Treasured Islands
How a new generation brought new life to Maine's remote and beautiful Cranberry Isles.
By Letitia Baldwin, photography by Michele Stapleton
When the mailboat Sea Queen puts into Great Cranberry Island, passengers must negotiate a steep flight of stairs at the town dock. A deckhand helps people step from the rocking vessel's deck, over a gap of open water, to the railess flight of wooden stairs. Once most are safely ashore, a human chain wordlessly forms from the mailboat's stern, up the staircase, to the head of the pier. Like a bucket brigade at a fire, the captain, carpenter, professor, house painter, retired investment banker, and mother of two pass up bulging polypropylene sacks and plastic tubs stamped "U.
