Talk:Collinsport, Maine

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I love the fact that there is a page describing the location of Collinsport, Maine, the mythical village where all the fun took place on Dark Shadows.

However, I think some corrections need to be made to this entry.

First, my research indicates that the town of Collinsport was loosely based on the actual town of Essex, CT, where, also, some of the first exterior scenes for the show were filmed. The actress Nancy B (who played Carolyn on the show) actually had a little filmed bit where she walked around Essex, CT, and pointed out the various locations for the filming of the show. So I think that while Bar Harbor seems like a good likely source, it is, by all the early records, not actually related to the supposed location of Collinsport at all, nor is it the basis for its layout. (I've never met a group of fans yet who could agree on the location, however, so the "believed by many fans" statement is not actually true.)

Second, the tv documentation on where Collinsport is supposedly located indicates that it's north of Frenchman Bay (not Frenchman's Bay, as indicated in the record), but the tv show scripts and other information never actually say that it's located on Schoondic Point or anywhere else specifically. Schoondic Point is a parkland, there are no buildings there, and it is quite exposed to the elements, which is why, I imagine, that people think that Collinsport might be located there. However, I always thought Winter Harbor, which is also located on Frenchman Bay, or even Sorrento, or even South Gouldsboro, might be a better choice. The only thing we know for sure is that Willie Loomis made trips between Collinsport and Bangor, which took him about an hour to drive. All the aforementioned locations are good candidates, with this in mind.

Gosh, I could go on, shall I? The train between Collinsport and Boston never stopped running. Real trains (Amtrak) never actually went to Bar Harbor from anywhere, let alone Boston, so I'm not sure where the "trains stopped running in 1962," factoid came from, since, after all, Miss Winters arrived in Collinsport by train one dark and stormy night in 1966 (or 1967, whenever that episode aired.) Roger was forever taking the train to Boston, even in later episodes, to go on business (or when the actor playing him needed a break).

Don't know where the population information came from either. If there's a fishing fleet in town, as is indicated by early TV scripts and documentation, AND a cannery which supplies the village with jobs, run by the Collins family with enough profit to afford that big house and cars and seclusion and status, it might be said that the town has more than 500 people. I've lived in towns as small as 3,000 people, and there was only one grocery store, so someone might reconsider this peice of information, because there are no facts to support it. There's no facts to support any number, but surely there are more than 500 people!

Anyway, for a mythical place, there sure are a lot of things to consider!

Regards,

Christina