A whittling knife

Telescope

I’d suggest a folding pocket magnifying glass and a field microscope. Perhaps a decent set of binoculars too? Field guides?

https://preview.redd.it/h7e0ghs4whja1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&v=enabled&s=be5dbca088640bbc35a1220469497d8b67f1b897

Similarly!

For Example: Blue Hill has villages of Blue Hill Falls, North Blue Hill, South Blue Hill, and Long Island at one time most or all of these villages had stores etc.
Mount Desert has villages of Beech Hill , Hall Quarry, Northeast Harbor, Otter Creek, Somesville - today nearly all the businesses are in Northeast Harbor.

I can provide some amateur home photography from my grandparents estate if interested. They would have been in their 30s-40s back then

Yeah you can’t just run down to the corner store for arsenic to tan your beaver pelts. The world is goin down the tubes

Lots of head mounts, antlers and the place is huge.

Really brings back memories to see these shots - my friends and I did a heist to steal those bollard covers in the background about 21 years ago.

Can't they all be equally stupid?

Last year, Downeast did a big issue on 1972 as a pivotal year for Maine. While it doesn't cover all of what you're looking for you'll find a few things in there, I think.

https://downeast.com/history/1972-the-year-that-changed-maine/

Newspaper.com is an awesome place to dive into! I found a lot of old interesting articles when researching my family (like my great grampa was in the paper cause he bought a plane and was fixing it up, just because he was retired and bored)

If you have an area of interest or something, you may very well find a wealth of information! :) Even if you just browse, with nothing more specific than Maine lol

As someone who also loves the outdoors:

If I was buying a gift for an outdoorsy kid near Auburn it would definitely be related to rock hounding.

Auburn is right next to Mt.Apatite where they can go look for all sorts of cool rocks and minerals.

Maybe if you can find a guidebook on rocks and minerals of Maine and a shovel and some gloves? Also, if you want to go all out maybe they sell gift cards to the business "Dig Maine Gems" at Mt.Mica? In warmer weather the Sunday outings are a ton of fun and would really get them interested in exploring Mt. Apatite which is closer and free.

Honestly just writing this makes me want to go out there 😅

Edit: link to dig Maine Gems https://www.digmainegems.com/field-trips I don't think they open till end of March or early April

Chemistry sets aren’t what they used to be!

Hey that little 10-year-old asked to visit the pole for her birthday! The story is somewhere on this sub.

There's two links in this comment feed. One with a video and one a photo compilation.

The mineral museum in Bethel? The cryptid museum in Portland/somewhere I can’t remember?

I have a community theater poster from Athens, ME that’s mid 70’s and a couple others from late 70’s/early 80’s if you’re interested. Also one from Slate’s in Hallowell from ‘79.

I go to the psychology today website, use the locator, and check the bios and then websites. It’s not perfect but it’s a good start.

I want to know too!

The Wal Mart there has one heck of a pole

What were other social spaces in Maine towns (not counting churches) at the time? Were there cafes and bakeries that people used as gathering spaces, for example?

Not sure what you’re looking to spend and what the family is into— but if they like hunting and fishing, 15 is the cutoff to buy a lifetime license. You’d need to coordinate with the parents on purchasing it.

https://www.maine.gov/ifw/docs/lifetime_resident.pdf

That would be amazing if you could check!

10 is old enough to have their first hunting rifle if their family are hunters.