In its prime, BANGOR , 120 miles northeast of Portland, was the undisputed "Lumber Capital of the World." Every winter its raucous population of "River Tigers" went upstream to brand the felled logs, which they then maneuvered down the Penobscot as the thaw came in April, reaching Bangor in time to carouse the summer away in the grog shops of Peppermint Row. Bangor exported ice to the West Indies - and got rum in return. Those days were coming to an end when, in October 1882, Oscar Wilde addressed a large crowd at the new Opera House and spoke diplomatically of "such advancement ? in so small a city."

Bangor today is not a place to spend much time, although its plentiful motels and the big Bangor Mall on Hogan Road north of town make it a good last stop before the interior. Its twin claims to fame are that it's the unlikely home of Stephen King, the horror fiction writer (BookMarc's at 78 Harlow St stocks King paraphernalia), and that it possesses what, at 31ft, may well be the largest statue of Paul Bunyan in the world, excepting perhaps one or two in Minnesota - though it is easy to miss on the way into town.

From mid-May until the end of July there's harness racing at Bass Park on Main Street (tel 207/947-6744), just behind the statue; admission is $1 but the potential to lose money is unlimited. The same venue hosts the Bangor State Fair , in the last week of July and the first in August. A few miles north of Bangor, the Maine Center for the Arts (tel 207/581-1755), at the University of Maine in Orono , runs a series of big-name concerts each summer. Orono is named after the eighteenth-century Chief Joseph Orono; a small island nearby is now a rather sad reservation running summer bingo sessions.