Pike's Mile Markers

Pike's Mile Markers are a series of twelve stone mileposts along United States Route 1 in Robbinston and Calais in far eastern Washington County, Maine. The stones were placed by James Shepherd Pike, owner of The Mansion House which stands near the 12-mile mark. The measure the distance from his house to the center of Calais, and were supposedly used by Pike to assess the quality of his horses. The markers, unique in the state of Maine, were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1995.HistoryJames Shepherd Pike was born in Calais, and achieved a nationwide reputation as a journalist with a strong anti-slavery voice prior to the American Civil War. During the war he served as United States Ambassador to the Netherlands. Upon his return from that posting, he purchased the Mansion House, a large Federal-style mansion in Robbinston, where he lived in semi-retirement. He continued to write on subjects related to African-American civil rights, but became bitterly opposed to the corruption and mismanagement of the Reconstruction Era.Pike is said to have carefully measured the route from his house to Calais, and then placed these stones sometime between his purchase of the Mansion House and his death in 1882. He is also said to have used them as a means to gauge the performance of his horses.