![\"colin08\"](\"http:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/05\/colin08.jpg\")
<\/a>It\u2019s zero dark thirty on Route 1 in front of Maine Medical Center in Scarborough. A snow plow tunnels through the darkness, widening the road for safe passage when\u2026BOOM! What the heck was that?<\/em><\/p>\nSadly, it was history going bump in the night. The winter was 2009. No need to contact the newspapers. The plow utterly destroyed one of the last King\u2019s Highway mile markers in this neck of the woods, with a giant B (for Boston) inscribed on it with the distance \u201c120,\u201d for 120 miles.<\/p>\n
Measured for placement by a two-wheeled device designed by the first Postmaster General Benjamin Franklin, the marker helped travelers between Boston and Machias pinpoint their exact position as their horses and carriages flew along the seaside path.<\/p>\n
I grew up seeing the old marker\u2013just south and across the street from the Humpty Dumpty potato chip factory (also RIP)\u2013whenever our family drove north on Route 1 toward Portland. The marker was a reassuring presence for me until recently when I looked over and saw it\u2019s been replaced by a new marker in granite and bronze, with no further explanation ventured. Where are the markers of yesteryear?<\/em> The stone left us not with a whimper, but with a bang.<\/p>\n We owe a debt of gratitude to the personal heroics of Rodney Laughton of Scarborough Historical Society to rescue the original stone. This included a race across snowy terrain. \u201cI got a phone call. I got in my truck. I was worried that someone would dispose of it, not understanding what it was. I just didn\u2019t want to take a chance on something happening to it, so I took it to the museum, where it is today. I think it\u2019s safer there.\u201d<\/p>\n At one time the stone was quite tall, \u201cbut portions have broken off over the years, including this last time with the snow plow,\u201d Laughton says. \u201cWhat remains is about three feet of the top, and B 120<\/em> is still clearly visible.\u201d<\/p>\n The original stone was placed on the King\u2019s Highway in 1761. If you\u2019re wondering why it says its 120 miles from Beantown and Google Maps says it\u2019s 101 miles using I-95 to get from Scarborough MMC to Faneuil Hall, \u201cThe route was different,\u201d Laughton says. \u201cWhere they crossed the Piscataqua River, they\u2019d have had to cross a good deal farther inland.\u201d Also, think of the graceful S curves the old Post road took around boulders and trees.<\/p>\n \u201cAnother reason they used the mile markers was, the recipient<\/em> paid the postage for a letter back then,\u201d Laughton says. \u201cThe amount they had to pay was calculated by what was carved on the markers.\u201d<\/p>\n To see an original stone still in service, visit the milestone at South Portland Municipal Golf Course. Milestones\u2013they\u2019re good here.<\/p>\n October 2013 It\u2019s zero dark thirty on Route 1 in front of Maine Medical Center in Scarborough. A snow plow tunnels through the darkness, widening the road for safe passage when\u2026BOOM! What the heck was that? Sadly, it was history going bump in the night. The winter was 2009. No need to contact the newspapers. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":247,"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":[9],"tags":[76],"class_list":["post-8938","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-editor","tag-october-2013"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8938","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=8938"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8938\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14456,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8938\/revisions\/14456"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/247"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8938"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8938"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8938"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"