When It Was Cold

January 19, 1989

By Isabel Morse Maresh

In the winter of 1814 and 1815, when the British occupied Castine, Penobscot Bay froze over. People passed over it in every direction, even to the outer islands. This again happened in 1833 and 1835. The intense cold the latter part of February and early March of 1833 closed nearly all the harbors on the coast to Cape Cod. The bay was one unbroken sheet of ice to the islands, and the eldest settlers did not recall seeing it as such before.

In March of 1868, Simon Annis of North Haven walked on the ice from North Haven to Islesboro, and then to Northport, a distance of 14 miles, a walk never before taken in the memory of the Penobscott settlers. Annis signaled his safe arrival by means of a fire, which was answered by his friends at home. The thinnest ice he found was three inches.

On Jan. 21 in the winter of 1875, the temperature in Belfast was ten degrees below zero. Ice began to form on Penobscot Bay, and in a few days, no blue water was visible from Owl's Head to Fort Point. On Jan. 24, the steamer Katahdin teacher her wharf at Belfast with difficulty, through eight inches of ice, accompanied by hundreds of people who were on the ice and walked up the harbor beside the ship as she slowly made her way into Belfast. She remained in the harbor 12 weeks.

Until April that year, horses and sleighs passed across the bay. Seventy-five persons drove from Belfast to Castine on one day. It was excellent for ice skating and iceboating. The ice did not leave until April 17, and the next day the river was clear to Bangor.

In January of 1888, the bay froze over and remained frozen until March 22. On Feb. 22 of that year, a party drove from Islesboro with a dory on sleds, in case they broke through the ice. Saturday cove was mostly clear that winter, though there were ten inches of ice on the bay.

The Republican Journal reported Feb. 9, 1988:

"Not since 1875 has there been so much ice in our harbor and Penobscot Bay, as during last week. The revenue cutter reported every habor, bay, inlet and thoroughfare on the coast of Maine frozen over — ice from eight to sixteen inches thick. The Maine harbor of Belfast is ice fifteen inches thick. The Cutters Dallas and Woodbury reached Cottrell's shipyard with difficulty. The Dallas cut through to the wharf. The steamer Rockland landed freight Wednesday on the ice at John Condon's wharf."

Those were the good ole Maine winters!!