PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • July 25, 2023
Brian Minott, 61, of New Gloucester drowned Sunday afternoon while swimming off the stern of a pontoon boat on Little Narrows Pond in Lincoln. Wardens said Minott went under and never resurfaced. The Maine Warden Service dive team used sidescan sonar and an underwater remotely operated vehicle to locate Minott’s body in about 30 feet of water, about 1,000 feet from shore. Scott Newton, 38, of Madison, was whitewater rafting with two friends Monday afternoon on the West Branch of the Penobscot River in an area known as the Big Eddy, when their raft flipped. He was wearing a helmet and life jacket. A fisherman on shore called 911 from a nearby campground and several people retrieved Newton’s body. The incident took place downriver from the Ripogenus Dam and was a private excursion not connected to a rafting company.