"West (Maine) Side Story: Tall Tales Fit for a King"
By Bijan C. Bayne
 When most of us think of Maine, we picture coastal fishing
villages, preppy island resorts, and vintage lighthouses. A tour of Western
Maine is a lakeland and forest adventure in a region full of real
and imaginary ties to novelist Stephen King. Bridgton, where King raised his
children, became the town of "Castle Rock" in his stories. The writer summers
on Lake Kezar (Dark Score Lake in the book "Bag of Bones"). Less than an hour
from Portland, thousands visit this region to canoe, take in the fall foliage,
or ski. One may also track down King's sources of inspiration.
Stephen King is from Durham, Maine, and is perhaps the
state's best-known native son. Whether a King fan or not, a southwestern tour of
the state offers attractions for everyone- skiing at Sugarloaf or Sunday River,
great local antiques and craft shops, romantic lakefront bed and breakfasts, and
steamboat rides on the Songo River. The other story is told by King in his
thrillers, and the locals whose lives surround him.
 Western Maine grew as a logging center. Tall tales sprung
from the woodsmen's camps, where, from September to April, the workers shared
labor, meals and stories. The best place to learn of this heritage is the shop
of R.J. Richard (on Rangeley's Main Street), also known as "The Mad Whittler".
The son of a logger who lived to be 93, he carves out a living crafting lifesize
figures with a chainsaw. Ladies need not feel excluded, Richard will induct you
into his worldwide "Bunny Club" by giving you a tiny wooden rabbit. Visit
Rangeley Lakes' Logging Museum, which features art dedicated to the woodsman
tradition. "The Mad Whittler" himself conducts the tour, full of spirit and
appreciation.
Ask your Rangeley innkeeper or hotelier for a good spot to
pick blueberries in season. Aslo here is a stony lodge home overlooking the
nearby and the distant mountains- this was the residence of Dr. Wilhelm Reich,
an Austrian immigrant to 1940's and 1950's Maine who was equal parts Sigmund
Freud and Nikola Tesla. Reich was a proponent of a human energy he called "orgone". A
tour led by a volunteer who knew the scientist, includes the doctor's study, his
B-movieesque technical equipment, and the rooftop observation deck. The view is
captivating.
 While in the Rangeley Lakes area, dine at the Kawanhee Inn
and Restaurant in Weld, a log-lined retreat where the young Stephen King worked
as a dishwasher. Order the smooth chowder, and finish with a local
blueberry-filled dessert. Teddy Roosevelt and Herbert Hoover are among those who
came here to fly fish with "Fly Rod" Crosby, a colorful local woman who knew
Annie Oakley. Not far from here is Naples, a lakefront town where King served
as a kitchen hand for a defunct hotel called The Woodlands. There he met a Black
cook who served as the model for Dick Halloran, the clairvoyant chef in "The
Shining". The rest of the impetus for this tale was King's real-life winter gig
as caretaker for the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado, built by one Francis
Edgar Stanley. A must see for both King readers and auto lovers is The Stanley
Museum in appropriately-named Kingfield. Once a schoolhouse, this white-columned
edifice houses the vintage turn-of-the-20th-century steam-powered cars that
shattered land speed records. Museum founder Susan Davis will chauffeur you
about town in style in a rare Stanley. Kingfield is best known for the slopes
of Sugarloaf- for East Coast skiing there's no equal.
To top off an evening here, dine at the stately Herbert
Hotel, a restored Victorian that was one of the first finest stays north of
Boston in its 1930's heyday. Traveling west, you'll come to Route 302 in
Bridgton. This town is cast in fiction as "Castle Rock", which appears in King
fiction, and is the name of the production company that converts the novels
into movies. The Food City supermarket in the little mall at 119 Main Street
here was the Federal Foods of King's dreamy novella "The Mist". If you've read
the story, the store is identical to what your mind's eye conjured up. Continue
a short drive north to Lovell, where King has a summer home on Palmer Lane in
the Lake Kezar area. On the main road here, King was struck by a van in June of
1999- he has since donated ambulances to Bridgton's Northern Cumberland Memorial
Hospital on South High Street. For a possible King sighting, head
into the nondescript market called Melby's on Route 35 in North Waterford. The
locals still call it Tut's, a former name.
 Keep north into Bethel, where can lunch or play 18 holes at
the Bethel Inn. Later, have a bite at Cho-Sun Sushi on 119 Main St. The
owner, Pak Sun Lane is a good friend of both King and his novelist wife Tabitha.
No trip to this region would be complete without a
pilgrimage to Poland Springs. Once a Shaker village, the elite have flocked here
to schmooze, spa, and drink the mineral waters since the 1910's. Tours the
beautiful period buildings, verdant grounds, and original water treatment
facility are given (ask for Elliot Levy, the energetic preservation director).
This is where Joseph P. Kennedy honeymooned with Rose, and where his sons
learned to play golf (on a Donald Ross course). Photos of the eilte crowd
exhibit walls. President Coolidge and Henry Ford were summer guests in an era
when the wealthy insisted they only drank Poland Springs water. The stately
stone entrance is one of two buildings still standing from the 1893 Chicago
World's Fair, where the world first tasted hamburger, french fries, Aunt Jemima
pancakes. In the small Shaker community next to Poland Springs, and visitors may
tour their former homes, meeting house, and shop at the gift store for
memorabilia, music, and literature.
Hiking, biking, presidential folklore, and all in the
setting of America's favorite suspense stories. Go west, but do so in Maine.
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