I sometimes look at postcards of the Penobscot River on Ebay trying to guess the site, and see how things have changed. That's what I was doing two weeks ago when I came across this postcard.
This shows a steamer traveling up the Penobscot River, presumably to Bangor. The postmark on the rear of the card is 1912. In the foreground is a ramp and a dock. I suspect that's on a point of land which hosted a small town park in the early 1900's. Old photos I've seen in Historical Sketches, Hampen Maine, by the Hampden Historical Society show a covered pavilion back in the woods on the point. Currently there is nothing there except a level spot, and honestly, I'm not sure it's still town land. Now at the top of the page I've positioned myself roughly in the same spot the photographer had. But that's not what caused me to buy the postcard. Many postcards of the Penobscot River feature the Hampden Narrows, the high bluff to the left. What caused me to buy the postcard was this picture, taken just a month earlier on a Sunday morning paddle and posted on the 1000 mile blog.
We hadn't headed out that morning expecting to see the
Patience, but there it was, a scene nearly identical to one taken 98 years earlier.
