This is perhaps the most important part of the Sea Grant Week 2005 Web site, because here you'll find invaluable hints on how to act and sound like a Mainer—so no one will know you're from away!

Tip #4: Rocks

On a map, the coast of Maine appears to hang like a raveled sleeve of geological time fraying into the cold waters of the Gulf of Maine. --Lincoln Paine

You can't talk about the Maine coast without mentioning rocks, for rock is the dominant feature of the shoreline.

And you can't talk about rocks without mentioning glaciers, for glaciers are the genesis of the Maine landscape. Repeated glaciations during the Ice Ages removed the flat Coastal Plain materials common in the southeastern United States, leaving behind a highly irregular coast. High headlands that are resistant to erosion, and curved bays with beaches and salt marshes are characteristic of southern Maine. Along the ragged shoreline from Portland to Penobscot Bay, glaciers have scraped deep valleys out of the soft metamorphic rock to form long, narrow estuaries separated by peninsulas. High, wild cliffs tower above the sea in eastern Maine, stretching to the Canadian border.

Hundreds of islands scattered like stones across the surface of the sea (365 in Casco Bay alone—the "Calendar Islands") and huge chunks of solid speckled rock in varying shades of black, gray, green, white, red, and pink are the glaciers' granite legacy. This is the granite that we live on, tie our boats to, and blast away to make room for roads and houses.

There is a strong history of quarrying in the state, and each quarry yields its own variety of stone with a unique color, texture, and pattern, though the pink-black-and-gray Deer Isle granite is probably the most famous. The granite industry peaked in 1901. Maine granite can be found in the base of the Brooklyn Bridge, Chicago's Union Station, the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City, the Prudential complex in Boston, the Washington Monument and other federal office buildings in Washington D.C., and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and J.F.K. memorial in Arlington National Cemetery.

If you're driving to Sea Grant week, you might want to pick up a copy of Roadside Geology of Maine, so you'll know what you're looking at as you cruise up the coast. Another good book is Living with the Coast of Maine by University of Maine professor J.T. Kelley et al. The Maine Geological Survey has more information on their Web site. Good rock-watching spots near the Samoset Resort include Pemaquid Point, Owls Head, Vinalhaven Island, and Camden Hills State Park. And don't forget to look down when you're at L.L. Bean in Freeport; the floor is made of Deer Isle granite.

Click here for previous Things You Should Know Before Coming to Maine Tips
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