Travel Guide: Kittery, Maine

Nearly every tourist who enters the state of Maine by car crosses the majestic Piscataqua River Bridge from Portsmouth, New Hampshire and arrives first in the town of Kittery. Experienced travelers know that the state's oldest town is the home of more than 120 retail outlets, making Kittery a haven for shoppers. But there's much more to do in Kittery than hop from store to store.

Kittery was first settled in 1623, just three years after the Pilgrims landed in Plymouth aboard the Mayflower. It was an early center of fishing, with commercial operations exploiting the fishing grounds around the offshore Isle of Shoals. In support of the fishing industry, and because of the abundance of tall Maine pine trees used in building masts, Kittery became an early shipbuilding port in colonial America. At the time of the American Revolution, John Paul Jones's flagship, the Ranger, was built there. At the turn of the 19^th century the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, the young country's first federal shipbuilding enterprise, was established. Over the years, famed ships such as the refitted USS Constitution - "Old Ironsides" - and the Civil War era USS Kearsarge were built there.

On the grounds on the shipyard, in what had been the General Stores Building and is now the Administration Building, President Theodore Roosevelt arranged a peace conference that ended a war between Russia and Japan. The Treaty of Portsmouth earned Roosevelt the Nobel Peace Prize in 1906. While the facility is not generally open to the public, visits for veterans and community groups are arranged on a case-by-case basis by the base's Public Affairs office.

Because of its strategic location, Kittery has been the site of defensive fortifications along the Maine shoreline for over three hundred years. Fort McClary, which dates to the 1800s, is a state historic site. The restored blockhouse contains a museum and sits in the middle of a seaside park, complete with picnic tables and wonderful ocean views.

For those who'd rather jump in the ocean than look at it, Crescent and Seapoint beaches in Kittery are each a half-mile long, separated by a thin spit of land that juts out into the surf. From May through October, the limited available parking at the beaches is restricted to town residents only - identifiable by the "dump stickers" for the local solid waste facility on their cars or trucks. So these beaches can be a little difficult to reach. That is, of course, unless you arrive by bike. The ride from town toward Gerrish Island on Route 103 is relatively easy - and riders are rewarded at the end by a day at the Maine shore!

The biggest attractions in Kittery, however, are the stores. Dozens of factory outlets line each side of Route 1 here at the southern-most tip of Maine, offering everything from clothes to home goods, chocolate to crystal, at highly-discounted prices.

The original retail attraction along the main thoroughfare is the Kittery Trading Post. What started as a one-room gas station, where owner Bing Adams was known to barter gasoline for fur pelts, has grown to a 90,000-square-foot superstore of hunting, fishing and outdoor equipment. Each fall, the store celebrates what they call Septemberfest, with sales, demonstrations, exhibitions and giveaways.

New outlet stores open in Kittery seemingly every season, and the hundreds of thousands of shoppers who visit Maine each year have given rise to new motels and restaurants to service the crowds. One thing that has remained constant through the years, however, is Bob's Clam Hut. Since 1956, the roadside stand nestled between a march and the highway has been serving delicious fried clams to generations of locals and visitors alike. Virtually unchanged as a walk-up, take-out stand for its first 30 years, Bob's expanded in the 1990s to include a large heated dining room. The menu may have expanded, and there may be more places to sit, but the fried clams are just as delicious as they were a half-century ago.