With a The Portland Press Herald subscription, you can gift 5 articles each month.
Harpswell author and minister Elijah Kellogg used it as a setting for his "Elm Island Series" of children's books, and Poet Laureate Edna St. Vincent Millay used the island as a place for healing. Yet, Ragged Island itself has its own interesting history.
Formerly known as Cold Arse Island and Captain Parker's Island, the nearly 80-acre land mass lies just a few miles off the easterly coast of Harpswell, "annexed from Phippsburg in 1891."
Ragged Island is "a gem of a beauty" where "berries grow in abundance" and is a "nationally significant nesting island," which includes "wild rabbits, purple sandpipers, blue heron, black ducks, osprey, guillemots, Canadian Geese, and the common eider." It has been a favorite picnic spot for many locals and tourists.
On "the westerly shore is Devil's Wall with its Ghost Cliff ... to the east huge boulders a hundred feet high, to the southwest a snug little harbor." A considerable portion of the island "is wooded with spruce ... with open pastures at one end" that have been used "as a grazing pasture for sheep."
One of the earliest residents of the island was Thomas Scolfield, a Harpswell fisherman who moved onto Ragged Island and built two sloops, "The Satellite, and The Patriot," which he "built on Sundays from timber cut on nearby Mark Island."
Scolfield was a local character who preferred the peace and solitude of Ragged Island, for both his home and his work. Elijah Kellogg, already a past inhabitant of the island, ministered to Scolfield, his wife and children.
Scolfield was a man at odds with Harpswell fisherman James Eaton, another colorful character with "a huge bulbous nose," and the two men often traded barbs in public and in private.
One day, Scolfield caught a "swivel-tailed shark," which he dressed in "oil skins, rubber boots, and a battered south western hat." Scolfield created the appearance of "a huge bulbous nose" on the shark and hung a sign upon the effigy, identifying it as "Jim Eaton." When the Rev. Elijah Kellogg saw the jocular model of Eaton, it is said the minister "laughed until tears ran from his eyes."
Ragged Island is also believed to have been a popular "landing place for pirates"; there have been many stories of "hidden treasure" buried on the island. It was also believed to be "the base for rum running operations" during Prohibition and many "cases of mighty good scotch whiskey" have been discovered there. Ragged Island has also been known "as the dread of sailors in a storm ... the scene of many shipwrecks."
On Sept. 18, 1886, "the bark Charles Stewart" ran aground in a thick fog at Ragged Island "loaded with 700-tons of coal from Glasgow Scotland, bound for the Maine Central Railroad at Bangor." The ship was "a total loss."
On July 2, 1926, "at 1:30 in the morning" the 8-ton sloop Bradley A, belonging to the Royal River Canning Company in Yarmouth, "ran into ledge laden with a cargo of herring."
Believed to be the result "of a sleeping seaman at the wheel," the boat immediately submerged, and three lives were lost. Only one crewman, "fourteen year old John McKinnon of Yarmouth," survived, but two weeks later, Portland diver Irving Williams lost his life while trying to recover the wreck.
Seven months later, in February 1927, "an Orr's Island fisherman" discovered a finback whale had been deposited "high and dry" onto the craggy rocks of Ragged Island during "a big storm." Soon, fishermen from Bailey's and Orr's islands descended upon the monster mammal and harvested "the fifty foot whale ... for bait" and to make use of its baleen oil.
Fires have also been a common occurrence on Ragged Island. On Saturday, Aug. 14, 1965, a "stubborn grass fire" blazed for three days.
Firemen from Orr's and Bailey's islands as well as Harpswell, and with help from the United States Coast Guard, arrived "with Indian packs, pumps and hoses" to fight the conflagration. "Fishermen who had been hauling traps since dawn, [also] manned hoses."
By Sunday, "hot spots reignited," and fire crews remained on the island overturning "the blackened earth" and hosing down flare-ups.
For three days, crews remained on the island, night and day. By Monday night, "the fire had flared up again in six spots." The next morning, the last of the fires was finally extinguished, despite the fact that "the well on the island was pumped dry."
This beautiful and historic island is preserved and protected through the Harpswell Heritage Land Trust and is available for visits, tours and education.
Today, the great history of Ragged Island is also preserved in the many pages of our coastal Stories from Maine.