Each day in America begins in Lubec, Maine, said William Ecenbarger in The Philadelphia Inquirer. This tiny community on the country’s easternmost border, 240 miles from Portland, is where “the sun chins itself up over the Atlantic horizon.” Greeting the dawn’s earliest light is West Quoddy Head lighthouse, whose 15 red and white stripes represent the number of states that existed when it was built, in 1808. As the day goes on, nature adds a dazzling special effect to the already stunning view: the most extreme tide—a 20-foot shift in just six hours—in the continental United States.
Settled in 1785, Lubec (pronounced Loo-BEC) is “a place of wild blueberry patches, volunteer fire departments, grange halls, cottages with window boxes spilling blossoms.” The local paper is filled with news about bake sales, birth and death announcements, and lists of new library books. Some of the village’s frame houses are 150 years old, and the nearest traffic light is 50 miles away. Fishing is Lubec’s main industry: Multicolored lobster buoys ride the sea swells, and the harbor hosts a fleet of fishing trawlers. Diners enjoying fish chowder at Cohill’s Inn and Pub are often treated to the sight of gray harbor seals basking on the granite rocks of the breakwater. Lubec lies “in the middle of some of the most spectacular scenery in the country,” including miles of coastline with its towering cliffs, as well as pine forests, waterfalls, bogs, and whirlpools. On a good day, “you can spot a moose and a whale on the same hike.”
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