Too Many Sheep!

We’re standing on what used to be the Tuttles’ pasturelands. If you look closely, you might still see some sheep out there…

Even though this isn’t a true desert, it sure looks like one. So, how did it come to be? The short answer is: the dunes are a beautiful illustration of what happens when you try to raise 200 sheep on Maine farmland. Picture it—as far as the eye can see—dozens and dozens of little wooly grazers munching grass down to the dirt until there was nothing left to hold the topsoil in place. Then it started to blow away with the wind and wash away with the rain, until there was nothing left but the sand underneath the soil. You’re probably wondering why anyone would have done this to their land?

To be fair to Peter and James Tuttle, farmers all over Maine during the same time period were resorting to similarly desperate schemes. Once railroads connected the Northeast with the fertile, plentiful farmlands of the midwest, it would have been impossible to compete on the price of certain crops. So when the Civil War rolled around, Peter and James sensed a new opportunity. They began raising sheep to produce wool for Union soldiers’ uniforms. And the meat from those sheep would have been processed into...close your eyes and try to imagine the taste of this delicacy… CANNED MUTTON! Mmmm… If you’re feeling hungry, you can buy a can at our Oasis Cafe.

As the sheep did their damage, the Tuttles’ cash crops of potatoes and hay—which weren’t properly rotated—depleted the soil of all nutrients. Before long, the land had eroded and the Tuttles had to abandon their farm. It had become a Dust Bowl.

But while the Tuttles got a little too overzealous with their sheep raising, like many other New England farmers at the time, they also had the misfortune of buying farmland which hid an enormous pile of sand. To understand where the sand came from, we need to go even further back in time, so now we’re going to head toward the 65-foot dune where I’ll give you a summary of what makes this place such a geological marvel...