Following the waterways of Maine, from coast to mountains

Maine's Lakes and Mountains and MidCoast Regions are connected by the same waterways that have shaped life here for thousands of years; from the birchbark canoe routes of the Indigenous Wabanaki people to the tidal oyster beds still farmed on the Damariscotta River. Mainers across the state are deeply connected to and forged by the land and waterways.

National Geographic Explorer Kiliii Yüyan has spent his career photographing people who live in direct relationship with the natural world, from Indigenous hunters on the Arctic sea ice and fishermen on Siberian rivers to communities whose entire way of life is organized around a specific stretch of water or a particular season. He often travels to understand how a place shapes the people who inhabit it, and how those people, in turn, shape the place.

He came to the Lakes and Mountains and Midcoast regions of Maine for the same reason—to meet the makers of Maine and understand more deeply the spirit of the people who live their lives along the state’s waterways.

In the Lakes and Mountains Region, the Rangeley Region Sport Shop has occupied its Main Street building in Rangeley for 80 years. The shop is at the center of local fly-fishing culture and offers everything needed for a fly-fishing experience in the region, including flies, rods, wading gear, and more. Each winter, a group of experts ties flies to prepare for the next season. Each fly is tied to match a specific insect hatch particular to the lake or time of year. Get the pattern wrong, and the fish will ignore it.

Local guide Logan Messina is part of this group and leads fly-fishing trips on Rangeley Lake and the surrounding rivers. A skilled guide here helps track insect hatches, water temperature, and feeding behavior to know which pattern will work on a given day.

Polly Mahoney and Kevin Slater founded Mahoosuc Guide Service in Newry, Maine, more than 30 years ago. From their property, they lead wilderness canoe trips and run canoe-building workshops.

Kevin Slater, when not guiding trips, builds canoes using traditional canvas construction techniques, stretching canvas over a wooden frame, a construction method that has remained largely unchanged for over a century. The design traces directly to the birchbark canoes built by the Wabanaki people, who developed the form over thousands of years for the specific rivers, lakes, and portage routes of this region.

Visitors to the area can join one of their guided tours to learn more about the region's history and wildlife.

Potter Brian Buckland fires his work in an outdoor wood kiln he built by hand in Bridgton. The kiln reaches temperatures high enough that the glaze surfaces remain liquid during firing. His studio, where he throws the pottery, is just a few hundred feet away from the kiln.

Buckland's raw materials include wild clay, crushed tourmaline from a Bethel mine where the public can dig and keep what they find, beach sand, and oyster shells from a farm on the Damariscotta River. Buckland's work can be found at shows and events around Maine.

Closer to the coast in MidCoast, Maine, Liberty Tool holds thousands of antique hand tools, many of which were acquired from specific working operations: a boatyard in Searsport, a farmstead near Rangeley, and a timber operation in the western mountains. 

The store occupies a three-story building in the small MidCoast town of Liberty, Maine and was founded in the 1970s by H.G. "Skip" Brack and is now run by his daughter, Kristen Tudeen. The store is a stronghold in the community.

Glidden Point Oyster Farm sits on the Damariscotta River, a tidal estuary in midcoast Maine, and has operated here for more than 30 years as one of Maine's most established oyster operations. The river is flushed completely by the tide twice a day, keeping the water cold and clean year-round.

Visitors to Glidden Point can take tours to learn more about oyster farming up close, learn how to shuck their own oysters, and then enjoy them, plus other menu items, on the patio with drinks and friends.

In the coastal town of Belfast, Young's Lobster Pound & Seafood sits on the northeastern side of the Passagassawakeag River and offers locals and visitors alike a picturesque view of the water, plus lobsters and a myriad of other seafood options.

Downtown Belfast is the perfect coastal town meant for good dining, outdoor activities like hiking and kayaking, and meandering around to shop. Belfast sits at the point where the Passagassawakeag River meets Penobscot Bay. The working harbor holds sailboats, fishing boats, tugs, and kayaks.

The harbor is home to one of the few remaining working tugboat fleets on the Maine coast, a reminder that Belfast has functioned as a commercial port since the 1700s.