Gully Oven

Gully Oven - Lebanon Maine

11/9/2013

Warning! A lot of pictures in this post, this place was far to cool to not take this many pictures. Also note the above picture, that is the look of someone who decided it wasn't a good idea to wear proper foot wear for crawling around in the woods... I had to rescue her.

It turns out that not only is this site beautiful but it is very significant to the town of Lebanon. I'll probably do more research on it when I'm less busy because as far as I can tell there isn't much data on it, or at least not a lot within reach of Google.

She got scared again...

There was a small brook that ran through the gully. I assume it's the brook that carved this place out in the first place. Some one had laid out a small path of stones to walk across the brook. How nice of them!

These carvings interest me. They don't seem like the normal dumb high schoolers carving their "loves" name in a wall. 

Some even have intricate borders drawn around them.

This panorama is horrible, but it was taken inside the gully itself. According to a few websites I found this is where a young kidnapped boy was taken during the French Indian wars. They kept him here for several days until they eventually traveled north towards Canada. The interesting part of this story is who the boy was. His name was Philip Door, who you might know as one of the original founders of the town of Lebanon Maine! As well as this camp site it's rumored that the rock walls around the park itself were originally laid out by the natives who camped here.

This doesn't do justice to how big it was inside. It was taken on top of a huge moss covered rock on the side of the gully.

The entire gully is covered in beautiful rock formations, carved out by the small stream that runs through the middle of it. Not only is this place for small town historians, but it would also be a good site for a geologist. Unfortunately I didn't get any photos of it, but above the gully was a ~20 foot tall sheer wall with multiple layers in it.

On our way out we found this interesting memorial to a local who had died in 1967. No information on it was around except for what was inscribed on it.

UPDATE:

So after some research we found a very interesting article that brought up a few facts about the Gully itself. As it turns out my curiosity about the carvings was well founded. They are actually the signatures of some 19th century artists who frequented the location. 

Also there was a violinist who came to the gully and played shows in the cave for local residents. When asked about why he said it was because he liked the unique harmonics of the rock.

Also... Geologists attempted to keep the location hidden in the early 1900's because of it's incredibly rare rock formations. If you visit it you can certainly see why, the stone there is beautiful.

Great Lost Bear

Great Lost Bear!

All the time!

NOTE: Please ignore the fact that it looks like I took this photo with a Potato.

This place is great! I love going to the great lost bear, and on top of that it's next door to an awesome brew supplies shop! It has a cool menu with unique overflowing plates of food, and lots of delicious beers on tap! Local and Imported beers! It's magical! I mean come on look at this...

That's not even all of it! They have another entire wall of beers on tap!

But anyways I digress, back to the history stuff.

So it turns out that The Great Lost Bear was featured in a novel by a mystery author in Maine. I guess the maine(hehe) character ends up becoming a bar tender there. On top of that several of the characters are based on actual people who work there! In fact you can still meet some of them!

The Great Lost Bear has been a staple visit in Portland since 1979. When ever you look up a trip guide for the area of Portland, or even for Maine itself you will find they recommend you stop at this famous restaurant. Frequently people from the Maine Subreddit will meetup here and chat about their corners of the state.

This place is so Maine on the inside. It's walls are covered in photos and artwork from around the state, dating back quite a ways as well. In fact at the table we sat at there was a picture behind me of a graduating class from one of Maine's Naval Academies. I cant remember exactly when it was from but it was before WW2. 

If anything go in, sit down, enjoy the relaxed atmosphere, drink a beer, and look around. The walls are practically a history lesson in of themselves! Enjoy!

Monument Square - Our Lady of Victories

Monument Square Our Lady of Victories

October 26th

Alright first off I despise this picture, but I guess it is what it is haha. 

But back to the history stuff, this statue in monument square is HUGE. Walking up to it and paying it the attention it deserves helped me realize just how massive this thing is.

On top of it's size, it's also very detailed and beautiful. The lady on top is very obviously visible from all angles, another side has soldiers from the civil war standing and looking into the distance.

While doing some googling I found a picture of the statue in 1939.

The statue itself is almost exactly the same, however the ground around it has changed. Although it still holds the same meaning. The statue is inscribed with "Portland - To her sons who died - For the Union".
It is very obviously a tribute to the soldiers who served in the Civil war from Maine. In total there was 80,000 men sent off to fight for the Union. At the time, and even today that's a substantial portion of the states population leaving for war.
In total it consisted of 32 infantry units, two Calvary regiments,  2 artillery regiments, and one ex Governor.

Allagash Brewery Tour

Allagash Brewery Tour!!!

October 11th, 2013

I love brewing, and by association I love beer. So when I started my site visits the first thing that came to mind was to go to Allagash. Allagash was a truly Maine brewery before Maine had an explosion in breweries. Their founder Rob Todd started in 1995 and stuck through all the hard times in order to see his brewery explode into what it is today.

Allagash wasn't always so popular, (obviously). In face first a good chunk of the first few years they barely saw any sales at all. People didn't like it, it was to cloudy and foreign. Rob kept at it and kept brewing Allagash White on his 13 barrel system. Allagash White is currently their most popular flavor, totaling 80% of their production. Allagash White was also the first beer Rob brewed when he started the company. In his travels to Europe he fell in love with Belgian style beers and realized we didn't have very many of them in the states, so he brought some with him and began brewing!

Of course Allagash White isn't the only beer they have in production. Look at that beautiful picture above and you'll see their 6 full year production beers... Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm... They also have MANY one of beers that they only release at the brewery once every few years. If you ever go on a tour they might take you into the old and original brewery. In the back of that building they have a large freezer stocked full of barrels of delicious beer! Almost all of the barrels have a unique brew in them. In fact there is something interesting about this, Allagash is one of the only breweries in the US to successfully brew using wild yeast on a production scale. What this means is they take the brew into a special shed outside and allow natural yeast from the air to float in and help in the fermentation process. A true taste of Maine!

Surprisingly enough Maine isn't their largest consumer! It's actually California! Although I feel like that's entirely due to the population difference. Every beer drinker who respects their palette in Maine has at least had one Allagash beer. They output roughly 45,000 Barrels a year, a huge amount considering that docent count the new 40 barrel brewing system they just installed less then a year ago. The picture above is their automated bottling system, unfortunately I didn't get a picture of their kegging system, that's pretty neat too.

I could write about beer and brewing all day... But instead I think I'm gonna end this post and go enjoy one! Oh and this last picture is some of their barrels stored in a freezer, those are actually barrels from the Jim Beam factory out west. Cool stuff! Go take the tour!