Bean-Hole Beans

UMaine Alert

Posted: April 19, 2024 - 1:32 PM

At approximately 9:24 a.m. on Thursday, April 19, a University of Maine graduate student was struck by a university vehicle on Long Road at the University of Maine campus in Orono. The student reports that they are at a local hospital with minor injuries.

Emergency services, including the Orono Fire Department, University Volunteer Ambulance Corps, University of Maine Police Department, Orono Police Department and Penobscot County Sheriff’s Office responded to the scene.

The university vehicle involved in the incident was a Chevrolet Express van. It was being operated by a university employee.

Counseling services and support are available for students, faculty or staff who may have been affected. The Counseling Center can be reached at 207-581-1392 and the Dean of Students Office can be reached at 207-581-1406.

The scene has been cleared and Long Road is now accessible. An investigation is being conducted by the University of Maine Police Department with assistance from the Penobscot County Sheriff’s Office Crash Reconstruction Unit. Any witnesses to the incident are encouraged to contact Lt. Noel Santiago at noel.santiago@maine.edu.

Colored postcard "A Maine Logging Camp. The Cook of the Bean hole"

Best baked beans baked in these bean-holes

A Maine Tradition: Bean-Hole Beans

Maine’s Native Americans prepared beans by cooking them with maple syrup and bits of venison or other meat. Early New Englander’s adopted the bean, cooking it with molasses and salt pork in large pots. Beans baked in cast iron pots buried in the ground became a lumber camp specialty and remains popular in Maine to this day, particularly for public suppers and other special events.

Robert Campbell of Glenburn, Maine, has been baking beans in a bean hole for nearly forty years. “Even when I don’t need the beans,” he says, “When Friday night comes it’s just an urge comes over me to start that fire and start baking bean-hole beans.”

Local Legacies Project

Members of Congress and individuals across the nation were involved in the celebration of the Library of Congress Bicentennial and America’s richly diverse culture through the Local Legacies Project. The Maine tradition of bean-hole beans is one of nearly a thousand Local Legacies projects that have already been sent to the Library to become a permanent part of the collection of the American Folklife Center.

Library of Congress Bicentennial Local Legacies Project