The Tank Farm

The tank farm? What do they do? Farm tanks there? Ayup, once upon a time.

My mother and stepfather live directly across from what was once a tank farm. This pastoral scene looking down the entry road once contained massive fuel tanks full of fuel. The fuel was used at the Brunswick Naval Air Station in Brunswick Maine. Like most military things within the past 15 years, the Naval Station has been downsized and is slated to permanently close by the fall of 2011.

Where huge oil tankers once plied the waters of the bay, there are only sea birds and lobstermen gliding across the sea. The huge dock sits idle and is fenced off to prevent visitors to the park from accessing its sturdy platform in the sea. Perhaps the city will one day open it up so the public can enjoy some deep water fishing right from the pier. Perhaps not. Time will tell.

Turning from the water and pier, we find a remnant from the tank farm, a huge humming generator. I am not sure what it is powering now, or what it powered when the tank farm was in operation, but it must be powering something important to still be running! You can just see the boarded up buildings behind this generator. A ghost town for sure. I was reminded a bit of Iraq and its unused buildings while walking along this former tank farm. Note the connection? A military fuel depot now closed, yet we are at war in two countries. There has to be some irony here somewhere.

My mother and stepfather once worked at this tank farm. My stepfather performed maintenance, while my mother was a security guard here. She traveled around the farm on a golf cart making security checks at the tanks and all of the buildings. When the tank farm closed, her job went away. My stepfather's was lost when the tank farm was dismantled and the land turned over to the town. A result of the Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) Commission I believe. The Brunswick Naval Air Station is slated to close in a few years too.

The Jimster thought this shell of a building was a pretty neat space. He had visions of skateboarding on its concrete floor. I could see it being used a big dance hall for a party. We obviously had two very different opinions on the matter. Either vision would work as this whole tank farm has been made into a park for the enjoyment of all, skateboarders and dancers alike. All along the paths and roads are simple entertainment enhancers, as I like to call them. Picnic tables, horseshoe and barbecue pits, port a johns, and nicely cut grass speak of family reunions, clam and lobster bakes, and good times.

On this day we contented ourselves with merely wading in the ocean with a dog who loves to swim and with enjoying the views of milkweed, goldenrod, cat tails, paper birch trees, berries, and roses. It is not hard to picture those tanks growing in the fields, but I so enjoy the new views of nature at her best.

Nature is doing the farming now, and what a farm it is! A farm of quiet, peace, wildlife, and plants. Once you look past the chain link fence topped with barbed wire, the old buildings, tall water tower, you can then see a farm of nothing but tranquility and nature. This farm is now a part of the town, and its people are the farmers. The crop raised from nature is happy citizens.

If you remember my "Berry Maine" post, you will remember I talked of the fence in some of the pictures. This Tank Farm, now a town park and jewel, is still surrounded by a tall chain link fence, topped with razor wire. A sign of the times gone by.

in the garden....