Editing North Haven, Maine (section)

==History==
As early as 3300 [[Common Era|BCE]], the island was visited by the [[Red Paint People]]. Later it became part of the territory of the [[Penobscot people|Penobscot]] [[Abenaki]] [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|Indians]], who hunted and fished in canoes along the coast. [[Martin Pring|Captain Martin Pring]], an explorer from [[Bristol, England|Bristol]], England, "discovered" North Haven and [[Vinalhaven, Maine|Vinalhaven]] in 1603. He called them the Fox Islands, a name that survives on the Fox Islands Thoroughfare, a strait separating the towns that provides passage for boats crossing [[Penobscot Bay]].<ref name="northhavenmaine.org">{{cite web|url=http://www.northhavenmaine.org/content/4099/Brief_History/|title=History|work=northhavenmaine.org|access-date=March 4, 2015}}</ref>

Settled in the 1760s, North Haven was originally the North Island of Vinalhaven, from which it was set off and incorporated on June 30, 1846, as Fox Isle. It was changed to North Haven on July 13, 1847. In 1850, the state legislature passed an act that gave the majority of island inhabitants "the right to have such roads as they deemed fit." The majority thereupon decided to have no roads at all, or else roads obstructed with gates or bars at the discretion of landowners. Not surprisingly, the minority of inhabitants petitioned to amend the act.<ref name=Coolidge>{{Cite book  | last = Coolidge  | first = Austin J.|author2=John B. Mansfield   | title = A History and Description of New England| publisher = A.J. Coolidge  | year = 1859| location = Boston, Massachusetts| page = [https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_OcoMAAAAYAAJ/page/n271 236]| url = https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_OcoMAAAAYAAJ| quote = coolidge mansfield history description new england 1859.  }}</ref>

Fishing and farming became chief occupations. The town's surface is even, and farmers produced hay as a staple crop. [[Boatbuilder|Boatbuilding]] became an important industry, and the community still has two boatyards. But many inhabitants were fishermen who caught lobsters, scallops and oysters.<ref name="Coolidge"/>

===Summer colony===
In the 1880s, the island was discovered by "rusticators", seasonal residents first from Boston, then a decade or two later from [[New York City, New York|New York]] and [[Philadelphia, Pennsylvania|Philadelphia]]. North Haven is best known today for its sizable [[summer colony]] of prominent northeasterners, particularly [[Boston Brahmins]], drawn to the island for over a century to savor its simple way of life.<ref name="northhavenmaine.org"/> Among the more notable summer residents was the impressionist painter [[Frank Weston Benson]], who rented the Wooster Farm as a summer home and painted several notable canvases set on the island.<ref name="CalmMorning">{{cite web |title=Calm Morning |url=https://www.mfa.org/collections/object/calm-morning-34740 |website=Museum of Fine Arts Boston |access-date=September 13, 2018}}</ref>

The southern side of the Fox Islands Thoroughfare is often informally considered part of North Haven, since Vinalhaven's north shore is nearly a dozen miles from that community's town center. In contrast to Vinalhaven, North Haven's economy relies less on the lobster industry and more on sustaining its summer resort community. Energy for the community is partially provided by the wind project in Vinalhaven through the [[Fox Island Electric Cooperative]].<ref name="Borst">Borst, Alan. [http://www.rurdev.usda.gov/rbs/pub/mar10/mar10.pdf Community Wind: Maine island community lowering energy costs with wind-power project.] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100407221853/http://www.rurdev.usda.gov/rbs/pub/mar10/mar10.pdf |date=April 7, 2010 }} ''[[Rural Cooperatives]].'' March/April 2010.</ref> Although the island is a popular destination, it actually provides few tourist amenities—two inns, a grocery store, two seasonal restaurants, a pizza shop, and two gift shops—and is instead geared toward those with vacation homes on the island.

A small population of [[Mouflon]] sheep (native to Europe and western Asia) escaped from an animal enclosure owned by [[Thomas Watson, Jr.]] on the island in the 1990s and some of the original population survives today.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://biography.yourdictionary.com/thomas-j-watson-jr |title=Thomas J. Watson, Jr Facts |publisher= Encyclopedia of World Biography. The Gale Group, Inc.|access-date=September 24, 2015}}</ref>