Sports & Recreation

Maine has long been a well-known and frequently visited hunting region. Long ago, moose and caribou were abundant and as time passed, trappers have been able to earn a decent living pursuing choice and prized fur-bearing animals. Small game and waterfowl populations remained fairly stable over the years and have continued to increase in popularity. However, as large areas of habitat were cleared for timber, larger animals began to disappear and opulations dwindled. Trapping has since become a less favorable mode of producing income because of the low prices offered for native and raw fur.

Maine's Hunting Past captures the pursuit of wild animals through a century of documentation. Since about 1850, animals have been taken for sport, for food, and for their hides. Hunting has long been not only a sport but also an industry, resulting in the increase and growth of sporting camps and an expanding number of guides. Maine's Hunting Past highlights favorite regions, featuring famous sporting camps and well-known guides. Big game, small game, upland birds, waterfowl, furbearers, and numerous photographs of trophy animals and large bag limits are all included.

Maine's long winters would seem the ideal place for hockey to develop, but blistering winter conditions, frigid temperatures, and windchill made the sport unpleasant and even dangerous. The problem was not solved until 1976, when Harold Alfond donated a large sum of money for the establishment of a suitable facility for indoor hockey. University of Maine Ice Hockey tells the story of how a small school from Maine with a student body of under 12,000 rose to be one of the top-tier hockey programs in the nation, one of the great success stories in modern collegiate sports.

Author Suzanne M. AuClair is executive director of the Moosehead Historical Society, where these images are held. She has been writing about Moosehead Lake's North Woods region for 27 years and produced the anthology The Origins, Formation & History of Maine's Inland Fisheries Division.

Before airplanes, and with few roads, getting to Maine and the isolated fishing spots that made the state a world famous fisherman's paradise was no small task. Huge resorts and hotels peppered the fishing regions, accommodating hundreds, perhaps thousands of sportsmen at any one time. From these lodgings, sports with their guides branched out, taking expeditions and canoe journeys that lasted for days, even weeks, into Maine's wilderness. Only recently have vacationers been transient and as such, have changed the concepts of fishing in wilderness areas forever. Today, the hotels are mostly gone, and people now fish for a few hours to a day or more and then move on. Glimpses of Maine's Angling Past returns to the days when vacationers settled into their camps for whole summers, before the endless acres of timber were dissected by logging roads, and secret, little-known lakes and ponds took days or weeks to reach. This
long-anticipated volume includes countless images from the entire state, broken down into eight distinct areas: the Sebago Lakes, the Belgrade Lakes, the Rangeley Lakes, Down East, the Penobscot River Valley, the Kennebec River Valley, the Moosehead Lake Region, and northern Maine and "the County." Included are rare photographs from lodges no longer in existence and antique sports magazines such as In the Maine Woods and Field and Stream. All of this is complemented by the author's painstaking research and his intimate memories of Maine's sporting history.

J.H. Hall has been fishing most of his life and fly-fishing Maine rivers and ponds for over thirty years.

In his book, he has brought together some of his favorite fly-fishing experiences that go beyond morning excursions on a river's banks. He uses his fishing trips as the platform to introduce the reader to the people and the rivers that color his life and Maine, bringing all of us engaging life lessons and new experiences.

A thrilling tale fit for sailing experts and history buffs alike,  historian Mark J. Gabrielson delivers the exciting tale of the Deer Isle Crew: a sailing story that offers an uncommon glimpse into American life at the turn of the twentieth century.

In 1895, emissaries from the New York Yacht Club traveled to Deer Isle, Maine, to recruit the nation's best sailors, an All American crew. This remote island in Penobscot Bay sent nearly thirty of its fishing men to sail Defender, and under skipper Hank Haff, they beat their opponents in a difficult and controversial series. To the delight of the American public, the charismatic Sir Thomas Lipton sent a surprise challenge in 1899. The New York Yacht Club knew where to turn and again recruited Deer Isle's fisherman sailors. Undefeated in two defense campaigns, they are still considered one of the best American sail-racing teams ever assembled. Read their fascinating story and relive their adventure.

Since the team's arrival in 1994, the Portland Sea Dogs have captured the hearts and loyalty of the citizens of Portland, Maine. More than five million fans have visited Hadlock Field since the Sea Dogs began playing there. In 2006, the Sea Dogs celebrated a landmark victory when they won their first Eastern League title. For the fans, players, and Sea Dog staff, Hadlock Field has become their own "field of dreams," and a place where dreams really can come true.