Editing Long Island, Maine (section)

== History ==

Long Island, like other Casco Bay islands, was originally inhabited in the warm months by members of the [[Abenaki|Abenaki people]] until [[Europe]]an settlers first arrived in the [[17th century]],<ref>{{cite web |title=Long Island |url=https://www.islandinstitute.org/community-profiles/long-island/ |website=Island Institute |publisher=Island Institute |access-date=12 March 2025}}</ref> including John Sears cited in a town document as the first to do so in 1640. John Smith of [[Boston, Massachusetts|Boston]] acquired Long Island sometime between 1703 and 1706 and named it Smith Island, but is not believed to have ended up settling there.<ref>{{cite web |title=Town of Long Island Comprehensive Plan 1995 |url=https://townoflongisland.us/wp/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/1995_CP.pdf |website=Town of Long Island |publisher=Town of Long Island, Maine |access-date=11 March 2025}}</ref>

Ezekiel Cushing purchased the island in 1732. He died in 1765, and willed the island to his nine surviving children. Soon after, other settlers arrived to make a livelihood out of farming, fishing, and catching [[American lobster|lobsters]].{{citation needed|date=July 2021}}
[[File:Steamer Aucocisco at Long Island, Portland Harbor, Maine (76920).jpg|thumb|right|300px|A vintage postcard depicting the steamer ''Aucocisco'' and the Long Island shore in 1930 or following years.]]

Long Island was among multiple Casco Bay islands where hoteliers established venues in the early 20th century, including Dirigo House on Island Avenue, the Granite Springs Hotel on Ponce Landing which was destroyed in a 1914 fire, Mountfort Inn on Garfield Street, and the Casco Bay House.<ref>{{cite web |title=Dirigo House, Long Island, ca. 1930 |url=https://www.mainememory.net/record/6276 |website=Maine Memory Network |publisher=Maine Historical Society |access-date=10 March 2025}}</ref>

With an eye on improving defenses for Casco Bay's ship anchorages and shore infrastructure, in 1903 the [[United States Army|U.S. Army]] purchased nearly 10 acres of land on Long Island that included an 80-foot hill overlooking the Hussey Sound passage into the inner bay. [[Sperry Corporation|Sperry]] searchlights were installed that could illuminate ships more than five miles distant, and that could be moved on railway carts traversing [[narrow-gauge railway|narrow gauge]] tracks, along with protected sheds, electric generators and a small barracks to house personnel. In a [[military exercise]] in August that year testing the [[United States Navy|U.S. Navy's]] ability to force entry into a fortified [[harbor]] like Portland with [[battleship|battleships]] and [[cruiser|cruisers]], some 1,400 [[United States Marine Corps|U.S. Marines]] and Navy sailors landed on Long Island, capturing 300 troops defending the island in the mock invasion.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Gaines |first1=William C. |title=The Seacoast Defenses of Portland, Maine 1605-1946 Part I: Portland’s Initial Defenses |journal=The Coast Defense Journal |date=February 2011 |volume=25 |issue=1 |pages=61-62, 72 |url=https://cdsg.org/wp-content/uploads/pdfs/FORTS/PortlandCDSG/HDPortlandCDSG.pdf |access-date=11 March 2025}}</ref>
[[File:Naval_Fuel_Annex,_Long_Island,_Casco_Bay_-_Portland,_ME.jpg|thumb|right|300px|An aerial photo from July 1947 of the historic U.S. Naval Fuel Annex on Long Island in Casco Bay, Maine, in the collection of the National Archives at Boston.]]

During [[World War II]], Casco Bay became U.S. Navy base ''Sail'' for [[destroyer]]s escorting [[HX convoys|HX]], [[SC convoys|SC]], and [[ON convoys]] of the [[Battle of the Atlantic]].<ref>{{cite book| title=History of United States Naval Operations in World War II, Volume I: The Battle of the Atlantic 1939-1943 |author=Morison, Samuel Eliot |publisher=Little, Brown and Company |year=1975 |page=68}}</ref>  Facilities constructed on the island included the Torpedo Control Officers School of the Portland Naval Training Center, a navy supply pier with a naval fuel annex<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USN/ref/USN-Act/ME.html|title=U.S.Navy Activities World War II by State|publisher=U.S. Naval Historical Center|access-date=2012-03-07}}</ref> often cited as a source of contamination for both the island's marsh and Casco Bay, and the Naval Auxiliary Air Facility Casco Bay [[seaplane]] base operated as part of [[Naval Air Station Brunswick]] from 14 May 1943 to 15 December 1946.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.history.navy.mil/avh-vol2/Appen6.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030427055545/http://history.navy.mil/avh-vol2/Appen6.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-date=2003-04-27 |title=Patrol Squadron Shore Establishments |publisher=United States Navy |access-date=2012-03-07 }}</ref><ref name=Freeman>{{cite web|title=Abandoned & Little-Known Airfields: Southern Maine|url=https://www.airfieldsfreeman.com/ME/Airfields_ME_S.htm#casco|publisher=[[Abandoned & Little-Known Airfields]]|access-date=31 August 2015|date=27 September 2014}}</ref> The [[United States Army Coast Artillery Corps]] built two batteries of [[90 mm gun M1/M2/M3|90 mm dual-purpose guns]] on the island as the Long Island Military Reservation, part of the [[Harbor Defenses of Portland]].<ref>{{cite book |editor-last=Berhow |editor-first=Mark A. | title = American Seacoast Defenses, A Reference Guide |edition=Third | location = McLean, Virginia | publisher = CDSG Press | year = 2015 | pages = 204–205 | isbn = 978-0-9748167-3-9}}</ref> On one of the island's highest hills, a 65-foot concrete tower was constructed with a 25-foot wooden superstructure on top, as a radar observation station.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Groening |first1=Tom |title=World War II-era tower is island family heirloom |url=https://www.islandinstitute.org/working-waterfront/world-war-ii-era-tower-is-island-family-heirloom/ |access-date=12 March 2025 |publisher=Island Institute |date=30 September 2020}}</ref>

After the war, tourism became the most popular industry, and several small stores, a fire station, and a K–5 school (1953) were built. In the summer, several hundred or even thousands of tourists travel from places such as [[Massachusetts]] and [[New York (state)|New York]] to vacation in their summer cottages.{{citation needed|date=July 2021}}

In 1969, the U.S. government sold the historic naval fuel annex to King Resources, which envisioned a [[oil tanker|supertanker]] port on Long Island that, combined with the existing [[Portland–Montreal pipeline]] to Canada, would make Casco Bay the largest crude oil export destination in the world by volume at the time.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Beach |first1=Christopher S. |title=Scripting Maine’s Environmentalist Majority: The “Theater of Oil,” 1968-1975 |journal=The Nature of Maine |date=March 1, 2001 |volume=40 |issue=1 |pages=29, 33-35 |url=https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1211&context=mainehistoryjournal |access-date=13 March 2025}}</ref> The initial King Resources purchase included 181 acres of land, a 600-foot pier and 15 underground fuel storage tanks with a capacity in excess of 623,000 barrels. King Resources bought an additional 175 acres on Long Island for its plant, along with the historic [[Fort McKinley (Maine)|Fort McKinley]] property on nearby [[Great Diamond Island]], but eventually abandoned the project as delays and costs grew as a result of opposition by environmental and community groups.<ref>{{cite web |title=King Resources Company v. Environmental Improvement Commission et al |url=https://casetext.com/case/king-resources-co-v-environmental-improve-comn |website=Casetext |publisher=Supreme Judicial Court of Maine via Thomson Reuters |access-date=11 March 2025}}</ref> 

In 1972, oil leaking from the [[Wilh. Wilhelmsen]] tanker ''Tamano'' washed ashore on Long Island, after the tanker proceeded to an anchorage between Long Island and Clapboard Island with the crew unaware that the ship had struck Soldier Ledge while passing through Hussey Sound. Remediation included the removal of six inches of sand from Long Island's West Beach for disposal at a landfill at Naval Air Station Brunswick.<ref name="Tamano">{{cite web |title=Tamano Oil Spill in Casco Bay: Environmental Effects and Clean Up Operations |url=https://nepis.epa.gov/Exe/ZyNET.exe/91012I13.txt?ZyActionD=ZyDocument&Client=EPA&Index=2016%20Thru%202020%7C1991%20Thru%201994%7C2011%20Thru%202015%7C1986%20Thru%201990%7C2006%20Thru%202010%7C1981%20Thru%201985%7C2000%20Thru%202005%7C1976%20Thru%201980%7C1995%20Thru%201999%7CPrior%20to%201976&Docs=&Query=tamano&Time=&EndTime=&SearchMethod=2&TocRestrict=n&Toc=&TocEntry=&QField=&QFieldYear=&QFieldMonth=&QFieldDay=&UseQField=&IntQFieldOp=0&ExtQFieldOp=0&XmlQuery=&File=D%3A%5CZYFILES%5CINDEX%20DATA%5C70THRU75%5CTXT%5C00000018%5C91012I13.txt&User=ANONYMOUS&Password=anonymous&SortMethod=h%7C-&MaximumDocuments=15&FuzzyDegree=0&ImageQuality=r85g16/r85g16/x150y150g16/i500&Display=hpfr&DefSeekPage=x&SearchBack=ZyActionL&Back=ZyActionS&BackDesc=Results%20page&MaximumPages=1&ZyEntry=1 |website=EPA.gov |publisher=U.S. Environmental Protection Agency |access-date=10 March 2025}}</ref>

The island was originally part of the City of Portland, which re-evaluated property taxes in 1990. Due in part to high real estate prices paid by out-of-state residents and property aesthetic values, property taxes increased substantially. Many residents felt this move created an unfair discrepancy between the money paid to Portland and the services they received in return. The island voted to secede from Portland, and on July 1, 1993, the island was declared the Town of Long Island. The Long Island Historical Society<ref>[http://www.gwi.net/~longislandhs Long Island Historical Society]</ref> now houses every news article that was printed about the secession movement as well as video and film footage of the secession ceremonies. These archives also include copies of the local and national news coverage given to the community during its "rebellion".

In 2006, Northland Residential deeded to the town 116 acres of former naval fuel annex land a predecessor company had acquired from King Resources, after redeveloping other parcels of the former government property for residential and commercial use. The town set up the Long Island Community Land Operating Co. to maintain the property as a nature conservation preserve, known as "The Area" to island residents.<ref>{{cite web |title=Long Island Community Land Operating Company |url=https://townoflongisland.us/wp/?page_id=953 |website=Town of Long Island |publisher=Town of Long Island, Maine |access-date=13 March 2025}}</ref>