Criehaven, Maine

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Criehaven is a location on Ragged Island, Maine, which is just south of Matinicus Isle in outer Penobscot Bay. It is in Knox County.

1 Geography
2 Demographics
3 About Criehaven
4 References

[edit] Geography

According to the United States Census Bureau, the location has a total area of 131.8 square miles (341.3 km²), of which, 0.7 square miles (1.9 km²) of it is land and 131.1 square miles (339.5 km²) of it is water. The total area is 99.46% water. The Island is located in one of the richest lobster grounds in the world along with Vinalhaven and Matinicus to the north and is still part of a thriving lobster industry.

[edit] Demographics

As of the census^[1] of 2000, there are no people living in the location full time. Seasonally, there are ten lobster-fishing families and ten non-fishing families. Most of the land is owned by the Krementz family of New Jersey.

[edit] About Criehaven

Criehaven is on Ragged Island, which is known as the "Island of Lobsters".

Criehaven had an operating school until 1941, when the school closed for lack of a teacher. This blow shook the year-round community. No one lives on the island year-round anymore.

Criehaven is pronounced "cree-haven", after Robert Crie ("cree"), an early landowner (1825-1901). He and his wife, Harriet Hall (1829-1919), moved to Ragged Island in 1849 where Robert became very successful with farming and lumbering operations. Ragged Island became incorporated as Criehaven in 1896. Robert Crie's grandfather John Crie was a Scotsman who had settled on nearby Matinicus Isle after the Revolutionary War. See the Cree Surname Research web site

Criehaven is the former home of writer Elizabeth Oglivie and the inspiration for her "Tide Trilogy." Writer Dorothy Simpson lived on Criehaven for many years.

In 2007, Criehaven was the inspiration for a student-made miniseries broadcast to the world on SOAPnet.com as part of their College Soap Opera Contest. The two-part drama brought together Theater students from the University of Southern Maine and a freelance collective of filmmakers called, "The Entertainment Experiment", based in Gorham, Maine. After much celebrated attention, "Criehaven" finished in the top 5 of all video submissions nationally.

The shorts starred Stacy Ann Strang, Ian Carlsen, Nate Amadon, Erik Moody, Meghan Benton, and Rick Dalton. Crew consisted of filmmakers Barry Dodd, Karen Dodd, Dylan J. Robnett, Jake Lear, and Sebastian Carlsen.

Coordinates: 43°50′02″N, 68°53′21″W