Cars seem to have been accepted as an integral part of everyday life in most of the world, so much so that you would be hard pressed to find a place where they do not exist at all. Well for those who want to discover this place, it is called Monhegan Island and it sits 11 miles off Maine’s coast.
It is a place like any other, with all modern conveniences that make our society work, except that all cars are forbidden to enter the island, and that prohibition does include electric cars like Teslas. Of course, Monhegan Island has an advantage when it comes to not letting cars in with respect of the rest of the world, it is an isolated place that is only accessible by boat and the waters surrounding it are choppy on a good day, which makes the transport of heavy merchandise a bad idea.
Plus, to ensure that temptation was not there for residents to change their way of life, they do not even have paved roads. But that is not necessarily a bad thing, as the island is only two-mile-long and less than a mile-wide. Since it is a tourist destination, locals have very little options during the winter months, but tourists can choose between a handful of summer only restaurants and a couple of hotels, all located in a nucleus, so a car is not even a need.
Monhegan Island, a carless paradise
The island may not be the only place in the US where cars are not accepted, in fact there are plenty of areas where they are not allowed, like natural sanctuaries and parks, but it is a very defined space that has chosen to not allow them ever and to create a pocket of time and space free from them. This has caused the island to become more popular, not less, and to be seen by those who visit as a rarity that deserves to be preserved.
Given that they survive on tourism, the fact that so little lodgings exist there is also an attraction, as it gives the impression of being an isolated paradise where one can go to a rental home and pretend like disconnecting from the everyday world is an option and that we can be happy without many of the modern trappings that make up life as we know it.
In fact, this illusion is so wanted that many famous artists have chosen to paint or photograph Monhegan Island and have used it as their muse, enjoying the pristine environment not ruined by asphalt. Amonsgst them we can find: Robert Henri, George Bellows, Alice A. Swettm, Maud Briggs Knowlton, Edward Hopper or Rockwell Kent.
This love for the island as a car less paradise has been going on since the 1850s and many of these artists have set up permanent or temporary studios there to be able to capture the charm of the ever evolving piece of paradise that they have found there.
But cars are not the only wheeled vehicles forbidden in the island, if you are visiting and choose to partake in one of the most popular past times for the island, hiking, you will not be allowed to do so with any wheeled vehicle, as none of them are allowed on the hiking trails. This includes strollers, dirt bikes, bicycles, and ATV’s. Other rules related to this area are:
- Camping and technical climbing are forbidden
- Carry in, carry out for you and your pet as there are no public trash receptacles.
- Fires are prohibited, including smoking.
- The use of drones in the wildlands is prohibited.