USA > Maine > Cumberland County > Portland > Portland city guide > Part 4
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The 369 acres of Great Diamond, originally called Great Hog Island,
8
Portland City Guide
were granted to Cleeve and Tucker January 27, 1637, and have a variety of beautiful views, precipitous bluffs, tangled thickets, and grassy leas. Dia- mond Cove has long been popular with picnic parties. Facing Hussey Sound is Fort McKinley, a sub-post of Portland Harbor defenses erected in 1900, where the R. O. T. C., O. R. C., and C. M. T. C. units train in sum- mer; connected to it by a sand bar at low water is Little Diamond Island, an enchanting place peopled by a semi-exclusive colony of summer residents.
Jewell Island with 100 acres lies on the outer rim of the Casco archipela- go. George Jewell, arriving from Saco in 1636, was its first occupant and although he remained only a year, this once safe and convenient fishing port has always retained his name. During the Indian outbreaks of 1678 and 1688 Jewell Island became a refuge for the white settlers of the main- land. The name presupposes authenticity of the yarns of pirates and buried treasure. One convincingly told to gullible listeners concerns a pirate from Bermuda whose ship foundered on Brown Cow Ledge. Some of the crew were supposed to have reached Jewell Island with a great chest of gold from the pirate ship which they buried on the pebbly beach of Punch Bowl Cove at its southern end. Years after, the legend goes, with the aid of a chart some of this crew returned and retrieved the treasure. Much more fascinating and complete with details are the stories told of how Captain Kidd secreted his gold, booty, and jewels. When Kidd was the scourge of the seas many ships sought him, and his trip to the island was the result of being hounded from Cape Cod farther and farther north until the elusive captain found this snug harbor. With a huge copper kettle from the galley filled with his choicest booty, the famous pirate put in to a small cove on the southern tip of the island. Fearing too many of his assistants would know the exact spot where he was to bury his treasure, the captain sent most of his men to an inland spring to fill the water buckets. Standing guard with loaded guns over the remainder as they dug a suitable hole for the kettle of valuables, the pirate chief ordered his men to cover the spot with a huge flat rock. Before putting to sea Captain Kidd carved his mark on the stone, and ever since hopeful ones search the island's southern swales to find the flat rock with the carving of an inverted compass - pointed south instead of north.
An unsavory resident for many years was a man known as Captain Chase. Even his house looked forbidding and eerie; the first floor had port holes for windows. The captain had many visitors - ships would slip into the cove at the foot of the hill where his house perched, a procession of crates
9
Natural Setting
would be brought ashore, and the ship with its legitimate cargo of sugar and molasses would proceed to Portland. Speculation was then rife as to what the crates contained. The present owners of the island lived several years in the house before they found a secret closet between the two floors- it was filled with empty rum bottles that labeled Captain Chase an early bootlegger. Further suspicion was aroused by the disappearance of a stranger who applied to him for the use of a boat. The stranger had told the captain he had a chart showing where the buccaneer's treasure was hidden; Chase immediately offered to assist him. They rowed away - the captain returned alone. Sinister stories of gruesome happenings were ram- pant, but Chase upon questioning stocially replied that the stranger had left for Portland. Years later the occupants were digging a drain under the barn and unearthed a human skeleton which many were sure was the corpus delicti.
One-half mile northwest of Jewell Island is Crotch (Cliff) Island, which received its name from the chasm in the solid ledge on the southeast shore. Weird tales are told of a onetime occupant, a Captain Keiff who was thought to be a smuggler and a pirate. He lived alone in a log hut and dur- ing stormy weather would fasten a lighted lantern to his horse's neck rid- ing up and down a narrow stretch of the island in the hope of luring passing vessels to their doom on the treacherous reefs. Unsuspecting pilots soon found their ships pounded to pieces, and their cargoes salvaged and con- fiscated by this island ghoul. Captain Keiff had a special burying place for these hapless sailors on a grassy knoll near a deep ravine. It has since been called "Keiff's Garden."
House Island, one of the first of the Casco Bay islands to be occupied, is believed to have been Christopher Levett's because of the remains of an old stone house. The island was improved for carrying on the fishing busi- ness, and records of its sale begin as early as 1661 with its transfer from "Nicholas White, of Casco, planter," to John Breme for £5, 3s. George Munjoy acquired title to the entire island shortly afterward. The need for fortification of the harbor had been demonstrated in the Mowat bom- bardment in 1775, and in 1808 the southwest part of Howe's Island (as it was then called), comprising 12 acres, was bought by the government for $1,200. An octagonal timbered blockhouse with a pointed roof topped by a carved wooden eagle with spreading wings was built on the highest point and named in honor of General Alexander Scammel, of Revolutionary fame. In 1862 work was begun on the present fort built to mount 70 guns.
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Portland City Guide
Cushing has been known as Andrews', Bang's, and Portland Island. One hundred feet above sea level, it was first occupied by James Andrews and confirmed to him by President Danforth in July, 1682. In 1676 the inhabi- tants of 'The Neck' fled to Cushing when the Indians began their attack on the settlement, and from this retreat the Reverend George Burroughs (see Religion) wrote to Henry Jocelyn of Black Point revealing the plight of the refugees. In the early part of the 18th century the island was owned by Colonel Ezekiel Cushing who lived on Cape Elizabeth. Commander of a regiment of the county, the highest military office in the district at the time, he later was engaged in fisheries and West Indian trade. Cushing sold the island to Joshua Bangs in 1760, and shortly afterwards it was mort- gaged to Bang's son-in-law, Jedediah Preble, in whose family it was kept for a number of years. Called "the most bold and picturesque of the is- lands" it became a mecca for Canadians after Lemuel Cushing of Chat- ham, Canada, built the Ottawa House in 1853. Rising almost vertically from the water, 50 to 100 feet in height, White Head, bold and rugged, forms a natural breakwater for Portland harbor. Familiar to both poet and painter, it is a grand example of the marine. Besides having a large sum- mer colony, Cushing is the year-round home of many Portland people. The batteries of Fort Levett were erected in 1898.
Raising its bulk on what was once known as Hog Island Ledge, Fort Gorges, named in honor of the Lord Palatinate of the Province of Maine, was built before the days of heavy ordnance. Begun in 1858 to complete the harbor defenses, this grim garrison of granite which was intended to mount 195 guns was officially used only during the World War to store submarine mines. Picturesque and impotent, Fort Gorges remains a me- morial to a man who never saw his extensive possessions in the land across the Atlantic.
None of the remaining islands belonging to the city of Portland, except- ing Little Chebeag, is inhabited: Cow Island facing Hussey Sound has gun emplacements for Fort McKinley; Outer and Inner Green Islands are rookeries for thousands of sea gulls whose raucous din shatters the ears of approaching visitors; Crow, Cow, Marsh (Vaill), Pumpkin Knob, and Ram Island, complete the list of Portland's insular possessions. Southeast of Cushing Island is Ram Island Ledge Light Station whose beam can be seen for 14 miles; erected in 1905, it was the last built on the Maine coast.
Junk of Pork, Crotch Island, Cow Island, and Soldier Ledges, Green
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Natural Setting
Island Feef, Stepping Stones, Johnson, Trott's Pomroy, Obeds, Catfish, and Channel Rocks complete the list of charted rocks and ledges encom- passed within the city limits of Portland about which the United States Coastal Pilot warns: "There are several ledges off the entrance, most of them marked, which makes the approach to the harbor dangerous in thick weather for deep-draft vessels . ... In clear weather vessels can easily avoid the rocks and ledges off and in the entrance."
Geology and Paleontology
Portland is located on the Coastal Lowland, a region that has been heavily subjected to glacial action, and whose rocks are grouped as: heavily metamorphosed sediments, and intrusive, igneous rocks showing some metamorphism. The dominant formation of the district is the Berwick Gneiss (a laminated or foliated metamorphic rock) which has been traced from Dover, New Hampshire, where it is narrowest, to Casco Bay, where it reaches its widest point. This formation is highly crystalline, containing much biotite (a species of mica, usually black or drak-green) and is heavily loded with granite at is northwest end. The city is mentioned in many geological treatises for the importance of its clays, and if developed, adequate limestone is found around the city for all agricultural purposes.
There is a close-packed region about 30 miles long and 12 miles broad surrounding Casco Bay, bearing the name Casco Bay Formation, which contains slates and phyllites (intermediates between mica schist and slate) having an aggregate thickness of from 1,500 to 2,000 feet. This section in- cludes the islands, and is classed as an overlay of the so-called Kittery Formation, quartzite in character, with an under formation resembling the Eliot, which is of slate. In this group, Jewell Island has long been noted for its pyrites, which look like gold to the uninitiate, and imposters have preyed upon the ignorant for the exploitation of so-called 'mines' there.
The Diamond Island slate is found on Great Diamond Island, and is a complicated formation of quartz-slate containing much crystal pyrite, and small veins of quartz, slightly crumbled, with a thickness of from 75 to 150 feet. Mackworth slate is the uppermost formation of the Casco Bay group, consisting of quartzite and quartz-chlorite mica slate in beds from less than one inch to three feet thick, the rock mostly siliceous. The Cushing granodiorite runs from Scarborough across the bay in a narrow band 16 miles long and about three and one-half miles wide, made up of gray granodiorite, containing quartz, feldspar, biotite, and hornblende. This is a relatively late formation of carboniferous nature.
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Portland City Guide
The Cape Elizabeth formation is well exposed, and has light-gray slates, graywacke slates, and quartzites with thin layers of black phyllites, the formation being about 600 feet deep. The Spring Point formation overlies this, with its gray to dark-green antinolite schist. This rock is of more volcanic nature and seems localized in the Portland region.
Fossils of starfish have been found at elevations of 200 feet not far from the city, and shell beds within its borders. During the ages of glacial cold arctic animals ran over the region, as evidenced by walrus bones which have been exposed in the city proper. A polar bear's tooth was once picked up on Goose Island.
After the Pleistocene or glacial age the ice disappeared gradually, and the whole surface of Maine was changed. Mountains were scraped down to mere hills, myriad lakes created, and glacial material deposited from one end of the State to the other. A large glacial moraine runs from Newbury- port, Massachusetts, to Portland, composed of clay, sand, and crushed rock. Examples of this are the gravel deposits on the Eastern and Western Promenades. Portland's clay was spread over the surface after the glacier retreated, and the sea relentlessly rushed in.
Maine's peneplain (a surface worn by erosion to low relief) is washed seaward by the ton each day. At present the Maine coast is sinking, and at some distant period the sea may again claim Portland for its own. This gnawing action is responsible for the singular formation of the islands in Casco Bay, as the inrushing sea cut off all but the most resistant rock form- ations, isolating them from the mainland. Petrified stumps, pulled from the bay, prove that once dry land was there.
There are no records for Maine during the Cenozoic Era which was marked by the rapid evolution of mammals and birds and of grasses, shrubs, and high-flowering plants, or the previous Mesozoic Era with its dinosaurs, and marine and flying reptiles, but it is probable that prehistoric animals grazed over the site of Portland, as they did over the rest of North America. The first true deer may have wandered over the strange growth of the peninsula during the Pliocene epoch.
The Psychozoic Era, or proposed designation for the period marking the ascendency of man on earth, probably brought to Maine the race known as the Red Paint People, who inhabited this region. Some ethnologists claim that these were not true Indians, but of an earlier, distinct race; this claim is based on the curious implements and relics unearthed in ancient graves, which differ from those of the local Indians.
13
Natural Setting
Climate
Portland's annual mean temperature is about 46 degrees Fahrenheit, which is four degrees less than New York City. The all-time humidity average is 71 percent; the average noon humidity is 67 percent. With west, west-northwest, or west-southwest winds, a genuine chinook effect or warm and dry wind from the mountains is obtained and humidities of 15 to 25 percent are frequent. The monthly sunshine ratio varies little from the an- nual rule of 60 percent. Hot and cold spells are not of long duration; 90° is reached about three times a year and the zero mark is touched two to five times annually. Rapid changes in temperature are infrequent, and strong winds are rare, the wind velocity never having exceeded 48 miles per hour.
There are approximately six to twelve heavy rainfalls a year, but moisture is ample and droughts rare. The normal annual precipitation is 42.3 inches. Few violent storms pass directly over the city, though many severe gales blow off the coast along the Gulf Stream, and pass down the St. Lawrence Valley. There is some fog in the summer months, but the actual loss of sunlight due to these occasional sieges is very small, averaging only two hours in June, three hours in July, and four hours in August. Snow usually covers the ground in the city between December 15 and March 15 but the winters are mild. Real blizzards are rare, only six having been recorded over a period of 60 years. A striking feature is the extraordinary visibility which follows most storms, affording a clear view of the White Mountains, 80 miles distant.
On July 4, 1911, the mercury soared to 103°, the highest point ever reached in Portland. For nearly a week's duration the thermometer hovered near 90°; it dropped below 88° only once. A military parade on the holiday was disrupted; many were forced to drop from the ranks and several col- lapsed trying to cover the route of the march. In contrast, the extreme of frigidity was December 30, 1917, when the temperature plummeted to 21° below zero. There was a mad rush for coal; hand-sleds, hods, suitcases, and many other makeshift conveyances were pressed into service for deliveries. Local shipyards were closed; the island ferries and the fishing fleet, which had remained in port awaiting a weather break, were unable to move be- cause of great sheets of ice in the harbor.
The all-time record snowfall for Portland occurred January 23, 1935, when a layer of 23.3 inches blanketed the city for two days. The gale of March 12, 1939, deposited 21 inches in the city, and was the most severe
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Portland City Guide
March storm in Portland's history, the famed 'Great Blizzard of 1888' having left only 13 inches of snow.
The storm of November 27, 1898, will always be known as the 'Portland Gale,' because of the foundering of the ill-fated steamer Portland. The steamer sailed for this city from Boston on Thanksgiving Eve, most of her 160 passengers holiday-bound and many of them members of prominent Portland families. Just where the Portland was struck by the gale has long been a topic along the local water front; and tales of the drowning of the full passenger list grow as the years pass. More than 50 Maine vessels were lost in this terrific tempest which lasted two days, and on Orr Island in Casco Bay the wind mowed a 25-foot swath through 200 yards of dense woods.
Portland has suffered little from floods and hurricanes and has felt few earthquakes. In 1936 when almost every section of Maine had some im- portant city or town inundated from swollen rivers, the city was untouched. The hurricane of 1938, which smashed its sinuous path northward out of the tropics, and swept over most of Maine destroying buildings and block- ing roads with toppled trees, left Portland untroubled. The city was rocked by an earthquake of sharp intensity in October, 1727; it was part of the temblor that laid waste the island of Martinique. Of this quake the Reverend Thomas Smith wrote in his inimitable journal that "there was a general revival of religion" after stone walls and chimneys tumbled about the heads of the stolid but backsliding citizens.
Extremes of Temperature in Portland
Month
Day
Year
Highest
Day
Year
Lowest
January
21
1906
65
27
1924
-18
February
29
1880
58
9
1934
-18
March
21
1921
79
6
1872
-7
April
20
1927
89
1
1923
9
May
31
1937
96
4
1911
27
June
23
1888
96
3
1915
38
July
4
1911
103
12
1886
48
August
6
1931
98
31
1909
45
September
3
1937
96
23
1904
32
October
1
1927
85
28
1914
22
November
10
1931
74
30
1875
-6
December
12
1911
65
30
1917
-21
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Natural Setting
Average Number of Degree Days, 1888-1937 (Computed from basis of 60°)
Number of Oct. Nov. Dec. Jan. Feb. Mar. Apr. May Season
Degree Days 443
780 1,153
1,321
1,168
830
678
321 6,694
Flora and Fauna
Known as the 'Forest City,' because of its abundance of trees and shrubs, Portland, in contrast to most of the State of Maine which is in the so-called Canadian or cooler section, lies on the fringe of the warmer Transition re- gion. Many species of wild birds nest in the city, and on the islands of Casco Bay and in Back Cove thousands of migratory birds rest during their annual flights to and from the colder and warmer climates.
Soon after Portland's 'Great Fire' of 1866 the city began acquiring land for the present park system; there are now more than a thousand acres for plant and animal conservation, including two bird sanctuaries. The 600- acre Back Cove, with its salt marsh and reed-fringed shore skirted by Bax- ter Boulevard, is an ideal resting and feeding ground for the thousands of waterfowl en route north and south on their annual migrations. Baxter's Woods, in the northeastern section of the city, provide ornithologists with an opportunity for hours of study and research on nesting birds.
Fine old elms line many of the city's streets, especially the Eastern and Western Promenades; in Deering Oaks recent late-spring ice storms have ravaged many of the age-old trees. With the present replanting system, however, the Oaks' original oak and elm growth will be replaced within a few years. In Bramhall Square there is a fine Camperdown elm considered by some to be the best specimen in the city and one of the finest in the State. Along Baxter Boulevard, for the most part, are lindens; Forest Ave- nue has an air of elegance imparted by the reddish green leaves of its many Norway maples. There is an excellent purple beech in the High Street yard of the L. D. M. Sweat Memorial Art Museum, and on Allen Avenue are some of the city's rarest trees-virgiles or yellow-wood trees. Also on Allen and near-by Stevens Avenues are several smoke trees, which produce a bil- lowy mass of fruiting panicles that gives an impression of heavy clouds of smoke.
Common throughout the city, in addition to elms, are white, yellow, and gray birch, white and red oak, mountain and sugar maple, basswood, black gum, and tulip trees, and, although they are mostly replantings, many
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Portland City Guide
species of soft wood growth including pine, hemlock, and spruce. In the parks and on the extensive grounds of some of the older estates are splendid old chestnuts and several kinds of nut trees. Within a few minutes motor ride of Portland are large forest areas of white pine, sometimes called 'masting pine' because in Colonial days the larger trees were reserved for masts for the Royal Navy. Hemlock, its bark valuable for tanning, and pitch pine are plentiful. Balsam fir, often grown commercially for the Christmas-tree trade, and red oak are common, as is tamarack, locally called by its Indian name of hackmatack. Red spruce, which is the most abundant of Maine's conifers and valued as the principal wood used for paper pulp, and white spruce, called 'skunk spruce' by lumbermen because of the odor of its foliage, are found in large stands. Near by grow white cedar or arborvitae, found in dense growths on swampy ground, and black willows, the largest and most conspicuous of the American species.
Enthusiastic botanists will find many botanical specimens in the city, along the bay and river shores, and in near-by sunlit meadows and cool groves. Several species of the fern family thrive here-polypody, maiden- hair, beech and chain ferns, and the flowering cinnamon fern. Adder's tongue, several of the horsetail family, quillwort, spiderwort, and a half- hundred similar varieties flourish. Nearly 50 different grasses grow within the city's radius, and many examples of the lily family, including false Solomon's seal, Indian cucumber root, carrion flower, and lily of the valley, spread luxuriously. In the coolness of thickets and groves, where dwarf club moss may conserve moisture, grow the moccasin flower, lady's slipper, pogonia, rattlesnake plantain, twayblade, and several species of rein or fringed orchis. Here and there along the roadside may be found golden- rod, fleabane, bur marigold, oxeye or white daisy, tansy, devil's paint brush or golden lungwort, and many others of the composite family.
Occasionally wild, but now mostly introduced, are mountain fly, Euro- pean fly and Japanese honeysuckle, twin flower, pembina cranberry, Ameri- can or Italian woodbine, and snowberry. Not far from Portland grow many of the common Maine shrubs. Speckled alder cover swamp and pasture land, and the scented white flowers of several almost indistinguishable varieties of shad-bush are the first harbingers of spring; shad-bush wood is used in the making of fishing rods. Common, too, are staghorn sumac, and hawthorn or thorn apple. Witch hazel usually borders most forest areas, and choke- berry is found along farm fence-rows. Bayberry, once gathered by house-
17
Natural Setting
wives who perfumed linen with its leaves and moulded candles from its berry wax, is common in sandy stretches along the coast.
Examples of nearly all of the 321 known species of birds that frequent Maine have been found at one time or another in or near Portland. Twenty- six of these are permanent residents or live in the rural area fringing the city. Most common are several varieties of sparrows, black birds, chicka- dees, and the ever-present common pigeon. Bats wing out from downtown church belfrys as shadows deepen, and chimney swifts dart over rooftops in the metropolitan area. Along the marshy shores, where deep-voiced frogs croak, nest many kinds of waterfowl; in the harbor are great colonies of gulls. Maine islands and particularly those of the outer Casco Bay group are nurseries of many Atlantic sea birds. It is not uncommon to see pheas- ants-colorful cocks and their sedately brownish hens-feeding along the highways just outside the city. In near-by alder runs the whir-r-r of startled partridge may frequently be heard.
Occasionally a red fox, tempted perhaps by local poultry flocks, is caught within the city limits. Skunk and woodchuck are not uncommon even on the outer edge of the metropolitan district, and not far from the city, rab- bits bound across the highway. In the parks and along tree-lined residential streets gray and red squirrels chatter; chipmunks peer with beady eyes from an occasional stone wall. Moles, shrews, mice, and rats are found in Port- land, and deer, bear, raccoons, and other game have been hunted near by. As recently as midwinter 1939 a moose was sighted within several miles of the city. Seals, sometimes seen in the harbor and frequently in the bay, were quite abundant until about 1900, but walrus have not appeared in local waters for many years, although their bones and remains have been found in this vicinity. Humpbacked and finback whales are often seen outside the bay, and little piked whale have been found within Casco Bay's boundaries.
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