Swan's Island: Six miles east of ordinary - -Across the Sea- a history through transportation

In partnership with the Maine Memory Network Maine Memory Network

-Across the Sea- a history through transportation

Text by Kate Webber
Images from the Swan's Island Historical Society

Four men line fishing from a dory, Swan's Island, ca. 1910
Swan's Island Historical Society

What is life like on a Maine island? What sort of person chooses to place six miles of water between themselves and "civilization?" The people of Swan's Island have adapted to their unique environment, constantly finding new ways to carry goods, people, and information to and from their remote home. So, too, have they adapted to make a living off the sea that separates them from the rest of the world. Much has changed since people first set foot on the shores of Swan's Island, but there is a community spirit that survives, as constant as the tides.

Come read the history of our island home.

“I have thought best to gain and preserve this historical knowledge before the source from which it could be obtained is gone, when it would have been lost forever. It should be a matter of interest to all of us to preserve a record of our ancestors. These hardy pioneers came to this “island of the sea,” cleared the unbroken forests, cultivated farms, built their houses, reared their families, and made it possible for their children to have advantages which they never possessed. Whatever of comforts or of luxuries that we now enjoy is due, in a great measure, to them as a result of their labor. They sowed the seed amid great privation and toil, and we are reaping the harvest. So it is most fitting that their names should ever be held in grateful memory by their descendants.”