By Isabel Morse Maresh
March 8, 1990
The weather in Maine has always been an interesting topic. It has been said, "If you don't like the weather, wait a minute." With a few warm days and scattered pussy willows, we know that spring cannot be far away.
Waldo County's weather has often been written about over the years. In February 1835, the Republican Journal reported that the bay had been frozen over since Feb. 8, as far as the eye could see. Sleighs had been passing from Long Island to Belfast village, a distance of about seven miles.
The first person reported to have visited Islesboro in a sleigh was James Y. McClintock of Belfast. Many others followed his example. He crossed to the island and back across the bay to West Prospect.
By March of 1835, the bay was still frozen nearly to Saturday Cove, and sleighs passed over. On the eastern side of Islesboro, vessels were able to pass as far as Prospect.
The Journal reported in March, that on the 17th the wind blew a squall, and many thousand acres of ice started at high water. Fortunately, no sleigh parties were on the ice at the time, though a bridge below the wharves was severely damaged.
M.H. Kiff wrote a letter to the Republican Journal in 1915 giving his firsthand experience of crossing the Penobscot Bay on the ice in February of 1873. He claimed to have been the only man who ever crossed from North Haven to Northport on the ice in February 1873.
Kiff had returned to his home on Vinalhaven to attend to some town business and expected to return to Augusta. When the cold wave struck, the bay was closed from Owl's Head to Bangor.
He had heard that some men had crossed from Islesboro to North Haven, and was ready to attempt it when he heard that it was only a rumor.
Kiff and Captain Joseph Conant decided to attempt the trip to Islesboro, with Captain Conant carrying an eel spear, while Kiff had an ice hook. He reported that the day was bright, clear, and fairly warm. They tested the ice and where it was found to be too thin, altered their course.
About halfway across the bay, they came across an open space of water with a bridge of two-inch-thick ice through the middle. They crossed the ice bridge, but at about the middle of the eastern side of the island, the ice was broken into cakes about 100 feet from the shore.
Captian Conant got on a large ice cake and poled himself to shore, then went back and got Kiff and his suitcase, and they landed on the east shore of Islesboro.
Kiff reported that he gave Captain Conant a $5 bill and said goodbye. He watched Conant until he was lost from sight in a blinding snowstorm, but he later heard that the Captain had arrived safely home before dark.
Kiff then crossed from Islesboro to Saturday Cove alone, and on toward Belfast, but was overtaken by a man also walking. They stopped for lunch at the New England House at 3 p.m. He then hired a rig of Henry Parker and began a 30-mile journey over fences, on top of snowbanks, in the road, and through pastures to Augusta. He made the trip from Vinalhaven to Augusta in 12 hours and had walked about 20 miles of the distance.
The next day, he recalled, he became sick and nearly died. Thirty-two years later, he reported that he still felt the effects of his foolish expedition and said to himself, "Old fellow, you can never get me to try that trick again!"
The weather on 1816 has been recorded as being cold on into the summer. Eighteen inches of snow fell on some sections in June, ice in July, and frosts in August, ruining crops.
One report gave an account in June of 1816 of snowfall, ice drawn from a well, and frost. On July 4, 1816, it was reported in upper New York, "ice as thick as window glass on many ponds."
Weather can always make good conversation, and as television meteorologists say, "the weather will continue."
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