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DAVID YEADON, the author of 13 travel books, is preparing a book on the islands of America for publication next spring.
From the Maine coast near Lubec, New Brunswick’s Grand Manan Island seems a strong and lonely place: Black pillars of basalt rise hundreds of feet from the surf line to fir-topped crags; no sign of houses, no smoke, no boats, none of the dainty accouterments of islands farther to the south – just cliffs, forests, clouds, ocean and an air of enduring isolation.
Visitors don’t easily forget the sight of Grand Manan, this sturdy southern outpost of Canada. But getting there is another matter. No ferries leave from the United States mainland, unless you go via Canada’s Deer Island from Eastport, Me. (see box). You must travel to the far Canadian side of Passamaquoddy Bay, wait in a tedious line at Blacks Harbour, and put up with summer black flies and mosquitoes, and Bay of Fundy fogs. On the island accommodations and beaches are scarce and the ocean is invariably too cold for anything more than a hasty paddle. Even the normally placid Champlain considered it a ”miserable place” when he lost his anchor in a storm in 1606.
Yet every summer devotees of this island return to lose themselves in its forests and along the high clifftop trails. Willa Cather and Edith Lewis were there during the 1930’s, in a cottage hidden behind trees at Whale Cove, and found the place ”tranquilizing to the spirit, seeming to open up great spaces for it to roam in.”
I felt the change as soon as I arrived after a calm two-hour, 20-mile crossing from Blacks Harbour, spent in the sun watching the great cliffs rear out of the bay. Within minutes I was a guest at the Compass Rose, a shore-side hotel in North Head Village with cozy doll’s-house bedrooms, a small dining room full of fresh flowers and a terrace overlooking the harbor. For lunch there was a bowl of fresh fish chowder brimming with cream and served with a small homebaked wholewheat loaf, followed by coquilles St.-Jacques – a generous helping of scallops basking in a vermouth sauce – accompanied by a salad flecked with dulse, Grand Manan’s edible seaweed. (The lunch bill, $8.)
Looking south from the terrace across Long Island Bay’s spindling fishing weirs, with such defeatist names as No Good, Try Again and Hard Luck, you can see the dark green fir forests that cover most of the island’s 50 or so square miles. From the eastern shoreline, cut with coves and protected by scatterings of tiny islets, Grand Manan tilts upward toward the 400-foot basalt cliffs of its western edge. What paved roads there are follow the 15-mile eastern shore from the small lighthouse at Northern Head. Only one dirt road cuts a fourmile link across the island to the sandbar-protected cove of Dark Harbor, center of the island’s dulse harvesting.
There a handful of fishermen spend the summer dragging thick ribbons of purple seaweed ashore and drying them on nets along the rocky beach. The drying process cannot be rushed, so much of the time is passed paying social six-pack calls among the lopsided tar-paper cabins above the high-tide mark. Before sunset the ”mats” of dulse are rolled and taken off in trucks for packaging as an edible snack and salad-booster, or grinding into powder for pharmaceutical and flavoring purposes.
It’s a pleasant summer occupation when the herring fishing is poor – as it has been for the last couple of years. A promising development, though, are the experiments in salmon-breeding out in the harbor. The project is only a couple of years old but already Japanese orders make it appear a winner.
The highlights of the coastal drive alongside the bays and coves of the eastern shore are the groups of shacks, herring smokehouses and old canneries at North Head, Woodward’s Cove and, most notably, the village of Seal Cove. Visitors with the remotest urge to paint or take competition-level photographs will come to know this place well and spend hours exploring the warped wharves, empty warehouses and narrow alleys smelling of lobsters and tar.
On the hill above the harbor at Seal Cove sit the twin bastions of this tiny community, the Baptist and Wesleyan churches. Religion is no casual matter on Grand Manan. For a resident population of 2,500, many of them descendants of 18th-century Loyalist settlers who came to escape the purges of the American Revolution, the island has 15 churches, and most recreational and social activities are churchrelated. As one elderly woman told me, ”Everyone knows what you’re doing any time day or night. You either live celibate or you have a reputation.”
Alcohol has created a controversy. Many of the traditional families – the Ingalls, Greens, Browns, Guptills and Daggetts (”You can tell which name a fella’s got, just from looking at him”) – were in open dissent about the recent opening of a state liquor store on the island, which used to be ”dry.” Now people can drink in private but some residents are determined to continue to prevent public drinking in bars or hotels.
Gleason Green, 85 years old and living by himself in a house close to his ”sheds” on the bay, thinks there are more important concerns than liquor – like the absence of herring. (In addition to being a lobsterman, he is also a boat-builder craftsman, gardener, cook, inventor, raconteur and enthusiastic world traveler.)
”There was a time boats’d come back after hauling and they’d be full of herring tumbling over the side, enough to keep a hundred smokehouses on the go,” he says.
”Lobsters are fine. More than enough for everybody. You can make a good living here off lobsters and scallops. I’ve still got the record though. When I was 76 I brought the biggest catch that ever came into this island in one day – 3,600 pounds. I hauled a little under 300 traps and sold them at $3.30 a pound. Calculate that out for a day’s work!”
The best place to begin island exploration is at Southern Head, where the road is a dusty earth track winding through forest. A footpath leads up past the lighthouse to the abrupt cliff edge where thousands of broken basalt columns rise from the surf 300 feet below – Fingal’s Cave and Giant’s Causeway all rolled into one.
You can stroll north for a mile or two along a clifftop path that dips into woods littered with wild strawberries. Other paths descend to tight little coves, but the climb back can be wearing. Nine miles out is the Gannet Rock Lighthouse, a guide for ships through the treacherous Fundy shoals, manned by two keepers who keep lonely month-long vigils.
To the east are dozens of islets, some mere rocky outcrops, others more substantial, like White Head Island, reached by a free ferry (every two hours) from Ingall’s Head. The visitor should spend part of a day there exploring the white coves and talking with thesmokehouse men. The aroma of smoldering spruce sawdust rolls along the narrow village street between neat shingle homes. Each smokehouse contains 100 hogsheads of herring (brought from other fishing grounds) – tens of thousands of fish skewered on wooden rods slowly changing color from blue-gray to bright bronze over a six-week period. Afterward the women of the village fillet and skin the fish and pack them into 10-pound boxes for export to the West Indies, where people are especially fond of them. In the early trading days these herring strips were valuable barter for West Indian rum.
If you want to reach the outer islands, particularly Kent and Machias Seal Islands, with their colonies of rare birds – arctic tern, razorbills, petrels, puffins and auks – call 506-662-8296 or ask any islander where to find Preston Wilcox, an experienced boatman (rates depend on the size of the party). The more adventuresome will want to go lobstering with island fishermen (ask nicely) or, better still, join special trips led by Dr. David Gaskin. Headquarters for these expeditions is the Marathon Hotel, an ornately mansarded masterpiece of Victoriana perched high on the hillside overlooking North Head Village. Accommodations at the Marathon consist of 36 rooms furnished with antiques, painted wood beds and dressers, with two museum-like lounges, film room, huge fireplaces and dining room.
Dr. Gaskin makes his presentations at the hotel on the North Atlantic Right Whales and then leads groups laden with cameras and binoculars far out into the bay to watch the surfacings from a 40-foot fishing boat -or for the truly courageous, an inflated dinghy.
If all this sounds too active there’s always the museum at Grand Harbor, where 300 stuffed island birds can be viewed. Grand Manan was a favorite spot of James Audubon, who visited it in 1832 and recorded more than 250 species of birds, including the bald eagle, which still nests on the island. Other displays include a description of island history and fishing methods, geological exhibits and the old lens from the Gannet Lighthouse, an enormous 10-foot creature of curved polished glass prisms.
Best of all, though, on warm summer days, are the secluded beaches at the Anchorage Camping Park (free), Red Point, with its magnetic sands and unusual rock formations, Castalia (a favorite with residents) and Whale Cove. One afternoon at the cove, a few ”dulsers” were sipping their six-packs and waiting for the seaweed to dry. On the eastern edge of the cove, in a cliff worn by the surf, was the ”Hole in the Wall” cave accessible by footpath from the Marathon, and the dainty lighthouse at Swallow Tail reached by precarious footbridge. Behind , peering through trees, was the cottage where Willa Cather spent summers writing her novels.
Eric Allaby, the curator of the museum, said that with all the ferry delays and other difficulties, ”you really have to want to come here.” He’s right, but if you do go, may your spirit, like Willa Cather’s, find those ”great spaces to roam in.” Directions for island explorersGetting There Five ferry trips run daily (three trips on Sundays) in summer from Blacks Harbour in Canada, starting at 8 A. M. Be prepared for delays. Trips before July 1 and after Sept. 1 are less frequent. Cars, $7 (all prices quoted here are in U.S. dollars); passengers, $2; children, $1. Snack bar on ferry. Information: 506-662-3306 or 506-466-1139. Canada requests travelers carry identification, driving license and auto insurance policy or a Canada Insurance Card issued by your own insurance company. Pets may require special shots before entry. From Eastport, Me., or Canada’s Campobello (F.D.R.’s ”beloved island”) ferries run regularly throughout the summer to the southern tip of the backwater islet of Deer Island in Passamaquoddy Bay. Deer Island has a ferry to Letete on the Canadian mainland, and from there you have a drive of up to an hour to Blacks Harbour for the ferry to Grand Manan. But the journey saves at least 50 road miles and is a far more enticing way of reaching the Grand Manan ferry. On the crossing watch out for ”Old Sow,” claimed to be the world’s largest whirlpool. The Bay of Fundy tides, reaching summer highs of up to 40 feet, create a series of vicious swirls and eddies that grunt and gurgle. After clearing Canadian customs on Deer Island, meander north through deep forests broken by views over coves filled with fishing boats and lopsided quays. The island is not really big enough for a prolonged stay. Stores are few and overnight accommodations are limited to a guesthouse and motel. So just wander at will, taking side roads to the lobster pounds on the west side (the world’s largest). Then, at Lambertville near the island’s northern tip, catch the free ferry (every half-hour the year round) and enjoy the wriggling 20-minute route to Letete past a score of fir-topped islets. This is one of the best little boat trips on the East Coast. Herons stand in the shallows, occasional porpoises and seals frolic by and cormorants perch on outcrops. Note that the Eastport ferry runs only from late June to Sept. 20 (car and driver $5; passengers $1). Campobello Ferry, a wonderful contraption of fishing boat and raft, runs from late June to Labor Day (car and driver $6; passengers 75 cents). Accommodations The four major hotels on Grand Manan are all close to the ferry landing at North Head: the Marathon (506-662-8144), from $35 single and $50 double, including breakfast and dinner; Compass Rose (506-662-8570), $14 single, $23 double, including breakfast; Shorecrest Lodge (506-662-3216), $16 single, $19 double (breakfast $2 and family-style dinner $8); Surfside Motel (506-662-8156), from $22 single and $28 double. Some furnished cottages are also available, starting at $100 a week. Restaurants With the exception of a few modest snack bars, eating places are at the hotels. Lobster and other seafood predominate but the Marathon always offers a choice of two entrees for dinner ($15). The Shorecrest is noted for its generous servings ($12 for dinner) and the cooks at the Compass Rose are always creating new dishes based on imaginative combinations of seafood, herbs, spices and wine inaddition to such old favorites as lobster rolls and scallop-lobster kebabs (all in the $5-$8 range). Services Bicycle hire ($6-$8 a day). Whale-watching trips: for details on three-, four- and seven-day ”ocean search” packages, including accommodations and meals at the Marathon, call 506-662-8144. Fishing boat trips to the outer islands (506-662-8296 – rates depend on size of party). Tourist Information There’s not much published on Grand Manan but if you intend to combine a visit with explorations of the Canadian hinterland write to the New Brunswick Department of Tourism, 1910 Yonge Street, Toronto, Ontario M4S 1Z5 (416-484-4867). D.Y.
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