Damariscotta is oyster country, and it has been for a very long time. Along the banks of the Damariscotta River, huge heaps of discarded oyster shells, some of them thirty feet deep, mark the places where Native peoples feasted for over two thousand years, and these middens are among the largest on the Atlantic coast. Today the river is home to a thriving aquaculture industry, and the oysters are among the best in the country, served on the half shell in a half-dozen restaurants.
The town sits at the head of a long tidal river, with its twin, Newcastle, across the bridge, and the two share a handsome brick main street that is lively without being touristy. Every October the community holds a Pumpkinfest, with giant pumpkins hauled to the river for a regatta in which people paddle hollowed-out hulls, a sight that draws crowds from all over the state. The old churches and brick buildings give the town the feel of a prosperous nineteenth-century port, which it was.
The ride south from here is one of the best on the coast. Route 130 runs down the Pemaquid Peninsula, with gentle curves, marsh views and glimpses of tidal coves, to Pemaquid Point, where a white lighthouse built in 1827 stands on striking ledges of folded rock. The lighthouse is on the Maine state quarter, and the rocks below it, ribbed and swept by waves, are a fine place to watch the surf. Nearby, the colonial settlement of Pemaquid has an old fort and a museum, a reminder that Europeans were fishing and trading here by the early seventeenth century.
Damariscotta has fuel and a good range of restaurants, bakeries and shops, and it is the main service town for the peninsula. Bigger towns, including Brunswick and Bath, are farther along Route 1. The best months are June and September, when the crowds are gentle and the air is clear, and the October pumpkin festival brings color and noise. July and August are busy, with summer visitors filling every lane. Fog can roll in suddenly on the coast, so dress in layers, and keep an eye out for deer at dusk along the wooded lanes.