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 Pike's Mile Markers - Calais Maine Posted by:  T0SHEA
N 45° 09.288 W 067° 10.619
19T E 643294 N 5001763
Driving up Highway 1 in Maine toward Calais we began to notice little stone mile markers along the roadside.
Waymark Code: WMV1G4
Location: Maine, United States
Date Posted: 02/08/2017
Views: 0
Finally, at marker number 6 " 6 Miles to Calais", we stopped to take some photos, as we thought them to be quite interesting. Having no idea that we were looking at an eleven mile long National Historic Place, we thought they might be markers that some enterprising individual had placed just a year or so previous. Imagine my surprise upon finding that they were placed sometime between the years 1866 and 1882 by one James Shepherd Pike, affluent local businessman, journalist and vocal antislavery proponent.
As an exercise, since we had photos of only the Six Mile Marker, I cruised up and down the highway with Google Street View to see if all the markers remained, as we had noticed only a few of them. All are still in place, though apparently some have been moved slightly as various changes and improvements to the highway were made. Photos of all twelve appear below. It's a testament to the locals' appreciation of their history that they all remain.
Coordinates given are roughly at the centre of the twelve markers, at Number 6. Beginning and ending coordinates are:
1 Mile to Calais: N 45° 10.894' W 067° 15.648'
12 Miles to Calais: N 45° 05.079' W 067° 06.681'
Pike's Mile Markers are a series of eleven gray and one red granite
slabs set upright in the grass right-of-way along U. S. Route 1. They are located at one mile intervals on the east side of the highway in and between the towns of Calais and Robbinston. Each marker is inscribed with the mile number below which is the word "Mile" or "Miles" and at the bottom the words "To Calais." The markers vary somewhat in their exposed shape, but generally stand from one to two feet above the ground surface.
The markers exist along a rural stretch of Route 1 which has seen
relatively little twentieth century commercial development. Thus, their historic environmental context remains largely undisturbed. The position of several, if not all, of the markers has been adjusted somewhat over the years as the highway itself has been widened. Nevertheless, their relative location to each other has been maintained.
Pike's Mile Markers are a group of twelve granite slabs inscribed with the numbers 1-12 and the words "Mile(s) To Calais" located along U. S. Route 1 between Robbinston and Calais. They were erected sometime between 1866 and 1882 by James Shepherd Pike (1811-1882), a widely known journalist, diplomat, and politician.
From the NRHP Registration FormJames Shepherd Pike
Born in Calais, James Shepherd Pike was the eldest son of William and
Hannah (Shepherd) Pike. According to a biographical sketch of Pike which was read before the Maine Historical Society on December 22, 1885, Pike entered the business world at the age of fourteen as a clerk for the Calais merchant Neal D. Shaw. His subsequent independent ventures seem to have been unsuccessful until he entered into a flour and grain shipping business with James C. Swan. By the early 1840s Pike had acquired sufficient wherewithal to spend his winters in Boston, New York, and Washington. He also began to
frequently express his anti-slavery opinions in the Boston Atlas, Boston Courier, and the Portland Advertiser, achieving a certain notoriety for himself. In 1850 Horace Greely invited him to submit articles to the New York Tribune where, during the next several years, he was a constant contributor. During this period of the mid-1850s, Pike also appears to have been active in the formation of the Republican party in Maine. Although he never gained elective office for himself, Pike served as Ambassador to the Netherlands from 1861 to 1866.
In 1866 Pike bought the "Mansion House" (N.R. 5/22/73) in Robbinston,
the former residence of General Brewer where, his biographer notes, "he spent the remainder of his days, amusing himself by improving and embellishing the grounds, clearing paths to the wooded bluffs, planting forest trees, and in amateur farming, in which he took great pleasure." He had not abandoned his journalistic interests, however. During Reconstruction he observed and commented upon the failure of the Federal government's policies in South Carolina through a series of articles in the Tribune which subsequently appeared in pamphlet form under the title, A Prostrate State. He later authored a family genealogical volume called the New Puritan which appeared in 1879 followed by First Blows of the Civil War, a summary of the slavery
related articles by Pike and others from the 1850s. This volume also
contained a history of how the intellectual debate in this period was waged and lost. In this century Pike has been the subject of Robert Franklin Durden's 1957 work entitled James Shepherd Pike; Republicanism and the American Negro. 1850-1882.
The mile markers which stand along Route 1 were erected by Pike sometime between his acquisition of the Mansion House in 1866 and his death sixteen years later. According to local tradition, Pike is said to have methodically measured the distance between his business in Calais and his home in Robbinston, thereafter placing the twelve mile markers. The tradition also maintains that Pike was a horse fancier and used the markers to gauge the performance of his horses. In any event, the twelve granite stones represent a distinct and unusual reminder of Pike's presence in Calais and Robbinston during the nineteenth century. They are also noteworthy as the only known
markers of their type and integrity in Maine.
From the NRHP Registration Form
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