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Augusta Maine State Capitol Building + Maine State Museum
We head over to the Maine State Museum. It is immediately clear we have
stumbled upon a real treasure. I cringe when I think how close I came
to skipping this place.
This museum is astonishing. We have experienced some remarkable museums
in the four thousand miles since we left Florida, but even the curators
and designers in Boston, New York City and Washington D.C. could learn
something with a visit here.
The skill, beauty, knowledge, focus, layout, and value of Augusta’s
Maine State Museum is absolutely top notch. The displays are gigantic
but each detail is carefully explained and showcased. Most people will
barely make it through in four to five hours if they pay any attention
at all. It’s just that big and full of goodies.
They cover in great detail Maine’s historical and present day involvement
in shipbuilding, quarrying, ice harvesting, sail making, wildlife, gems,
lumbering, railroads, family life, the revolutionary war, the civil war,
fishing, agriculture, carding, spinning, weaving, water wheel milling,
canoe construction, shells, furnace made machinery, fossils and much more.
They relocated a real, three story high, active, working mill here from
it’s place on the river. They house some of the tiniest gravure
I have ever seen. As a further bonus the state library and state archives
flank the museum, so you can easily visit those on another day if you
are in the area.
Above: Picture of the Maine State House during reconstruction
of the capitol dome. The dome is also getting a shiny new copper sheath.
Above: Pictures taken during our Capitol Building tour
of the Chamber House.
Above: Picture of a weave factory setting that turned
cotton thread turned into textiles. Factor in the admission price of only
two dollars, the free parking, the ease of exposure, the access to the
affordable nearby café, and the sheer grandeur, and I am not sure
this place has an equal. I have not been this impressed with a museum
since leaving the Beaufort
Maritime Museum months ago. If you are within a day’s drive
of Augusta come for long weekend. Make it a date with someone special
and you’ll earn serious points.
This is part of an 18 week, 7,532 mile, Vanabode road trip detailed in the
book from Amazon
titled Big
City Wild Country East Coast Road Trip on $20 a Day for just
$2.99
See East Coast Road Trip for
more pictures, itinerary, maps and trip overview.
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