Is Piscataquis County Maine’s sleeping giant?
Photo / Peter Van Allen
The Monson General Store has a Pineland Farms connection to it.
Photo / Peter Van Allen
In Monson, there’s a visitor center appealing to through-hikers from the nearby Appalachian Trail.
Our focus on Bangor and northern Maine led us on an unexpected journey.
We get used to the same storyline about the downtrodden areas of northern Maine, the towns that have lost paper mills and shoe manufacturing.
Mainebiz is based in southern Maine, and we’re often reminded by readers to actually get out and see what’s going on in the rest of the state. We heeded the call, and are glad we did.
In June, we visited Millinocket as part of our On the Road series. I was pleasantly surprised to see that the clichéd storyline — that of the “woeful” town that lost its paper mill — is more cliché than reality. The downtown was livelier than some more “prosperous” town centers we’ve been through. Business leaders there have big ideas. Very quietly, some 3,500 vacation properties are being used, rented and renovated. Not the usual story.
Such is the case with Piscataquis County, which is larger than Rhode Island and Connecticut combined with just 16,773 people. Now, if you believe the storyline, Piscataquis is a poor county with few people to change its prospects. If you go up there, you’ll see aspects of that. But you’ll also see areas of growth.
We had the opportunity to visit the Appalachian Mountain Club’s Medawisla Lodge. AMC has invested $50 million in the county, focusing in recreation. To get there, we passed through Monson, where Libra Foundation has invested $15 million on an arts community to spark economic activity. There are galleries, shops and the Monson General Store, which has a strong Pineland Farms feel to it.
As Maureen Milliken reports in our cover story, manufacturing is alive and well in Piscataquis County. She visited Puritan Medical Products, Hardwood Products Co. and JSI Store Fixtures, which among them have 750 employees in the county. And they’re investing in their businesses and hiring people.
You don’t hear that story about Piscataquis County every day. Coverage starts on Page 13.
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