I have a real job and it is not creating the Me In Maine blog post stream of news from up here in the upper right hand corner.
And the common theme I hear more than any is “get me out of the city, away from people.” Maine is a vast state and under nourished for population. The head count is low and the acreage of woods, farm land, water front is huge and unspoiled. Because the distance north protects and insulates the state of Maine.
Why People Pick Maine For Low Cost Property, The Wide Open Space. Low Population, Less Folks To Bump Into And Bug You The #1 Reason Order Up Maine.
So other people. Why are they the problem for many?
Because folks need to take Dale Carnegie and learn to win friends and influence people? No. That’s not it because I meet lots of people in my day job of listing, market, selling Maine real estate. That are friendly, personable and not difficult to deal with…but throw these same people into grid lock living of a city. Add a dash of crime, an element of noise and feeling jammed in and watch out. Things heat up like the tempers and anxiety levels.
It is the same do or die, fight or flight situation as an animal backed into a tight corner exhibits. With teeth bared, its shackles up. The nice as punch, easiest going dog, cat, person becomes a caged animal wanting to break out at all costs. They snap. That is why people buy property in Maine. They can breathe, not worry about plowing into someone that invades their space. They also can own and enjoy it without debt. Everything you know divide by three, four living in small rural Maine.
The stress of living with too many people, way too much regulation and high cost of surviving the urban landscape.
It is the reason folks age prematurely from the stress. They are not happy and no matter how much they try to retail therapy their way out of it, something is missing. Something money can not buy. Maine is outdoor experiences, the ability to get below radar and away from people. To spend time with me, myself and I.
This Is Not The Landscape Where Too Many People Live. Maine Is Less Population, More Natural Unspoiled Space To Enjoy As You Take It Easy.
Had a call this week from China. Joe is from Chengdu and teaches English. I told him in a phone conversation it must be neat to be fluent in Chinese and he says he is never going to stop learning that language.
He spied with his little eye a low cost house, land, near a lake and on a brook for $12,500. He wants a place to vacation at least once a year with the plan to move here full time someday. He has traveled extensively, is from California originally and has a buddy from Wales who also teaches English in China.
There is lots of demand for help teaching English and folks on the streets of China when they hear English flock to it to practice the language.
To become more proficient with the plan for many to take a leap to the USA someday. The land of opportunity. A cheap place for Vacationland ME real estate and why people buy property in Maine.
But back to Joe. He also has another friend who writes and is looking for a backdrop to crank up the creative literary juices. I told him after college, I worked in broadcasting in Bangor Maine, and for a time at a station writer Stephen King owns. And if you digest any of his many books, Maine is a common setting with a twist on the places to add spark to the fiction of his works.
The time zone difference, knowing China does not spring forward or fall back to save on the time to match the calendar here in Maine.
A dozen hours, it was 11:30 at night there and 11:30 in the morning on the call as crystal clear as a bell with no delay or static. I have been sending him property video links and bring him up to speed on how things rock and roll in Maine. He likes what he sees, hears and is sharing in his cyber circle. Others connected to his sphere are reaching out from far away lands and the spinning blue and green marble is becoming smaller, more accessible to many.
Easy Does It, Everyone Is Not Strung Out, Including The Animals. Plenty Of Elbow Room, Living Space Does That! Get To Maine For A Sample.
The same day another phone call from St Barths, an Caribbean Island. The caller with a thick French accent, asking about a church for the same $12,500 price tag we must be running a special on in Maine real estate. So much for so little makes Maine a bargain for property listings and add the sauce surrounding it of eye candy, less people, more wildlife and the strong connection to get some real estate intensifies. It is why lots of our sweat and tears is poured into telling, showing the outside audience what Maine is like.
Another caller from Garmisch, Germany buzzed in through thin air of a wireless signal.
He told me the location in Bavaria, near Germany’s highest mountain was the site of the 1936 World Olympics. Evidently whoever picks the venue for the next global games requires a certain size population. So Hitler anxious to be the host city combined Garmisch (in the west) and Partenkirchen (in the east). They had been two separate towns for many centuries, and still maintain quite separate identities. See link above on the location in Germany.
Have had a seller from England sell a home he bought from us to a purchaser from Ireland we located from one of our blog posts on simple Maine living. People move, look for a better location or just to sample a new part of the World. Traveling is easier today and folks have more disposable money to burn.
They don’t only come to the New Land riding in clipper ships, the Plymouth Rock models or the square back ones Chris Columbus navigated in search of rum, spices, real estate for the taking by planting a flag, for the fame and fortune. To go down in the history books as a remembered name echoed through time.
Church For Sale In Maine! $12,500! That Makes The Phone Ring, Email Server To Glow Hot Around The World.
One buyer from Seattle Washington has boat loads of blue chip software tech stock that went through the roof in value.
And did not want his four cats to ride on a commercial airline so he chartered a private Lear jet to whisk them away to Maine. I had to pick them up at the Houlton Maine airport and get the pilot and two other crew members a ride to a rental car place, to the check at a local motel.
The cost was $15,000 for the one way delivery of the felines and the pair of fly boys and stewardess were leaving the next day on touch down in Boston for the return back haul of a family heading to the west coast.
So back to the day job of peddling properties and will keep shooting images, uploading videos about life in Maine. The way life should be and a place where not many other areas of the World can compare.
Moving, relocating to Maine, what creates the itch needing to be scratched?
And how long does the loving feeling for Maine last? What makes the longing grow stronger, dig itself deeper? Maine tugs hardest on the heart strings of those just not built to shuck and jive in a city. Maine is small town connected, helpful, honest. The cost of living is lower in a small Maine town. Because cars don’t get stolen, gangs don’t roam the streets collecting for chop shops. Less fender benders when population is low like Maine. We look out for those elderly drivers who we know on sight and who’s own has dimmed. Cut ’em some slack. Especially if they are wearing a yellow Fisher snow plow angled your direction on front of that well known pick up truck. Give them a wide berth Chummy.
Coffee Early In The Morning The Old Fashion Way! Get To Maine, Relax, Breathe.
Way way more land around whatever you purchase for real estate in Maine. House and land prices are lower. Slaving to make mortgage payments is not a given. When you fill in the spaces, tear off and send the checks in at the end of the month. Fun is outdoors, no or low cost generated. All four seasons offer something special that touches folks in intimate places they did not know they had. Fear, personal safety is not a drain on the brain of the people who live in rural Maine. No dead bolts and chain locks in the 4th lowest crime state.
Worry about making a certain salary, meeting some imaginary financial goal objective may be a seed planted by parents, educators.
Who live in a small town but longed to see what life was like in the bright lights, big city. Get away, shoo fly.
Travel cures that concern and folks that feel trapped in a small town should move and relocate. Try out what they think is missing. Those who have appreciate Maine even more. Because they have other surroundings to compare it to and the appreciation increases. The local whining and bitching stops.
A Break From The Water, Flying A Kite At The Wells / Moody Beach Seashore.
Absence makes the heart grow fonder. And you don’t appreciate something as much as you should until it is removed from your life right? A couple of weeks of therapy living, surviving, struggling in say Boston’s Combat Zone oughta do it.
Living in small rural Maine does not mean retreating to the stone age.
High speed internet, telecommuters are common as you bring your online job with you to Maine. Those with an income that follows them flock to Maine too and they are not all retired, wearing the gold watch for all those years of service somewhere far from Maine.
One Beach Is Not Exactly Like The Next. This One In Maine In Kennebunkport At Dusk.
Maine only has a handful of cities. And the shift of folks living in the ones closer to Boston making the move deeper into the interior, pushing further north. It is happening as I hear in my day job some just don’t feel like they live in the Maine they grew up in because of increased population. All that is lost when the head count number rises.
Maine, why Maine?
The unspoiled beauty, the vast wide open space, fresh air, clean water. The simpler living in Maine. You are needed in small Maine towns, you have a role to do beyond raising your kids, holding down a job. You contribute in lots of little ways so collectively the pride of the small Maine town, your area of one of the sixteen counties swells. You work behind the scenes in the local community events, not just pay for the price of admission in small Maine town productions.
Fire engines send off and receive the sports teams that leave town boundaries lines to defend a title or earn a new one. We cheer on and had a hand in raising our youngsters. We know them by first name, their brothers, sisters too. Our households have hub bub from more than our own and kids grow up feeling a part in their community. And long to come back to it if forced to move but that leave their heart back in Maine. The state up here in the left hand upper corner which by rights should be in Canada. And shares a rich heritage with the land of the waving red maple leaf.
The Pets Socialize As Their Owners Do The Same On A Maine Open Deck. Chill.
Folks moving, relocating to Maine get the unexpected perk of venturing into the Maritimes.
No one told them in the four color brochure pushing Maine tourism how neat it really is to be a two nation vacation destination. And our sports teams drag us to other parts of Maine. We hang around after the game and get to know our Maine small town host by tooling the area, sampling what each has to offer. That is the sparkle on the facets of the jewel dubbed Maine.
Ever been Downeast Maine? This Me In Maine blog post channel tries to highlight the many areas of Maine. Folks that claim to have been to Maine but only the Kittery Trading post and a quick trip back across the big green bridge quick like a bunny like we urged the kids. They missed out on so much! Come back, go deeper, stay a little longer sometime. Make Maine a life long habit.
But just as much, exploring and discovering all the special areas of Maine living here is what adds the sizzle to the steak. The ice shacks are slowly leaving the frozen sheets of water, sap houses are in production making the maple syrup. Canoe and kayak race schedules are being circulated around Maine. We are scanning seed catalogs, planning for outdoor remodeling or renovation projects and shopping materials for the DIY updates. Little league, soap box derby registrations are landing in household metal boxes and email inboxes.
Maine Has A Lot Of This… Just Land. No People, No Wind Generators Or Anything Man Made.
Space in an under populated state like Maine creates the sense of relief and then bring in, cue all the wildlife. Everyone longs to see a moose, white tail deer, a whale vacationing in Maine right?
Birds singing, fish jumping, no highway hum of big trucks or all those city sirens. The sunrises, sunsets on a lake, a river, ocean front cause a person to let go completely. To gaze into the outdoor fire pit while friends and family collect to share, bond, to dream. Munching slow cook, locally sourced home made food. Much you raised yourself or others at the social gatherings contributed to the common menu.
Thinking you could benefit from a little Maine time spent wisely to ease back, enjoy life a lot more? Less distractions, more hands on skill building and help from your neighbors who join forces. Who wouldn’t benefit from that? Thought of moving, relocating to Maine?
To run away from all the layers of players whenever you want to build the new dream home. Or add on, do the updates when you are smack dab in the heart of an urban setting. The big attraction, the main reason besides low price tags for Maine land is you get all this space. Wide open surroundings without too many people to spoil the setting. To make it so you can’t hear yourself think.
The Black Horse Horse Buggies, The Walkers And Amish Bikers Hard To See At Dusk At Night In Maine.
Maine, it looks attractive to those wanting to avoid all the strangle hold of zoning, building codes, all the rubber stamps of approval steps. That are costly in time and the green stuff. Permits for this, waiting for another municipal meeting, running everything by a snarky restrictive home owner’s association in a planned development. That sizes you up to see if you are a blue blood and going to fit in or not.
Maine is simpler. Because we have less people, there are way way fewer of the head and horns, big cheese chiefs telling them us what to do that over regulation causes.
Move along people. No more herding them in this or that direction. Because freedom to build slowly, a little today, adding to what you started along the way. As time and your budget allow. It makes whatever you do create way more interesting and thought out practical. Because nothing was rushed, no one had a gun to your head. You had choices in the decision making with the stress of heavy duty pressure.
Soil tests for the septic system is one must when you do build on the cheap land in Maine.
Making sure your water source is a well at least 100 feet from the sewerage disposal operation. More on what’s the heck is a HHE 200 soil test plan tht is pretty important paperwork. You can have a privy, make the trips to the little shack out back. The outhouse which is environmentally the best for the good Earth. And have a gray well disposal area designed for shower and kitchen water.
Still need the soil tester involved in the pretty straight forward paperwork that the licensed soil tester, site evaluator cranks out. That shows the dimensions of the leach field or disposal area. That is bigger or smaller depending on the number of bedrooms in the dwelling. With it designed for pressurized or forget the pump to create designs to handle what you want to dispose of that no one likes to talk about much.
Besides the folks wanting a piece of dirt for low cost vacation use, for the investment side of things, piece of mind is another motivator to buy cheap land in Maine. If the country gets into more hot water, if the quick sand of expensive government red tape causes the city mice to head to the hills where their country brethren roost. Starting over in rural Maine is an attractive notion of an increasing number of people.
Teaming The Horses, Working The Land In Maine Farm Fields. Amish Communities Do It Daily Around The State.
The Amish over the years have found Maine on their real estate radar.
The cheap land prices, easier codes for building and just less all around regulation is appealing to their simple lifestyle. The supply of farm land in Maine is great and the smaller fields that bigger growers don’t mess with are idea for the Amish. Who strive to keep things like their were a few generations back in farming. Horse drawn this, hand done that makes the farming harder. But keeps the Amish industrious and pretty much to themselves.
In many areas of Maine you see new Amish settlements. Hear the clip clop of their horse drawn one color carriages. With the group huddled inside wearing the same shade of black. In over a half dozen communities in Maine, Amish settlements have ignited. Sparked from earlier visits from the Amish scouts to check out their brave new land called Maine, the state by itself in the northern outpost of the country. And bordering Canada where the difference in the dollar to loonie exchange can add to the sizzle and allure. Depending on which way the currency value tips.
The Amish have helped taken up the slack of the shrinkage of original farmer head count in Maine.
The trend nationally of farmers being an average age of 59 is not what is happening in Maine. The Amish, the resurgence of farming with micro agriculture younger operators have made Maine bucking the trend. With more than four times the national average of new farm starts the headline in Maine today.
The Amish home school, pay property taxes and contribute to the local economy with their trade mark storage sheds, leather harnesses, bike sales and repairs, etc. I have used their vertical metal siding to re-side a big family farm barn. And their dark as the inside of a cow general store in Smyrna Maine’s Amish community is stocked to the ceiling with nifty devices and fair prices. The Prairie Princess wood cook stove like the other items they sell are tried and tested by their own Amish communities. They sell what they use in their households on a daily basis.
No Smog, No Gas Guzzling Exhaust Fumes With Maine Amish Transportation Using Horse And Buggies. Over 113 Amish Families In A Half Dozen Communities Are Alive And Well In Maine.
Another Amish settlement in East Hodgdon Maine I was involved with as the broker with the listing on a border farm that looked into Canada made for a perfect setting. Except what do you do when you cattle, sheep, farm animals wander across the US / Canadian border? Disconnection of the power into the home, sudden building of a variety of structures was done quickly as I observed the the migration of new families to this Hodgdon Maine location in Southern Aroostook County.
Industrious, private, family oriented, the Amish element in our Maine landscape has added a tourist attraction.
They Amish group in Smyrna Maine from Tennessee landing here in 1996. The Fort Fairfield Central Aroostook collection arrived in 2007 from Heuvelton, NY and Ohio, Missouri, Iowa. The Unity area Amish population from Missouri, Kentucky and down from Smyrna settled in 2008. The Sherman, East Hodgdon and Patten area groups all showed up between 2011 and 2012.
But the shy but friendly Amish population in Maine tries to tend to the chores, raising their large household of respectful boys and girls. The Amish don’t vote. They take care of their own self funded Amish healthcare. Part of the admiration of the Amish when you live with them as neighbors is the preserving the yesteryear farming lifestyle.
Using old ways to produce the bounty from the farm land. But also observing the way they work together on projects from barn raisings to house construction. On their own spread and hired out like ants at a picnic in time’s a wastin’ country building projects. Relying on the home or barn builder to pick up the Amish crew to and from work. Or hiring others to transport the materials if not handy to their own Amish farmsteads. Check out the video from a recent Maine farm sale that was built from the ground up, along with a barn by the Amish community in Smyrna Maine. See, hear the Amish home building in action at this link.
Space For Everyone, Maine Has Lots Of Cheap Land. To Enjoy The Wildlife Without Traffic, Crime, Pollution. Noise.
On Thursdays, the Amish in our area have “community project day”.
They leave their farm land homesteads to go help another in their group. To round robin do whatever needs attention on the spread down the road. There is a connection and working together manner that is impressive. In a day and age of “me me me” when it used to always be about others. Many are realizing how the get more by giving more really works in small rural Maine. Money is not the end all. The way you treat others with dignity and respect it and kindness wins the day.
How do we adjust to the Amish in Smyrna, East Hodgdon, Fort Fairfield-Easton, Unity-Thorndike, Sherman-Island Falls and Patten?
Well motorists see the horse and buggy signs, slow when a carriage is coming at you or when you come up on one pretty fast on a country highway. The black makes seeing them at dusk or later very hard so I avoid those highways and opt out for the faster Interstate 95 by pass around the communities that do have Amish settlements in Aroostook County. Having a horse hit for a new hood ornament is not a pleasant thought.
Nature’s Circle, a local New Limerick organic farm operation partners with the Amish produce growers for their root crops, the squash, potatoes. With expansion of what is grown and shipped to organic markets planned. I grew up on a convention farm and the introduction to organic crop raising has been enlightening. Thinking more about where did this food come from and how it was handled makes food safety pretty darn important. There is nothing better than farm to table, close to home farming to feed your family the best food available to make them grow tall, strong, happy and healthy.
Like most small communities, Houlton Maine is a town of unique features, talented people.
Houlton Maine, Rich History Preserved And Protected.
Small towns like Houlton Maine to survive and prospect must turn the corner with an eye to the future. But never losing what is behind them in the rear view mirror for rich history.
For perspective, adapting to a changing World economy it is the blend of new and old. It is all about embracing technology and riding the information wave into the future never forgetting the past.
Service providing and the shift from working on the Maine farms and in the deep vast woods by hand is underway. Retooling for the next generation to stick around or move back to their small Maine town.
Houlton Maine, Shiretown of Aroostook County. The Early Years.
The past of Houlton Maine is a rich one as an earlier blog post on the County Seat Or “Shiretown”, the oldest town in Aroostook County outlines.
The archives of Houlton Maine history show colorfully in the jounalistic prose of the time about the hardships of picking up from comfortable surroundings. And heading into the unknown wilds of the Great North Maine Woods.
The history of farming in Aroostook County is a rich one. And the youth exposed to farming benefit the most in life skills and perseverance. The industry of children shown in this potato picking video, another one on potato house work say it all. Fresh air, working together to harvest the new crop of spuds or whatever the farm field yields from the seeds of spring. That drive and determination to stick with it carries a person for life.
But today, building on the past, with stories preserved, the history capsuled in museums, on website meanderings can be part of the tourism effort in Maine.
As folks seek to go deep into the interior and northern, western sections of Maine beyond the traditional sea coastal area tourist traps. The Patten Lumberman’s Museum is another example of a history lesson available to all who enters it’s doors or accesses the site in this Northern Penobscot County out post town.
Potatoes Were King, Northern Maine Planted More, Harvest The Most At One Time.
The railroad opened up the Northern sections of Maine. Once the border between Maine and Canada was hammered out. The railroad lines and spurs on the sidings connected the industries. To feed the markets needing the farming produce, meat, dairy and lumbering products. Take a ride on a train leaving the Oakfield Maine’s Railroad Museum … hurry. All aboard. Let me punch your ticket.
Homesteading never did die down since Joseph Houlton led the charge to this new land on the Canadian border cut out in six by six mile tidy uniform township squares.
Laid out in easy to follow grid work of township this, range that designations.
The Internet opens up the ability to telecommute to an online job far from Maine where the worker does not want to live. And today does not need to as they beam a signal from Maine to wherever the other end of the connection may be on the globe. Houlton Maine is connected to fiber.
Houlton Maine’s Miss Aroostook Diner. What’s Today’s Blue Plate Special? Pea Wiggle? Bubble & Squeak?
The early days of a small Maine town like Houlton were more local happenings.
Less of the jump in your car and run the roads to a larger population to sample the wares of their stores. Slower moving trains, no super highways, no Amazon to order from online and expect delivery without what seems like hours, not days or weeks.
Pilots of private planes fly into these small airports that dot the Maine landscape like in Houlton Maine.
Small commuter airlines could survive less passenger load before deregulation. Or bolt on pontoons so your silver bird becomes a float plane. Now you can touch down and lift off from Maine’s many water front recreational options. To explore Northern Maine’s many waterfront taxi landing strips. Just make sure you are taking off into the wind for maximum lift. To go under your wings of your Piper or Cherokee puddle jumper. So the plane has altitude enough. For up up and away over those tall trees at the end of the maybe too tight Maine lake airport.
Two Theaters, Market Square In Houlton Maine Was A Busy Place. Everything Was Local, In The Community Of Small Maine Towns.
Speaking of planes, the silver birds, Loring Air Force Base provided over forty years of service protecting the skies of the wild blue yonder of Northern Maine.
Defending our borders, the freedom of the United States from the upper right hand corner of a small town called Limestone. That was the shortest hop over the north pole where Santa lives to keep an eye on Russia, the Middle East back when relations where cold, strained, and neither countries were sending the other a Christmas card.
And after LAFB was moth balled, other uses with DFAS hummer repair, payroll checks and that’s right. A few Phish concerts with 60,000 music lovers heading north up into the “County”. A couple going too far on I-95 / Making a big mistake. Taking the VW micro bus straight into Canada, beyond exit 305. Over the border beyond Houlton International Airport (KHUL) that was a busier place during lend lease during World War Two. Back in a time when German POW’s got paid helping the local potato farmers get the crop into storage.
And Cole’s Express, other trucking outfits helped open up the down country markets to local agriculture and lumbering concerns in Northern Maine.
Providing something the trains could not with the iron horses. Overnight service for the now business
Try ‘er Again. (Whirring Sound) Must Be The Solenoid. Or Missing Tooth On The Fly Wheel.
model of “just in time” inventory control.
Coles Express got its start with snow plowing back when winter’s provided more white stuff before the effects of global warming. Lots of songs about trucking in Maine like through the Haynesville Woods penned and performed by Dave Dudley of Fort Fairfield, in central Aroostook County.
Home theatre media rooms rather than putting on your hat, coat and hitting the silver screen. Sneaking down the pretty dark aisle munching on a fresh pop bucket of corn and your favorite sugar snack. Vacations to second, third and more homes that are ready and waiting but infrequently used. More for the collection than putting down roots as today’s public more affluent but still restless and gypsy like. Finding it hard to sit still for long. The could be missing something and like to be kept entertained.
No Motel 6, No Howard Johnson Or Day’s Inn Back When In Small Maine Towns. Lots Of Local, No Franchise Chain Hotels To Stay in Northern Maine Towns.
Aroostook County is known for its Acadian culture, the tongue sliding back and forth into French and English in the St John River Valley.
That hugs the International border and has strong cross boundary cultural ties with Canada’s New Brunswick and Quebec Provinces. The trip to Northern Maine truly is a two nation vacation.
Ever snow sledded in Maine, up into the Valley where the trails are like super highways, smooth and well marked? Take your snow sled to dining and dancing and motel options heading through Shin Pond, Oxbow, Masardis weaving along with Rt 11 to the Crown of Maine.
Explore and Discover Northern Maine. Don’t neglect or leave any area of this great state out of the running for spending time and getting to know the locals, their local history and rich traditions. Learn the early history as you enjoy the current recreational and outdoor beauty. Find out more about the rich history of Houlton Maine. It’s one of many fine small Maine communities.
Like who was Henry C. Merriam and why is he famous in Houlton Maine history?
Low Price, Less Options. It Was All Black And White Simple Picking Out Your New Car At Duff’s. The Bangor Road Was The I-95 For Traffic.
Did you ever hear of a famous young girl named Samantha Smith who died too young but did so much? Samantha was from Houlton Maine, dying in a Bar Harbor Airlines fatal plane crash at age thirteen.
The Amazeen home is where and why was it built in Houlton Maine?
Or for ten points, where was the trans Atlantic radio station transmission antennae located in Houlton Maine? I have seen signs of that handiwork that helped the World War Two effort. Why? Bbecause I lived a quarter mile from the transmitter site and remains are still in the North Maine woods of Aroostook County. As a little kid, those glass insulators and old wooden support posts for the wires remain. If you know where to look and tramp around the two mile course they chewed up in the Houlton area.
All the stuff the slick four color high gloss tri-fold travel brochures leave out in the condense it down to a few lines of buzz words and the usual over used eye candy. The same angles, photos, captions that get tiresome in the copy and paste, hit print or send. Let’s take it all up a notch.
Fill It Up. Unleaded? What’s That? (Ding Ding)
Meet the small town friendly locals, perched sitting on a lunch counter stool or getting your hair cut or twisted and just ask, listen, learn.
Always a colorful rendition of the local history with a unique spin on the early adventures of the new to this land explorers. The ones that through nip and tuck situations did finally open up this northern Maine section of woods, water, wildlife. Houlton Maine, one of many local jewels with rich history facets to uncover. Come sample it any of the four seasons. Each if different and offers something unique to treasure.
Come see for yourself and experience the hidden gems, the small Maine towns that all offer memorable stays if you can clear the schedule to get to Vacationland.
Houlton Maine, located on the shared east / west International border with New Brunswick Canada. Houlton is the “Shiretown” or the county seat of Aroostook.
The earliest settlers to Houlton Maine making the trek north distilled down from a small, closely related group of families. From the New Salem area, one specific location in Massachusetts.
Until 1820, Maine was part of the Bay State and most of the early pioneers that relocated in this vast wooded wilderness region did so along the coastal locations. Joseph Houlton was a leader, the most prominent of those stepping forward to buy his larger portion of land tract acreage. Located much further away from the rock bound craggy coastline, to the north along the fuzzy, vaguely defined Canadian Massachusetts (eventually Maine) border.
Nothing New, Small Maine Town Pride, The Fun Home Grown & Kept Simple. Nothing Has Changed.
A boundary that took years to define and included the Bloodless Aroostook War. Also known as the Pork and Beans War that was an international incident. Where Great Britain wanted to defend it’s timber interest in those King Pines, the Loyalist population across the pond.
The skirmish and saber rattling between the two countries caused the US Congress to authorize 10 million dollars and to mobilize 10,000 troops to define, draw the line between Maine and Canada.
That dividing boundary eventually was hammered out once and for all with the help of a bottle of whiskey to lubricate the legalese crafted into the hard fought, way overdue Webster – Ashburton Treaty.
In the early years of settling Houlton, the other townships, half sections too the new inhabitants bought their land stakes from grants given by the state of Massachusetts to academies, many other worthwhile causes. To peddle the property, to develop and tame the uninhabited wilds to the northeast. This section of distant land needing population granted to benefit the New Salem Academy was primarily settled by the founders of New Salem itself.
Who stepped up to buy the Houlton land designed to create sales revenue for New Salem Academy when takers to lay down the money were few.
Early in 1807, trudging in on snow shoes, the earliest settlers of Joseph Houlton Jr, Samuel Houlton and William Cary arrived on the winter scene. Later that year, Joseph Houlton landed in the region via a sea route from Saint John, New Brunswick. Some of the settlers of Houlton crossed in from next door, across the border in New Brunswick Canada. Caused from the natural expansion of the St John area growth that pushed to the outreaches of the New Brunswick frontier.
Lots Of Parade Watchers In Small Maine Towns. Your Friends And Neighbors Of Houlton Maine.
Expansions of lumbering timber resources, the rise of the potato industry due to being blessed with the high test fertile soil of Northern Maine. Both helped population numbers gain momentum. After railroads opened up the Aroostook Region and attracted lumberjacks and dirt farmers to the region on the border shared with Canada.
The earlier British timber exports especially paid for the purchase of goods from St John to help the Southern Aroostook area grow and prosper. More on Houlton Maine history.
The legal step of organization of the plantation of Houlton was needed to be able to levy property taxes.
It finally happened in 1826. With the hope that a second half township of Foxcroft, the Williams College grant was added to make Houlton a full six by six miles in size township. That union did not occur until 1834. Two years later than the Groton and Westford Academy grants formed the township of Hodgdon to the south of Houlton Maine.
Maine Is Simple Living, Basic And Loaded With Common Sense.
So now the much needed but denied earlier money requests from Massachusetts became available to establish a post office. Where previously the mail was often sent to Houlton in care of Park Holland of Eddington, a well established surveyor. Who knew the woods and waterways of eastern Maine and round about ways through Eastport, St John and the Baskehegan Trail to get the posts delivered.
The first regular mail contract from Bangor to Houlton Maine by the Baskehegan was awarded James Lander. With the Calais Stage Route becoming the pony express option for spread the news, deliver the letters and packages. Amos Pearce came to Houlton Maine in 1810. There’s a street in Houlton named after the first postmaster appointed by President John Quincy Adams in 1826.
Celebrating Fresh Locally Source Food With Maine Farmers At Open Air Markets.
As the Houlton Maine population grew now connected better with mail news from the outside, a greater need for schools sparked educational options.
That led in time to eventually nine public schools serving the Houlton towns people.
The early settlers had New England Puritan religious roots and at first attended church in the new land across the border in Woodstock New Brunswick. Woodstock, a dozen miles distant, was a settlement established way earlier in 1786 by Loyalists to the King of England. After the American War of Independence and a desire for space caused their migration to the northeast, across the Maine border.
So many early Houlton residents from New Salem attended worship services in Woodstock New Brunswick Canada.
But in 1811, the First Congregational Church did enroll the first eighteen members. As the population of Houlton Maine grew, worship divergence happened to create many denominations.
The Federal government in 1828 established a US garrison in Houlton Maine which added over a hundred troops that had families or ended up married to locals. The extra social interaction the troops brought to Houlton Maine and the contracts and payroll put a lot of extra money into the local economy. But the building of the Military Highway and much later in 1950 the Interstate 95 system to connect to Loring Air Force Base in Limestone, a SAC base with B-52’s helped tremendously to open up the Northern Maine region.
With Houlton Maine now the cross roads of US Rt 1, 2, 2A and I-95 the connector to the Atlantic Canadian provinces Trans Canada highway make the County seat a true transportation hub.
The early railroad too did what local rivers that froze over for half the year could not. The St Andrews and Quebec railroad proposal of the 1830’s ran into a boundary dispute and was dropped. The lack of the well defined dotted line to establish where Maine ended and New Brunswick began fueled cross border tensions that hindered railroad service that would create benefits for both sides.
All Walks Of Life Make A Small Maine Community Shine.
In 1960 fifty thousand railroad cars of potatoes were shipped from Northern Maine but destined to soon be trumped by the overnight service and just in time inventory control offered by trailer trucks. The Bangor and Aroostook Railroad was first incorporated in 1891. Shipping freight, offering passenger rail service and eventually operating a bus route to carry folks in and out of “The County”.
The soil profile of Southern Aroostook County around Houlton Maine is extremely fertile, with a level to rolling, undulating land terrain which supports the planting, cultivation and harvest of crops.
Or to make pasturing animals and haying an easier endeavor than more mountainous sections of southwest Maine where Sugarloaf USA is located. Or the less desirable for tillable row crop rocky more acidic soil profile along the coast of the state where wild blueberries are raked.
My Dad was president of the Maine potato council, did a lot of testifying in Washington DC as a national council member to help shape the spud industry that was number one in the country production at one time. Grains, sugar beets, dry beans, even hops, broccoli and an increase of organic farming in the Houlton Maine area is done hand in hand with beef and dairy. Houlton Maine has a dairy serving Aroostook County since 1938.
The housing stock is attractive, preserved yesteryear designs that show Houlton Maine’s status of the richest town of its size east of the Mississippi was well deserved. Money was plowed back into the intrastructure and the 1966 comprehensive plan of Houlton Maine was very forward thinking by local tax payers.
The bits and pieces of the large antennae array through the woods system running miles and miles. The lines connecting England with Houlton Maine for radio intercepts is still found during walks through the woods. The radio station located west of Houlton on US RT 2 or the County Road where I grew up the youngest of four boys.
The radio station was located off the County Road, on what is now the residential property of Roger and Carol Hand.
Good mill sites were valuable to early settlers of Houlton Maine.
The state of Maine recognized the importance of good grist and saw mills to a beginning community. Sometimes granting 300 acres to the man who promised to start the first mill in a township of Maine.
Among the tanneries of the area, New Limerick Maine to the west of Houlton Maine was one important one. Set up in areas where there was a large abundance of hemlock trees. The wood bark needed for treating the hides to make leather.
Grand Older Maine Homes, Find Them Here. Listen To, Meet The Neat People Inside.
Hides were brought to the New Limerick tannery mill from around Maine. Those unorganized places early Maine looked like. From points more distant like cattle ranches out west, even from South America too.
The tannery in Island Falls was not established until after the Bangor and Aroostook Railroad line was well established. Another tannery was set up on Whitney Brook in Bridgewater Maine.
Fires in Houlton Maine shaped the look of today.
The first big fire happening on August 3, 1879. In the back of the Swanton building, the stable area opposite Fogg’s on Main Street. Seems a wind fanned the smoke that turned to flames and destruction. When the wind shifted westward the fire moved east wiping out most of the downtown Houlton Maine block.
The fire wiped out the C.P. Tenney row of buildings, his residence the second oldest home in Houlton Maine.
Being the one built by Samuel Wormwood for Dr. Rice. 21 Houlton Maine buildings including residences were wiped out by this blaze.
Shiretown Houlton Maine.
Nine months later, fire hit pretty much the same area again. It began in the back end of Samuel Gray’s workshop. On a dark night when water buckets were scarce the Aroostook Pioneer newspaper accounts report.
The only available water to fight the blaze in Houlton Maine was a “reservoir”. But it’s cover frozen below several inches of ice and untapped. This fire worked its way up and down Main Street and along Court Street. The Meduxnekeag River frozen over and no help either due to winter temperatures.
The Congregational Church caught fire and the nimble pastor at the time scrambled up the belfry. Able to put it out and save the building from ruin.
Houlton’s Great Fire of 1902 took out seventy five dwellings, three churches and left a score of business blocks in the Shiretown’s down town in ruin.
Eighty families were homeless. The fire started at the corner of Main and Mechanic Streets of Houlton Maine in the Almon H Fogg building.
The 1902 fire was fought with the help of the Woodstock New Brunswick Canada horse drawn fire carts providing mutual aid. That across the border helping hand when there is fire or diaster still happens back and forth today. Both departments work together when needed.
Houlton Maine, Aroostook County’s Oldest Town! The Shiretown Of Aroostook!
Small Maine towns are like that. This devastating 1902 fire of Houlton Maine burned a swath with straight sides all the way up to Bird Street. Where the horseshoe roadway entrance to the Houlton Junior and High Schools happens if you don’t access the back way. The Southern Aroostook Vocational Education complex is located near the armory and accessed off the Pleasant Street entrance.
Three major fires in Houlton Maine and the coming of the age of the railroad’s prosperity combined to create the brick buildings. Ones with intricate masonry appointments that are well preserved. All this saved from the past and better built to last. It makes Houlton Maine the fine Victorian downtown that it is today.
The Black And White Realities Of Running A Red, White & Blue Maine Small Town.Maine Has Four Seasons, They All Transition Slowly To Allow Adjustment, To Be Ready.
Fires caused losses quickly rebuilt like the McIntire home, the White Building. The latter today the home for both the Houlton Chamber of Commerce and historical museum. The pair hiding, protected behind large dramatic pillars on it’s open porch. The White building painted ironically yellow is located next to Cary Library.
Wisdom, Entertainment, History Housed Here Row After Row In Cary Library.
Cary Library a Carnegie well stocked book and ancestor search facility made of rock solid granite. Cut and hauled in from around Cochran Lake in New Limerick Maine.
Cary Library has a children’s section second to none.
One heck of an area for chasing down your family history DNA for study of their exploits.
Ricker College started in 1848 met it’s demise after the Vietnam War caused it to lose the battle. Failing to keep the doors to higher education open that ended in the mid 1970’s. Ricker College, the classical institute that neighboring bedroom communities without a high school tuitioned their students to for yuears.
Ricker College’s school colors of gold and burgundy.
Ricker an industry for new money brought in from out of state students to turn over six, seven times. Many Ricker alumni stuck around and settled down in Houlton Maine after college was completed. When chasing the sheepskin process ended for financial reasons or graduation happened and obtaining the diploma.
When You Live In Maine, Everything You Need Is Right On Your Back, Carried With You Daily For Skills For Home Grown Talent.Instilling In Kids Early On The Right Stuff To Succeed. To Contribute For The Greater Good.
There were two hospitals in Houlton Maine.
I was born in the Aroostook Hospital delivered by PLB Ebbet. A doctor who I noticed on a graveyard walk to visit Joseph Houlton’s tombstone to mark his final resting place. The good doctor died four years after my birth and I was the last baby he ever delivered.
The Aroostook Hospital located on School Street where the Community Living Association now has their headquarters.
The merger in 1972 of the Aroostook Hospital with the Madigan Hospital located on Military Street was a controversial one but much needed.
One strong health care facility works better than duplication of two offering services struggling in a small Northern Maine town like Houlton Maine. Learn more about the Houlton Regional Hospital.
Welcome To Houlton Maine, Aroostook County.
Stay tuned for more on my home town coverage of Houlton Maine. The story of this small community is not so different from one of the other 15 county seats. Maine has a handful of cities, over 400 small towns and plantations. Learn more about Northern Maine.
Agriculture, forestry which is tree farming are big in Northern Maine.
The local farmers, the harvest of their crops is a big part of the local work ethic. Gleaning potato farm fields helps the local weekly grocery budget for family meals too!
A taste of what it is like to live in a small Maine community where folks are pretty darn friendly. Always pitching in to make worthwhile events happen as dedicated volunteers. That’s the point of the hunt and peck on the keyboard and uploading images from my travels around Maine today.
I hope this blog post on the Houlton Maine and her early history is helpful, educational for the the readers of Me In Maine blog.
You climbed the corporate ladder and are coming back to the state where you were raised, Maine.
This blog post is not so much for the local that left and returned. More geared for the never been here for a long stint of time. Just maybe liked the place because of a few vacation stop experiences.
Well, for starters there is the actual making the move itself and here are a few tips for how to reduce the stress. And to have it down pat on what to do, when and why for a time table check list.
It Is The Prettiest Weed I Can Think Of… Lupines.
But now that you are here, adjusting the goggles to see life in a small Maine town is different than the way folks move and groove, shimmy and shake in a large city.
For starters, the locals have the home court advantage. Are established, involved, work pretty hard to make the small Maine town what it is.
But lots of room for more talent to add to the small town community flavor. Whatever you enjoyed in your life giving back to the wherever you lived before are areas to apply locally in Maine too. But holes, spaces where someone passed on that used to hold down a certain event is a place to step in and help out.
The experiences outside Maine are valuable to add to the local mix of what we offer to make the town stand out brightly. What distinguishes it from the other over 400 that dot the landscape in Maine. Small Maine towns are big on youth activities.
Maine. The Jewels Are Out In The Open, Glistening, Sparkling The Daylight. Not Trapped, Under A Light In A Locked Up Tight Display Case.
Whether it is sports, children’s theater, a haunted hayride, play ground improvement, nature trail development, church event, or anything youth oriented, it gets lots of volunteer and financial support. Job shadowing, career days, passing on the traditions of farming, lumbering, fishing are a big part of the Maine culture.
Also, winter is one of the season, not the only one.
We don’t hibernate. It is not the land of igloos. That is further up the globe. We live outdoors all four seasons in Maine. Do dress a little different to match the hanging, displayed month on the calendar.
Forget what you heard about winter from your out of state hair dresser or guys down at the club who have never set foot in Maine.
We watch the national news. And when we see life come to a halt in a city because of a couple inches of snow and drivers and maintenance crews can not keep up, we mutter “amateurs”.
Less people, a lower population makes winter driving easier. Not so many people to watch out for on the roads in Maine. Lots of wildlife though. And in Maine we have the equipment, the experience with snow and a work ethic to get the job done the most efficient, professional way possible. More on Maine weather, the climate.
The move to Maine is motivated because of all we have here that was missing or came at a high price in the city right?
Or lower cost real estate, living debt free and stretching the fixed income monthly checks part of the sizzle. A better place to raise your kids where the village helps in the process of getting them reared right. And the outdoor natural beauty that is respected, protected and all pure, unspoiled.
Year Round, Maine Lakes, Ponds Get Enjoyed. Used Like The Outdoor Living Room.
But get involved, don’t expect folks beating down your door to be dying to meet you. They are busy, industrious and just waiting for you to step up and pitch in. They are connected and related to lots of the neighbors. And in border towns to folks on both sides of the International boundary. Remember, Maine borders Quebec, New Brunswick Canadatoo.
“The way we did it back where I lived before … “
Go easy on that one. The tone better not be one that is “you guys here are idiots”. If it is heard enough times how stupid the locals are for doing this, this and this coupled with lots of “back in Jersey, Mass, NY..” wherever it was you remind the locals you came from in your past.
Harsh criticism never gets good results. Just like the Pirate logic of the beatings will continue until the attitudes, comradery improves. Resentment, and pulling back happens. For that first year at least, the locals can complain, but you new to these parts can not. Listen, learn, fit in and find a way to work hard to make everyone glad you are in the small Maine town.
Also, what worked well in a populated area to support the event might not in small town Maine.
Simple economics, not enough heads to pay to have what a city supported. Maine is home grown not store bought anyway. Do it on a everyone pitch in and make it like the pot luck supper simple, easy, rich and pleasing.
Don’t let your feelings get hurt or be bent out of shape if your idea is not taken and run with and consider you are in a small Maine town which operates a little differently than the urban center you are used to for the day to day.
Children, Our Greatest Entertainment, Investment In Maine Small Town Living. Kids Don’t Raise Themselves. Or Shouldn’t.
Be kind, a good listener, watch and learn. Pretty much the same advice anywhere you travel and are dropped into an area finding yourself new to these parts.
And hardware store, where is the place to buy no trespassing signs?
On no, don’t put those up. And snow sled trail markets, the ones for ATV across land, think before just pulling up all those stakes. You are going to want to explore and discover the local treasures.
Where you can not get by car or truck, only by foot. In small rural Maine the traffic on these trails is pretty limited. Just some friendly advice from a local, me in Maine. You could have the sign about I have a gun, own a back hoe to keep them guessing. But more for conversation, showing a different way of doing pretty much the same thing. Respect my Maine land, I will yours neighbor.
