The place to look to seek out hidden surprises in Columbia Falls
Nick Thomas teaches at Auburn College at Montgomery, in Alabama, and has written options, columns, and interviews for quite a few magazines and newspapers. He’s visiting the College of Maine this summer season.
Our travels from Alabama to Maine this summer season lately took us east alongside Route 1 to the city of Columbia Falls.
With a inhabitants beneath 500 in line with the 2020 census, it’s a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it village price visiting to understand the charming structure of the Bucknam, Ruggles and Columbia homes listed on the Nationwide Register of Historic Locations — and some surprises.
Crossing the small, unassuming bridge over the Nice River simply previous the previous Union Church — constructed a decade earlier than the start of the Civil Struggle, later turning into the city corridor and now housing the city’s library and archives — a number of individuals milled round gazing over the river, so we stopped to research.
Close by, a row of deep pink rugosa rose bushes shaped a partial border to the river under. A pair of solitary paler pink peony shrubs have been close by.
“These peonies on the left, my mom planted them years in the past,” Roberta Hammond, a longtime resident and native historian, instructed me.
Behind the colourful blooms, the dashing water swept by uncovered bedrock and cascaded over partially submerged boulders and decaying fallen tree trunks. Channeling its method by way of a big hole in a damaged containment wall — the remnants of an previous, deserted dam — the water dropped a number of toes right into a small pond earlier than discharging into the Nice River.
A modest wooded space ignored the water, making a picture-perfect postcard setting that we now have seen in lots of Maine cities this summer season. However Columbia Falls held a shock — a pair in reality, not instantly apparent to the informal customer.
It was urged I ought to stroll down towards the water and search for the hidden hobbit home.
“Hobbit home,” I inquired, pondering maybe we had stumbled upon the filming of a brand new Peter Jackson epic.
“My husband constructed it,” Hammond stated.
Hid throughout the hillside and never seen from the highway, lay a quaint, diminutive dwelling modeled after houses from the well-known Tolkien fantasy. And once I gently pried open the tiny yellow door, inside I discovered … properly, you’ll need to discover that your self!
However the miniature hobbit hut wasn’t the one shock that day.
“The river is a well-liked spot for birds, simply have a look at the seagulls after the alewives,” Hammond famous.
The gregarious gulls made no secret of their mission — stalking the waters for a meal — whereas others lodged in an virtually ominous Hitchcockian method on the steel roof of the close by Nice River Fish Hatchery constructing, presumably digesting their latest catch, or planning one other.
After transferring nearer to the bridge to {photograph} the flowing waters and gulls from a distinct angle, we have been in for an actual deal with.
Trying extra intently, I observed a darkish speck perched atop a lifeless tree a few quarter-mile away that was clearly the define of a chicken of prey. Squinting, I switched to a modest (200 mm) telephoto lens that exposed a bald eagle, hidden by one other tree in my earlier photograph. I used to be instructed the world was a frequent stopping level for these grand raptors.
Although my chief photographic objective on this journey was to {photograph} moose, the bald eagle is very awe-inspiring by way of a digital camera lens. Simply have a look at its authoritative gaze because it rests unchallenged as grasp of its area under.
This sudden discovery will stay certainly one of many treasured reminiscences from this go to to Maine.
