With Love, from Maine
lens-worthy maine landmarks & “SELFIE STOPS” we love to share
By Richard Shaw
When I was a boy, enjoying out-of-town family day trips, life’s roadside camera-filmed moments were called “photo stops.” Now, in 2026 jargon, people refer to their digital counterparts as “selfies.” From the Kittery Trading Post to Fort Kent’s America’s First Mile Route 1 sign, the on-site “I was here!” choices are limitless. Following is a sampling of favorite lens-worthy landmarks, with an homage to yesterday’s pictures, when someone else snapped the shutter.
LIGHTHOUSE LUNACY
What better selfie backdrop is there than Rockland’s mile-long Breakwater Light jetty? Or, the Portland Breakwater Light, also called Bug Light? Runners-up could include Nubble Light, in York, the 1791 Portland Head Light, and the lights at Castine’s Dyce Head, Pemaquid Point, and West Quoddy Head, the nation’s easternmost point. Lighthouses always seem to dominate, as hard as the selfie-taker tries to hijack the frame. Bass Harbor Head Light provided the backdrop for a 2010 Barack Obama family vacation. It was the first time a sitting president visited Acadia National Park and that famous cliffside island landmark.
HOUSE HUNTING
During a 2001 Bangor visit from two British friends, we snapped selfies at Stephen King’s iconic spider-web gate which fronts his Victorian mansion. Thousands of fans and curious visitors have stopped there over the years to mark their place in horror history. Other favored homes include Kennebunk’s 1825 Wedding Cake House, said to be the state’s most photographed residence, Augusta’s Blaine House, where governors have lived since 1920, Cushing’s “Christina’s World” farmhouse, and the Bush compound in Kennebunkport. Across the border from Lubec, on Campobello Island, Canada, is Franklin D. Roosevelt’s summer cottage, with its own picture-taking area.
STANDOUT STATUES
As a Bangor native, I am partial to the 31-foot fiberglass Paul Bunyan statue that has depicted the smiling lumberjack since 1959. It isn’t easy taking a selfie with a giant, but Queen City visitors are constantly trying. Other municipal statues include one in Lewiston depicting Muhammad Ali’s 1965 Lewiston knockout of Sonny Liston, and a 10-foot likeness in Lincoln shows native son, Master Sgt. Gary Gordon, who died in the 1993 Battle of Mogadishu. The Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens features huge carved wooden troll sculptures, and an Eastport statue shows a fisherman holding a cod. In Searsport, the 40-foot “Big Jim” former cannery landmark was a summertime hit.
MOUNTAINTOP MANIA
The next time you need a chuckle, check out Katahdin summit photos on Facebook and Instagram. Images that change daily depict hikers posing in all manner of dress at the Baxter Peak Appalachian Trail terminus sign. Tourists can also drive to Mount Battie’s summit in Camden and capture the “three long mountains and a wood” and “three islands in a bay” that local poet Edna St. Vincent Millay described in “Renascence.” Cadillac Mountain’s auto road takes drivers to one of the East Coast’s most stunning ocean views. And Maine’s trifecta of ski resorts — Sugarloaf, Saddleback, and Sunday River — offer many selfie white-out stops, along with summer and autumn views.
SINGULAR SIGNAGE
One of Maine’s most photographed highway landmarks is Lynchville’s World Traveler Signpost at the junction of Routes 5 and 35 near Bethel. Erected by the state to promote tourism, the 1930’s oddity lists nine international place names, including Norway and Mexico. A similar sign is located in South China. Historic signage also hangs outside Moody’s Diner in Waldoboro and Hussey’s General Store in Windsor, where “Guns, Wedding Gowns, and Cold Beer” are sold. Kokadjo, north of Greenville, boasts two selfie favorites. One sign notes the population as “not many,” and a rustic 1930s billboard states: “This is God’s country. Why set it on fire and make it look like hell.”
MISCELLANEOUS MAINE
Some selfie stops resist being categorized. Many were created by nature, others by humans. Visitors love to pose in front of Freeport’s 16-foot-tall rubber-bottom boot — size 410 — outside of L.L. Bean’s flagship store. There is Red’s Eats lobster-roll mecca in Wiscasset and Perry’s Nut House in Belfast. Chamberlain Lake’s abandoned “ghost trains” are a half-mile hike away from a parking lot. Visitors can drive up to the painted Pockwockamus Rock near Baxter State Park, but another boulder, which hangs off of Mount Desert Island’s South Bubble Mountain, takes sweat to see. MDI’s Thunder Hole, Freeport’s Desert of Maine, downtown Bangor’s West Market Square Christmas tree — pick your selfie spot and have fun.
For more photos and fun, flip through the digital magazine here.
