Swanville
MSAD 3
Brooks, Freedom, Jackson, Knox, Liberty, Monroe, Montville,
Thorndike, Troy, Unity, Waldo
MSAD 56
Frankfort, Searsport, Stockton Springs
Maine School Union 74 and CSD 14
Bremen, Bristol, Damariscotta, Newcastle, Nobleboro, South Bristol
Maine School Union 49
Boothbay, Boothbay Harbor, Southport, Edgecomb
Wiscasset School Department
Maine School Union 133
Palermo, Somerville, Windsor
 
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