Battleship Maine Memorial, Main Street.

Cannons recovered from the U.S. Navy's worst defeat, at the hands of the British in the Revolutionary War and War of 1812, can be found on the city's waterfront and downtown. One cannon overlooks the city landing and another is on Kenduskeag Parkway, off State Street.

Although no one knows for sure what caused the explosion aboard the Battleship Maine, which led to the Spanish-American War amid cries of "Remember the Maine," the ship's shield and scroll are on display at the Maine Monument at Davenport Park, at the corner of Main and Cedar streets. The Maine was one of the U.S. Navy's best ships before sinking. A cannon recovered from a Spanish galleon is on display at Kenduskeag Parkway, near a U.S. Revolutionary War cannon.

Respected all-around, Hannibal Hamlin was a natural choice by the newly founded Republican Party to be vice president under Abraham Lincoln. A staunch abolitionist, Hamlin resigned from the Democratic Party and joined the new Republican Party shortly before the U.S. Civil War. As Lincoln's vice president, Hamlin urged Lincoln early in Lincoln's presidency to issue the Emancipation Proclamation. Lincoln delayed the proclamation but asked Hamlin to review a copy before issuing it.

The Republican Party passed over Hamlin for the vice presidency nomination in 1868 because it wanted a southerner for the post to help heal the wounded nation. During his tenure as vice president, Hamlin kept a home at the corner of Hammond and Fifth streets. Unfortunately, the home is not open for tours.

A sculpture depicting Hamlin toward his later years overlooks downtown Bangor from the Kenduskeag Parkway, off State Street.

The River Drivers, Harlow Street.

Other downtown monuments include The River Drivers, a sculpture next to Bangor Public Library on Harlow Street, and the Lady Victory statue, on Norumbega Parkway. The River Drivers depicts three lumber men working to free the key log in a jam. River driving was a dangerous job, sometimes resulting in serious injury and even death. It involved walking along the logs floating in the river and freeing those that became caught. The men who embarked on the occupation needed to be strong, agile and quick. The largest log jams needed dynamite to free them.

Hoisting two lighted torches over her head, the Lady Victory monument in Norumbega Parkway is dedicated in honor of soldiers who fought for the United States in World War I.

Men from Bangor were among the first from Maine to sign up to fight for the Union's cause in the U.S. Civil War. Mount Hope Cemetery, on State Street, is home to three monuments dedicated to Union soldiers, one of which – Soldiers Monument – may be the oldest Civil War monument in the nation.

Mount Hope Cemetery is an attraction itself as the nation's second-oldest garden cemetery. Covering more than 250 acres, the cemetery features immaculately manicured lawns and gardens, ponds and some of the finest monuments anywhere. The cemetery is the final resting place for Hamlin and Public Enemy No. 1 Al Brady, a gangster whom FBI agents gunned down in Central Street in downtown Bangor in October 1937. The cemetery is also home to the Maine Korean War Memorial.

Soldiers Monument, Mount Hope Cemetery, State Street.

A gift to the city on its 125th anniversary, the Paul Bunyan statue on Main Street never fails to attract snap-shooters passing through the area on vacation. The 31-foot statue is made primarily of fiberglass and features a gleaming Bunyan holding an ax over his shoulder and a peavey at his side. The peavey, by the way, was invented in nearby Stillwater, a section of Old Town, by Joseph Peavey. This revolutionary tool of the trade combined the pick-hand spike with the cant dog. It enabled river drivers to wrestle loose log jams that would form inevitably during the spring log drives down the Penobscot River.

The Bunyan statue overlooks the Penobscot River atop a pedestal at the front of Paul Bunyan Park, in front of the Bangor Auditorium, between Buck and Dutton streets.

Atop Thomas Hill, the highest point in Bangor, the 109-year-old Thomas Hill Standpipe continues serving the Queen City. The 110-foot white cedar-shingled tower and observatory helps to provide water pressure to the downtown area and backup water to fight fires. The tower can be seen from miles away and overlooks left field at Mansfield Stadium. Unfortunately, none of the tower's four seasonal open houses coincides with the World Series. Still, the structure is worth a look in person.

Thomas Hill Standpipe, Thomas Hill Road.

Other historical attractions in the Bangor area include the Freedom Tunnel sculpture across the river in Brewer and Fort Knox in Prospect.

The Freedom Tunnel sculpture depicts a slave emerging from a tunnel and looking over his shoulder to the South. Although there is no conclusive or written documentation, some local historians believe that Freedom Park was a stop on the Underground Railroad system that led through the North into Canada. In the 1990s, the Maine Department of Transportation razed a house believed to be a stop on the railroad while preparing to build a new bridge linking Bangor and Brewer. Workers uncovered a vertical shaft that some local historians said was evidence of the underground railroad. In all likelihood, the shaft was a well, but that didn't stop believers from building Freedom Park and dedicating the monument.

About 20 miles south of Bangor on the west bank of the Penobscot, Fort Knox still overlooks the river since being built in 1846. The fort never saw any action, but it was built to guard against a British attack on Bangor during the Aroostook War. The bloodless war centered around a border dispute between the British and American governments over the U.S.-Canada border. Because Americans suffered embarrassing defeats in Bangor during the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812, the Americans thought it best to guard against another. The fort was named in honor of Secretary of War Henry Knox, a Mainer.

To learn about these and more attractions, visit the bangorinfo.com Bangor In Focus page.

Museums

Museums enable us to get a more intimate glimpse of the past or to learn more about why things are the way they are. Museums in the Greater Bangor area offer glimpses of early American Indian life, the state's early logging industry and a city's life from birth to the present.

Maine Discovery Museum, Main Street.

The Maine Discovery Museum, in downtown Bangor, is the largest children's museum north of Boston and has received rave reviews. Since opening in February 2001, the museum has enlightened and entertained thousands of children and adults. Parking is not a problem, as the Pickering Square parking garage is only a block away, with the first two hours of parking free.

The Bangor Museum and Center for History, on Broad Street, next to West Market Square in the heart of downtown Bangor, has recently expanded its exhibit space highlighting the Queen City's role in early American history.

Transportation enthusiasts will be most interested in the Cole Land Transportation Museum, on the Perry Road, near I-395. The museum features antique trucks, snow removal equipment and a model of one of the old Veazie Railroad's locomotives. The Veazie Railroad, which ran from Milford to downtown Bangor, was one of the first in America. The museum also features a replica covered bridge and a World War II memorial, both accessible outside the building.

The University of Maine's Hudson Museum features American Indian artifacts from South America. Admission is free. The Page Farm and Home Museum is nearby, also on the UMaine campus. It features farm machinery and household items dated from 1865 to 1940. The museum itself is in a barn that was on the UMaine campus when the university opened in 1868.

In Bradley, between Milford and Eddington on U.S. Route 2 on the east bank of the Penobscot River, the Maine Forest and Logging Museum's Leonard's Mills provides visitors with a glimpse of early American life in Maine during the state's rich logging days. The museum features two Living History Days exhibits each year, but there are no exhibits scheduled during the World Series' stint. Nevertheless, visitors are welcome to walk the outdoor museum's trails.

Back in Bangor, the Hose 5 Fire Museum, on State Street, features antique firefighting equipment. The museum's home is a former fire station that operated right up until the 1990s.

For a complete list of museums and phone numbers, check out bangorinfo.com's museum directory.