Vintage Ink

This column offers a look back at the history of the Midcoast mined from the pages of back copies of The Courier-Gazette and even the Lime Rock Gazette, which started in 1846.
Daniel Dunkle is editor of The Courier-Gazette. He lives in Rockland with his wife, Christine, two children, and two cats. He started his newspaper career as a cub reporter with The Courier-Gazette in 1998. He is author of the historical/sci-fi novel, "The Scrimshaw Worm," available on Amazon.
We want to hear from you, so tell us what you think! Send in your responses, stories, photos and memories via email at: ddunkle@villagesoup.com; or snail mail to: 91 Camden St., Suite 403, Rockland, ME 04841. Hand-written notes are welcome and appreciated.
Additional Column Posts (1 - 20 of 37) Next Page
- Remembering Emmet
A belly-dancer at the City Council meeting
By Daniel Dunkle - Feb 27About a week ago David Grima and I met for a couple of beers at the Time Out Pub and we drank a toast to our friend Emmet Meara, who recently ...
The crash of Flight 46
By Daniel Dunkle - May 29It was 40 years ago today that one survivor crawled away from the wreckage of Downeast Airlines Flight 46 after it crashed in the trees in Owls ...
Go simple or go nuclear
By Daniel Dunkle - Apr 18In early April 1979, people in Rockland joined the rest of the country in worrying about the potential consequences of nuclear power. The partial ...
Raining bones
By Daniel Dunkle - Mar 28Last week found me at the Cushing annual town meeting, where they were talking about what to do about an abandoned barge that had been mired in ...
The day they ran Walter Jones down
By Daniel Dunkle - Mar 14The following story appeared in the Tuesday, March 18, 1919, edition of The Courier-Gazette: "PURSUED INSANE PATIENT "Former Marathon Runner Led ...
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Rum, gambling, prostitution rampant in Rockland
By Daniel Dunkle - Feb 28..."The immoral condition of Rockland could not be surpassed in this country." That was the message a Secret Service agent communicated to ...
Bias derails detectives in city killing
By Daniel Dunkle - Feb 14Carolyn Welt Brown, age 47, of Rockland, was laid to rest at Achorn Cemetery Sunday morning, Jan. 5, 1919. Brown, who was described as exceedingly ...
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Cold snap
By Daniel Dunkle - Jan 31Looking back through the pages some 50 years, I find myself reading the following in the Black Cat column in winter 1969. "Maine offers a great ...
Message from the beyond
By Daniel Dunkle - Jan 17I've been having a lot of fun poking around on the Rockland Public Library website, where The Courier-Gazette archives have been digitized from ...
Artifacts in the Bird house
By Daniel Dunkle - Feb 22These old Victorian houses on Rockland's streets have stories to tell, as one city couple recently found out. Ian Emmott and Emily Gentile moved ...
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Memory remains of Flight 46
By Daniel Dunkle - Jun 06I had to write my column about the crash of Downeast Airlines Flight 46 on a tight deadline last week to have it ready in time for the 40th ...
Famed liner Manhattan tested in Rockland
By Daniel Dunkle - May 17I found myself missing my beloved 1930s and so booted up the time machine for a stop in the Depression era. The largest U.S.-built passenger ship, ...
Two if by sea
By Daniel Dunkle - Apr 04A few weeks ago I brought you the story from 1919 of a special gavel made of 62 different kinds of wood that C. Clifton Lufkin of Glen Cove ...
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Waiting for the hammer to fall
By Daniel Dunkle - Mar 21“Here we stand or here we fall; History won't care at all,” Brian May, Queen An April 1919 headline caught my eye, stating: “A REMARKABLE GAVEL.” “...
Name-dropping Rockland's famed actress
By Daniel Dunkle - Mar 07The March 4, 1919, edition of The Courier-Gazette includes a front-page letter home from Jesse Rosenberg, who had been traveling in Europe and ...
Too late for justice
By Daniel Dunkle - Feb 21I'll share a few final thoughts on the Dec. 30, 1918, murder of Carolyn Welt Brown. As I read through all of the old articles in The Courier-Gazett...
Unsolved?
By Daniel Dunkle - Feb 07On Monday night, Dec. 30, 1918, Carolyn Welt Brown had supper at 6 o'clock with her adult daughter and son-in-law at her home at 198 Broadway. Bake...
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One from the tobacco editor
By Daniel Dunkle - Jan 24I was interested to learn, reading back issues of The Courier-Gazette, that 101 years ago we had a Tobacco Fund Editor. Under the headline, ...
Manhunt on for pinko smelt war shooter in Warren woods
By Daniel Dunkle - Apr 20If you like westerns, you could do worse than the story of a shootout at a smelt-fishing camp that was followed by a massive manhunt in the woods ...
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Patrolman slain walking his beat
By Daniel Dunkle - Feb 15On Wednesday, Feb. 16, 1938, Harry B. Hall was on a mission. The 60-year-old arrived at his home at 38 State St. in Rockland at about 3 o'clock ...