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In its prime, BANGOR , 120 miles
northeast of Portland, was the undisputed "Lumber Capital
of the World." Every winter its raucous population of "River
Tigers" went upstream to brand the felled logs, which they
then maneuvered down the Penobscot as the thaw came in April,
reaching Bangor in time to carouse the summer away in the grog
shops of Peppermint Row. Bangor exported ice to the West Indies
- and got rum in return. Those days were coming to an end when,
in October 1882, Oscar Wilde addressed a large crowd at the new
Opera House and spoke diplomatically of "such advancement
? in so small a city."
Bangor today is not a place to spend much time,
although its plentiful motels and the big Bangor Mall on Hogan
Road north of town make it a good last stop before the interior.
Its twin claims to fame are that it's the unlikely home of Stephen
King, the horror fiction writer (BookMarc's at 78 Harlow St stocks
King paraphernalia), and that it possesses what, at 31ft, may
well be the largest statue of Paul Bunyan in
the world, excepting perhaps one or two in Minnesota - though
it is easy to miss on the way into town.
From mid-May until the end of July there's harness
racing at Bass Park on Main Street (tel 207/947-6744),
just behind the statue; admission is $1 but the potential to lose
money is unlimited. The same venue hosts the Bangor State
Fair , in the last week of July and the first in August.
A few miles north of Bangor, the Maine Center for the Arts (tel
207/581-1755), at the University of Maine in Orono
, runs a series of big-name concerts each summer. Orono is named
after the eighteenth-century Chief Joseph Orono; a small island
nearby is now a rather sad reservation running summer bingo sessions.
