Lighthouse - Booth Bay, Maine

Maine (ⁱ/ˈmeɪn/; French: État du Maine) is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east and south, New Hampshire to the west, and the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the northwest and New Brunswick to the northeast. Maine is both the northernmost and easternmost portion of New England. It is known for its scenery—its jagged, mostly rocky coastline, its low, rolling mountains, its heavily forested interior and picturesque waterways—as well as for its seafood cuisine, especially lobsters and clams.

For thousands of years, indigenous peoples were the only inhabitants of the territory that is now Maine. At the time of European encounter, several Algonquian-speaking peoples inhabited the area. The first European settlement in Maine was by the French in 1604 on Saint Croix Island, by Pierre Dugua, Sieur de Mons. The first English settlement in Maine, the short-lived Popham Colony, was established by the Plymouth Company in 1607. A number of English settlements were established along the coast of Maine in the 1620s, although the rugged climate, deprivations, and conflict with the local peoples caused many to fail over the years.

Maine is a populated place in Aroostook, County, Maine.

This is a list of all lighthouses in the U.S. state of Maine as identified by the United States Coast Guard. There are fifty-seven active lights in the state, two of which are maintained as private aids; nine are standing but inactive, and three have been destroyed, one of which has been replaced by a skeleton tower. This includes two stations which originally featured twin towers; in both cases both towers survive but only one of each pair is active.

The Portland Head Light, first lit in 1791, is the oldest light in the state and was the first US lighthouse completed after independence from Britain. The last lighthouse in the state, the second Whitlocks Mill Light, was first lit in 1910; it is also the most northerly light in the state and therefore on the US Atlantic Coast. The West Quoddy Head Light sits on the easternmost point of the continental United States. The tallest tower is that of Boon Island Light at 137 ft (42 m), though the Seguin Light focal plane, at 180 ft (55 m), is the highest in the state.

Lighthouse preservation in Maine has been facilitated by the Maine Lights Program, which arose in the aftermath of the Rockland-based Island Institute's successful but protracted negotiations to acquire the keeper's house of the Heron Neck Light Station. A program for facilitating transfers was proposed by Peter Ralston of the institute, and legislation was first introduced by George J. Mitchell; a subsequent bill submitted by Olympia Snowe in 1995 met with greater success and was signed into law late in 1996 as part of the coast guard authorization act. Under the program, thirty-six light stations were offered to qualified preservation and historical groups and local governments; applications for transfer were reviewed by a board set up at the state level, headed by Richard I. Rybacki, a retired USCG rear admiral. Four lights were to be transferred to the US Fish and Wildlife; twenty-eight other lights were transferred in the summer of 1998. It should be noted that a number of lights in the state had already been sold to individuals following deactivation in the 1930s. The most notable of these is the Tenants Harbor Light, which was purchased by Andrew Wyeth in 1978.