‘Made in Maine’ is more than a slogan — it’s been a necessity

Photo / XBAMESxt, Wikimedia Commons A Lombard Log Hauler restored in 2014 by the University of Maine Mechanical Engineering Technology class of 2014 and the Maine Forest and Logging Museum.

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By William Hall

Mainers are used to facing harsh environmental conditions, and have adapted, tinkered and invented to endure them.

The state’s winters on average are the second-snowiest in the U.S., after Vermont. Maine ties with Vermont for the lowest temperature recorded in New England, 50 degrees below zero.

No wonder that it was a Mainer, Chester Greenwood, who invented a staple of winter wear — the earmuff. A Farmington resident, he came up with the idea in 1873, at the age of 15. He later started a muff-manufacturing business, employing area residents for nearly 60 years.

Mainers also pioneered the use of mechanical vehicles to travel over snow, starting with Alvin Lombard’s 1901 invention of a steam-powered log hauler with skis and a continuous-track propulsion system. In 1909, O.C. Johnson of Waterville used a similar track system to drive the first snowmobile.

Perhaps the greatest Maine tinkerer was Leon Leonwood Bean, an outdoorsman and hunter from Freeport. Hoping to keep his feet dry and warm in the Maine woods, Bean combined the rubber soles of rain boots with leather uppers. In 1912, he formed the L.L. Bean Co. to make and market the now-iconic footwear.