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Nearings Had the Good Life at Harborside
Scott and Helen Nearing settled in Cape Rosier in 1952, setting
up what has become the Good Life Center. |
Brooksville’s
Cape Rosier seems a
world apart from the buzz of a growing, developing Hancock County.
Exactly 50 years ago, that is where Helen and Scott Nearing made
their last home. They lived a back-to-the-land lifestyle with a
commitment to social justice.
Consequently, they
are the ones who gave Brooksville its reputation worldwide as a
place for simple living. They were spirited pioneers who had
abandoned New York City first for Vermont (1932) and then for Maine
(1952). They are remembered best for their book published in 1954,
“Living the Good Life: How to Live Sanely and Simply in a Troubled
World.”
At Cape Rosier,
they became leaders for social and economic justice. They wrote many
books and articles and welcomed thousands to their home who shared
their philosophies of simple living.
Scott Nearing died
by self-starvation in 1983 at nearly 100 years old. Helen Nearing
died in 1995 from injuries suffered in an automobile accident.
Their last
homestead, a hand-built stone home with organic gardens, was Forest
Farm in the Harborside area near
Penobscot
Bay. Today it is open to the public year-round as the
Good
Life
Center.
Admission is free,
although the all-volunteer, non-profit site and organization is
supported by donations and book sales. As many as 500 visitors come
through in a summer month.
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