Belfast, ME - Honoring Phineas P. Quimby

Overlooking the harbor in Belfast, Maine, I found the Phineas P. Quimby Labyrinth. It was created in 2015 in Belfast Common, a park adjacent to the harbor. According to the community, it is the first labyrinth on publicly-owned land in Maine, and the fourth on public land anywhere in New England. In doing some research, I read that private donations funded the entire $30,000 project cost and the entire labyrinth project was completed in just eight months. That’s impressive community support. Who was Phineas Parkhurst Quimby? He spent most of his childhood in Belfast and seemed to be an impressive fellow. He was an inventor, dabbler and thinker, and designed the town’s First Baptist Church clock tower and taught himself in many subjects. He’s credited as a leader of the ‘New Thought’ movement, which I looked up and is considered a “religio-metaphysical healing cult.” Quimby lived from 1802-1866 and is buried nearby in Belfast.