Category: Living in a Small Maine Town

Small Towns In Maine | How Do They Keep Their Doors Open?

Small towns in Maine.

The northern rural New England state is known for its sparse population and wide open spaces. So how does a small town exist? Some of them don’t because keeping up with the paperwork to maintain the local identity is slipping. Once Grange halls, local schools, the mill, and one by one farmers or woodcutters fade from the local town landscape, all you are left with is the historical notes.

Small towns in Maine. Some are surrounded by water, neighbor no other community!

Amity ME is a good example of a small town in Maine.

Amity is a bedroom community for a larger population center to support for employment, schooling, shopping, all the essentials to survive in today’s modern age. Amity Maine is located on the USA – Canadian International border.

But a little further south you find the small town of Bancroft Maine .

That was a town but not anymore as it retreated. Waved the white flagf and dismantled local government. Becoming an unorganized township from its previous status as a town is becoming a pattern. Blog posts on deorganization of small Maine towns have gotten press ink lately.

Bancroft Maine took about three years in it’s disconnecting the ties that bound the local government entity. To settle up the financial obligations was the first order. Who plows the roads and fills the pot holes. Mows the grass at the local cemetery. Or writes the check for Maine school education tuition or to pay the bus driver?

Spring run off from heavy winter snow loads fuel our many canoe and kayak races!

Somebody is at the helm no matter how small or limited the tiny small Maine town government running the show.

Issuing the warrants, counting the voter ballots on important issues of the day or to fill a position. To shift gears and divvy up the local control responsibilities between the state and County of Aroostook.

Like a boat on the open water surviving the choppy seas and less than perfect nautical weather, don’t you need a certain number of local players for a crew of a small Maine town operations? Besides figuring out how to raise enough in local annual property tax assessments each year to stay in the black financially.

Who’s going to picked from the flock for representation of the town’s people? To be a local elected selectmen, the chair of this group of committed townspeople. That all one by one step up to help administer the small Maine town obligations and responsibilities.

Home grown and everything is live, local. That’s living, working, playing as a volunteer of a small town in Maine.

In a small Maine town or plantation, someone has to be on the local board of tax assessors, serve on the local school administration education boards.

Tapped to be the local animal control officer to handle a nuisance dog at large and off his lease. To fill the boots of the local town fire warden. For where you get your fire permit. To be legit for that little smudge fire ring circle gathering outback Saturday night. The town clerk in a small Maine town often has a real job doing something else besides registering your friends and neighbor’s cars, trucks, snow sleds, ATV four wheelers and boats.

In the tiniest of small Maine towns, it is not one but many volunteers performing their local duties. Mailing out the annual property tax bills. Keeping track of real estate registry of deeds transfers in the small town divided up into map and lots. Writing out the receipts for early discounted property tax payments. Performing the property tax lien process when its been more than eighteen months since the small Maine town received any real estate taxes from its owner.

Volunteer fire departments responding to local calls for a structure fire. Or when Sparky gets a little carried away with burning fall tree leaves. Or that brush pile that spreads when winds fan the flames.

There may not be a town fire department to fight the blaze. Just like the local police are not in the town limits. But instead serve under the umbrella of protection of the local county sheriff department. Or whatever Maine state police troop barracks is closest to serve this particular radius circle of highways for each section of Vacationland.

In the small Maine community of Drew Plantation, one man in his eighties and not in the best of health holds it all together.

He admits that if he stopped changing all the hats he wears, if he retired from his many roles in Drew Plantation then deorganization steps would begin.

Fish dinner… this is how you snag one of those taught early on in small town Maine living circles.

Township 7 Range 9, in Penobscot County became the township of Drew on April 5th, 1921. But the Great Depression took its tolls. Causing Drew to return to the plantation status is began with September 8th, 1856. With 137 friendly souls populating Drew Plantation in the 1880, two school houses were used to educate the children. Today the US Census population hovers around 45-46 folks calling Drew Plantation home.

Some small Maine towns or plantations share one office, one manager. In the case of Patten Maine, under the same town office roof line, the affairs of Moro Plantation, the town of Hersey are also administered. Each local government body kept separate and not merged to be independent authorities sharing administrative services to defer the cost.

Linneus and Hodgdon Maine in the past shared one town manager. Smyrna and Merrill Maine have one capable lady at the helm of both towns under one shared roof line.

What about when it is water water everywhere… when you are a small Maine island government to keep running?

Depending on where you search online, Maine also has 3166 islands. Or other sites quote 4600 islands off the coast but also counting the ones on lakes. Mt Desert is the largest of the large collection of independent islands in Maine. Some are only visible when the tide is right to keep these ledges exposed.

Island in Maine, this one in Cutler.

Some Maine islands are close enough to the mainland that ferries shuttle the kids to school. And mom and dad take the daily ride in and back to the island from mainland population centers. If their work is not on the island community itself. From retirement checks that support the island life routine. Or from hoisting bounty from the sea fishing or running tourism attractions involving lighthouses, hump back whales and puffins.

Islands in Maine coded “R” are registered and privately owned.

The ones wearing the letter “U” designation are unorganized. Four more structures on an island puts them in another classification. Here is the list of Maine islands and their code designations. More to explore about Maine islands. Inland, Moosehead Lake, Maine’s largest surrounds Sugar Island, the biggest of its water surrounded land masts.

Salt water, sea air, sounds of gulls and navigation buoys. Maine islands offer heavy helpings of solitude.

Maine’s islands are a big part of the tourism industry. Many islands don’t live within municipal boundaries to include them in a bigger government administration. The unorganized townships of Maine divided into the sixteen counties catch all of these lost in the hustle bustle shuffle entities.

Do you know where Jewell Island is in Maine?

For a number of years each summer, a bunch of my friends would boat out and camp on Jewell Island off South Harpswell that has some unique bunkers on them from the World War Two era. To defend the coast and as a look out for early warning detection on any invasions. Add to your collection of Maine vacations with island tours on bike.

Small towns in Maine, the collection of islands too. Ever wonder how they keep the doors open and local government humming smoothly? Quite nicely and everyone volunteers to make it happen. To maintain tradition the best they can as the population shrinks. Strong internet to telecommute and connect small towns in Maine is so critical to keep those town government and local business enterprise doors open.

I‘m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker

207.532.6573 | info@mooersrealty.com | MOOERS REALTY 69 North ST Houlton ME 04730 USA

May 27, 2019
Let’s Do Lunch! Meals On Wheels In Maine.

No one should go hungry and in Maine so many volunteers make sure the local population does not.

Local Maine farmers gladly welcome gleaning the fields and hand off the kitchen grade food to lend a hand to what’s put on the table. Children from families that are struggling get back packs for kids delivered by school bus. Reduced hot lunch programs for breakfast and lunch are available.

No Matter What The Weather, Like The Postman, Delivery Of Meals On Wheels Happens In Maine.

And seniors, the shut ins get meals on wheels. Many of them are Veterans who served and deserve good hot nutrition.

As a volunteer delivering meals on wheel lunches you meet the lady with the walker and southern drawl from Texas. Knocking on her door to deliver the meals on wheels pick of the day offering to pop in the oven or microwave, she flashes a smile as large as the lone star state logo on her apartment door entrance door mat. She is glad to see Meg who like clockwork shows up with the container of filled with what’s for lunch today.

Always cheerful despite being house bound, enduring her share of aches and pains and loss of mobility.

The meals on wheels delivery person is this widows contact to the outside world. Especially when a Maine winter shoves its way into the calendar pages hanging in her apartment unit kitchen. The days locked up at home can slow to a crawl and seem to never end. When you can hop in your car at the drop of a hat it is easy to forget what it would be like for those who can not run the roads.

Gassing Up To Deliver Meals On Wheels. (Ding Ding)

On to the next stop, reaching into the insulated black zippered square box with the shoulder strap. The couple out in the country on a dead end road knows she is coming before the tap tap on the back door at the top of the wheelchair ramp. Before being passed the meal of the day or opening the freezer compartment to tuck it away for tomorrow.

Peggy the old black family dog with graying around her mouth gets animated and signals we have company.

Looking for her green tennis ball while the lunch containers are distributed. Just in case the meals on wheels delivery person might then take time to play toss and retrieve. Her master is confined to a bright red scooter chair with the motor. His wife busy taking care of him but also nursing her own long list of ailments caused by plain and simple accumulated years. And being a round the clock care giver. Contributing to her meal schedule helps lighten her load tremendously. One meal a day is someone else’s responsibility by someone other than me, myself and I in Northern Maine.

They all agree, the food is excellent. I’ve tried one that was left over and no one home to put it in a freezer. The ones in our area from the Aroostook Agency on Aging and all home made tasty. Nothing like the tinfoil hungry man or Swanson TV dinners I sampled in college. Great variety, grateful recipients and a friendship forms between the lunch or breakfast meal provider and receiver. Home bound individuals in Maine who can not get out to attend a facility prepared lunch at a senior center and who have difficulty preparing one appreciate meals on wheels.

Meals on wheels is more than helping avoid hunger than millions of American fear.

It helps with reducing the isolation and belief no one cares. Sadly 8 out of 10 senior citizens suffer from food insecurity. They don’t receive the home delivered food they need. Twenty five percent of the elderly citizens live alone. The meals on wheels program helps keep a home owner in their house as they struggle to make ends meet. More statistics on Maine’s meals for wheels program.

Mainers Volunteer, The Village Meets The Needs Collectively. From The Cradle To Senior Citizen Shut In.

It’s not one size fits all either. The meals on wheels selection work around dietary restrictions. Get heart friendly, diabetic sensitive, vegetarian, gluten free and lower sodium lunch time selections. Take a peek at all that is offered for Maine made meals on wheels lunches.

Are you retired, do you have some time each week to volunteer and give back to your local community? Breaking the cutest, most delicious small loaves of home made bread and sharing meals delivered by you to the home of someone needing them is a unique highly rewarding experience.

To partner up with the meals on wheels program, you only need a valid Maine driver’s license, background check, a reliable vehicle. Volunteers can be paid 42 cents per mile for reimbursement, but volunteers in southern Aroostook County where I live have not asked to be compensated.

It’s more than just delivering a meal, you are checking in on a friend and neighbor.

Maybe the only person besides Bob Barker, whatever talk show host or soap opera star that meals on wheels receiver may see all day long. Meals are delivered one day a week, with five meals presented to each participant. Volunteers are also needed to make phone calls to the many seniors. For more information, tap out the number sequence 1-800-439-1789. More FAQ meals on wheels program details. And if you are in the Portland area, click here.

More drivers are needed and they have the meals to deliver. If more go between connections can be made to link up the delivery person with the hungry lunch receiver.

I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker

207.532.6573 | info@mooersrealty.com |

MOOERS REALTY 69 North Street Houlton Maine 04730 USA

November 10, 2018
Maine Is Mostly Small Maine Rural Towns.

Maine small town living involves lots of volunteers working together for the unique quality of life experience.

And when local festivals or celebrations are started, the tradition needs protection to keep them happening year after year. New laborers and creative minds introduced to help the event expand and to replace those that have to step back and pull away. The events build, even the date they are held becomes sacred. Because folks plan their vacation routines around working the local small Maine town celebrations or attending them. Many travel long distances to come home from far away year after year. Both natives and new to the area folks that enjoy the experience. But the dates are what cause so much to be done to build around them.

Merchants plan their retail sales around the event. Motels and other lodging options get reservations in advance preparing for the local special event. Lots of publicity promoting the dates and times of the local community activity are put into print circulation and with online electron mass media transmissions. Social media outlets are set up to spread the word across the land. But based on a particular date in time that drives all that is planned around the event.

The Black And White Realities Of Running A Red, White & Blue Maine Small Town. Providing The Family Fun Without The Big Price Tag.

There are 25 state fairs in Maine.

And each one is special, hand made, a clever grass root creation unique to the area it reflects. The communities in Maine are not just the empty buildings on Main Street, town hall, schools, churches and houses but the people who live in the small town. The folks that invest their creative spirit and financial, time resources into everything that goes on in the small Maine town. There is nothing stronger than the heart of a local Maine volunteer with fierce pride in their home town. It is a sad day when another community threatens another’s labor of love activity in the same Maine county.

Like small plant seedlings that need protection from the elements until they gain strength and stamina, small Maine towns face lots of challenges to keep the event that swims in the local economy going. To weed, feed, water, guide and groom the festivals that struggle due to the dwindling economy. Whatever recreational, educational, sporting or amusement, all the local events and any annual celebrations that improves the quality of life are the spark of the community spirit. So many of the happenings to improve living in the small Maine town are 90 percent volunteer home grown effort and ten percent actual infused upfront monetary subsidy. Hard work trumps writing a check to pull off the event annually.

So when year after year a Maine town sponsors a festival, celebration, event, that town putting on their all out best effort for any local well planned activity, it is a beautiful thing.

It’s an example of local team work. Until something ugly happens. When a county town is pushed and they return the shove that affects another community in Maine. That’s what is happening concerning the 4th of July Houlton Maine Agricultural State Fair and the one held later the same month in Northern Maine Fair in Presque Isle. The latter is touted online as “always the fourth Friday in July to the first Saturday in August”.

Houlton State Fair, Lead Off Of Maine’s Agricultural Fair Schedule Over The 4th Of July.

The Houlton celebration a licensed State of Maine Fair since 1981. The fair, parade, retail sales in Midnight Madness in Market Square, Demolition Derby, truck pulls, horse shows, the craft fair in the park and more offer amusement and entertainment for all ages around the 4th of July. The 4H exhibits and demonstrations of all kinds, the musical acts, demonstrations, rides, games, vendor food make it a memorable experience for old and young alike. The local tradition does not just happen and is worked on and attended by most of the population in the surrounding Maine communities where it is hosted.

In August of this year, Smokey’s Greater Shows and the Northern Maine Fair agreed to petition the State of Maine to have their fair operate from Friday June 28th to Saturday July 6, 2019. Smokey’s is telling Houlton Fair to change the long time tradition July 4th schedule as the first state fair on the schedule. Recreate everything July 11th through the 14th, 2019. Whoa. And if we don’t, Houlton Maine won’t have them for a carnival amusement ride and game provider next year and for subsequent years. The hearing on the state level for such a move is considered October 12th at 10 AM in Augusta.

Tourism in Maine is strongest the closest you get to population centers out of state.

Where people in the urban areas can and do travel across the big green bridge to the south. To access the beach regions of Maine where the cost of living is a little bit steeper. To venture into the handful of cities small rural Maine has dotting the map. Up into the interior, the further north, east, west you go into this under populated New England state the flow of money slows, the economy is more rugged. But the community spirit and real not spun grass roots things we do for fun take place.

A bean supper, a fishing derby, an opening day of hunting season for someone with say a moose permit is a big deal. The lumbermen’s or agricultural museum reflect the traditions surrounding those two big industries where hard working Mainer’s earned their World wide known and respected work ethic reputation. Regional and state sporting competitions of any kind are a big deal in small rural Maine!

Maine, 108 Small Towns, Villages, Vibrant Communities.

With farming, timbering forest operations getting bigger in size and fewer in the actual company numbers, the scramble to find anything to replace the loss of jobs and our Maine heritage is a hard fought struggle.

The push for speed of thought Internet connectivity. The “bring your job with you to work online remotely” for members of the audience considering relocation here to Maine is one highly important segment to court and woo. Bragging up Maine’s small town wholesome values and building work ethic spirit, a quality life skill sets for young families members to benefit from is another trumpet blast being made daily from Vacationland.

Spelling out the lack of crime, traffic too and availability of quality health care for the “new at being old” elderly members out in the wild blue yonder are another important marketing target to keep the US census numbers up around the state of Maine.

Those retired transplants moving, relocating to Maine bring skills and donate their free time now that they don’t chase the dollar in the work world. They contribute their free manpower and creative ideas from a new area of the planet to add to the small Maine town way of life. All of us are ambassadors of Maine. Each and everyone of us wants to help spread the word on why we live here, what we love most about Maine.

It was sad to hear this week of a move underfoot to undermine the Houlton ME State Fair by another state fair venue in the same county. There is pressure from the carnival provider to make the two events closer together to justify the spin up into Aroostook County. The trip for just one outing is not cost effective, we get that. But for the Presque Isle Fair along with the carnival provider to petition the to change both venue dates is concerning.

Small Town Parades Over 4th Of July Special!

I am hopeful something can be worked out in the spirit of compromise to help both venues continue their years of tradition providing family fun. But not at the expense of either state fair venue’s historical success. And to avoid doing something that ends up hurting both communities because of the programming just too closely to give locals a chance to feel the need and to afford each of the area events.

The licensed Maine state fairs are an excellent educational and amusement entertainment value!

Carnivals in Maine have suffered from the high cost of insurance, difficulty getting quality employees for seasonal work and meeting the demands the public expect in their hungry as a horse entertainment appetite. Like most things in life now profits are smaller and businesses have to be keenly run. Your profit is found in your expenses. Volume, higher user numbers grease the gears and in a small population rural state like Maine located quite a ways up the pike, there’s the rub. The distance away from major markets helps insulate and isolate at the same time.

To step out and find a new replacement carnival circus amusement provider is difficult when the number of shows up and running is a low one. And when you read comments on the social media sites of state fairs, the public is very vocal and some very critical.

Being a volunteer on a Maine event is a thankless job and you must be tough skinned, tender hearted. It is harder to please the public members who want something for nothing or just don’t the money needed to take in multiple days of a celebration. Pride you gain from a job well done is the reward and don’t expect attention and praise from other community members who are working just as hard or putting even more effort into their list of community events.

Here’s the 2018 list of Maine’s State Fairs and their dates.

Another Hot Sausage Smothered In Onions, Peppers? (Burp) Excuse ME!

I am sure all the other state fairs, festivals in Maine that build around amusement rides that a carnival operator provides are feeling the same pinch. How to keep the well establish date for the celebration but to modify the schedule of events to make it something for everyone. Without going head over heels in debt that would kill the past time completely.

Leaving one big air sucking hole in the local fabric of life in a small Maine town proud to be the sponsor of the year after year event.

Where late night meetings, study of other venues, where planning for the next celebration or festival starts the day of the last one. It never stops and you work the event for life because looking behind you shows no person or a very short line of new blood willing to step in and work behind the scenes forever.

Writes your letters, show your concern and in the spirit of cooperation hammer out a plan to show how to preserve the state fair experience in Aroostook County, any county. Done with the least disruption to all the hard working volunteers feeling threatened and territorial that put their back into the local event that helps keep their town on the Maine map! The effort should be plowed back into the event not spent with the politics of how to poach, protect and maintain what we already have to avoid hard feelings and resentment.

I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker

207.532.6573 | info@mooersrealty.com | MOOERS REALTY 69 North ST Houlton ME 04730 USA

September 26, 2018
Mainers Like To Mow Big Lawns.

Maine homes are more often than not surrounded by big lawns

If you have company from across the pond, this fact is one of the first observations someone from say London or Paris noticed. Back where they hail from, something that big for a wrapper of land surrounding a home is tilled up and farmed. Something besides blades of grass kept crew cut short is what the generous helpings of land are used for… it is tilled or something with four legs grazes on the grass, clover, whatever else good looks good to eat if you are a farm animal.

Maine Lawns Are Bigger Than Most. Cats Enjoy The Vegetation Around The Lawns To Hide Out.

What is the reason for such large lawns? Maybe it is because not so long ago, everyone lived on small family farms in Maine. We all farmed and mowing large lawns now gives us a feeling of haying once a week spring, summer, fall. Now that many of us chase the dollar working for someone else 9-5.

The rolling lawn in front, to the sides and out back of a New England farm house is pretty when it is kept free of burdocks, red brackle and small poplars that take hold quickly. Even fiddle heads show up around houses and the more moist areas around a property in Maine. If you don’t keep the land mowed weekly or at least bush hogged once a year or the land hayed.

Some of my best thinking is done riding the John Deere or Cub Cadet International garden tractor with the large mowing deck.

You can see what you did when you tuck the mower away in the barn or garage and there is a sense of accomplishment, of property pride. You notice birds in the trees, you check of the home and the countryside as you gawk around mowing. Because it is not a hard, mind bending exercise.

If No Lawn Grass, Something Other Than Brush, Burdochs Needs To Be Growing In Open Space In Maine. Like Lupines. A Pretty Weed.

Fresh mowed lawns. It is relaxing to mow, to see the rows in the sequence and all of us in Maine were taught by expert lawnmowers. It was not racing around in circles but trimmed around the trees with a hand mower or weed wacker combined with the power mower exercise. It was done right or time to do it over.

Big lawns, how large should you mow? Some folks check the watch, mow for an hour, give or take depending on how big a time pledge they want to put to keeping the grass trimmed. And when they get to that pre-determined time, that’s it. Shut off the mower, pull up the deck and be line back to the storage area until next week. Or earlier if sunshine, plenty of rain means you need to repeat the lawn mowing more than once some weeks.

Lawn mowing is contagious. You like to get the property mowed before the weekend, prior to long holiday spans. It is something your parents instilled in you as a young grass chopper in Maine.

Mowing by hand is great exercise.

Victorians In Maine Have Big Lawns Wrapped Around Them. Landscaped Grounds Add Sparkle To The Big Homes.

Up and down hill slopes. Back and forth, alternating the angles to make it new and different for the travel pattern. Instead of a treadmill at the gym, just pull the cord of a hand pushed, not self propelled model and see the wright drip off slow by sure. Working around the weather makes mowing hard when three days of rain elevated the blades longer than you would like. The clubs of dead grass clippings clog a mower, make it work Cherry, harder and look like yard hair balls.

Mainers love to mow lawns.

I have had properties for sale where sellers are out late at night applying weed and feed and in one big private competition to make sure their landscape is picture perfect. They act like it just happens on its own but deep down inside are pretty competitive with neighbors around the hood where they hang their hat.

You can use gang reel mowers behind a tractor or four wheeler to mowing large level to rolling stretches of green grass. If not grass, apple orchards are planted, wild flowers are encouraged with meadow in a can seeds broadcasts. Planting something for flowers or vegetables is always a personal choice for what grows around a home in Maine. Ornamental and fruit trees help showcase a property. We are brought up in Maine that is 91% forestested to plant trees, not cut and harvest them only. Being a good steward of Maine trees means thin them out, don’t clear cut or leave nothing to grow when the over story is removed. Hardwood ridges, so many trees to study and enjoy hiking in Maine.

Cherry, apple trees, raspberry bushes. Landscaping your lot in Maine is a delicate but rewarding process to plan out what goes and grows here or there. The attraction of birds, the sound of wind in the pine or fir needles vibrating with a low hum. Trees know the meaning of patience, time. Maples grow fast but can decay later on. I have a bunch of maples along a circular driveway that are ailing.

Cedar hedges look scrawny when you pull them out of the swamp and place the roots in burlap bags for transport and to be kept moist. But other than trimming, they are way way better than erecting large expensive fences that heave with the frost and need paint or stain or other maintenance. White birch trees are pretty and frail. Yellow birches are better for fire wood believe it or not. Beech, ash, not so many oak trees though all round out the choices you or Mother Nature will supply on open Maine land. Don’t forget the patch of rhubarb, high bush blueberries, elderberries, black berries, and herb garden to add to your flower beds, vegetable gardens on our patch of Maine dirt to enjoy.

I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker

207.532-6573 | info@mooersrealty.com |

MOOERS REALTY 69 North ST Houlton ME 04730 USA

May 21, 2018
The Small Maine Town Connection | All The People Are Special.

Living in a small Maine town.

Waiting For His Turn Down Derby Hill In Houlton Maine. Stomach Butterflies Happen.

Every single one of the population is needed, has a vital role. Most Maine communities are not sprawling and the population is sparse in a state that is vast in size. When there are less people, each of the individuals have a greater role and deeper involvement in what goes on around the small Maine town. You are needed more and there is always much to do to keep the inner workings of small Maine town life alive and well.

The transition from a big city to a small town has been discussed in an earlier Me In Maine blog post.

You could serve on boards, be involved in civic, church, school, non profits in both sized venues. But one major distinction between a city or a town is the more you volunteer, the deeper the rich relationships develop in small towns. Because everyone in that small Maine town pitches in. Not just a few that rise to the occasion. Not much is hired out and it is all about home grown roll up your sleeves and dig in. We’re all in this together through thick and thin in a small Maine town. Paying out of your own pocket to fund what has no other way to do it.

Rafting Down Whitewater In Maine. How Many Times On Which River In Maine?

The role the individual banding together to serve the snow sled club breakfast or help grooming the trails. Or reading to youngsters as a literacy volunteer at local schools. Or coaching a little league team, coordinating this year’s spring canoe race or haunted hayride in the fall. In whatever capacity, there is lots of over lap in small town living. Because like the Spartan force of 300 trained to perform like more zeroes were added to the troop size number, small Maine town volunteers get to know each other more deeply.

Many give more and go above and beyond in small Maine towns.

The same people are part of the community band or chorus and show up yearly for children’s or the local theater productions. The walk for cancer or local suppers to help a family going through a tough time shows how much the individuals in a small Maine town or cluster of villages all band together to help out when the need for assistance could not be greater. Watch this simple video for a night out at a local event hosted at Hidden Spring Winery. Everyone knows each other in the crowd. The musicians were our teachers, our kid’s instructors. The connection goes deep. No one is a stranger in the room because our paths cross back and forth like a spider web. Small towns in Maine offer honest, real, hardworking rewarding living.

No Smog, No Gas Guzzling Exhaust Fumes With Maine Amish Transportation Using Horse And Buggies. Over 113 Amish Families Are Alive And Well In Maine.

Just try to break down on a small Maine town road and you will see what I mean.

Run out of gas, have a flat tire, just see whatever your ride go dead. In a city, no one would stop or it’s up to you to hire the wrecker and wait. In a side road or in the middle of a small Maine downtown, put up the hood and look at your watch. Snap. You will have a number of motorists or pedestrians come to the rescue instantly. To ask how they can help and to see what’s the problem. Battery jumper chambers are whipped out. Hailing frequency time! Cell phone calls are made to their brother who can help. Your kids who have to get to ball or hockey practice or the church musical, their job, whatever are delivered and you feel safe because you know the people trying to help. You have worked and served alongside them year after year. You may even be related somehow by blood or marriage or past untied knot.

You are at the same wedding and funeral and holiday receptions. When the life flight helicopter is heard flying over or an ambulance siren sounds on its race by you wonder. Who needs a prayer and chances are you do know the person or their family in the small Maine town that has the medical emergency.

Follow The Leaders, ATV Trail Riding In Maine Is Fun! Bring Your Camera.

All of us have broken down on a local Maine trail and had help so you return the favor when you come up on the same situation. You don’t have to know the person on the receiving end of the assistance. Hear that a lot from outside tourists who are blown away because of how helpful the local Mainers is to someone they have never met up until the first contact. Many decide to move here because of the random act of kindness. Figuring if you local Mainers treat strangers that well, it must be a joy to be a native living in these parts as a community member.

Small town Maine business works more efficiently too.

At a small town Rotary meeting so much beyond the great meal and the speaker of the day knowledge exchange happens. Getting your desert you ask the attorney or banker or insurance agent about a work task. Lots is done in that one hour gathering because you are work, serve, live in the same neat small Maine town.

Everything goes smoother and happens easier because of less obstacles in part to maneuver around to cause delays. Too many people in a population center just slows down the process even with technology to make the connection relay. There is nothing like face to face and knowing the people well that you interact with day in and out in the circles you run in a small community.

Maine Four Season Recreation. See Maine On An ATV ITS Trail Ride, On A Snow Sled, Hoofing And Hiking It.

All the extra people in a city just add more layers of rules herding them. Traffic is greater, progress is diminished just getting around and working the logistics that can cause isolation. More people that you don’t know or trust causes the individuals to be less open and more reserved.

Less involved. It is not apathy but self protection.

When much of your energy and resources are put into self protection of personal safety and to hang onto your possessions it drains some of the vim and vigor to charge in. It becomes more of a survival for me rather than concern about the greater good for the population around you.

Small Maine towns are treated more like families than just garden variety citizenry.

We all watch and help shape the youngsters that grow up here. The individuals all stand out and are not lost in a sea of impersonal faces. You don’t worry about crime or gangs or drive by shootings. You watch in horror what happens in cities everyday on the hour and see the numbing effect it has to those who learn to avoid certain city neighborhoods and that are dead bolt and security camera holed up at night to feel safe and sound. That’s is not how small Maine town living operates. Ever thought of relocating, moving to a small Maine town?

I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker

207.532.6573 | info@mooersrealty.com |

MOOERS REALTY 69 North Street Houlton Maine 04730 USA

March 26, 2018
Maine Is Over Half Unorganized Townships

Unorganized townships in Maine. Over half the state is township this, range that and just not organized

Didn’t even get a name. With no school colors or mascot or basketball team to maybe get to go to the tournaments during Maine February vacation. The “town office” is in the Maine bureau of taxation’s unorganized townships division. Or in the unorganized division of the county government that the territory in question Maine land resides. The deed to the real estate title of all the acreage is recorded in one of the sixteen Maine counties.

Maine Fall Colors, See Them Shine Brightly Four Wheeling On An ATV Seat. More Scenery, No People, Lots Of Wildlife.

Like people you meet who have no middle name, the unorganized townships are like that.

Oh sure there are nicknames like TA R2 is affectionately called Letter “A”. Or Township 6 north of Weld in Franklin County Maine, and others have handles so every local knows where you are referring on the Maine map. When you break down on a snow sled or ATV four wheeler. Or describing the best place ever to hunt and fish or hike or tap into the wilderness lake where no camps hug the shoreline.

Very big in land mass area in this vast New England state but coupled with such a sparse population. Maine is extremes. The 39th largest state and the USA’s 9th least populated.

Elbow room, Maine sure does have plenty the further inland and north you go. Oh sure, Maine has 22 cities, a whopping 435 towns but the number of unorganized townships number 424 and another 33 entities are labeled plantations. Don’t forget 3 Indian reservations too. More on early Maine history. Life is definitely simpler living with low or no population areas. Where wildlife in the and out of the waterfront run the show unopposed.

But what about something else, a settlement in Maine?

What are those? Well the Plymouth Company of Popham Maine showed up in the same year as the famous Jamestown Virginia settlement. The year was 1607 but the Popham colony now present day Phippsburg in Sagadahoc County Maine on the Kennebec River settlement had a down hill slide because of a harsh winter. The new to this land landing party could not sustain. Petered out the following year. That put Jamestown in the history books as the first American permanent settlement. Along the Maine coast, other settlements sprung up in the 1620’s but not all lasted due to a the climate, the being on the look out for Indian attacks and just plain lack of provisions in the pantry. The early Maine settlers were used to easier living conditions and taking a step back in the Maine landing new life.

Several French explorers including Verrazano reached Maine in 1524. Champlain discovered and named Mount Desert, the largest island off the coast of Maine. The first English settlement of Popham Plantation was near the mouth of the Kennebec River.

Baxter State Park, Local Jewel Created By Governor Percival Baxter Back In The 1930’s! Maine, Over Half Of The State Is Unorganized Townships In The “UT”.

Massachusetts gobbled up most of the Maine land claims in what was a wilderness territory of the USA and by 1820 when Vacationland became a state, only about six settlements had survived.

1820 was the year the state of Maine pulled away from the Bay State. Even though despite a few New York Yankee fans among us, most are still in Red Sox Nation after the separation from Massachusetts. Early fishing settlements and tradings posts had their share of ups and downs in this New World. Not everyone was cut out for starting from scratch and totally new undeveloped surroundings.

The price of furs that soared high and low made trade with the native trappers feel cheated. The new settlement band of newcomers were used to open field line them up and mow them down warfare. They did not react well to hit and run raiding party spur of the moment attacks from the natives who knew the landscape so well. The locals always have a home court advantage. They had tamed daily conditions to make life in their area of Maine easier. For safety sake, it was mostly coastal fishing and river side settlements in Maine locations as a rule. And the existing native tribes headed inland. To blend in with the forest where they felt right at home trapping, farming, respecting the land and natural resources.

If you visit Maine you will learn of areas called settlements.

You could think they were a township, a plantation or just dubbed a little more interesting nick name for an unorganized township location. But low and behold you will find a place like Robinson Settlement in Aroostook County Maine that sounds like a municipality is really just an area of the township of Blaine (formerly Township Letter B, 1st Range; Alva Plantation). The name changed from Alva Plantation in honor of James G. Blaine, the current US House Of Representatives Speaker. Who never delivered on the promise of a town bell for a carrot if the locals did switch to his last name. Often a grist or lumber mill was the reason for the settlement name, like Whitlock Mills. Whitlock Mills near Calais in Washington County is the northern most lighthouse location in Maine.

Moose Not People, Other Wildlife Too Hide In The Woods, Waterways Of Maine.

Here is a list of Maine communities, some that are no longer here and are alive in history records only. Another list of towns in Maine which is very long. And check out the list of Maine plantations.

Sometimes besides the name sticking for a settlement location in early Maine the locals knew from sight where you were from because of your clothing. It was not uncommon for the few families that carved out a new Maine farmstead in a new territory to buy their cloth material in bulk for the cost savings. For clothing production by hand from a large quantity bolt to save money. So when these settlement members did come to a population center to trade in commerce, to buy some feed, seed or pasture fencing, coffee, sugar, etc the color of their clothes defined where they were from out in the country.

In Hancock County Maine alone there are 1522 islands under the unorganized territories heading. In Maine’s unorganized territories, the UT, there are roughly 9000 year round residents. Lots of seasonal ones in the UT of Maine.

Can you imagine living in Drew Plantation Penobscot County Maine population just 46 people?

Rich Where It Counts, Maine Is Unspoiled, Drop Dead Gorgeous.

I listed a log home for sale with 25 acres of land in Hersey ME recently and that town’s six mile by six mile population is just 79 people. No, there won’t be a Walmart super center breaking ground or a set of golden arches rolling in to this very small Maine township anytime soon. Traffic lights, gangs fighting turf wars, drive by shootings or high crime or pollution just not happening in Hersey or other the very small Maine towns like it. Where there are not layers of players.

But look up, see the stars at night in one brilliant sky back drop. The woods infested with wildlife too. No people, no problems. Fresh air, clean water. Listen. Hear birds chirp, loons cry, woodpeckers knock or just the wind in the trees. The rain on the cabin roof. Not emergency response vehicles or heavy highway traffic or airplanes lifting off or landing. The other sounds of the city that never sleeps.

Peace and quiet happens in these small Maine town or plantation or unorganized settlement locations.

But employment to pay those property taxes, register the car and pump the fuel to make it move. That’s the catch. Maine is a great place to live if you can make a living. Or have a knack of removing money out of your approach to frugal living. Where bartering happens. It’s a long long ways to town pulled by the horse team or in the buggy or farm wagon.

Just water down that buttered rum laddled out to the men friends and male neighbors who are coming over this weekend to help you with the barn raising in Maine. They climb high and are cat like quickly putting the hand hewn 8×8’s mortised into place in the barn skeleton. The folks you work with the same you helped one by one with their community building projects on their homesteads weeks earlier and in future projects scheduled ahead.

Other small population centers are disbanding and electing to try to deorganize because there are just not enough folks to fill the elected offices to to keep the area running.

To keep it marked on the Maine map. In these small areas, the animal control officer for the dog chasing deer serves as a selectmen, on the district school board and mows the ground around the cemetery plots. His wife or her husband is on the planning board and heads up the recreation department and is serves a term on the board of property value assessing and zoning board. Oh and they serve on the local volunteer fire department, down at the local grange hall or snow sled club. They may be a licensed, registered Maine Guide and can help guide you in the hunting, fishing, maybe canoe or kayak or rafting trip.

Maine Is Real, Peaceful, Not Crowded. One Of The Lowest Crime States.

More than one hat is worn in the teeny weeny small Maine population centers that often were once large bustling lumber cutting forestry communities.

Or railroad communities, mill towns in an earlier time in Maine history. When they herded logs down the Maine rivers. Where the commerce was local before Interstate and Internet happened. Blacksmiths, local clothing stores, drug stores with ice cream soda fountains, phone company with party lines and Mabel helping make the call. Sometimes listening to the conversation.

Often if one more person dies and lets go of the local reins of control, that’s it. All she wrote. Deorganization or annexing, absorption in another municipality are the only options. To lower property taxes from over 30 mill to say 6 mill is another reason to wave the white flag in the legislature. That is fueling the dismantling of local government control at a increasing pace.

Looking for small itty bitty population centers but incredible large areas to roam?

You must be thinking about a place like Maine, the way life should be. Letting the state and the county government take over the municipality or plantation to absorb the tiny population. It is a last gasp surrender, is a last resort when the declining, aging population just continues to slide uncontrolled. We have room for you… all kinds in all four directions. Well maybe not so much to the east where our Canadian cousins hold down the Atlantic Provinces. Could you imagine living in an unorganized township in Maine? A recreational sporting camp or woodlot land owner is the biggest component of who does in Maine’s UT or unorganized townships.

I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker

207.532.6573 | info@mooersrealty.com |

MOOERS REALTY 69 North ST Houlton ME 04730 USA

February 25, 2018