Desert of Maine

The Desert of Maine is a 40-acre patch of exposed glacial silt in a pine forest in the town of Freeport, Maine, in the United States. Not only is the ‘desert’ not a real desert, the ‘sand’ is not real either, but a sand-like substance that was underground sometime around the last ice age until it was exposed. The silt would have remained hidden underground if it wasn’t for the Tuttle family who decided to farm the land in 1797. The family had some poor farming practices. Failure to rotate crops, combined with land clearance and overgrazing, led to soil erosion, exposing the dune of sand-like glacial silt. The initial exposed small patch of sand gradually spread and overtook the entire farm. Eventually, the Tuttles had to abandon the land in 1919. An enterprising man who went by the name of Henry Goldrup bought the farm for $300 and converted it into a tourist attraction in 1925. Today the site is preserved as a natural curiosity, hosting a gift shop, a sand museum, and a farm museum.