Facebook is making a big impact. For many of the 400 million users, Facebook is the prefered communication method. So, from history "When in Rome, do as Romans do." Saint Ambrose

We want to communicate with tourist of any language and give them your message, so we have a Facebook page. Patti has done a great job in getting in up for this season. To make it easy for our guests to "Like" us, we've installed a Facebook computer beside our guestbook. So find us on Facebook and "Like" us. Send us your business goings on and we'll get your word out! Find us HERE.

We're opening Sunday, May 2nd...We'll be sending our guests your way! Remember, your guests will be asking "Who's OPEN?" Use this list to learn of places to refer guests to other Maine Coast Welcome Center partners as well. I'll be updating this page during May, so email this link to anyone interested.

Maine Coast Welcome Center Partners OPEN in May

Here are updates some of  from our partners choosing to be be open in May (updated 4/29/2010):

Listening to the radio today and heard about the start of the summer construction season, so I looked around and found this nice graphic showing what's coming, courtesy of the City of Ellsworth. OK, I did embellish it slightly, to highlight us in Belfast, but hey, I'm into marketing!

So when your guests ask "how to avoid the summer construction" recommend Route 3, via Belfast and the Maine Coast Welcome Center. They'll be glad you did.

For an ongoing update for the summer season, visit this City of Ellsworth link.

Mark Latti, of the MaineDOT will also be sending me their site, which I'll post as available.

Jim LeClair

Adopt your town. Our partners at the Penobscot Marine Museum have lots of priceless Maine negatives in need of a home at the museum. The Maine Coast Welcome Center has proudly adopted Belfast.

From Kevin the museums photo archivist:

Dear Friends and supporters,

I am writing to you all today as you have expressed interest at one time or another in the photography collections at the Penobscot Marine Museum. As most of you know, we have been working the past few years on tracking down and acquiring the negatives from the Eastern Illustrating & Publishing Co. collection that "escaped" in the decades before the bulk of the collection was donated to the museum in 2007. Through donations and purchases, we have been able to reunite nearly 5000 of the negatives back to the collection. We now have the opportunity to acquire 7,500 more of the negatives! The acquisition will bring the museum a huge step closer to completing this important collection of photographs from the Eastern Illustrating & Publishing Company. We need help in making this happen and are currently seeking donations from individuals and local businesses to help it purchase the collection.

Founded in Belfast, Maine, in 1909, the Eastern Illustrating & Publishing Co. published "real photo postcards" with images taken by its own photographers throughout New England. The negatives, mostly on old-style glass plates, represent a fragile and irreplaceable record of the region's physical and cultural history up to the early 1950s. The Eastern collection is one of the largest and most significant coherent collections of historic photography from this region and era and is a valuable resource for educators, historians, genealogists, and anyone interested in New England history. Currently the collection contains more than 40,000 negatives. The museum is scanning them with the help of volunteers and our goal is to get all of these images online for everyone to enjoy and we are working to make that happen later this year. You can learn more about Eastern Illustrating, see an index of the states and towns represented in the collection and see some of the images on our website: http://www.penobscotmarinemuseum.org/photo-collections/eip.html

The museum has already received pledges for approximately half the funds needed to acquire the collection, which documents more than 230 cities, towns and villages in Maine, as well as towns in other northeast states. Click here to download an index of the Maine towns and the number of negatives from each that are contained in group we hope to purchase. We do not yet have an index for the non-Maine negatives but negatives from throughout New England and upstate New York are included. Individuals and businesses can "adopt" a town for a donation of $10 per negative. The towns of Blue Hill, Castine, Dark Harbor, Mouse Island, Bolsters Mill, Belfast and Albany have been adopted already.