LONG ISLAND, Maine — November 29, 2014 — On a clear day, the mainland and surrounding islands of Casco Bay are easy to see from Long Island. On this particular day, though, the rain was driving and a heavy, damp fog had settled over the island town.
From the cab of his noisy old truck, Will Hickok pointed out several community landmarks, like the old dance hall, the filling station at the general store and the island’s school house, most of which appear to be from a bygone era.
A lobster fisherman, known to his friends as “Wild Bill,” Hickok is mourning the passing of his fellow islander Steve “Mike” Hanson, who died Nov. 19 from a head injury after falling at his home.
Hanson, 59, lived on Long Island with his wife and their 14-year-old son. A lobster fisherman by trade, he used his skills as a handyman to do work for and help his neighbors. He wasn’t born on the island, but he was appreciated, and his death hit hard among the small isolated town’s 200 year-round residents.
“He would do anything for anybody and not expect a dime,” Peachie Stevens, 71, a Long Island lifer who runs Peachie’s Golf Cart Rentals, told the BDN the day after Hanson’s body was discovered by two islanders walking to catch a ferry.