A day in Vinalhaven, Fox Islands

I had never so much as heard of the Fox Islands a year ago. But as we were preparing for our trip I started reading about our ancestors who lived in Kirtland and Nauvoo. One of them was Jonathan Hale, who joined the church early on and went to live in Kirtland with his family. I read in his history that he and Wilford Woodruff were called on a mission to the Fox Islands in Maine.

I forgot about that until we were listening to Saints as we drove to Nauvoo and Kirtland, and Jonathan Hale's story was mentioned again there with a little more detail. I thought, "That's cool; we are going to go to Maine too." But I didn't know where the islands were or how to get to them, though I read a "memory" on FamilySearch by another of the Hale descendants who shared a story about being able to visit there. 

Then, while we were staying at Andrea's house in Maine, I was looking for one more thing we could do on our last day there. We wanted to go out to the coast again but it was hard to tell which beaches would be worth the drive, especially with the weather looking a little cool and unpredictable. I suddenly thought of the Fox Islands and just got curious how one would even get there. I didn't know if there was a ferry or if you had to charter a boat or what. When I looked it up, it looked like there was a ferry, but it had to be scheduled in advance and was sort of tricky. The website had all these instructions bolded and underlined about how you had to call this phone number and get a line number, and then appear at the office no later than one hour before and show the line number, and if you weren't on time you may not get on the ferry and you may be stuck on the island and so forth. But after mulling it over, I thought, "Well, why not try it?" I thought the kids would really enjoy a ferry ride. But we could always just do something else once we were out on the coast if it didn't work out.

So I called and got a line number (and then called again when I figured out you had to do that away from the island, not toward it) and we set off early in the morning toward the ferry station in Rockport, hoping everything would work out. And it did! We got there early enough and they were able to fit our van on the very back. (There was also an area for tall trucks—even a UPS truck was able to get on! But they just put us outside of the roof.)

It was cool and weird to drive our van onto a boat! I don't think I've been on a ferry boat with a vehicle before (or maybe once on a really short ride in California?). I've ridden as just a passenger on one. But the kids thought it was really fun and funny to have our van on the boat with us! And to be on a boat at all!

Clementine was very excited.

When we boarded the ferry it was foggy and misty and grey! It felt nice to me, but once we started going across the water it was a little chilly! Luckily most of us had brought jackets in the van.

We were heading to Vinalhaven, the southern one of the Fox Islands and the bigger of the two. (North Haven is the other island.) Jonathan Hale and Wilford Woodruff did missionary work on both.

I loved the misty, foggy views of the tree-covered shore.

We passed a lighthouse on the tip of a little spit of land.

And another one we could only see faintly through the fog.

The ferry was nice. There was an upper deck for looking at the view, and a middle deck that looked out backwards, and even an indoor seating area where Sam could sit and draw. It got kind of choppy out in the water so it was hard to walk around, but kind of fun too. And it was a pretty long ferry ride! About an hour and fifteen minutes one way.

Clementine liked sitting anywhere.

When we started to get close to the island there were SO many tiny islands all around! We had to go through a bunch of narrow channels and past so many little inlets and bays. I don't know how the ship's captain managed to steer us through such a maze of obstacles!

The islands were so tiny and cute. Some were covered with a whole little forest…

…and others only had a few trees!

And some didn't have anything but moss!

The exposed rocks on the edges of the islands were cool. All layered and colorful.

When you look at the islands on a map, Vinalhaven seems almost ridiculous. It's not even an island! It's a bunch of rocks trying to be an island. Like when you add too much flour to the cookie dough and the last of it in the bowl is just crumbs, and you try to squeeze them together into a ball but it can barely hang together. It made me laugh when I came across Wilford Woodruff's journal about his mission, and he said almost the same thing:

South Fox Island comes as near being without definite form as any spot on earth I ever saw. It would be difficult for any person to describe it. It is about ten miles in length by five in width, and is a mass of rocks, formed into shelves, hills, and valleys, and cut up into necks and points to make room for the coves and harbors that run into the island. The population is one thousand. [Note by me: Population was 1279 at the 2020 census. Not much growth! Maybe there's just not room!]

Wilford Woodruff continued:

 The inhabitants get their living entirely by fishing. There is no chance for farming upon the island. There are a few garden patches which are cultivated at great expense.Some few sheep are raised there. Many of the inhabitants fish in the vicinity of Newfoundland, and bring their fish home, where they cure them on flakes and prepare them for the market. They supply the market with great quantities of cod, mackeral, and boxed herring. Upon this island there are two stores, three tide mills, six schoolhouses, and a small branch of the Methodist church presided over by a priest. What timber there is upon this island, such as pine, fir, spruce, hemlock, and birch, and likewise whortleberries, raspberries, and gooseberries, grow mostly out of the cracks in the rocks.

It was quite dark when [Elder Hale and I] landed, without a farthing of money. We made our way over the rocks and through the cedars the best we could until we found a house. We rapped at the door. A woman put her head out of the window and asked who we were and what was wanted. I told her we were two strangers, and wanted a bed to lie down upon till morning.

I can totally imagine it. The rocks, the tenacious cedars, the lonely house in the dark. It was cool to see the place so much the same all these years later!

Finally we were at the main island itself. Somehow the ship got maneuvered in to a harbor.

I love the way all the boats are somehow anchored out in the water. I don't know how that works. I've usually seen boats tied up by a dock, in other harbors I've been to.

I mostly just wanted us to explore the island and see what it was like there; I didn't feel like we needed to retrace Jonathan Hale's steps or anything. It's such a (comparatively) small island I'm sure he walked all over it anyway! Somewhere there is a commemorative plaque (maybe the church set it up?) but I didn't know how to find it. I did have this picture, however:

When we got onto the island I just searched my phone for "Vinalhaven old schoolhouse" and found an old real estate listing that took us right to the spot. It's right there in town close to the ferry terminal. I think it's just someone's house now. It looked like it had been fixed up since that picture was taken.

Back of the schoolhouse

So, that was pretty cool to see. And I felt like Jonathan Hale would maybe be pleased we were thinking about him and curious about his life. Who would have ever thought I'd be able to go to such an obscure and faraway spot and feel that connection with a great-great-great grandfather?

Once we'd seen the schoolhouse, we wanted to look around the island. Even with the long drive to the coast and the long ferry ride, we had several hours till the last ferry would leave for the mainland. We had lunch at one of the few places that was open. They had really good fish and fried clams, which I didn't know we'd like but we really did! Yum! There was a cute little candy store next door where we got ice cream, too.

There were so many lobster traps sitting around all over, huge piles of them in people's yards or in their driveways. Everyone here must catch lobsters!

There were some lakes and streams too, and houses here and there, and the sort of main village area where there were some stores and a post office and libary and so forth. But a lot of the island was just green mossy forest like this. Again I am struck by how different "green mossy forests" can be. The rain forest in Puerto Rico different from the rain forest in Hawaii different from the rain forest in Oregon different from the rain forest with the redwoods.

This forest (I don't know that it was really rain forest. Probably not. But so green that it SEEMS like one) reminded me of how I imagine Alaska. Kind of rugged, which is the word I feel like everyone always describes Maine with, so maybe there's a better one. Craggy? Rough? Rocky? Anyway, it was different and beautiful.

Here is Wilford Woodruff again, describing what it was like:

Upon one occasion, while standing upon Mr. Carver's farm, on the east end of North Island, we counted fifty-five islands in that region, most of which were not inhabited. We also saw twenty ships under sail at the same time. We did not lack for food while upon the island, for if we did not wish to trouble our friends for a dinner, we had only to borrow a spade or a hoe and a kettle, and go to the beach and dig a peck of clams. These, when boiled, make a delicious meal, of which we often availed ourselves.

One day Elder Hale and I ascended to the top of a high granite rock on South Island for prayer and supplication. We sat down under the shade of a pine tree which grew out of a fissure in the rocks, and Elder Hale read the sixteenth chapter of Jeremiah, where mention is made of the hunters and fishers that God would send in the last days to gather Israel. We were, indeed, upon an island of the sea, standing upon a rock where we could survey the gallant ships, and also the islands which were as full of rocks, ledges, and caves as any part of the earth. And what had brought us here? To search out the blood of Ephraim, the honest and meek of the earth, and gather them from these islands, rocks, holes, and caves of the earth unto Zion.

We went to see Brown's Head Light, a light house on one end of the island. Someone lives in it so you don't go inside, but you can come and look at it. I would love to live there! Such a wild and beautiful spot!

The forest on this part of the island was the mossiest I have ever seen. We finally stopped so I could take a picture of it, and walking on it was like walking on a bed! Or one of those foam pits they have at trampoline parks. It was so soft and springy!! Hills and carpets of moss covered everything!

It was foggy for most of the morning and I had accepted it as the proper atmosphere for such a rugged (craggy, hilly, weatherbeaten) place. But we decided we would go to a little beach and at least walk around and look at the rocks and watch the waves, and let whoever wanted to brave the water get in. I didn't particularly want Clementine to be among that number, but when she saw the water she yelled "Yay yay yay!" and started stripping down and putting on her swimming suit herself! I didn't have the heart to tell her no after that.

Almost as soon as we walked onto the beach, the sky started to clear in parts. The sun started to shine weakly through the cloud cover.

And suddenly we had sun and blue skies! It got almost immediately warmer (these two boys and their coats notwithstanding) and I was so happy to get to see what the island looked like in the sunshine as well as the fog!

Ziggy found a crab shell

It was a great beach for climbing around. Big rocks and multiple little inlets. The ocean was around us on three sides somehow.

There were wild grasses and flowers growing right among the rocks.

Another crab shell

We could see lots of other little islands around. It would be so fun to have a kayak here or a little boat and go explore them. It reminded us of Swallows and Amazons.

A closer look at that little gleeful cutie

A lot of the rocks were that same pink granite we'd seen in Acadia National Park. I read that this island had big quarries of it and supplied a lot of well-known buildings like the Brooklyn Bridge and the State Department Building in Washington and the Cathedral of Saint John in New York. We loved this rock with the huge crystals of different mineral types. We saw some rocks that looked like petrified wood, too.

Finally it was almost time for the ferry to leave and we went racing back to the car to make sure we didn't meet any of the dire fates warned about if we forgot our line number or were late to the loading zone.

In fact, we made it to the ferry terminal with so much time to spare that I was able to get out of the car and hike around a little inlet for some beautiful views while Sam waited in line with the van. (I tried to get him to hike around too while I waited, but he was too worried about not being back to the car in time to really enjoy it.)

Everything was beautiful in the fog, but it was the sunny scenery I thought was most beautiful. The green foliage glows so brightly in the sun!

When it was time, we drove onto the ferry again and stood on the deck to wave goodbye to Vinalhaven!

The boats under the sun and blue sky had a whole different character than they did in the fog.

The ferry ride back was so nice. It was warmer so we could stay out in the wind more comfortably.

We passed back through all the many little islands, never hitting any of them. Good job, boat pilot.

Here's the one I would live on. Look, it has everything: a forest, a meadow, and a tiny sandy beach.

Another little harbor on the side of the island

We suggested eating our little picnic dinner on the ferry, and the kids thought that would be so fun. It was! There was a slight mishap when Clementine was wiggling around on and off the bench as is her custom, and I was in the bathroom, and Sam was trying to cut slices of sausage off for people, and Clementine got upended by a jolt of the boat and fell down and scraped her face! She was fine, but then for the next several weeks she proudly told everybody who asked about her scrape (and even those who didn't), "I fell off the ferry!" She did not like it when I tried to clarify that she fell ON the ferry. After a while she amended it to "I fell off the ferry, but I didn't fall in the water," which is a little better, I guess!

We passed the two lighthouses again. It was getting cloudy again and you could see this one glowing.

We saw a Coast Guard boat, which Ziggy really liked. And there was a ferry worker he started talking to all about the anchor and the gangplank and how they worked. The worker liked Ziggy (as everyone does) and they had a great time conversing. The guy said he grew up in a family of ten kids too, and his grandma had twenty kids!

Junie's hair was so curly and windblown!

We got back to Rockport around 6 and then drove a couple hours home to Andrea's house, just in time to put the chickens in for the night. It was such an interesting and full and good day! I love the Fox Islands!

But I saved the best part of the story for last. (Congratulations if you made it this far.) As we were going home I was texting Andrea about how much fun we'd had and how glad I was we'd gotten to see where my grandpa Jonathan Hale had served with Wilford Woodruff. She texted back, "What!!!???!! Our great-grandfathers served a mission together!!!! That’s awesome! No wonder we had an instant connection."

!!!

Apparently Andrea is a direct-line descendant of Wilford Woodruff! So our grandfathers really were friends. And now we are friends! I hope they shared a high-five over that in heaven! I think it's SO cool. Who could have imagined such a thing? Andrea hasn't visited the Fox Islands yet herself, but now she wants to! I am just so grateful that her living in Maine made our visit possible.