Fall Mystery Harbor: Meetinghouse Cove off Malaga Island

This is Meetinghouse Cove off Malaga Island. I often sail through here on my way around Bear and Malaga Islands. Malaga also has a trail with various historical ruins from 100 years ago, and is a popular outing for our family.

Kurt Pelsue

Harpswell, Maine

Knows the place quite well

This entry is probably too late for the hat, but this photo looks to me as though it was taken from the north end of Malaga Island in the New Meadows River. Mainland Phippsburg is to the right, and Bear Island to the left. There used to be a sunken wreck in this anchorage with its mast showing above the water. The mast is gone, but one must assume the rest is still down there. Around the bend to the northeast would be the hard-to-find entrance to the hurricane hole, The Basin. To the south is Anna’s Water’s Edge Restaurant, locally owned, with an emphasis on fresh seafood and unbeatable views. We have kept a sailboat, currently a 1979 Morris Leigh 30, on a mooring in front of our log cabin just north of The Basin on Winnegance Bay, for the past 30 years and sail by this location every time we beat down the New Meadows to get to the rest of Casco Bay and beyond. We winter five miles across town on the Kennebec River side of Phippsburg, where we built a house in 2000. A friend of ours built and lived in the house at the right edge of the photo until he sold it and moved to New Hampshire. Go figure!

Pam Spooner

Phippsburg, Maine

Site of some sad history

I believe this photo was shot off Malaga Island. I often stay here instead of the Basin. There’s a lot of history – much of it sad – at this place, including a mass eviction of the island’s residents in 1912 by the State of Maine to various off-island institutions [Wikipedia has a great page on this; also see https://www.mcht.org/preserve/malaga-island/]. A sad day in Maine’s history, and well-documented in the park’s walking tour. Aside from this story, it is a beautiful island to hike on, and little known. The lobster pot storage at low tide triggered the memory.

Glen L. Urban

Chickadee, III.