I thought this might be interesting to Ken, as it was triggered by his Millinocket, Maine location. Since I have had contact with Maine, and some of it's history, I'd like to share it here. Millinocket, is the home of Governor Baxter State Park. My contact is with Houghton (Hody) White, my classmate and very best friend through four years of schooling Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Maine...1954-1958. Hody is a grandnephew of Governor Baxter, who served in the 1920's. We swam together (and still hold a few records) and basically lived together, though he was a "Deke" and I a "Chi Psi". Hody just last month, at age 83, won the "Seniors 4K" State of Maine distance race, setting a new record. Hody's mom was Mary Baxter White.... and while we were at Bowdoin, she owned the "Harriett Beecher Stowe House".... where lived the little lady (who is said by many to have started the Civil War) wrote "Uncle Tom's Cabin". I also slept in the bedroom in the Stowe House where Henry Wadsworth Longfellow lived and slept. During our school years at Bowdoin, Hody lived in the Stowe House, then a restaurant/lodging enterprise ... out back, in the barn that was then attached to the house. (since removed). Bowdoin bought the Stowe house in 2001, for 1.3M, and it is now featured in multiple national landmark sites. What I most remember is the time Hody and I spent studying our ROTC manuals while sitting in the room and at the "secretary" desk where "Uncle Tom's Cabin" was actually written... (since lost to history as it was not up to snuff with today's furniture), but has it's own place in the history books, and is on display at the "Stowe house", as the "writing room"... (many, many rehabs, since the 1950's). In any case... the "Millinocket" memory jogger set me off on a four hour search of the internet... piecing together history from the early 1800's to today... Absolutely fascinating to learn about the people, the politics and the times. Too much to handle for younger people today, but a marvelous insight into the times and thinking of those in the last century. A few of the hundreds of links on the subject of Governeor Baxter and Harriet Beecher Stowe. https://baxterstatepark.org/ https://maineanencyclopedia.com/percival-p-baxter/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harriet_Beecher_Stowe_House_(Brunswick,_Maine) https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/harriet-beecher-stowe
The only thing I know about Maine ( remember I'm in England)...is that ken lives there and so did my husbands grandmother..., he often went to stay with her during the school holidays but she died when he was quite young and he can't remember which part of Maine it was...although he does remember it was close to the Canadian border!
We're bordered by Canada on three sides. Everywhere in Maine is within a hundred miles of the Canadian border, but Maine is not unique in that. This is significant to some, because the Border Patrol has the authority to conduct searches anywhere within a hundred miles of the country's borders. In reality, when they do traffic stops it is because they have reason to suspect that there is something they might be interested in, and I have yet to hear of a case where they got the wrong house. Interestingly, most of the people in the country live within a hundred miles of the border because that's where the largest population centers are. Except for a year in Iowa, I have lived my entire life within a hundred miles of our borders. See the ACLU on the 100-mile rule.
As for Baxter Park, I haven't been there in a while but I don't think Governor Baxter would be pleased with what the recent park boards have done with the place.
This guy is traveling an area north of where I live but within the area where my camp is. Early on, he mentions something that surprises people who don't visit Northern Maine, but which I am familiar with - driving for 45 minutes on an interstate highway without seeing another car. Houlton is one of the towns I wanted to move to, and we seriously considered buying the movie theater there back when we still had a little bit of money. After Houlton, in Northern Maine, he does visit Millinocket. I was still watching it after posting it here.
I meant to only watch a couple of minutes of that, Ken. But it was so interesting that I wound up watching all of it. Isn't Millinocket where you live? Did he show your house?
No, although I am on the street paralleling the downtown street, one block away, he didn't film my house, or at least not the part of the street I live on. I'm on the same street as the Congo church, to the north of me, and the small park with the Farmer's Market is south of me, at the point where the downtown street merges with my street.
He must not be familiar farmer's markets. He was there at 1:00 (I think). He commented that no one was there. Most people who shop at Farmer's markets go early in the morning and are already gone by 12:00.
I live three blocks away and didn't even know we had a Farmers' Market. There's no soil around here, so the nearest farmer is about twenty miles away.
I had planned to bring that clip over for you but I forgot. I DID, however spend a summer in a program at Nasson College, Springvale, Maine when I was 17. I didn't see you while in Maine.
That's because Springvale is in damned near New Hampshire, Maine. more than two hundred miles south of me.