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Tuesday, August 15, 2006
Abandoned island
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SWAN ISLAND — Word is getting out: Maine owns a beautiful island in the Kennebec River that's home to bald eagles, wild turkeys and a ghost town of historic 18th- and 19th-century homes. Swan Island is situated between Richmond and Dresden, less than an hour's drive from Portland and about a half-hour from the State House in Augusta. Yet few Mainers know the 4-mile-long island exists, said Charles "Rusty" Dyke, who manages it for the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife. "It's not even on the radar in some cases of even local people who grew up in the area," said Dyke, a wildlife biologist. But that's changing. Articles about the island have appeared in Down East magazine and news publications. Also, the state has been promoting the island - a unique combination of wildlife sanctuary and historic district with recreational camping - as a tourist destination. Dyke welcomes the publicity because he believes it will underscore what a treasure Maine has in the island. Its unspoiled beauty is just minutes from Richmond village, accessible by the flat-bottomed steel boat the state uses to ferry visitors. "You're stepping back 100 years in time," Dyke said. Don't confuse Swan Island with Swans Island, which has 350 year-round residents and is situated off Mount Desert Island, Down East. Swan Island is in central Maine and no one lives on it anymore except seasonal state employees. But at one time, the island was home to enough people that it became its own town. Swan Island used to be part of Dresden, but island residents complained taxes were too high. In 1847, Swan and Little Swan Island - a 30-acre island beside it - split off and became the town of Perkins. By 1850, the new town had 84 residents. Through the years, Perkins residents farmed, raised sheep and cattle and fished for shad to make a living. By the 1880s, the island, which is less than one mile wide, also had a booming ice industry, harvesting frozen blocks from the Kennebec to sell for refrigeration purposes. But that industry died out and by 1917, a Portland Sunday Press newspaper article said Perkins was Maine's smallest town, with just 35 residents. The next year the town became Perkins Plantation because there weren't enough people to fill town offices. Regular ferry service to the island ceased in 1936 and the community went out of existence. The island is now part of Perkins Township and is on the National Register of Historic Places. The residents left behind historic 18th- and 19th-century homes. In addition to the abandoned homes, there are cellar holes and stone foundations of dwellings that date from the first European-American settlements on the island in the 1600s. The state began buying up island properties in the 1940s. Today, the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife manages 1,755 acres - which include Swan and Little Swan islands and freshwater tidal flats. The area is known as the Steve Powell Wildlife Management Area, named after a wildlife biologist. Wildlife on the island, which is just north of Merrymeeting Bay, includes white-tailed deer, wild turkeys, bald eagles and migrating waterfowl. Don't look for swans - there aren't any. How the island got its name is a mystery. One story, according to a state brochure, is that the Merrymeeting Bay area was once a stopping place for a large number of swans. However, swans are not among the many birds listed in a detailed 1602 description of the Maine coast, according to historical information on the island provided by the Maine Historic Preservation Commission. Legend has it that the island's name may have derived from "sowangan," an American Indian word for bald eagle, according to the Maine Historic Preservation account. Swan Island is a breeding area for bald eagles, and the Merrymeeting Bay area was home to the Abenaki Indians long before European settlers arrived. A more modern mystery is why more Mainers aren't aware of Swan Island. Dyke, the biologist who manages the island, believes it may have something to do with people not appreciating what's in their own backyard. Dyke, 45, used to be one of those people. He grew up about 12 miles upriver in Farmingdale but said he had never heard of Swan Island until his younger sister visited on a school trip. Even then, he said, it was 1981 before he went there on a field trip with fellow students from the University of Maine in Orono. Two years later he was the island's wildlife biologist and in love with the place. "You don't have to spend much time on the island until you get hooked," Dyke said. He runs the island with the assistance of two seasonal conservation aides and a reservation clerk. With an annual budget of about $80,000, he grapples constantly with money issues, such as how to preserve the six historic homes remaining on the island, each of which he estimates needs about a half a million dollars to save. In fact, one 19th-century farmhouse is slated for demolition because it's in such bad shape. However, Dyke is encouraged because private organizations in the past few years have started working to help safeguard the island. One is the Friends of Swan Island, a nonprofit volunteer group from Richmond dedicated to preserving the historic homesteads. He dreams of Swan Island having enough public and private support to become a living history center and also an educational center for wildlife conservation. To help realize that vision, Dyke said, the island needs more public awareness. "If we're going to survive in the 21st century," he said, "people need to know about Swan Island and what a special place it is on a whole variety of levels." Staff Writer Tess Nacelewicz can be contacted at 791-6367 or at:
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