Maine holds 98 documented abandoned places on the Urbex Maps atlas -- a count shaped by the state's layered history of maritime industry, 19th-century resource extraction (timber, ice, granite, and fish), remote agricultural communities that emptied as the northern economy contracted, Civil War-era fortifications guarding the approaches to Portland and the Kennebec River, and the island communities that thrived in the 19th century and were abandoned as the coastal economy changed. Maine's abandonment landscape is distinctive for its combination of maritime and rural contexts: lighthouses left automated and unmanned, island communities evacuated, submerged ghost towns beneath reservoir lakes, and the industrial ruins of the ice and granite industries.
Maine's most significant abandoned places include Malaga Island -- the site of one of the most disturbing forced community removals in New England history -- Fort Gorges in Portland Harbor as a spectacular unfinished Civil War fortification, Katahdin Iron Works as the most impressive 19th-century industrial ruin in the state, and Flagstaff as a ghost town submerged beneath a reservoir in the late 1940s.
This guide covers 10 of the most significant abandoned places in Maine, with free GPS coordinates on the Urbex Maps interactive atlas, verified YouTube embeds, and factual historical context.
Free urbex GPS: how Urbex Maps works
Every spot in this guide has a free GPS pin on the Urbex Maps interactive atlas. No account required -- just coordinates with satellite imagery and access notes. The full Maine database has 98 documented locations, covering island ruins, Civil War forts, submerged ghost towns, lighthouses, and industrial sites.
1. Malaga Island, Phippsburg
Malaga Island in Phippsburg is the site of one of the most disturbing episodes in Maine's history and one of the most significant racial injustices in New England -- the forced removal of a mixed-race fishing community by the Maine state government in 1912. The community on Malaga Island, located in the New Meadows River off Phippsburg, had existed for decades before its destruction: a settlement of approximately 40 people -- Black, white, and mixed-race families -- who supported themselves by fishing, clamming, and small-scale farming on the island.
The community was destroyed not because of any crime or legal violation but because the Maine state government and local officials found the community's racial mixture and poverty an embarrassment to the state's self-image. In 1912, Governor Frederick Plaisted ordered the island community evicted. State officials removed the residents, demolished their homes and church, exhumed the community's graves and reinterred them in a state institution cemetery, and institutionalized several community members in the Maine School for the Feeble-Minded at Pownal on the grounds of "feeblemindedness" -- a eugenics-era designation applied to poverty and nonconformity.
Malaga Island is now part of the Maine Island Trail; the island is accessible by kayak and small boat. Archaeological investigations since the 1990s have recovered evidence of the community's material culture, and the Maine state government has formally apologized for the removal.
2. Perkins Island Lighthouse, Georgetown
Perkins Island Lighthouse in Georgetown marks the approach to the Kennebec River -- the primary maritime access route to Bath, the center of Maine's 19th-century shipbuilding industry. The lighthouse was established in 1898 to guide the commercial traffic between the open Atlantic and the upriver shipyards, with a 38-foot wooden lighthouse tower and keeper's dwelling on the island's highest point.
The lighthouse was automated in 1959, eliminating the need for a resident keeper. The wooden keeper's dwelling and associated outbuildings have deteriorated since automation; the structure is in the care of the Maine Lighthouse Museum and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Perkins Island is part of the Maine Coastal Islands National Wildlife Refuge, and the lighthouse is accessible only by boat.
The Kennebec River shipbuilding industry that Perkins Island Lighthouse served was one of the most important in America: Bath-built vessels were known for quality throughout the 19th century, and the Bath Iron Works continues as a major naval shipbuilding facility today. The abandoned lighthouse represents the decommissioned infrastructure of a maritime industrial era that has otherwise survived remarkably well in Bath.
3. Fort Gorges, Portland Harbor
Fort Gorges on Hog Island Ledge in Portland Harbor is one of the most spectacular abandoned fortifications in New England -- a massive granite island fort begun in 1858 that was made obsolete before it was completed by the development of rifled artillery during the Civil War, leaving the fort as an enormous, beautifully constructed military ruin rising from the waters of Casco Bay. The fort was designed in the tradition of the Third System of American coastal fortification -- the program of masonry forts built following the War of 1812 -- but the Civil War's demonstration that rifled guns could reduce masonry walls to rubble ended the program before Fort Gorges was finished.
The fort was designed by General Joseph Totten, the Army's Chief Engineer, as part of Portland Harbor's defensive network alongside Fort Preble and Fort Scammel. The granite construction -- cut from Maine quarries and fitted with the precision characteristic of the best 19th-century military masonry -- was built on an artificial island created by filling Hog Island Ledge with granite ballast. The arched casemates, the sally port, the officers' quarters, and the magazine spaces are all essentially complete, their granite construction having weathered the 160 years since construction without significant structural failure.
The fort was never armed in combat. The city of Portland has owned Fort Gorges since 1960, and the fort is accessible by private boat; the city conducts limited guided tours.
4. Riceville Ghost Town, Aroostook County
Riceville in Aroostook County is among the most completely vanished of Maine's interior ghost towns -- a 19th-century agricultural community in the remote forests of northern Maine that grew up around the timber and farming economy of the Aroostook County interior, reached its modest peak in the mid-19th century, and then steadily emptied as young people left for the cities and the economics of small-scale farming in the northern Maine interior became unsustainable.
Aroostook County -- "The County" in Maine parlance -- was settled in the 1820s and 1830s as part of the northern Maine frontier expansion, with communities established along the rivers and in the valleys that provided agricultural land amid the surrounding boreal forest. The communities of the interior supported themselves through a combination of potato farming, dairy, and timber, with the county's location on the Canadian border giving it a distinctive cultural character shaped by Acadian French and New Brunswick influences.
The ghost towns of Aroostook County follow the typical pattern of northern Maine rural decline: the one-room schools closed as the student population fell below the threshold for maintaining them, the churches consolidated, the general stores closed, and the former village centers reverted to forest and field. Riceville's site is now largely reclaimed by the northern Maine forest, with only the characteristic irregularities of former house lots, cellar holes, and old road traces marking the former community.
5. Swan Island (Steve Powell Wildlife Management Area), Richmond
Swan Island in the Kennebec River near Richmond is one of the most accessible abandoned island communities in Maine -- a two-mile-long island that supported a year-round farming community for centuries before its last residents left in the 1940s, leaving behind farms, a schoolhouse, a cemetery, and the visual evidence of centuries of agricultural use on land that is now managed by the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife as the Steve Powell Wildlife Management Area.
Swan Island was settled in the 1600s by English colonists and maintained a small community of farming families through the Colonial, Federal, and 19th-century periods. At its peak the island community included several farms, a school, a church, and a store. The island's isolation -- accessible only by ferry or boat from Richmond -- became increasingly burdensome as mainland agricultural communities offered better access to markets, schools, and services.
The last residents left in the late 1940s. The state acquired the island for wildlife management, and the white-tailed deer population became one of the densest in Maine under protected conditions. The Maine DIFW operates ferry service to the island for guided tours and camping during the summer season, making Swan Island one of the more accessible of Maine's abandoned island communities.
6. Flagstaff Ghost Town (Submerged), Franklin County
Flagstaff in Franklin County is one of the most poignant of Maine's lost communities -- a farming and logging village on the Dead River that was deliberately flooded in 1950 when the Long Falls Dam was constructed to create Flagstaff Lake, a reservoir for hydroelectric power generation by the Central Maine Power Company. The flooding submerged not only Flagstaff but the neighboring community of Dead River, erasing two towns with a combined history stretching back to the 1790s beneath 25 feet of reservoir water.
Flagstaff was named for a flag that Benedict Arnold's expedition used as a landmark when marching through Maine toward Quebec in 1775 -- one of the most audacious military campaigns of the Revolutionary War, in which Arnold led 1,000 men through the Maine wilderness in a failed attempt to capture Quebec City. The Dead River valley that Arnold's men traversed was later settled by farming families who built communities that persisted for over 150 years.
The Central Maine Power Company began acquiring land in the Dead River valley in the 1940s. Residents were compensated and relocated; the buildings were burned before flooding. When the water level is low during drought years or during reservoir drawdowns, the foundations of Flagstaff's buildings become visible above the waterline -- a ghostly reappearance of the submerged town.
7. Old Canada Road Scenic Byway Ruins, Somerset County
The Old Canada Road (U.S. Route 201) through Somerset County follows the route of one of the oldest overland trails in Maine -- the path that connected the Kennebec River settlements to Quebec, used by traders, military expeditions (including Benedict Arnold's 1775 march), and generations of settlers and loggers in the Maine interior. The road passes through the most remote settled landscape in the eastern United States, with farmsteads and logging camp sites scattered along the Kennebec and Dead River valleys.
The ruins along the Old Canada Road reflect a settlement pattern that was never dense and has become progressively more sparse: the farmsteads of the 19th century were marginal operations in the short-season Maine interior, dependent on logging economy and subsistence agriculture. As the logging frontier moved further north and the agricultural economics became unviable, the farms emptied one by one.
The surviving ruins -- stone cellar holes, fieldstone walls, collapsed barn frames, the occasional standing chimney -- are scattered along the road corridor between Bingham and the Quebec border. The landscape context, with the Kennebec River and the surrounding boreal forest, makes the ruins evocative of the difficulty of frontier farming in the Maine interior.
8. Fort Popham, Phippsburg
Fort Popham at Phippsburg marks the mouth of the Kennebec River -- the strategic waterway that provided access to the Bath shipyards and the interior of Maine -- and is one of the most complete Civil War coastal fortifications in New England. The fort was begun in 1861 and never fully completed, but the surviving semicircular granite structure with its arched casemates, gun embrasures, and spiral staircase towers is the most intact masonry fortification from the Civil War era in Maine.
Fort Popham was designed to mount heavy artillery in the casemates and on the open barbette deck above, defending the Kennebec River against Confederate naval attack. The fort's semicircular plan -- following the curve of the riverbank -- allowed guns to cover both the river approach and the open sea. Construction continued through the Civil War but the fort was never fully armed; after the war the project was abandoned.
The fort is now Fort Popham State Historic Site, operated by the Maine Bureau of Parks and Lands. The granite structure is open for public exploration; visitors can walk through the casemates, climb to the upper level, and examine the construction details of one of the finest examples of Civil War masonry fortification in New England.
9. Katahdin Iron Works, Piscataquis County
Katahdin Iron Works in Piscataquis County is the most significant 19th-century industrial ruin in Maine -- a charcoal iron blast furnace established in 1843 in the wilderness north of Brownville Junction that produced pig iron for 47 years until the ore deposits were exhausted and the operation was abandoned in 1890. The surviving stone blast furnace and charcoal kilns stand in a clearing in the boreal forest, their 19th-century masonry remarkably intact, representing one of the most complete surviving examples of the pre-Civil War American iron industry.
The Katahdin Iron Works was established to smelt the bog iron deposits found in the streams and bogs of the Maine interior. The operation required vast quantities of charcoal -- made from the surrounding forest -- to fuel the blast furnace. The charcoal kilns, circular stone structures used to convert cordwood to charcoal in oxygen-reduced conditions, are the most photographically striking elements of the surviving complex.
At its peak the iron works employed several hundred workers and supported a company town of over 500 people. The ore deposits proved less extensive than hoped; the works operated at reduced capacity through the 1870s and 1880s before final closure in 1890. The state of Maine acquired the property, and Katahdin Iron Works State Historic Site preserves the furnace stack, charcoal kilns, and the surrounding landscape.
10. Seguin Island Lighthouse, Georgetown
Seguin Island Lighthouse off Georgetown is the second-oldest lighthouse in Maine and stands on the highest island on the Maine coast -- the lighthouse tower at 180 feet above sea level was one of the most powerful lights on the New England coast, guiding ships through the dangerous shoals at the mouth of the Kennebec River and into the approaches to Bath and the upriver ports. The lighthouse was first established in 1795 under orders from President George Washington, making it one of the original lighthouses of the new American republic.
The current granite tower was built in 1857 and equipped with a first-order Fresnel lens -- the largest and most powerful class of lighthouse optic -- whose beam could be seen for over 20 miles at sea. The keeper's quarters, fog signal building, boathouse, and outbuildings that accompanied the lighthouse are all still standing on the island, now managed by the Friends of Seguin Island nonprofit.
The lighthouse was automated in 1985, eliminating the keeper position. The Friends of Seguin Island have operated a summer caretaker program since the 1980s, and the island is accessible by boat from Bath and Popham Beach; summer tours are available.
FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions about Abandoned Places in Maine
How many abandoned places are there in Maine?
The Urbex Maps database currently lists 98 documented abandoned locations in Maine. The state's abandonment landscape includes decommissioned lighthouses, abandoned island communities, submerged ghost towns in reservoir lakes, Civil War fortifications, and the ruins of the 19th-century resource extraction economy (timber, ice, granite, iron).
Is urban exploration legal in Maine?
Criminal trespass in Maine is addressed under 17-A MRSA Section 402. Several of Maine's significant abandoned sites are publicly accessible: Fort Gorges is city-owned and accessible by boat, Fort Popham is a state historic site with open public access, Katahdin Iron Works is a state historic site, and Swan Island is accessible via the DIFW ferry during the summer season. Malaga Island is accessible by boat as part of the Maine Island Trail. Always confirm the legal status of a specific location.
Can you visit Malaga Island?
Malaga Island is accessible by kayak or small boat as part of the Maine Island Trail. The island is not a developed state park and has no facilities, but it is open to visitors who arrive by water. Archaeological investigations have been conducted on the island, and interpretive materials describe the history of the removed community. Maine has formally acknowledged and apologized for the 1912 forced removal.
Is the town of Flagstaff still underwater?
Yes. The former towns of Flagstaff and Dead River remain beneath Flagstaff Lake. During periods of very low water -- drought years or when the Central Maine Power Company lowers the reservoir for maintenance -- some foundation remnants may become visible near the lake's edge. The lake is a popular recreation destination; boat access is available at several points around the shoreline.
How do you get to Katahdin Iron Works?
Katahdin Iron Works State Historic Site is located about 5 miles north of Brownville Junction via a gravel road (KI Jo-Mary Road). The road requires a fee for access through the North Maine Woods checkpoint system. The site is open seasonally; the blast furnace and charcoal kilns are accessible on a self-guided walking trail.
Conclusion: Maine, where the sea, the forest, and the iron economy left their ruins from Portland Harbor to the boreal interior
Maine's abandoned places are shaped by the state's essential duality: the maritime coast, with its lighthouses, island communities, and harbor fortifications, and the interior wilderness, with its iron works, logging camps, submerged ghost towns, and remote farmsteads. With 98 locations on the Urbex Maps atlas, Maine's ruins reward the explorer willing to arrive by kayak, hike through the boreal forest, or take the ferry to an island where history has been reclaimed by the spruce trees.
Explore more abandoned places in the United States
- ●Abandoned Places in Massachusetts: 10 Iconic Urbex Spots
- ●Abandoned Places in Connecticut: 10 Iconic Urbex Spots
- ●Abandoned Places in New York: 10 Iconic Urbex Spots
- ●Abandoned Places in Vermont: 10 Iconic Urbex Spots
- ●Ghost Towns USA: 20 Iconic Places Where Time Stopped
- ●Abandoned Places in the USA: 50 States, 50 Iconic Urbex Spots
