Features

As global leaders negotiate commitments to reduce emissions around the world, a small group of Harpswell residents gathers in the town office to address climate change at the local level.

Though she keeps a low profile in Harpswell at her cottage compound on Middle Bay, off Basin Point Road, Martica "Tica" Sawin is a world-renowned art historian, teacher, curator and author who counts a host of high-profile artists and curators as friends.

Digging for wild shellfish in the intertidal is one of the oldest traditions along the Maine coast. Shellfish provided a food source for the first inhabitants of Maine and continues to do so in the present day.

On a chilly afternoon in early December, a gray Ford Focus putters down Abner Point Road toward Mackerel Cove, where boats are bobbing in the small waves.

It's been nearly half a century since The Harpswell Sound last sang. The barbershop quartet, which once performed all over the state and even won a national singing competition, disbanded in the early 1970s.

Take a precious piece of a small community, polish it up with plenty of volunteer elbow grease, apply an infusion of hard-earned grant money and what have you got? A gem.

A South Harpswell native has returned from a career as a yacht chef to open a year-round cafe, Iris Eats, at Safe Harbor Great Island.

From Cundy's Harbor to Bailey Island, Great Island to Orr's Island, and Harpswell Islands Road to Harpswell Neck Road, dazzling holiday lights illuminate the darkness enveloping our town this time of year. Soon, snow will cloak evergreens in gossamer and shoreline ice will sparkle like the queen's tiaras.

A 96-year-old Orr's Island man served as a machine gunner in World War II, helping to liberate Europe from the Nazis — then returned home to become an obstetrician who pioneered modern childbirth methods in America.

The strength of the natural elements has come to define the life and work of Orr's Island artist Doug Bane, who now finds himself evolving with the changing tides in Gun Point Cove.