(Downeast) MAINE PROUDLY PRESENTS
Interesting Items Made Right Here






WE WERE TEMPTED to call this Site The Whole Maine Online Catalog. Sure, this would have been presumptuous; the State of Maine is far more limited than the Planet Earth of Stewart Brand's famous publication. Nevertheless, we believe the spirit behind our modest undertaking is much the same as his.

Stewar Brand’s Whole Earth Catalog celebrated what was then a new-found spirit of independence in young people. In the late sixties and early seventies, many of our best and brightest turned their backs on the mushrooming consumer society and devoted themselves to self-sufficiency and a do-it-yourself creed backed with minimum resources. Brand showed them where to get the necessary tools.

Our project is equally celebratory. We're saluting the timeless patience and unending devotion to real quality that many Mainers are bringing to a world where more and more mindless robots stamp out millions of identical products devoid of personality or individualism. Found all over Maine, these wonderfully high-spirited people are determined to forge a different path. We'd like to help them by placing them collectively on the Internet, the greatest marketing tool of all time.

We've avoided the temptation of organizing this Site into convenient categories. Entries are inserted in no particular order. We believe this will encourage browsing. We want users to go from page to page, finding one delightful surprise after another. This organization (or lack thereof) should help users make new discoveries and should provide entrants enhanced exposure. However, if your aren't into browsing, but are searching for a particular type of item, we are developing an Item Index.

We've done our best of make this Site user-friendly. We've avoided clutter by placing just six items on each page. Nobody should ever get lost in the crowd. We've provided a Directory ( A-M | N-Z) for people who are looking for particular items. In the early going, we've restricted ourselves to Downeast Maine, with plans for possible future expansion.

Entrants pay nothing for their space. Inclusion is based solely on merit. The criteria for insertion is that an item be interesting, be of high-quality, and be locally made.

We hope to support this project by letting entrants pay a fee for links to their Websites and other contact information. We know that some will decline to do this, and that's okay. Their entries will remain posted and will still have value. Users who choose to do so can google their way to the contact info. All it takes is a bit more effort.