After spending five years traveling thousands of miles around Maine, here are a few things writer Tim O’Brien has learned, according to a summary of his recent book, The Maine Roadshow: A Roadside Tour of the State’s History, Culture, Food, Funk & Oddities: “There’s a one-ton replica of the Liberty Bell on the grounds of the Maine State Capitol. The seeds for the Space Shuttle Pines, now growing in Augusta, travelled 2.4 million miles before being planted. Our state has more moose per mile than any of the other lower 48 states. Maine’s oldest town was incorporated 125 years before the birth of the United States. There’s a building in Columbia Falls that looks like a blueberry and one in Wells that looks like a hunk of cheese.”

O’Brien, the Kennebec Historical Society’s speaker for July, has captured these and other Maine highlights in his illustrated book. His lecture, supported by a PowerPoint presentation, will be about the book. A resident of Belgrade and Nashville, Tennessee, he is a photojournalist with 18 books to his credit. He has worked for decades as a communications specialist in the entertainment industry chronicling theme parks, amusement parks, roadside attractions, circuses, carnivals, and sideshows.

The lecture, co-sponsored by the Maine State Library, is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. July 17, 2024, at the library’s temporary location, 242 State Street in Augusta. Donations are gladly accepted. If you have any questions about the event, please call the society at (207) 622-7718.