July 15, 2024
The northern part of Maine is another place the French lived and thrived before the Great Upheaval of 1755-1764. The people who escaped expulsion deliberately began having large families in order to rebuild their Acadian population.
The first two photos are of Fort Kent. The structure was built in anticipation of a war because of boundary disputes between New Brunswick and Maine. The war was diverted and boundaries agreed upon via the 1842 Webster-Ashburton Treaty.
Photos three and four are of Frenchville’s 1910 water tower. It was used to supply steam for the trains which took potatoes, the areas main crop, south into the rest of Maine and the country.
The rest of the photos are from Acadian Village in Van Buren, Maine. The Village is an example of local 18th/19th century Acadian community. Some of the buildings were made using planks from original structures, others are actually original buildings relocated to this outdoor museum. You can walk into each building and look at artifacts. Each building is furnished as it would have been in the 1800s/1900s. Information signs abound. There is an example of everything you can think of – homes, blacksmith, barn, doctor, dentist, hat maker, church, schoolhouse, etc.
Included in the photos is an example of how birch bark was used for insulation. Moss is used in a different structure in another photo.
I enjoyed driving along Route 1 by the Canadian border to explore these areas, even though the ac in my car is broken and the uncharacteristic-for-northern-Maine heat and humidity were ridiculous.
