Bangor, Maine

Building wall art in downtown Bangor

A few days ago, consort and I left Portland and drove 182 miles north and east to Bar Harbor, Maine.  We arrived late Tuesday afternoon and spent the majority of the day getting set up and tending the livestock.  During the drive, an "idiot light" appeared on the F350 dashboard indicating the need for a new fuel filter.  There were no choices for automotive diesel repairs in our immediate vicinity, so we ended up booking an appointment in Bangor for 8 am on Wednesday.  Bangor is about an hour's drive from our campsite at Bar Harbor Campground.  Our plans included a trip to Bangor, though not quite such an early trip, so it all worked out just fine.

The maine reason for visiting Bangor?  Bangor is the home of author Stephen King, Maine's most famous celebrity and one of our favorite authors. 

This is the home of Stephen King and his wife, author Tabitha King.  It is where Mr. King wrote the majority of his books.  The Kings no longer live in the house, but do retain ownership of the property.  About a year ago, the couple received approval from the Bangor City Council to rezone their blood-red Victorian Mansion for use as a nonprofit.  The Kings own two houses behind the ornate bats-and-gargoyles wrought iron fence.  The guest house will be used as a writer's retreat while the home the family lived in will be used to house personal archives of the authors maintained by the Stephen and Tabitha King Foundation.  

The Kings' personal home

Writer's retreat

If you're a reader of Mr. King's work, you'll know Derry, Maine, features prominently in many of his works of fiction.  After a little research, we located a list of places in and around Bangor that were the inspiration for different settings in his books.  There are also places in Bangor that have been featured in movie adaptations of King's books.  We had a really good time chasing down the different locations; it was a lot like a scavenger hunt.



The first stop in our hunt for spooky locales was the Mount Hope Cemetery.  Mount Hope Cemetery was featured in the movie Pet Sematary based on a book of the same name.

In the movie, Gage Creed, a character from the novel, is killed in an auto accident.  Mount Hope is where he was buried.  In every Stephen King book that is made into a movie, Mr. King has a cameo role.  In this movie, King played the minister officiating the funeral.

Mount Hope Cemetery is the second oldest garden cemetery in the United States.  The oldest is St. Luke's in Cambridge, Massachusetts.  In addition to being a film location, Mount Hope is the resting place for a former vice-president, Hannibal Hamlin, and Public Enemy #1, Al Brady



Pictured above:  Upper left, a row of babies in a family plot; upper right, interesting how the graves made their way up the hill; bottom left, just thought it was unusual; bottom right, we were impressed with the pebble walkway.

It is interesting that on older headstones, after the date of death, the deceased's age is listed.  For example, on the headstone of David Leighton, it says that he died June 1, 1854.  It then says, AE. 80 yrs. 6 mos. & 22 dys.

Both consort and I find the sculptures in cemeteries intriguing.  This particular sculpture was designed by Vernon Shaffer of Beloit, Wisconsin, to commemorate fallen Civil War soldiers.  The memorial features a bronze sculpture of a faceless angel carrying a wounded soldier.  The sculpture sets atop a marble slab that bears the inscription, "Not painlessly doth God recast and mould anew the nation."  The line is from John Greenleaf Whittier's poem, Luther's Hymn.  The inscription seems as relevant today as it did in 1861.

The picture of the yellow house is from the movie, Pet Sematary.  It is where the character, Gage Creed, lived.  Pet Sematary is one of the spookiest books of Stephen King's I've ever read.  The house and the "children at play" sign are two things that I remember vividly.

After leaving the cemetery, we stopped off at the Bangor Waterworks plant.  The building dates back to 1875 and was featured in the movie, Graveyard Shift.  The original work by King was a short story that was published in his Night Shift collection of stories. 

The story is about an old textile mill whose underground tunnels served as home to an army of giant rats that caused all sorts of trouble.  Today, the main building has been turned into low income housing -- minus the rats.

One of King's most popular books is, It.  For those of you who have read It, or seen the movie, you'll immediately recognize Pennywise the clown.  *shudder*  I have just a few pictures of places that were prominently featured in the book.

This is the storm drain where King says Pennywise the clown lived.  This is where Georgie Denborough met Pennywise for the first time and met with his untimely death.  The drain looks nothing like the drain in the movie; but in the book, King describes the drain as located at the corner of Jackson and Union Street.  This is the drain.  If you look closely, you can just make out the white face of Pennywise the clown. 

This is the Thomas Hill Standpipe.  It has been said that Stephen King wrote the book It while seated on a bench at this site.  If that is the case, I hope he brought a seat cushion; It is a really long book.  The standpipe is where Stanley Uris first meets Pennywise.  Back here in reality, the standpipe is still in use today storing almost two million gallons of water for the thirsty citizens of Bangor.

And this, of course, is Paul Bunyan.  He is 31 feet tall and very intimidating in real life.  In the book, It, the statue comes to life and chases Richie Tozier.  Oh, the horror!

And that was the end of our literary tour of Bangor.  We drove back to the campsite and had some lunch, then headed into Bar Harbor for a short walking tour, but that's a different story for another day.