Maine Fun Facts - Courtesy of VisitMaine.net

 

 • Maine is most famous for... Lobster and harvests the majority of the lobster in the United States.

 

 • Maine has 3,478 miles of coastline - more than California (3,427), and over 5,000 miles of coast if you      include all of the islands as well. Only Florida and Louisiana (mostly bayou) have more miles of              coastline.

 

 • Maine has 3,166 off-shore islands. Only about 1,200 Maine coast islands have an acre or more, 600          comprise 95% of the island acreage.

 

 • Maine has many Haunted Inns and Lighthouses

 

• Maine has over 32,000 miles of Rivers and Streams.

 

 • Maine has over 6,000 Lakes and Ponds.

 

 • The Vikings are believed to have discovered Maine 1,000 years ago.

 

 • Maine State Capital: Augusta - Population: 18,560

 

 • Maine State Population: 1.3 million

 

 • Maine State Bird: The Chickadee

 

 • Maine State Tree: The White Pine

 

 • Maine State Fish: Landlocked Salmon

 

 • Maine State Berry: The Wild Maine Blueberry - (More blueberries grow in Maine than any other              state, over 90% of the country's blueberry crop)

 

 • Maine State Cat: Wild Coon Cat

 

 • Maine State Animal: The Moose - (Maine has more Moose per mile than any other state)

 

 • Maine State Insect: Officially - Honeybee - (unofficially - the mosquito on the coast and black fly in        the mountains)

 

 • Maine State Nickname: Vacation State or Vacationland

 

 • Maine's Highest Mountain: Mt. Katahdin at 5,268 ft. elevation

 

 • Maine's Largest City: Portland at 66,363 population. Greater Portland comprises 1/4 of the state's 1.3        million population

 

 • Number of Maine Islands: 3,166

 

 • Number of Maine Lighthouses: 67 (Quoddy Head Light is the eastern most point in the U.S.)

 

 • Average Summer Temperature in Maine: 70 degrees

 

 • Average Winter Temperature in Maine: 20 degrees

 

 • Maine is the only state in the U.S. with one syllable. Also Mainers don't pronounce their R's - see            our Guide to Maine Slang.

 

 • Maine is the only state with just on other state on its border,  New Hampshire.

 

 • York, Maine, was  America's first chartered city in 1641.

 

 • Maine was admitted to the Union as the 23rd state on March 15, 1820.

 

 • Portland was first selected as the Maine state capital until 1832, when the capital was moved to                Augusta.

 

 • Acadia National Park is one of the most visited U.S. National Parks, with over 2 million annual                visitors. The Park was first established and opened  in 1916.

 

 • Maine Lobster yield annually is 40 million pounds, nearly 90 percent of the nation's lobster supply.

 

 • Maine produces 90% of the country's toothpick supply.

• Maine is a top producer of potatoes and broccoli.

 

• Maine has a hopping Maine beer brewing business and 24 Maine wineries.  
 

 • Maine is rich in gems - among the biggest zinc and copper deposits in the country plus tourmaline,      amethyst, topaz and garnet.

 

 • Maine is home to many of the best boat builders in the world: Hinckley, Sabre, Back Cove, Duffy,            Morse Yachts, Egg Harbor, Calvin Beal, Robert Stevens, Old Town Canoe, Downeast, LL Bean, Atlantic,    and The Landing School.

 

 • Geographically Maine is bigger than the other five New England States combined.

 

 • Maine's Aroostook County at 6,453 square miles is larger than Connecticut and Rhode Island                  combined.

 

 • Eastport, Maine is the eastern most U.S. city, and the first in the country to see the sun.

 

 • Maine contains 542,629 acres of State and National Parks.

 

 • Maine's government is comprised of 16 counties, 22 cities, 435 towns, 33 plantations, 424 townships          and 3 Indian reservations.

 

 • Portland is the birthplace of poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

 

  • John D Rockefeller Jr. funded the majority of Acadia National Park's carriage roads and trail systems     between 1915-1933.

 

• Nelson Rockefeller was born in Bar Harbor, Maine 1908. 

 

 • Author Steven King, amous US horror story writer, is a resident of Bangor.

 

 • Former President George H. W. Bush and his wife Barbara summer at Walkers Point                                  in Kennebunkport.

 

 • Freeport is the home to the L.L. Bean Company, the first retail clothier to be open 24/7/365, founded      in 1912.

 

 • The first ship built by English colonists in Americas was launched on the Kennebec River in 1607.

 

 • The first naval battle of the Revolutionary War was fought off Machias, Maine in 1775.

 

 • Maine's coastline has so many deep harbors it could provide anchorage for all the Navy fleets in the      world.