State Names Week, Day 3: Maine
Where the land meets the sea — and the sunrise meets the sky
Welcome back to State Names Week! Yesterday we explored California, and today we’re heading to the rugged northeastern corner of the country for a state that’s equal parts wilderness, coastline, and character. Today’s state: Maine.
What’s in a Name?
The name “Maine” most likely has surprisingly humble, practical origins. Early explorers and fishermen needed a way to distinguish the bulk of the land from the hundreds of islands dotting the coastline, so they simply called it “the main” — as in, the mainland. Nautical, straightforward, and sensible. Some historians have suggested it was named after a French province or even an English village called Broadmayne, but the seafaring explanation is generally considered the more likely origin.
The name made its official debut in 1622, when England’s King Charles I granted land to Sir Ferdinando Gorges and Captain John Mason, referring to the territory in their charter as “the Province of Maine.” The name stuck — and the rest, as they say, is history.
A Land With Deep Roots
Maine’s human story goes back a long, long time. Indigenous peoples have called this land home for approximately 12,000 years. European contact may have begun as early as around 1000 CE, when Vikings are believed to have encountered the native Penobscot people — most likely through trade. If that contact is ever conclusively confirmed, it would make Maine the site of the earliest European presence anywhere in the United States. About 600 years after the Vikings, British and French colonists established some of Maine’s first permanent European settlements.
For much of its early American life, Maine was part of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. That changed in 1820, when Maine voted to strike out on its own. It was admitted to the Union as the 23rd state on March 15, 1820.
Some Truly Unique Geography
Maine is a state of superlatives, and geographic ones at that.
It is the only U.S. state that borders just one other state — New Hampshire to the southwest, and otherwise surrounded by Canada and the Atlantic Ocean. It is the largest state in New England by total area, nearly as large as the other five New England states combined. And despite all that space, it’s the least densely populated state east of the Mississippi River.
Much of that space is gloriously wild. Maine is nicknamed the Pine Tree State for good reason — roughly 80% of its total area is forested or unclaimed, the highest proportion of forest cover of any state in the country.
Acadia: New England’s Crown Jewel
Maine is home to Acadia National Park, the only national park in all of New England — and when it was founded in 1919, it was the first national park east of the Mississippi River.
Within the park sits Cadillac Mountain — yes, named for the same French explorer who inspired the car brand — standing 1,530 feet tall. From October through March, Cadillac Mountain is the first place in the entire United States to see the sunrise each morning. Not a bad spot to greet the day.
Acadia covers just over 49,000 acres, making it one of the smaller national parks, yet it consistently ranks among the 10 most visited in the country, drawing around 4 million visitors last year.
Maine on the Table
When people think of Maine’s cuisine, two things come to mind immediately: lobster and wild blueberries. Maine produces over 80% of all lobster caught in the United States, and in 2025, Maine fishermen landed approximately 78.8 million pounds of the stuff. That’s a lot of butter.
On the blueberry side, Maine dominates the wild lowbush blueberry market, producing the vast majority of the country’s supply. Clams and other seafood round out a food culture as rich and distinctive as the coastline it comes from — that famously jagged, rocky Atlantic shoreline that looks like no other in America.
Wild Maine
Maine’s wildlife is just as impressive as its scenery. The official state animal is the moose, and Maine backs that up with numbers — it has the largest moose population in the lower 48 states, estimated at somewhere between 40,000 and 60,000 animals. It also holds the title for the largest black bear population in the contiguous United States. This is not a state you wander into the woods unprepared.
A State of Surprising Inventions
Maine has a quietly remarkable record of innovation. Among the inventions credited to the state: earmuffs (1873), the first snowmobile, the world’s first portable, fully automatic machine gun, and — perhaps most importantly — the modern donut with the hole in the middle. You’re welcome, humanity.
One More Thing: Stephen King’s Maine
No profile of Maine would be complete without mentioning its most famous literary resident. Stephen King — a native Mainer — has set the majority of his novels in the small towns of his home state. Pet Sematary, It, Salem’s Lot — these stories are soaked in Maine atmosphere. King wrote his very first novel, Carrie, while working as a teacher in Bangor. Maine didn’t just shape the man; it shaped the monsters.
Tomorrow we continue State Names Week — check back to see which state we explore next!