Recognize these lovely links?
Come tee off here, at what is reputedly the second oldest golf course in New England.
[To view a higher-resolution photo, click on the image.]
Photograph by Alan LaVallee
That’s one doozy of a golf hazard. Hook your ball, and you just might find it careening off seven hundred vertical feet of stone. Geologists call this rock rhyolite, and they say this mountain qualifies as the country’s largest known mass of the stuff. Also called hornstone, this useful mineral makes for excellent arrowheads, axes, and cutting implements, which is why this region was so popular with Maine’s aboriginal peoples (they certainly didn’t come here for the golf). It used to be thought that this peak took its name from the Algonkin word for “flint,” but according to Kerry Hardy, author of Searching for the Wawenocks: Four Guides to the Past, the mountain’s name derives instead from the native word for golden eagle, which once nested on these cliffs. So this place has always been a tourist attraction of sorts (Thoreau stopped by in 1857). In the nineteenth century, a luxurious hotel sat along the shoreline (hence the nine-hole golf course), but it burned to the ground long ago. Today, travelers usually come here by boat to “play the rock.” If you can identify these lovely links — reputedly the second oldest in New England — send us a comment below, drop us a note at PO Box 679, Camden, ME 04843, or whip us an e-mail at editorial@downeast.com.
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