100 Years Ago, 1906

The open season on snipe begins in Maine Thursday. Many gunners of Lewiston will go to the salt marshes bright and early Thursday morning to try their luck with these small game. The outlook for the season’s shooting is good for the snipe are plenty according to the reports of sporting men who have kept in touch with grounds. The diminutive size of the bird and exceedingly small mark which they afford makes the sport all the more attractive.

Although the season’s shooting will begin on August 1 the sport will not be at its height until September. Snipe begin to come from the North at the beginning of August.

50 Years Ago, 1956

SANFORD – The first plane ever built commercially in Maine rolled out of the Colonial Aircraft Corp. plant today for preliminary flight tests.

The “Skimmer,” a three-place amphibian with a “pusher” engine has been under construction since last October at the former Navy air station here. It was designed chiefly for use by business and industrial executives.

Pres. David Thurston said the production will continue at about two planes a month.

The firm, organized by Thurston, Fred Uccellini and Herbert Lindblad, now employs 75 and expects to have 120 on the payroll soon.

25 Years ago, 1981

PORTLAND – Maine’s role in the settlement of colonial America has gotten short shrift from historians, says one of the state’s most popular newspaper columnists.

In his new book, “Islands of Maine: Where America Really Began,” Bill Caldwell tells of English seamen who settled on Maine’s offshore islands years before the establishment of colonies at Jamestown, Va., or Plymouth, Mass.

Caldwell bases his stance on accounts of voyages by 16th and 17th century explorers and fishermen who found the islands an ideal spot to harbor their ships and dry their catches before heading back to England in the fall.

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