Editing Vinalhaven, Maine (section)

==History==

[[File:Elevated railway 'Sands,' Vinalhaven, from Robert N. Dennis collection of stereoscopic views crop.jpg|thumb|left|250px|A stone manufactory {{circa|1880}}]]

Archeological remains indicate that the island was first inhabited 3800–5000 years ago by the [[Red Paint People]]. Later, it became [[Abenaki]] territory. Europeans visited in the 16th century, and [[English people|English]] Captain [[Martin Pring]] named the archipelago Fox Islands in 1603. The first permanent English settlement occurred in 1766 when Thaddeus Carver arrived from [[Marshfield, Massachusetts]], and later purchased {{convert|700|acre|km2|1}} from Thomas Cogswell on the southern shore near what became known as Carver's Harbor.<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/n372 334]|url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_OcoMAAAAYAAJ|quote=coolidge mansfield history description new england 1859.}}</ref>

Others soon followed to establish the remote fishing and farming community in the [[Gulf of Maine]]. Vinalhaven's first Anglo families are considered to be Arey, Calderwood, Carver, Coombs, Dyer, Ginn, Greem, Hopkins, Lane, Leadbetter, Norton, Philbrook, Pierce, Roberts, Smith, Warren, and Vinal. On June 25, 1789, Vinalhaven was incorporated as a town, named for John Vinal.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.epodunk.com/cgi-bin/genInfo.php?locIndex=2392|title=Profile for Vinalhaven, Maine|publisher=[[ePodunk]]|access-date=May 3, 2010}}</ref> Vinal was not an island resident, but the agent who petitioned the Maine General Court to incorporate the new township; nonetheless the name stuck.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Mclane|first=Charles|author2=Carol Evarts McLane|title=Islands of the Mid-Maine Coast|publisher=Tilbury House; Island Institute|volume=I|year=1997|page=125|isbn=0884481859}}</ref> In 1847, the North Fox Island seceded and became a separate township called [[North Haven, Maine|North Haven]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Varney|first=George J.|chapter=History of Vinalhaven, Maine|title=Gazetteer of the State of Maine|place=Boston|publisher=B. B. Russell|year=1886|url=http://history.rays-place.com/me/vinalhaven-me.htm}}</ref>

[[Image:Quarry at Vinalhaven, ME.jpg|thumb|right|325px|Monolithic [[column (architecture)|columns]] quarried for the [[Cathedral of St. John the Divine]] (installation completed in 1904).]]

Fishing, shipbuilding, logging and shipping were important early businesses on Vinalhaven. High-quality [[granite]] was discovered in 1826, and Vinalhaven became one of Maine's largest quarrying centers for the next century. Today the island is dotted with abandoned quarries, many of which have since filled with groundwater and are popular swimming holes for residents and visitors. Pinkish-gray Vinalhaven granite excavated by the Bodwell Granite Company can be seen in the [[Harry S Truman Building|State Department Building]] in [[Washington, D.C.|Washington]], the [[Brooklyn Bridge]], and the Union Mutual Life Insurance Building in [[Boston]].<ref>{{cite web | title=The Story of Vinalhaven's Granite Industry | url=http://home.earthlink.net/~bbodwell/treepg/BodwellBlue.htm }}</ref>

Granite was shipped for [[customs house]]s and post offices in [[Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House|New York]]; [[St. Louis, Missouri|St. Louis]]; [[Kansas City, Missouri|Kansas City]]; [[Buffalo, New York|Buffalo]], etc.; the railroad station and [[Chicago Board of Trade|Board of Trade]] in [[Chicago]]; the [[Washington Monument]] and federal office buildings in the Capital; the [[Pennsylvania Railroad]] Station and the Masonic Temple in [[Philadelphia]]; as well as private mansions, monuments, bridges, dams, and thousands of tons of paving blocks for the streets of [[Portland, Maine|Portland]]; [[Boston]]; New York; [[Newark, New Jersey|Newark]]; Philadelphia; and other cities.<ref name="A History of Vinalhaven">[http://www.vinalhavenhistoricalsociety.org/historyofvinalhaven.html "A History of Vinalhaven"], The Vinalhaven Historical Society</ref> The Vinalhaven quarries were the only ones deep enough to provide the eight huge polished columns called for in the original plans for the [[apse]] of the [[Cathedral of Saint John the Divine, New York|Cathedral of Saint John the Divine]] in New York City; the massive columns broke under their own weight, and ultimately more than one piece of granite had to be put together to create each column.<ref>{{cite inside}}, p.166</ref> The quarries also provided foundation stone for the cathedral.

A noted [[lobster fishing]] community, Vinalhaven has fishing rights to much of [[Penobscot Bay]] and its offshore waters. There are ten major fishing grounds around Vinalhaven that the island's fishermen and some [[Matinicus Isle]] fishermen have used for centuries to capture such groundfish as [[cod]], [[haddock]], [[pollock]], [[hake]], [[lobster]], [[scallops]] and [[halibut]]. [[Shrimp]], [[spiny dogfish|dogfish]], [[mackerel]] and [[herring]] are also abundant in the waters around Vinalhaven. Vinalhaven lobstermen were the first in the nation to unionize. They began to organize in the winter of 2012–13 after frustration with low lobster prices and disagreements with the Maine Lobstermen's Associations leadership.<ref>{{cite news |author=Curtis, Abigail |title=Growing number of lobstermen looking to unionize, gain voice in Augusta|url=http://bangordailynews.com/2013/03/15/business/growing-number-of-lobstermen-looking-to-unionize-gain-voice-in-augusta/ |work=[[Bangor Daily News]] |date= March 15, 2013|access-date=April 7, 2013 }}</ref>

The 2006 movie ''Islander'' was filmed in part on Vinalhaven; some locals acted in the movie.<ref name="A History of Vinalhaven"/><ref>[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0819723/ "Islander on IMDb"]</ref>

Vinalhaven made news in March 2020 during the [[COVID-19 pandemic]] after a group of island residents cut down a tree and dragged it into the road in an attempt to forcibly quarantine three roommates with out-of-state license plates they believed could have the virus.<ref>{{cite news|author=Ortiz, Aimee|date=March 29, 2020|title='Group of Local Vigilantes' Try to Forcibly Quarantine Out-of-Towners, Officials Say|work=[[The New York Times]]|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/29/us/maine-coronavirus-quarantine-tree.html/|access-date=June 1, 2020}}</ref> As it turned out the incident was between two groups of workers. One side was Vinalhaven people, the other a crew from New Jersey. The two groups had earlier clashed at a local bar.

Vinalhaven was the scene of a fatal stabbing in the summer of 2020.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Staff |first=Lauren Abbate, BDN |date=2020-07-31 |title=What happened in the frantic minutes before a Maine man was stabbed to death |url=https://wgme.com/news/local/what-happened-in-the-frantic-minutes-before-a-maine-man-was-stabbed-to-death |access-date=2024-11-05 |website=WGME |language=en}}</ref>