October 2013

It’s zero dark thirty on Route 1 in front of Maine Medical Center in Scarborough. A snow plow tunnels through the darkness, widening the road for safe passage when…BOOM! What the heck was that?

Sadly, it was history going bump in the night. The winter was 2009. No need to contact the newspapers. The plow utterly destroyed one of the last King’s Highway mile markers in this neck of the woods, with a giant B (for Boston) inscribed on it with the distance “120,” for 120 miles.

Measured for placement by a two-wheeled device designed by the first Postmaster General Benjamin Franklin, the marker helped travelers between Boston and Machias pinpoint their exact position as their horses and carriages flew along the seaside path.

I grew up seeing the old marker–just south and across the street from the Humpty Dumpty potato chip factory (also RIP)–whenever our family drove north on Route 1 toward Portland. The marker was a reassuring presence for me until recently when I looked over and saw it’s been replaced by a new marker in granite and bronze, with no further explanation ventured. Where are the markers of yesteryear? The stone left us not with a whimper, but with a bang.

We owe a debt of gratitude to the personal heroics of Rodney Laughton of Scarborough Historical Society to rescue the original stone. This included a race across snowy terrain. “I got a phone call. I got in my truck. I was worried that someone would dispose of it, not understanding what it was. I just didn’t want to take a chance on something happening to it, so I took it to the museum, where it is today. I think it’s safer there.”

At one time the stone was quite tall, “but portions have broken off over the years, including this last time with the snow plow,” Laughton says. “What remains is about three feet of the top, and B 120 is still clearly visible.”

The original stone was placed on the King’s Highway in 1761. If you’re wondering why it says its 120 miles from Beantown and Google Maps says it’s 101 miles using I-95 to get from Scarborough MMC to Faneuil Hall, “The route was different,” Laughton says. “Where they crossed the Piscataqua River, they’d have had to cross a good deal farther inland.” Also, think of the graceful S curves the old Post road took around boulders and trees.

“Another reason they used the mile markers was, the recipient paid the postage for a letter back then,” Laughton says. “The amount they had to pay was calculated by what was carved on the markers.”

To see an original stone still in service, visit the milestone at South Portland Municipal Golf Course. Milestones–they’re good here.