Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy (26 page)

After removing the islanders, the state of Maine destroyed the remaining houses. (I have conflated these two events in the novel.) All the graves were dug up and removed to five zinc-lined caskets buried by the Pownal asylum. White markers still stand by these.

Today, you may drive on past Phippsburg to the beaches at Popham that Turner rowed past. You may well see the First Congregational steeple as you drive by Phippsburg center. You will not see the hotels Mr. Stonecrop envisioned, because they were never built. And nothing rests on Malaga except for a few lobster traps stored there by fishermen.

But whales still swim in sight of the New Meadows.