A custom cover of Mainebiz gifted to Jim McCarthy for his retirement.
Updated: November 4, 2024
A Look Back: A Wyeth fan returns to Monhegan, this time as a reporter
Jim McCarthy was a longtime Maine journalist who capped off his career at Mainebiz, first as a reporter and then as the digital editor.
Jim was here when I arrived at Mainebiz in 2014, and he quickly became my go-to person for background on Maine politics and its colorful personalities.
Jim is a Cleveland native, only occasionally insufferable when the Guardians or Browns are in the playoffs, and moved to Maine in the late 1970s to pursue his interest in art, particularly the Wyeth clan.
The Wyeths had a long affiliation with the island of Monhegan and also Port Clyde, where you can pick up a mail boat to Monhegan, and Cushing, where Andrew Wyeth spent time at the Olson house in preparation for painting “Christina’s World,” which now hangs in the Museum of Modern Art in New York. So Monhegan was a must-see place for Jim as he followed the footsteps of the Wyeths.
Cut to 2014, when Jim proposed a return trip to Monhegan, this time to get a sense of how the economy was faring with a population hovering around 100 people. I quickly agreed it could be a good reporting venture.
Jim wrote an extensive story for print, “On the edge: Monhegan Island’s year-round residents take charge of their future.” But it was a later column he wrote, an “Inside the Notebook” feature, that spelled out his unique view of Monhegan.
“Monhegan Island seems timeless. It’s part of that remote island’s rugged beauty and aura. It’s also a problem to the extent that it encourages return visitors into thinking Monhegan will always be just as we remember and love. I’m guilty of clinging to that shallow understanding for 40 years now.
“Year-round islanders, of course, have no such illusion. They know in their very bones just how hard the everyday work of sustaining a year-round island community really is.
"On Oct. 2, the day after Trap Day, I overheard this conversation at the Barnacle Café & Bakery next to the town dock: ‘How did it go yesterday?’ the bakery’s proprietor asked a customer who’s having some difficulty lacing up his heavy work boots. ‘My back is killing me,’ the lobsterman replied. ‘I don’t want to step into a lobster boat another day of my life.’
“Some insights only occur by being there; you can’t get them sitting in an office. Going out to Monhegan for a couple of days last month deepened my understanding of the island’s year-round community and the challenges the year-round residents face due to the complex and interwoven challenges of aging and diminishing populations, declining school enrollments, rising property values and limited job opportunities.”
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