The Kennebunkport Historical Society has in its photo collection an album of cyanotype prints taken by summer visitor, Henry B. Wood, mounted on ruled newsprint and later unceremoniously captioned. Cyanotype prints were most popular with amateur photographers in the 1890s because their processing didn’t require a lot of chemicals or equipment. I always get excited when I see them. They often show parts of town that professional photographers typically ignore.

When I first saw the album years ago, one of the images in it intrigued me. Its captioned, “After cyclone; the wharf minus its roof.” and then in another hand, “In 1890s.” After browsing the rest of the images in that section of the album I concluded that the blown over structure had been the covered wharf that stood at the end of Langsford Road in Cape Porpoise. I had seen a few pictures of an intact covered wharf near the Langsford House variously labeled Huff’s Wharf and Town Fish Pier, but I had never heard about a Cape Porpoise cyclone.

Once I had scanned or collected digital, keyword searchable copies of most of the local newspapers in the 1890s I tried to learn the rest of the Cape Porpoise cyclone story. The only one mentioned in all the newspapers was a so-called cyclone that struck on July 3, 1899. Several structures at the end of Langsford Road were indeed blown over in the cyclone-force winds but as usual with this kind of hunt, what I wasn’t searching for turned out to be just as interesting!

During the “cyclone,” that Monday, local fellows, Henry B. Hutchins and Frank Hutchins were working in Henry’s barn around the corner at 6 Pier Road when lightning struck it, tearing off shingles and boards. The lightning bolt hit Henry Hutchins “at the hip and passed down the seam of his trousers, ripping and tearing it the whole length of the leg. The sole of his boot was completely torn off. Mr. Hutchins’ leg was scorched a little, but, strange to say, neither he nor his companion felt any shock from the lightning.”

How lucky am I to have this as a job?