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On July 22nd, Colby hosted it’s 5th explore trip. Like always, it was a beautiful day, but this time we had seals. Thats right, seals. What better way to spend your day?

The image above is Stacy Doore’s research group on Allen Island

On July 13th, 2021, Colby hosted its fourth Allen Island Explore Trip for the summer of 2021. With 11 of the 14 people being from the same reserach group, it worked as a great bonding experiance for the research assistants to get to know eachother outside of the lab.

On June 29th, Colby College hosted its 3rd Explore Trip for the Summer of 2021. With a high of 96˚, the boat ride and day by the sea provided a nice way to stay cool. Once again, we were left with a picturesque day, with the sun shining and barely a cloud in sight. Bringing new people to the island, we were able to bring more exposure to Allen Island and inspire many new program ideas for the future.

On Thursday June 24th, Colby hosted its second Allen Island Explore Trip of 2021. With barely a cloud in the sky, the group was able to see Allen Island at its peak. Like the previous trip, we found the trip was as much about getting to know each other as it was about getting to know the island.

On June 19th Colby College hosted its first explore trip for the summer of 2021. After successfully completing the 2020-2021 academic year despite all the restrictions and hardship COVID has placed on us all, it was a great time for members of the Colby community to get together and celebrate each other. This is especially true for us first years, who hadn’t seen many of those on the trip without a mask before.

In early September, I took students from my course CI245: Documentary Production out to Allen Island for a chance to develop their shooting skills. I asked students to tell a visual narrative about the island in 2-3 minutes. Students researched the island ahead of time, watched videos about the island, and read several articles about how the Wyeth’s acquired and shaped the island.

Our ride out there was pretty bumpy and wet. The students refused to sit in the cabin and much preferred getting soaked on the back of the boat. Jim kept some of us mostly dry though. The first night on the island was a bit drizzly and cold, but students immediately started shooting. There wasn’t much of a sunset to speak of, but we did get some time to explore.

The next morning about half the class woke up early to catch the sunrise – it was a good one, but it also included a tiny rain shower. Students spent all of Saturday shooting and exploring the island. Watch some of the videos below and read some of the students’ comments to see the results of their trip.

“I loved our trip to Allen Island. It was a great opportunity for me to get to know my classmates in a more intimate setting (kind of like an abbreviated COOT). The island itself was beautiful, especially when the weather cooperated and the sun came out. I loved that our entire group was invested in taking in the beauty of the island (it helped that part of our assignment was to capture the island’s beauty). Having access to spaces like Allen Island really makes me feel like I’m getting a lot out of my college experience. My horizons are broadened to beyond just the classroom, and I’m excited for more opportunities like this in the future.” – Nick Ho

“I had a great experience on Allen Island. It was a beautiful location to practice my camera and filming skills for the first time. The island is a very unique place and having access this location allowed me to experience an aspect of Maine that I otherwise would not they access too. Although I do not think this was an authentic Maine experience, as the island was manicured, and access is limited, it was still an interesting look at the coast of Maine. The size of the island and the structure of our trip allowed for each individual to discover different aspects of the island.” – Caroline Wren

“Filming a documentary was an incredibly unique experience.  Firstly, it was wonderful to experience the island. I have never been on an island in Maine so I am grateful to have been able to spend the night in such a beautiful setting.  Also, the island provided a wonderful virtual canvass to film for my documentary. ” – Drew Williamson

Participants—Cathy Bevier, Renner Thomas, and Curtis Zhuang

 This was my first trip to the island for 2018, and I enjoyed scouting for frogs with summer research assistants, Renner and Curtis. We were amazed by all the new lambs jumping around the terrain of the north end compound!

Our day trip was successful even though it was relatively cool and windy. Green Frogs, Lithobates clamitans, were abundant in all 13 inhabitable ponds. Many males were already giving a few calls in the daytime, and we certainly startled a fair share of frogs basking and feeding along the shorelines. I set out a sound recorder at Marsh Pond and look forward to hearing what it captures over the next two weeks. Our next visit will be with the rest of the Amphibian Health research team, and we’ll spend a few days sampling male Green Frogs—stay tuned!

Professor Isabel Quintana Wulf – On April 20-21 I had the pleasure of bringing students from my EN398 Space and Place in Contemporary Native American Literatureclass to Allen Island. The course focuses on understanding the importance of “space” (abstract concept denoting a geographical area) and “place” (a space that is tied to the history and lived experience of a people) for thinking about Native ways of living in the world and for understanding the themes in contemporary Native American literature.

In the class, we have thought about the differences between Euro-American cartographic practices and Indigenous mapmaking to consider different understandings of place and the role they occupy in Western and Indigenous systems of knowledge. We have read literary works by Native authors that deal with histories of removal, relocation, allotment, forced boarding school education, museums, sovereignty, endurance, and survivance—all the time keeping ideas about place and identity in the forefront.

For the last couple of weeks, we have read texts by writers of the Wabenaki Confederacy, including Penobscot, Abenaki, Passamaquoddy, Maliseet, and Mi’kmaq writers. Using Dawnland Voices: An Anthology of Indigenous Writing from New England, edited by Siobhan Senier, students have learned more about the peoples whose lands we occupy and have thought about how space and place come together in our understanding of the cultural and geographical palimpsests we live on. We went out to Allen Island with all the knowledge about Wabenaki people in our minds.

Following the arc of the class, Allen Island provided the perfect landscape to think about how, as anthropologist Keith Basso’s explains, “when places are actively sensed, the physical landscape becomes wedded to the landscape of the mind” (Wisdom Sits in Places). As we contemplated the beautifully curated landscape of Allen Island, we thought about space and place together: what ideologies are represented in the buildings we see on the island? Where do we find Indigenous presence in it? How do the visible structures in the island reshape the narrative of that place?

Jake Ward opened the Sail Loft for us and we were able to see the birch bark canoe that Passamaquoddy crafter David Moses Bridges made in the early 2000s. Jake regaled us with tales of his experience as a participant in the project and all he learned about it—his personal experience touched the students deeply and they appreciated his bonhomie and the time he made for us and our thousand questions. He also showed us the cardboard boxes containing archeological findings that are waiting to be catalogued and moved to the museum’s collection of drawers.

All in all, the trip was a wonderful experience for us, made all the more fantastic by the sunshine of Saturday morning—sunshine that brought hopes of spring to the chilled landscape of late-April St. George’s peninsula!

Here are some of the reflections of my students after the trip:

“This was my second visit to Allen Island this year, and although the experiences were very similar in some ways, I really enjoyed going with this class because I saw the island in a different context. Being able to see the work that Jake and his crew are doing with the museum was an element of the island that I didn’t previously know much about. It was very interesting to see the artifacts that have been collected on the island, and have a better idea of how the museum will present the history of the island, as well as Andrew Wyath’s artwork. As a group, I enjoyed being able to discuss the concept of place, and how people can impose different histories onto a landscape. The colonial structures are beautiful, and paint a picture of 19th century living, even though the interiors of the buildings are very modern. 

I also really enjoyed being able to spend time by the ocean. Traveling to the island clears my head and having the space from Colby’s campus is very cleansing. The sun and the waves gave me some much needed vitamin D and was very refreshing. The landscape is so unique, as it combines old growth forest with grassy pastures and rocky cliffs. I appreciated exploring with my peers and discovering a part of Maine that so few people get to experience. I am always impressed when I look at the horizon and can see no land in the distance. It is a humbling view. Lastly, I am grateful for the opportunity to spend more time with my classmates and create bonds with peers that transfers back to campus, proving that this field trip will have a lasting impact on all of us. Thank you!”

“Going to Allen Island with my Native American Literature class was an amazing interdisciplinary learning experience. The class focuses on space and place, which is a unique and prevalent concept in Native American Literature. Allen Island, with its extensive history and beauty, was a prime place to consider how space and place differ and what they can look like in different contexts.  Being from the West Coast, there are many more reservations and learning centers for Native Culture, but most Natives were pushed out of the Northeast early on, and their presence is much less obvious in contemporary times if you aren’t looking for it. Allen Island was also a good place to study Native American presence on the East Coast today. Looking at native artifacts and a relatively untouched landscape made it easier to envision how Native people may have lived all over Maine, perhaps even on the land that Colby now occupies. 

Allen Island also was also the catalyst for a wonderful discussion about our role today towards the preservation of Native culture. It is easy to say that colonization is bad, but is harder to consider what actions can be taken today to equalize opportunities for those that are negatively affected by the lasting effects of colonization. The thoughts and conversation that stemmed from the Allen Island trip helped clarify my role as a college student, person of privilege, and change maker. It made me want to think less just about what is wrong with the system, but also how it can be constructively criticized, and what changes can be made to make things better. 

On a lighter note, Allen Island is also simply a place of aesthetic beauty and restoration. Although some of the plants are similar to inland Maine, the island and its associated activities felt very separate from my hectic college life. Thank you to all who made the opportunity possible!”

“Being able to visit Allen Island was an incredible educational experience for me.  I found it to be completely different and much more engaging than what I had expected.  It was very cool to consider the rewriting the narrative of the Island to completely be centered around Wyeth and his paintings instead of the American Indian history of the island.  The governmental involvement in the rewriting, by registering the buildings as historic sites to serve as a place to “give a sense of orientation to the American people” as the certificates say, also made me wonder which American people this Island was aimed at orienting.  Something about the fact that it was an Island made this experience and thinking about its history more immersive.  Overall, I’m very glad that I went.”