Much of Western Maine reads like a Stephen King novel.

The dense dark woods and backcountry ponds. The century-old houses with gravel driveways and immense flower gardens, acres of farmland miles from a highway. Serpentine country roads dotted with farmstands, and picturesque main streets lined with battered pickups. Places where-especially during the dark and rainy days of October and November—things can get downright spooky. 

Author Sharon Kitchens identifies the locations that serve as the basis for King’s fictional towns of Castle Rock, Jerusalem’s Lot, Derry, and Haven. Drawing on historical materials and conversations with locals and people who know King, the author sheds light on daily life in places that would become the settings for Carrie, Salem’s Lot, The Dead Zone, Cujo, IT, and 11/22/63.

Most histories of Acadia National Park chronicle the contributions of men in acquiring land, and while these contributions were critical, women also played a pivotal role. Some funded memorial paths, others facilitated George Dorr’s acquiring land, and still others donated land. For people to enjoy the park and to find respite required developing infrastructure that provided easy access—a goal of Dorr, John D. Rockefeller Jr., and National Park Service directors Stephen Mather and Arno Cammerer. This book examines the role of women, the activities that characterize people enjoying the park, and the development of infrastructure, particularly the bridges and motor roads. Having access to two private photograph collections—those of the van Heerden family and Harold MacQuinn Inc.—as well as the photograph collection of Leo Grossman, the engineer for the Cadillac Mountain Road, has allowed us to use many previously unpublished images.

Beginning in 1932, Linwood W. Moody (1905–1983) documented in photographs and collected artifacts of Maine’s two-footer railroads. A pioneer of railroad photography, his work led to articles in numerous publications such as Railroad Magazine and later culminated in Linwood’s 1959 publication The Maine Two-Footers. Among his personal effects at the time of his death in 1983 were hundreds of photographs of three of the Maine two-footers—the Wiscasset, Waterville & Farmington Railway; the Sandy River & Rangeley Lakes Railroad; and the Monson Railroad. The state of Maine was unique in regards to its narrow-gauge railroads. Most railroads in the United States have a width of four feet, eight and one half inches between the rails, known as standard gauge. Due to the efforts of George Mansfield, a railroad promoter of the late 1800s, a very narrow gauge of two feet between the rails was successfully developed in the state of Maine. 

The dark woods of Maine have been the setting for many eerie and unexplained events, none more captivating than sightings of a giant hominid known as Bigfoot. But what makes this corner of New England such a perfect place for this cryptid to live? Learn about the ecology and geography that support the legend and meet the people forever changed by close encounters with it. From previously unpublished eyewitness accounts to modern-day media portrayals, author and illustrator Michelle Souliere presents this detailed history of the phenomenon and folklore that has lurked in shadows for generations.

Go inside the people, places, forests and machines that made Maine the logging and lumber giant it is today.

Known as the Pine Tree State, Maine once led the world in lumber production. It was the first great lumber-producing region, with Bangor at its center. Today, the state has nearly 18 million acres of timberland, and forest products still make up a major industry. The state's lumber industry went through several historical periods, beginning with the vast pine and spruce harvests, the organization of major corporate interests, the change from sawlogs to pulpwood, and then to sustained yields, intensive management, and mechanized harvesting.

At the beginning, much of the region was inaccessible except by water, so harvesting activities were concentrated on the coast and along the principal rivers. Gradually, as the railroads expanded and roads were constructed into the woods, operations expanded with them and the river systems became vitally important for the transportation of timber out of the woods to the markets downstate. Logging and Lumbering in Maine traces these developments in the industry and examines the history from its earliest roots in 1630 to the present, providing a pictorial record of land use and activity in Maine.

The tragic story of the murders of three women committed over three decades by one cold-blooded man in Maine's North Woods.

Jennie Cyr disappeared in 1977. Jerilyn Towers vanished in 1982. Lynn Willette never came home on a night in 1994. Each woman had a relationship with James Hicks, who in 2000 confessed to murdering them, dismembering their bodies and burying the remains alongside rural roads in Aroostook County. This is their story.

Author Trudy Irene Scee follows Hicks from the North Woods to west Texas, detailing three decades of evasion, investigation and prosecution. She interviews police officers and victims' families—and meets Hicks at the state prison in Thomaston, where he remains remorseless as he lives out his days behind bars. Thoroughly researched and carefully documented, Tragedy in the North Woodsis the definitive history of one of Maine's most ruthless killers.