1951 Film of Maine is a Look Back When Men Shaved With an Ax

It's fun to look back at what Maine used to be like some 70 years ago.

The YouTube video is an educational film about Maine from Carl Dudley's series This Land of Ours from the 1950s. It covers it all from Portland to Bangor and it's very sweet.

Some of the things covered in this great look back are surprising. I had no idea that in 1951 15% of all the potatoes in the country were grown in Maine. In fact, although Aroostook County was the potato capital in Maine, according to this video, potatoes were grown in almost every part of the state.

Of course, lumber was king in Maine. At one point, we produced most of the pulp and paper for the whole country. That's insane to think about that today. They even covered Bowdoin College. I had no idea that Franklin Pierce graduated from Bowdoin. Franklin was our 16th president!

Fishing was also a very important industry for Maine. They barely mentioned lobster in the video and it looked like they are hauling in a gigantic tuna. Not sure if lobstering took off after this video or what.

Of course, tourism was big even back in 1951. Maine is described as 'spacious, uncrowded and unspoiled with ideal climate'. Hmm, not sure about the ideal climate, but parts still live up to the spacious, uncrowded, and unspoiled. I love that Maine is referenced a couple of times as 'the land of remembered vacations'. That wouldn't fit on a license plate, but Vacationland works just fine.