{"id":222000,"date":"2021-04-23T16:00:06","date_gmt":"2021-04-23T15:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.factstoryhub.com\/?p=222000"},"modified":"2025-02-17T13:57:22","modified_gmt":"2025-02-17T13:57:22","slug":"maine-facts","status":"publish","type":[],"link":"https:\/\/www.factstoryhub.com\/maine-facts\/","title":{"rendered":"15 Fascinating Facts About Maine"},"content":{"rendered":"
Officially nicknamed \u201cThe Pine Tree State\u201d but also known as \u201cVacation Land,\u201d Maine was the 23rd state to join the United States of America on March 15, 1820.\n It has a population of 1,350,141 people (as of 2020), making it the 42nd most populous state.\n The state of New Hampshire borders Maine. With a total of 35,385 square miles (91,636 square kilometers) of land and water, it is the 39th largest state.\n The capital of Maine is Augusta, situated in the south of the State.\n That\u2019s enough fast facts about the Pine Tree State for now, though; we\u2019re here to learn some real facts!\n There are several solid theories, though.\n One of the most commonly believed ideas behind the state\u2019s name is that it was named after the province of Maine in France.\n Another more questionable yet popular theory goes all the way back to the first British explorers who reached the coast of Maine.\n These explorers would commonly refer to the mainland of North America as \u201cThe Maine.\u201d\n This in itself is believed to be shorthand, with \u201cthe Maine\u201d being a shortening of the mainland.\n No matter what the origins of the state\u2019s name are, the name was settled upon in 1665 when Britain officially registered the region as the Province of Maine.\n People lived and thrived in the region now known as Maine for a long time before Europeans ever thought to cross the seas and colonize the Americas.\n The earliest known group of people to inhabit the region lived there from around 3000 BC until 1000 BC.\n These people are referred to as the Red Paint People, as they performed burials in a way not seen elsewhere, which involved covering the body and belongings of the deceased with red ochre.\n The Red Paint People were a seafaring culture, largely living off the land and the seas alike.\n The next group of people to live in the region was the first to invent pottery, and they were called the Susquehanna culture.\n By the time European explorers first reached the region, a new group of Algonquian-speaking locals called the Wabanaki peoples lived there.\n Vikings based out of Iceland and Greenland made regular trips across the Atlantic to various points along with the northern parts of North America\u2019s coast.\n Although they failed to establish any permanent settlements, they did manage to trade with the local tribes.\n An 11th-century Norwegian coin was found in a Native American archaeological site in 1954, which backs up this theory, cementing the fact that Vikings preceded modern Europeans in Maine.\n Although it was a mission undertaken by the Spanish Empire, the man commanding the exploration was a Portuguese explorer called Est\u00eav\u00e3o Gomes, who reached the coast of Maine by 1525.\n The explorers didn\u2019t settle in the region, though; instead, they mapped out the coastlines and returned to Spain later that year.\n It wasn\u2019t until almost 70 years later that Europeans returned to colonize the first parts of modern-day Maine.\n Instead of the Spanish returning, though, the French had decided to break ground in the region.\n Their first settlement was established on St Croix Island by a party that included Samuel de Champlain, the man who was later responsible for founding both Quebec and New France.\n Upon their arrival, the Frenchmen claimed the entire region on the eastern side of the Kennebec River as their own, naming it Acadia.\n England tried to stake out their claim to the region shortly after France, with the Popham Colony being established in 1607.\n This colony was short-lived, however, with the colonists returning just 14 months later.\n Some later attempts failed before England finally succeeded in breaking ground in modern-day Maine.\n While England and France staked out claims for separate regions of Maine, it didn\u2019t stop them from clashing over the next 150 years.\n There were almost continuous disputes, skirmishes, and raids between the two European powers, which often drew the Native American tribes into the line of fire, who had allied with the Colony of Acadia.\n It wasn\u2019t until the defeat of a number of French-sponsored Native American tribes by the British in 1724 that France finally recalled their claim to Maine.\n Maine contributed 80,000 troops to the Union Army, which is more than any other union state in proportion to the population of each state.\n Maine was the first and one of the strongest supporters of the newly founded anti-slavery Republican party.\n In recognition of their zeal and support, Abraham Lincoln appointed Hannibal Hamlin, a Maine local, as the first Republican Vice President.\n Given their political views, it\u2019s easy to see why such great numbers of Maine\u2019s population volunteered for the war effort.\n If you head on up to Maine, you\u2019ll instantly realize why this state is nicknamed “The Pine Tree State.”\n More than 80% of Maine is covered in forest, unclaimed land, or both!\n To the south of the state, the forests are composed mainly of different variants of oak trees, with a number of hardwoods and pine variants in the mix.\n The rest of the state has a more varied mix, including hardwood, fir, pine, birch, maple forests, and wetland biomes.\n If you were to measure the coast of Maine as the crow flies without deviating into the many coves or bays, you would find it to measure something around 230 miles (400 km).\n This is hardly an accurate way of measuring the coast of a state like Maine, though, as the state\u2019s lengthy coast is dotted with coves, estuaries, islets, and so on.\nNo one is really sure what Maine was named after.\n
\n
Maine has been inhabited for at least 5,000 years!\n
\n
The first Europeans to reach Maine were Vikings from Norway.\n
\n
The next Europeans to reach Maine were the Spanish, arriving some 300 years later.\n
\n
The first settlement in Maine was established by the French in 1604.\n
\n
France and England fought over Maine for over a hundred years.\n
\n
Maine contributed more troops to the American Civil War than any other Union state.\n
\n
Maine is the most forested state in the US.\n
\n
Maine has 3,500 miles of coastline.\n
\n
Most of Stephen King\u2019s books are set in Maine.\n
\n