St. Croix Historical Society

06/02/2026

Bertha Caler gave an excellent talk last night on the Lighthouses of Maine. See the video below for the recording. Bertha will be featured next on Light Hearted with D'Entremont on June 18.

Retired educator Bertha Caler presents a well-researched history on...

05/05/2026

Walk down Main Street of yesteryear with us in our newest video presentation:

Business of Main Street, Calais, Maine (part 1)

04/14/2026

Join us Monday, May 4, at 7 pm for a visit to the businesses of Main Street of yore!

04/07/2026

Hear about the lasting impact of the Doctrine of Discovery from Passamaquoddy language keeper Dwayne Tomah in this recording from last night's presentation.

Join Dwayne Tomah of the Passamaquoddy tribe as he discusses the impact of the Doctrine of Discovery and how it continues to affect policy decisions today.Th...

03/17/2026

The newest publication from SCHS is now available!

King George: Monarch of Mayhem, written by University of Maine at Machias alum Barbara McFadden Dodge, tells the story of how the American colonies arrived at the need to declare independence from the British crown through fables. Included are fables based on the 27 grievances from the Declaration of Independence, along with 35 additional fables from the era based in Downeast Maine. Photographs and images from the St. Croix Historical Society’s collection provide visual references.

Author McFadden Dodge was influenced by her father’s military career and his deep passion for history. She developed an enduring curiosity about the past and a habit of exploring the history
of every place she has called home. When she arrived in Machias as a young college student, McFadden Dodge was captivated by the region’s rich Revolutionary War heritage, an enthusiasm that continues to shape her writing.

This book is her third, reflecting a lifelong love of storytelling inspired by her grandmother, Dorothy (Erskine) Roberts, former owner and publisher of The Lincoln County News. McFadden
Dodge is married and the proud mother of two children, grandmother of two, and great- grandmother of four. She continues to share her love of history with each new generation.
King George: Monarch of Mayhem, along with a selection of other local history books published by the St. Croix Historical Society, can be purchased from A Boatload of Books in Eastport, at a historical society meeting, or online through major distributors.

03/15/2026

January 24, 1936, was a bitter, cold day in the Northeast. Gale force winds lashed the coast, and the thermometer was near zero and going down. The newspapers reported the storm as “The wildest gale and highest sea known here for years”. It must have been quite a surprise to Mrs. William Sipe, the wife of a worker on the Quoddy Project, to observe from the window of her Brooks Bluff cottage a small two-masted boat headed down river in such a tempest. Her surprise turned to shock when the boat capsized and threw its two occupants in the frigid waters of the St. Croix. Sounding the alarm the authorities and local Robbinston residents risked life and limb to save, if possible, the two men but the men were never found and it was presumed they drowned, but did they? It remains a mystery to this day what happened to these men and, indeed, what Mrs. Sipe saw that day, but her version of the events was supported by a Robbinston teenager, William Hunt. The event warranted headlines in the local and national newspapers.

Read the full story:
https://stcroixhistorical.com/an-unsolved-mystery/

03/15/2026

In the 1800s one of the most anticipated events of the summer in the St. Croix Valley was the arrival of the circus. In those early days circuses were of somewhat uneven quality, the term “dog and pony show” came into the lexicon to describe some of the early productions which indeed featured dogs and ponies doing rather unexciting tricks.

Read the full story:
https://stcroixhistorical.com/the-circus-comes-to-town/

03/08/2026

Laurence Trimble and his black and white border collie Jean were well-known actors in the early days of silent films. To be honest Jean was more of a star than her owner and she is said to have been the most beloved animal in the United States in the early 1900s. Jean was the first canine to star in the moving pictures. She was beloved by silent movie fans as far away as Australia. Both Jean and Laurence are locals-Laurence from Robbinston and Jean an Eastport native who came to live with the Trimble family on Trimble Mountain in Robbinston as a pup.

Read the full story:
https://stcroixhistorical.com/robbinstons-famous-movie-star/

03/01/2026

Mystics, mediums, soothsayers and those who claimed to have paranormal powers have been around since the Fox sisters of Hydesville New York claimed in the late 1840ss that they could communicate with the dead. Hundreds were drawn to their seances including many prominent citizens. According to an article in Salon magazine “For the next eight decades, spiritualism turned dining room tables across America into hubs of reverence and debates for believers and skeptics alike.” Mary Todd Lincoln hosted seances in the Red Room of the White House throughout Lincoln’s presidency to communicate with her son Willie who has died at the age of 11.

The St Croix Valley was as excited about the prospects of communing with deceased loved ones as the rest of the country. Read on to see how it went.
https://stcroixhistorical.com/mystics-and-paranormals/

02/22/2026

From Al:

I had the pleasure of presenting a program last October at the Eastport Arts Center on the Saxby Gale (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=880q2wyobvA). For those not familiar with the Saxby Gale of 1869, the worst storm to ever strike Downeast Maine and the Atlantic Provinces, Hurricanes and Saxby Gale will give you some idea of how devastating the storm was locally. I had thought to finish the program at the Arts Center with a poem written by a New Zealander about the Mr. Saxby and his prediction of the storm we now know as the Saxby Gale but forgot to do so. You can read it below but first a brief description of Lt. Saxby, known in the 1860s and 70s as the “Weather Prophet”.

See more:
https://stcroixhistorical.com/lt-saxby-recap-and-poem/