{"id":11691,"date":"2016-06-16T18:13:44","date_gmt":"2016-06-16T22:13:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/?p=11691"},"modified":"2019-11-04T09:58:37","modified_gmt":"2019-11-04T14:58:37","slug":"extraordinary-maine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/extraordinary-maine\/","title":{"rendered":"Extraordinary Maine"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe allowfullscreen allow=\"fullscreen\" style=\"border:none;width:100%;height:450px;\" src=\"\/\/e.issuu.com\/embed.html?backgroundColor=%23d2d2d2&#038;backgroundColorFullscreen=%23d2d2d2&#038;d=sg16_flipbook_2&#038;hideIssuuLogo=true&#038;pageNumber=210&#038;u=portlandmagazine\"><\/iframe><br \/>\nSummerguide 2016<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Tales of the strange and supernatural from the mysterious shores of Maine. <\/span><\/h3>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s1\"><strong>By Loren &amp; Jenny Coleman<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p5\"><span class=\"s1\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-11692\" src=\"http:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/SG16-Extraordinary-Maine.jpg\" alt=\"SG16-Extraordinary-Maine\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/SG16-Extraordinary-Maine.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/SG16-Extraordinary-Maine-200x133.jpg 200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>When you\u2019re in Maine, you expect to feel cold. However, some shivers are not the result of Maine\u2019s well-known chilly weather, but the insidious, icy fingers of paranormal Maine: ghosts, gothic cemeteries, and granite fortresses full of creaky spirits.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p7\"><span class=\"s1\"><strong>Libbey Mausoleum, Riverside Cemetery, Lewiston<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p8\"><span class=\"s1\">In <em>Strange Maine<\/em>,<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Michelle Souliere recounts a friend\u2019s experience at \u201cWell-guarded Libbey Mausoleum\u201d while walking in Lewiston\u2019s Riverside Cemetery with two companions. Witnessing the kicked-in windows and other forms of vandalism around the Libbey Mausoleum, and lamenting the abandoned beer cans and malodorous evidence of irresponsible pet owners, these folks felt a chill, a baleful, unseen stare, and an overall feeling of hostility. A woman in the group attempted to \u201ccommunicate\u201d with the presence she felt, then lit up a cigarette; seconds later, the \u201ctop half of a large birch tree snapped off and landed where they had just been standing.\u201d Other examples of the \u201cUnseen Guard\u201d include strange cramps, cold spots, and a general feeling of ghostly hatred.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p9\"><span class=\"s1\"><strong>Mt. Hope Cemetery, Bangor<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p8\"><span class=\"s1\">The second oldest garden cemetery in the United States was established in 1834 by the Bangor Horticultural Society, in response to the influx of activity and settlement along the Penobscot River Valley. Its rolling 300 acres are the final \u201chome\u201d of over 30,000 individuals. The film version of Bangor resident Stephen King\u2019s book <em>Pet Sematary<\/em><span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>features chilling glimpses of the grounds. The cemetery\u2019s official website lists the unmarked grave of gangster Al Brady among the tombstones, and an article in <em>The Examiner<\/em> from March 2012 states that \u201csomething eerie\u201d skulks along the rows between the graves. Al Brady\u2019s ghost? You decide.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p9\"><span class=\"s1\"><strong>Fort Knox, Prospect<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p8\"><span class=\"s1\">On the west bank of the Penobscot River, 172-year-old Fort Knox is a monument to haunted history. Although the massive granite structure was manned in times of war, it never saw actual battle. Its drafty interiors are perfect for two annual events, October\u2019s Fright at the Fort and the summer\u2019s Paranormal Fair. \u201cFright at the Fort has been scaring the heck out of people for the past seventeen years. Visitors are led through the dark passageways of the old Fort, where they are surrounded by lights, fog, sound, and creatures of nightmarish dimension,\u201d says Leon Seymour, Executive Director of Friends at Ft. Knox. Local volunteers line up to terrify people of all ages, from New England, Canada, and beyond. The Fort itself was declared the site of a \u201cresidual haunting\u201d in 2011 by SyFy\u2019s Ghost Hunters team, following a thorough investigation. The team heard \u201cbreathing\u201d and \u201cfootsteps,\u201d saw strange images on their thermal camera, and heard dragging sounds and ghostly exhalations on their audio recordings. It seems Fort Knox is bursting with paranormal activity.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p7\"><span class=\"s1\"><strong>Time and Temperature Building; Dr. Death House; Casco Bay, Portland<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p8\"><span class=\"s1\">Maine\u2019s Forest City holds its fair share of spectres too. In the Time and Temperature Building on Congress Street, a red-haired female spirit reportedly rides the elevators and sends visitors to the wrong floors. Workers there report seeing an unknown woman strolling the halls, then disappearing into thin air. In 2007, <em>Portland Magazine<\/em> interviewed security guard Nick Jules, who\u2019d had more than one run-in with the flame-haired spectre. \u201cThe first night I saw her she was coming across the lobby toward me. As she reached the exit, she just passes through without the doors moving an inch.\u201d On another occasion, Jules attempted to make contact with the woman. \u201cI lurched across the hallway to grab her, but got an armful of air.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p11\"><span class=\"s1\">Rachel Crawford, co-owner of the vintage store Little Ghost on the first floor, has also felt the presence. \u201cOn Sundays, when the building\u2019s quiet, it\u2019s very creepy. You can hear the elevators moving of their own accord.\u201d She says she had no idea about the spirit when she named the shop.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p11\"><span class=\"s1\">With the recent announcement for foreclosure, who will inherit the Time and Temperature Building\u2019s flame-haired phantom?<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p8\"><span class=\"s1\">Further downtown, the William E. Gould House on State Street is supposedly haunted by the patients of a physician nicknamed Dr. Death, who \u201cused unusual treatments on some patients,\u201d according to <em>Haunted Portland: From Pirates to Ghost Brides,<\/em> by Roxie Zwicker. She also mentions how residents have heard \u201cphantom footfalls\u201d in the basement, one felt \u201ctapping on her shoulder,\u201d and \u201ca presence has been known to brush past people.\u201d A ghostly figure is often seen in the Gould House\u2019s windows. One rumor is that the building was built on top of an ancient Native American burial ground, accounting for all the spirit activity.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p11\"><span class=\"s1\">The waters of Casco Bay hold their own secrets. \u201cAfter lobsters, Sea Serpents might be Mainers\u2019 very favorite thing in the sea,\u201d historian Herb Adams told MPBN in 2014. Portland\u2019s very own Sea Monster was first spotted in 1780 by Captain George Little of Boston, Massachusetts. The nickname \u201cCassie\u201d was coined 20 years ago [by the design department of <em>Portland Magazine<\/em> while laying out a story] by Loren Coleman, owner of the International Cryptozoology Museum and curator of all things supernatural. Coleman spoke with two Scandinavian fishermen, who reported a run-in with an 100 foot-long creature while on a fishing trip in 1958. \u201cWe saw an object coming toward us out of a haze; we took it to be a submarine, but as it came near we discovered it was some live thing.\u201d This live thing was claimed by them to be 100 feet long with a striped tail like a mackerel. Rumor would have us believe this denizen of the deep still lurks beneath the surface of Casco Bay.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p12\"><span class=\"s1\"><strong>Loren Coleman owns the International Cryptozoology museum. Open 11:30-6 p.m. daily<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>at 11 Avon Street and moving to Thompson\u2019s Point in September 2016. <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Summerguide 2016<br \/>\nTales of the strange and supernatural from the mysterious shores of Maine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11693,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[106],"class_list":["post-11691","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","tag-summerguide-2016"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11691","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11691"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11691\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17057,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11691\/revisions\/17057"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11693"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}