Bustins lies in a quiet corner of inner Casco Bay just a mile or two offshore from the hustle and bustle of the tourist mecca of Freeport, yet most people know little, if anything, about it. Bustins features more than 100 homes, some more than a century old, and boasts its own ferry service. Still, it has no electricity, no businesses and almost no vehicles. Carr, a longtime Bustins summer resident, takes readers from the island's beginnings as a farming community and a stop for fishermen through its days as a year-round community to its transformation into a summer colony with its struggles to remain a summer oasis while adapting to a changing world. And, he explains what the island means to him and why he considers it, above all, "home."
A Maine Summer Island: The Story of Bustins
Written by Ben Carr
Binding: Softcover
Pages: 172
Genre: Nonfiction | History
Ages: All
ISBN: 978-1-934031-15-5
Publication Date: 2008
Dimensions: 5.5 x 8.5 x 0.63
Shipping Weight: 0.63 lbs.
Ben Carr (1933-2015) grew up in Worcester, Massachusetts. He graduated from Worcester Academy and Cornell University and held graduate degrees from Union Theological Seminary, Andover Newton Theological School, and the University of London. Ben and his wife, Marilyn, were summer residents of Bustins Island for many years before they moved to Maine full-time in the early 1970s. Ben served as a high school principal for twenty one years at Narraguagus, Noble, and Southern Aroostook. Marilyn taught art for the Machias School District in the late 1970s, and later taught art for many years at Massabesic Junior High School in Waterboro.
