Buzzy World Tour--Maine Adventure
18 August, 2003--Augusta

WARNING! This site is graphic intensive

Monday, the 18th Buzzy tagged along as I headed to work in Augusta. It didn't take him long to get into trouble when he saw the wooden boat on the dock. He insisted on getting his picture taken on this boat. I only agreed to do it after he showed me that he did have a Coast Guard-approved life jacket.

Buzzy and his life jacket Buzzy on the Elizabeth Tilley

The Elizabeth Tilley is a reproduction of a shallop boat. The Pilgrams built a similar vessel in 1628 and sailed it up the coast from Massachusetts and up the Kennebec River to establish the Cushnoc Trading Post in present day Augusta. They traded on and off with the local Native Americans for the next seventy-five years. That trade started as a way to pay off their debts from the cost of sailing from England to establish the Plymouth Colony. The Elizabeth Tilley was named after the wife of John Howland, head of Plymouth Plantation. Built in the past couple of years, it was sailed from Plimouth Plantation to Augusta, Maine this summer to commemorate the establishment of that trading post. By the way, the granite building across the way with the turret is the Olde Federal Building, which is on the National Register of Historic Places. It also happens to be the location of my office, a part of the University of Southern Maine, Edmund S. Muskie School of Public Service.

The Elizabeth Tilley in morning fog Fort Western in morning fog

One of the blockhouses at Fort Western

Just up river from where the Elizabeth Tilley is moored for the summer is Fort Western. Like Fort Halifax, it was built in the mid-1700's to protect settlers from Native American attacks. Benedict Arnold and his men spent a night here too. This fort has been rebuilt. The barracks is original and the rest is reproduction. Throughout the summer, tours are available from guides in period costumes. Being 6:30am at the time we poked around, it wasn't open, so Buzzy had to settle for snapshots along the stockade.

The barracks at Fort Western

During my lunch hour, Buzzy got his picture taken at the state capital. Alas, we did not get to meet the Governor.

Maine State Capital Building

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