The island is located within Penobscot Bay about 20 miles east of the mainland coast and is accessible by state ferry service from Rockland or by air taxi from Knox County Regional Airport.

[3] Early documentation of the island comes from John Josselyn's 1671 account of New England: Sagadehock to Nova Scotia is called the Duke of York's Province.

Here Pemaquid, Matinicus, Monhegan, Cape Anawhagen…are all filled with dwelling houses and stages for fishermen, and have plenty of cattle, arable lands and marshes.

"[4] In March 1726, Lieutenant Governor Dummer of the Massachusetts Bay Colony documented the early tension between the Native Americans and Europeans in a letter to Captain John Giles: I very much resent this liberty [the Native Americans at Matinicus] have taken in killing the [livestock] which belong to the English, which is contrary to the Articles of Peace and that common justice which the English and Indians owe to one another.

[3] Accompanied by his family, he built a house, commenced fishing and farming, and claimed territorial rights to the island.

"[3] Though Hall was ordered to leave Matinicus, he continued his residence there, and the Penobscots waited not two months but a little over four years before taking action.

In the following decades several families, including that of Ebenezer Hall's son, moved to the island, and at the census of 1790 there was a total population of 59.

[6][7] The island is a routine stop for the Maine Seacoast Mission's vessel the Sunbeam, which offers pastoral care as well as nursing and telemedicine facilities.

[10] Matinicus Island Library, founded in 2016, was featured by Smithsonian Magazine in 2022 for buying books banned by other organizations in the United States.

Matinicus Isle plantation is an archipelago located on the southeastern fringes of Penobscot Bay in the Gulf of Maine, part of the Atlantic Ocean.

[14] There are ten major fishing grounds around Matinicus Isle that the island's fishermen use to catch cod, haddock, pollock, cusk, and lobster.

Compared to the mainland, seasonal climate fluctuations are somewhat moderated by the Atlantic Ocean, resulting in relatively cooler summers and milder winters.