# Desert of Maine: Real or Hoax? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 23, 2010, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/desert-of-maine-real-or-hoax/530065 "2010-02-23T02:09:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Jinx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Jinx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jinx)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2010, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/desert-of-maine-real-or-hoax/530065/1 "2010-02-23T02:09:14Z")
What does the SD know about the so-called Desert of Maine just north of Portland, ME. Is this a natural phenomenon, or simply a hoax? I’ve seen it endorsed by Ripley’s Believe it Or Not which FAILS to give me any confidence in its authenticity. Can someone present other proof, such as from a local geological society? ---
**Author:** ![Cabbage](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f07891/32.png) [@Cabbage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cabbage)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2010, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/desert-of-maine-real-or-hoax/530065/2 "2010-02-23T02:19:09Z")
It’s a real place, created by poor farming techniques: > **[Desert of Maine](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desert_of_maine)** > > The Desert of Maine is a natural curiosity and privately owned tourist attraction whose main feature is a 40-acre (16 ha) expanse of barren glacial sand in the town of Freeport, Maine, United States. The area was de‑vegetated by poor farming practices in the 19th century. > The land that encompasses the Desert of Maine became a farm in 1821 when it was purchased by the Tuttle family. Like other Maine farmers of the era who were struggling to compete in an expanding agricultural market, the Tut... ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2010, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/desert-of-maine-real-or-hoax/530065/3 "2010-02-23T02:22:10Z")
Looks like a big [blowout](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blowout_%28geology%29). [Jersey pine barrens](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pine_Barrens_%28New_Jersey%29) and [Nebraska sand hills](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sand_Hills_%28Nebraska%29) have similar areas. There’s nothing to mysterious about it, just sand under thin topsoil. ---
**Author:** ![Caught\_Work](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/919ad9/32.png) [@Caught\_Work](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caught_Work)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2010, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/desert-of-maine-real-or-hoax/530065/4 "2010-02-23T02:22:37Z")
It’s not a desert i the true sense of a desert. It’s glacial silt that was covered by topsoil which has been eroded to reveal the silt underneneath. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2010, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/desert-of-maine-real-or-hoax/530065/5 "2010-02-23T03:14:57Z")
Wow. Next time I’m in Maine I’ll be sure to visit the sand museum. ---
**Author:** ![Lok](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e8c25b/32.png) [@Lok](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lok)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2010, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/desert-of-maine-real-or-hoax/530065/6 "2010-02-23T04:05:00Z")
I was there a decade or so ago. It was was really kind of neat. And while it is not a real desert, they get too much rain to qualify, if you are standing on the sand on a sunny summer day the temperature is very high. They have (or had anyway, don’t know if they still do) a short ride in an open sided bus and they give an easy to understand explanation and history of the place. I found it worth the couple of hours I spent there. ---
**Author:** ![Renee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/renee/32/287_2.png) [@Renee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Renee)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2010, 7:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/desert-of-maine-real-or-hoax/530065/7 "2010-02-23T07:03:47Z")
A bus ride? It’s 40 acres–you could walk across it in about a minute. How strange. ---
**Author:** ![crazyjoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f14d63/32.png) [@crazyjoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crazyjoe)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2010, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/desert-of-maine-real-or-hoax/530065/8 "2010-02-23T15:03:34Z")
You must walk pretty fast to cover 40 acres in a minute. ---
**Author:** ![Nars\_Glinley](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nars_glinley/32/8177_2.png) [@Nars\_Glinley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nars_Glinley)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2010, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/desert-of-maine-real-or-hoax/530065/9 "2010-02-23T15:25:36Z")
It looks [green](http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&q=Desert+of+Maine,+Freeport,+Cumberland,+Maine+04032&sll=43.859372,-70.105991&sspn=0.005052,0.009602&ie=UTF8&cd=1&geocode=FRg8nQIdJ3zR-w&split=0&hq=&hnear=Desert+of+Maine,+Freeport,+Cumberland,+Maine+04032&ll=43.857523,-70.156095&spn=0.010103,0.019205&t=h&z=16) on the Google map. What color is it IRL? ---
**Author:** ![lazybratsche](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ba8739/32.png) [@lazybratsche](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lazybratsche)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2010, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/desert-of-maine-real-or-hoax/530065/10 "2010-02-23T15:47:57Z")
> [@crazyjoe](#): > > You must walk pretty fast to cover 40 acres in a minute. It looks like it’s about half a mile long by 300 feet wide. A minute should be \plenty\ to cross that. Maybe a whopping 20 minutes to meander the entire length and back. ---
**Author:** ![Apocalypso](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@Apocalypso](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apocalypso)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2010, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/desert-of-maine-real-or-hoax/530065/11 "2010-02-23T15:53:29Z")
> [@Caught\_Work](#): > > It’s not a desert i the true sense of a desert. > It’s glacial silt that was covered by topsoil which has been eroded to reveal the silt underneneath. Yeah a true desert is defined by a lack of rainfall/moisture, not an abundance of sand. There are places in very cold areas that are considered deserts. How much rain does this place get? I couldn’t tell from the links. ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2010, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/desert-of-maine-real-or-hoax/530065/12 "2010-02-23T16:03:29Z")
As an aside, if you want an example of poor farming techniques and erosion, look up Providence Canyon in Georgia. Its a state park. About a thousand acres with erosion gullies up to 150 feet deep. ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2010, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/desert-of-maine-real-or-hoax/530065/13 "2010-02-23T16:51:03Z")
> [@Apocalypso](#): > > Yeah a true desert is defined by a lack of rainfall/moisture, not an abundance of sand. There are places in very cold areas that are considered deserts. How much rain does this place get? I couldn’t tell from the links. It’s between Portland, which gets 46 inches a year and Brunswick, which gets 48. True deserts are sometimes defined as areas that get less than 10 inches of precipitation a year. ---
**Author:** ![RandMcnally](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b782af/32.png) [@RandMcnally](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RandMcnally)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2010, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/desert-of-maine-real-or-hoax/530065/14 "2010-02-23T18:14:44Z")
Is there any way to reclaim this “desert”? ---
**Author:** ![penultima\_thule](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penultima_thule/32/3833_2.png) [@penultima\_thule](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/penultima_thule)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2010, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/desert-of-maine-real-or-hoax/530065/15 "2010-02-23T20:54:44Z")
If it’s a tourist attraction, I presume reclaiming it would be a poor business move. As an agricultural plot, being only 40 acres with plenty of rain, bringing the area back into production through retension of organic matter to rebuild a topsoil isn’t of technical difficulty. Clay pans and salt pans 10 times this size in low rainfall country are reclaimed. But it would always be fragile. ---
**Author:** ![Lok](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e8c25b/32.png) [@Lok](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lok)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2010, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/desert-of-maine-real-or-hoax/530065/16 "2010-02-23T23:26:39Z")
It isn’t like the bus ride goes straight across and back, or that it is a fast trip. It is a little tourist bus, with open sides and they meander around the area showing different aspects of the site. Like the well house that is not under about 10 feet of sand and the way that the surrounding forest actually is trying to reclaim the area. Like I said, not a major attraction, but a fun couple of hours, with some education on ecology and land management thrown in on the sly. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2010, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/desert-of-maine-real-or-hoax/530065/17 "2010-02-24T00:05:38Z")
> [@lazybratsche](#): > > It looks like it’s about half a mile long by 300 feet wide. A minute should be \plenty\ to cross that. Maybe a whopping 20 minutes to meander the entire length and back. The average adult’s walking speed is [3mph](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walking). It’ll take them 10x as long as your proposing to walk half a mile. ---
**Author:** ![Roland\_Orzabal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c2a13f/32.png) [@Roland\_Orzabal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roland_Orzabal)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2010, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/desert-of-maine-real-or-hoax/530065/18 "2010-02-24T17:16:28Z")
> [@elfkin477](#): > > The average adult’s walking speed is [3mph](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walking). It’ll take them 10x as long as your proposing to walk half a mile. Eh? At 3 mph, you’d walk half a mile in ten minutes, meaning a 20-minute round trip. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2010, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/desert-of-maine-real-or-hoax/530065/19 "2010-02-24T17:49:28Z")
I’ve been there. The extent of the sand is pretty impressive. They give you a ride around it. During the holidays, you pass by pine trees with Christmas lights on it. There’s a museum/gift shop with samples of sand from around the world, and car magnets advertising the place. I’ve long suspected that H.P. Lovecraft must have visited the site (or at least heard about it), and that it inspired the Blasted Heath in his story _The Colour Out of Space_. That, too, is a barren spot where nothing grows, and continues to increase slowly in size. Like the DoM, it was once a farm. Lovecraft based lots of his stories on identifiable New England locales, so this would be pretty much in keeping with other places that inspired him. As for whether or not you can reclaim it – why would they want to? The barren sand produces a bumper crop of tourists every year. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2010, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/desert-of-maine-real-or-hoax/530065/20 "2010-02-24T18:01:20Z")
> [@Roland\_Orzabal](#): > > Eh? At 3 mph, you’d walk half a mile in ten minutes, meaning a 20-minute round trip. Yes, and ten minutes is 10x as long as the single minute **lazybratsch** said should suffice, right? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/desert-of-maine-real-or-hoax/530065.md?page=2)