Downtown Rockland Maine

Rockland, Maine is known as the “Gateway to Penobscot Bay” and as the “Lobster Capital of the World”. The city’s annual Lobster Festival is a tradition kept going for over 50 years every month of August. The city is the County Seat and the commercial center of Knox County. The city has a population of 7,609 and is a very popular tourist destination all year round. Its harbor is protected by a 4,300-foot breakwater and guided by a lighthouse. Rockland, Maine is considered one of the best places in the world to enjoy boating and sailing because of its good waters.

The area was originally called by the Abenaki Indians “Catawamteak” which translates to “great landing place.” John Lermond and his brothers settled in 1767, producing oak and pine lumber, in what was later called Lermond’s Cove. It later became a village in 1777 called Shore Village. It was renamed Rockland in 1850 and chartered as a city in 1854.

Rockland’s industries included commercial fishing, lobster, shipbuilding, granite quarrying, and lime processing but have shifted towards more of being a service community by the 1990s. The town also sees a large volume of tourists and has developed commercial shops, boutiques, places for fine dining, and art galleries. It maintains a balance of both the old and the new elements of a city, with most of the town’s heritage under careful maintenance and preservation while also developing further to cater to the needs of the people. In 2008, in honor of the special relationship with the city and residents of Rockland, it was name a Coast Guard City.

Rockland Harbor

Rockland, Maine is home to the Maine Lighthouse Museum. Considered as the largest lighthouse museum, it houses the largest collection of Fresnel lighthouse lenses, United States Coast Guard memorabilia, and other marine memorabilia. A retired Coast Guard officer, Kenneth Black founded it and it aims to promote the appreciation of maritime history and to preserve materials and articles of this bygone era.

Another notable landmark in the city is The Farnsworth Art Museum. It contains over 10,000 art pieces from various artists with connections to the state of Maine from the 18th to 20th century. The museum is the legacy of Lucy Copeland Farnsworth to the city of Rockland. It houses the works of the Wyeth family, three generations of realist painters and illustrators, as well as two well preserved historic houses, the Farnsworth Homestead and the Olson House. The Farnsworth Homestead was the home of benefactor Lucy Farnsworth. The Olson House was one of artist Andrew Wyeth’s favorite subjects in his works. Both historic houses are open for public tours.

Main Street Rockland Maine

Historic Inns are also abundant in Rockland. There are six inns, all independently owned, that have formed “The Historic Inns Of Rockland”. These inns have antique rooms and furniture and serve gourmet-style breakfasts. LimeRock Inn, Berry Manor Inn, and Captain Lindsey House are three inns that are part of this group and are within walking distances from each other. They are notable because they allow guests to use their facilities interchangeably. This arrangement has become extremely popular and convenient for those who wish to hold weddings and other large gatherings in one area.

The Rockland Breakwater Lighthouse and The Owls Head State Park and Lighthouse are popular tourist destinations and wedding venues as well. The Breakwater Lighthouse is used by the city as its emblem and letterhead. It offers wonderful views of Penobscot Bay, the schooners and ferries gliding on the waters in and out of the harbor. The Owls Head Lighthouse is a white, 30-foot brick lighthouse that sits atop a 70-foot high cliff at the entrance of Rockland Harbor.

Owls Head Transportation Museum

The Owls Head Transportation Museum is the place to go in Owls Head, Maine to get your fill of antique automobiles, bicycles, motorcycles, and aircraft, all in one place. It is located on Route 73 at the Knox County Airport and is open to the public all year round, from 10AM to 5PM, except for Christmas day, New Year’s Day, Thanksgiving, and the museum’s annual Volunteer Day.

The museum is a non-profit organization and was founded in 1974 to collect, preserve, and increase the appreciation of the evolution of transportation through the ages. It has an impressive collection of antique modes of transportation that span from the 1800s to the 1980s. It spans over 100,000 square feet of exhibit and storage space, with its displays arranged in an airplane like hangar which allows for maximum appreciation and vantage points for visitors.

Horseless Carriage

One of the museum’s impressive collections is over 25 different types of engines produced from the years 1880 to 1946, ranging from steam to gasoline engines, automobile, marine, and aircraft engines. Bicycles made from 1868 to 1935 are also available for public viewing in the museum. The Orient Ladies Bicycle made in 1900 is one fine example of a bicycle type still being based on bicycle types today.

The largest collection in the museum is the automobile collection, with over fifty models from 1885 to 1980. See the 1885 Benz, the first automobile that had an internal gasoline engine. It was the brainchild of Karl Benz, a German engine designer and founder of Mercedes-Benz. Visitors can also see the first ever mini-van, invented by William B. Stout in 1936 called the Stout Scarab, one of only six ever produced.

There are about 13 examples of carriages made from 1849 to 1910, nine motorcycles produced from 1913 to 1953, and 28 different types of aircraft from 1804 to 1946, with a combination of originals and replicas in the collection. One notable aircraft is the 1917 Fokker Dr. I triplane, flown by Manfred Von Richthofen, the German fighter pilot during World War known as the Red Baron.

1917 Fokker Dr.I Triplane

Aside from the collection, the Owls Head Transportation Museum also holds annual educational events, like aviation shows and demonstrations, workshops and lectures. The museum also offers guided tours, free of charge for groups like families and other non-profit groups. Details of scheduled events and other information may be viewed at their website at www.ohtm.org or you can also send an email to: info@ohtm.org or call 207-594-4418.

Christmas by the Sea - Camden

Winter turns this idyllic town in Maine a wonderland every year. Even as the weather turns cold, the special events and activities held annually in Camden will certainly make anyone feel warm and energized all over. Summer is not the only season when getaways and adventures are made in Camden – a vacation in any season is always special and definitely worth experiencing.

Each year in December, Camden’s community organizations and businesses sponsor Christmas festivities for all to enjoy. “Christmas by the Sea,” it’s called; a weekend of free celebration with lots of activities for both young and adult. Santa arrives in a boat in Camden harbor instead of the customary sleigh. There is lots of shopping you can do, good food to eat, musical numbers to be watched, horse-drawn rides to go on, parades, and guided tours to join. There is also a traditional tree lighting ceremony.

Ice Carving

The Camden Public Library hosts the annual Camden Winterfest in late January. Their top crowd drawer is the Community Ice Carving event. Watch as big blocks of ice transform into amazing works of art by participating teams using only traditional ice carving tools. There are also free horse and wagon rides for the whole family. Best of all, free warming soup and snacks are provided, donated by the generous local restaurants of Camden.

For the more active people out there, ice related activities are in plenty to do as well. Cross-country skiing and snowshoeing are very popular in Camden. Try the trails at Camden Hills State Park or try going to nearby Rockport where the Aldermere Farm holds skiing tours during the full moon.

Camden Snowbowl

Enjoy the best chowders, seafood, and everything else Camden restaurants have to offer. Lobster is a definite must to order. Maine is not called the “lobster capital of the world” for nothing, you know.

Check out the Camden Opera House for schedules of their upcoming winter events if you want to enjoy good music and entertainment while vacationing in town. This Victorian-era opera house hosts performances from well known artists of every kind during the Winter season.

U.S. Toboggan Championships

Camden is also home to the U.S. National Toboggan Championships held annually every first weekend in February. The venue is an iced-over, 400-foot long wooden toboggan chute with a vertical incline of over 70 feet that shoots toboggan riders screaming down the hillside onto the frozen ice of Hosmer Pond below. The single wooden track is constructed similar in style to an Olympics luge run. Over 400 teams compete in several divisions at the National Toboggan Championships. They compete in two-, three- and four-man toboggan teams that race down the hillside of Ragged Mountain. The fastest time down in each team division wins with tobogganers typically reaching speeds of up to 45 miles per hour. The event draws over 5000 people each year to witness this outdoor winter sports competition.

To top off your winter adventure, recharge in front of a fireplace in one of our deluxe oceanview rooms and enjoy a hot cup of cocoa in the comfort of your room while watching the moon rise over Penobscot Bay. There are many special discounts available during the Winter season to make your Maine lodging experience at the Ledges By The Bay a truly memorable one this time of year.

Farnsworth Art Museum - Rockland, ME

The Farnsworth Art Museum in Rockland, Maine highlights over 10,000 works of art from American artists in the 18th to 20th century in its 20,000 square feet of gallery space. The museum started as an instruction in Lucy Copeland Farnsworth’s will that one of the buildings she owns be converted into an art gallery and be named after her father. She was the daughter of Rockland’s most successful businessman and in 1935, at her death, donated 1.3 million dollars to be used for the museum’s creation. It was opened to the public on August 15, 1948 through the work of her Board of Trustees and Robert Peabody Bellows.

Farnsworth Art Museum - Rockland, ME

The museum highlights the works of artists with associations to Maine and who have gained national attention for their artistry. Maine in America is a permanent collection of the Farnsworth Art Museum, highlighting the works of Frank Benson, Thomas Eakins Childe Hassam, Eastman Johnson, Fitz Henry Lane, Maurice Prendergast, Gilbert Stuart, and Thomas Sully. The second largest collection of the works of premier sculptor Louise Berliawsky Nevelson, also resides in the museum. Nevelson, who was born in Russia but grew up and spent her adolescent years in Maine, was a very prominent abstract expressionist sculptor who liked to work with every day, discarded things to create her works of art. Her works still inspire sculptors today.

The Wyeth Center is also well known for another museum attraction, featuring the exclusive collection of the works of three generations of the Wyeth family: N.C (Newell Convers) Wyeth, Andrew Wyeth, and Jamie (James Browning) Wyeth.

Christina's World

N.C Wyeth is one of America’s greatest illustrators who illustrated for 112 books, including Robinson Crusoe and Treasure Island. He also produced more than 3,000 realist paintings in his lifetime. His son, Andrew Wyeth, was also a realist painter, referred to as “Painter of the People”. One of Andrew Wyeth’s most famous works is Christina’s World (1948), depicting his neighbor Christina Olson. Jamie Wyeth is Andrew’s second son, also a realist painter. He prefers oil as his medium while his father worked mostly with watercolor and tempera. Jamie’s posthumous portrait of John F. Kennedy is one of his most famous images.

N.C Wyeth’s works are shown at the Linda Bean Folkers Gallery; Marylouise Tandy Cowan Gallery features the works of Jamie Wyeth; and the Hadlock Galleries and Study Center contain Andrew Wyeth’s works.

Farnsworth Art Museum Homestead House

Two historic houses are part of the museum’s properties as well. One of them is The Farnsworth Homestead, home of benefactor Lucy Farnsworth. The second historic house is The Olson House, one of Andrew Wyeth’s favorite subjects in his works and the house that is depicted in his famous painting of “Christina’s World.”  The museum maintains the houses’ original furnishings and is open for public viewing. The Farnsworth Homestead was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973 and The Olson House in 1993.

For more information about the Farnsworth Art Museum, visit their website at farnsworthmuseum.org.

Camden Maine from Mount Battie

On the western shore of Penobscot Bay, roughly eight miles northeast of Rockland lies Camden, Maine, a picturesque seaside village at the foot of Camden Hills. Its slogan is “where the mountains meet the sea” and is one of the most beautiful places in New England. Camden is also an affluent town, with many wealthy families owning properties in the area. It has a population of 5,254. Affluent as the town is, it still has the small town New England atmosphere, with friendly people, and gorgeous views and preserved buildings and structures.

Camden Hills

It was Captain George Weymouth of the Archangel who first laid eyes on the hills of Camden during his voyage in 1605. The place was originally the home of a tribe of Penobscot Indians and it was called by them “Megunticook” or “great swells of the sea.” Captain Weymouth set foot on Camden Hills, then called Penobscot Hills, on June 12, 1605. In 1614, it was visited by Captain John Smith who described the location as “the high mountains of Penobscot, against whose feet doth beat the sea”. But it was not until 1769 when settlers first arrived, after the survey of the Waldo Patent by the Twenty Associates in 1768 naming Camden part of the Megunticook Plantation. The first recorded settler was in 1769, Mr. James Richards. However, the town got its name from the first Earl of Camden, Charles Pratt, after the American Revolution in 1791. Pratt was a sympathizer with the colonists during the Revolution.

During the first 100 years of the town, Camden has had a prosperous economy due to numerous industries including lime production, ship building, anchor manufacturing, and wool manufacturing. The lime industry was located in Goose River (now Rockport) which later separated from Camden in 1891 and became a town itself. This deprived Camden from the lime industry profits, aside from the territory of Goose River. In 1892, the business district was nearly burned down. The citizens rallied and quickly rebuilt.

Camden Windjammers at Harbor Park

Because of Camden’s scenic beauty, wealthy people from all over the country started acquiring properties and building summer houses there. Sprawling estates and mansions can be seen all over Camden. These families also showed generosity towards the town itself and contributed much to the further development of Camden. The Camden Opera House, Amphitheater, Camden Harbor Park and public library are only some of the examples. The town later developed into a retirement community, tourist hotspot and resort town. Camden also has a large fleet of windjammers, a type of merchant sailing ship used in the 19th to 20th century shipping industry, their type recognizable through their large masts and sails. These windjammers are part of the legacy of Captain Frank Swift who started the cruise schooner business in Camden in the 1940s. Camden’s economy boomed in the 1990s when the world’s largest independent issuer of credit cards, MBNA (Maryland Bank, National Association) located their offices into the former Knox Woolen Mill building, restoring the old buildings in the process as well as generating hundreds of jobs for the people in town.

Summit of Mt. Battie, Camden Hills State Park

For people visiting the town, Camden offers a lot of activities and good places to see. To name just a few, nature lovers will certainly enjoy a trip to the Camden Hills State Park. It is a 5,500 acre park full of nature trails, wonderful views of the surrounding hills and lakes, a large campground and picnic area. An auto road going through Camden Hills State Park was built in 1965 to enable people to reach the top of Mount Battie. The Camden Harbor Park and Camden Amphitheater are also good destinations for tourists, especially for those who are appreciative of historic landmarks.

Barrett’s Cove Beach on Megunticook Lake is another attraction in Camden. The beach offers free public access to freshwater swimming and a picnic area with tables and outdoor grills, and a children’s playground. They also have rock climbing facilities and public boat access. The Laite Memorial Beach is also a good destination. It is also free to the public and with picnic areas, bathroom facilities, and offers many activities aside from swimming. Children will also enjoy The Children’s Amphitheater as it has numerous events young people can participate in during the summer.

For information on planning your Camden Maine vacation, we highly recommend visiting the TakeMe2 Camden Maine web site. This site provides visitors with a complete, objective informational resource about the Camden Maine area including area attractions, lodging accommodations, restaurants, shopping experiences, local area excursions and other points of interest.

Another good source about Camden Maine and local area attractions is the Camden, Rockport, Lincolnville Chamber of Commerce website.

Finally, a good resource for information about the surrounding towns in the Midcoast Maine region including Rockland, Thomaston, Owls Head and Vinalhaven is the Rockland-Thomaston Area Chamber website.

U.S. National Toboggan Championships

Looking for something fun to do outside this winter with your family or friends? It is winter time in Maine and it’s that time of year to get on your boots and gloves, pick up your toboggan and head over to the Camden Snow Bowl for some serious sledding fun. Now in its 20th year, the Camden Snow Bowl in Camden, Maine, hosts the annual U.S. National Toboggan Championships on February 5th, 6th and 7th. (This annual event is held the first weekend in February at the Camden Snow Bowl.) Participants come from all over the country, but most are from New England.

Toboggan Chute

The venue is an iced-over, 400-foot long wooden toboggan chute with a vertical incline of over 70 feet that shoots toboggan riders screaming down the hillside onto the frozen ice of Hosmer Pond below. The single wooden track is constructed similar in style to an Olympics luge run. Over 400 teams compete in several divisions at the National Toboggan Championships. They compete in two-, three- and four-man toboggan teams that race down the hillside of Ragged Mountain. The fastest time down in each team division wins with tobogganers typically reaching speeds of up to 45 miles per hour. It’s the one national championship that is sure to get your adrenaline pumping because anyone can particpate. That means if you are so inclined you can become a winner and crowned a national champion. Not much training is required. Fact is, according to event organizers, the teams that usually win are made up of the largest people. And what do the winners get? Notoriety, bragging rights and really cool trophies. What other sporting event offers such instant hope? Of course, registration is required if you would like to participate in the races.

National Toboggan Championships, Camden

The toboggan championships were started as a tongue-and-cheek race but it has become quite an annual sporting event in Camden. The one-chute wooden toboggan run was rebuilt 20 years ago and the first U.S. National Toboggan Championships were held in 1991, drawing a hundred or so local supporters. Today more than 400 teams compete in front of an overflow crowd of 5000. The Annual US National Toboggan Championships features awards in categories including the best team uniform, spirit award, oldest team, fastest family, fastest women’s team and fastest children’s team. There is also a chili and clam chowder cook off, to keep you warm outside in the cold coastal Maine winter air. The Toboggan Championships have become a big, super fun winter sports deal in Camden.

The array of different costumes, the friendly and fun atmosphere, the awesomeness of the wooden chute, the immense beauty of coastal Maine, and the uniqueness of “see the sea while you ski” make the U.S. National Toboggan Championships an event to add to your Winter Fun Calendar. Make some turns on Ragged Mountain, head over to the chute, and just maybe become a national champion! Participant or spectator you are sure to have a great time at this annual winter event.

We are offering a special Maine lodging rate of $59 per night for the U.S. National Toboggan Championships from February 5th-7th. Our National Toboggan Races Rate is based on double occupancy and cannot be combined with any other discount such as AAA or AARP. We offer pet friendly accommodations. Please note that there may be limited availability as specific rooms are designated pet-friendly. Please call us at (800) 898-8944 for availability. There is a $10/night fee for pets.

This offer is not available through travel agents or any other third party booking agent. You must book your reservation through our front reservations desk at 1-800-898-8944 and refer to our National Toboggan Races Rate to get this discounted pricing.