Northwest Maine, along the Canadian Border

First timer? In this formerly once-a-day blog (and now pretty much a once-a-week blog) I use an app that provides a random latitude and longitude that puts me somewhere in the continental United States (the lower 48).  I call this “landing.”

I keep track of the watersheds I land in, as well as the town or towns I land near.  I do some internet research to hopefully find something of interest about my landing location. 

To find out more about A Landing A Day (like who “Dan” is) please see “About Landing” above.  To check out some relatively recent changes in how I do things, check out “About Landing (Revisited).”

Landing number 2578; A Landing A Day blog post number 1023

Dan:  Today’s lat/long (N46^o 44.601’, W69^o 42.801) puts me in northwest Maine:

I’m going regional (not local) for my next landing map:

Look at that!  There’s a hunk of unpopulated wilderness in Maine that’s about 100 miles north to south and 70 miles east to west!  But what’s stranger is the veritable plethora of towns in Canada – in Quebec to the west and in New Brunswick to the east.  And check out the towns in Quebec (if you can read them) – I’d say three quarters of them are Saint-something-or-other.

Let’s think about the strange lack of Maine towns.  I’m sure that Maine is more mountainous than its neighbors, but can that alone explain the disparity in towns that seems controlled by a line on the map? I spent some time on the internet trying to come up with a reason, but I was unable to find anything. 

Anyway, here’s my more local landing map:

I’ll tell you right away that Clayton Lake, Maine is entirely hookless, so I’m headed across the border to take a quick look at some Quebec towns.  But first, my watershed analysis:

I landed in the watershed of Connors Creek (identified on Google Earth), on to the St. John River (6^th hit).  Zooming way back:

The St. John takes a circuitous route (including a stint as an international border) before discharging into the famous-for-its-extreme-tides Bay of Fundy.

Speaking of extreme Bay of Fundy tides, check this out:

Checking out Google Earth (GE) I saw that I landed in the woods far from any road where the Orange Dude could venture. The only thing of slight interest I could find was a picture posted on GE by Steve S, about 10 miles south of my lanidng. I took a screen shot of what pops up when the picture icon is first clicked:

As someone obsessed with landing, I thought it was funny he called this a “Landing Area.”

Moving right along. Without nothing going on in Maine, I figured I’d send the OD across the border.  “Do you have a passport?” I asked.  “Don’t need one,” he replied, “one of the advantages of being virtual.”

The closest he could get to my landing was in Lac Frontiere – one of the few towns without “Saint:”

The first thing he saw was biggest damn beer truck either of us have ever seen:

Molson must be big in Quebec.  Here’s a closer look:

Translation:  The only micro-carbonated lager in the world!

The OD had to go past the front of the truck to get a look at the establishment getting the beer:

It’s the Magasin General Lac-Frontiere.  “Magasin” is French for store, so this is the Lac-Frontiere General Store.  And obviously they sell beer – at least Molson, and I’m sure Labatt Blue – another Canadian brew. 

Funny, but I remember trying Molson years ago and I didn’t like it.  I’m no beer snob, but there seemed to be something off about it – maybe it’s the micro-carbonation . . .

Labatt – which I tried for the first time on a business trip to Syracuse many years ago – is fine by me.  In fact, I have a Labatt Blue t-shirt that a friend got as a give away at a Jersey Devils hockey game.  He thought, “I won’t wear it, but Greg probably will.”  And I do:

Yes, that’s me, and yes, I do wear it – I just put it on, right out of the clean laundry. True confession: I first took a selfie that showed my face, but I wasn’t happy with it, so I settled on the above anonymous shot…

Before moving on from Lac Frontiere, here’s an absolutely lovely photo posted on GE by Claude L. of the lake after which the town was named:

The water could not be more calm . . .

The one town directly on the border (and with its own border crossing) is Saint-Pamphile.  The OD took a look at the border crossing:

Ain’t much, eh?

Wiki actually has something to say:

While the official municipal territory ends at the Canada–United States border located at the eastern end of town, there is a tiny hamlet located immediately east of the border, known as St-Pamphile, Maine. The hamlet is historically part of the larger entity located in Quebec and is considered integral part of the town by locals. The economy of St-Pamphile, Maine is entirely dependent upon the economy of St-Pamphile, Quebec, from which Maine residents obtain goods and services, and even employment.

And here’s St-Pamphile, Maine:

Zooming back, you can see why St-Pamphile Maine is actually part of St-Pamphile Quebec, and has nothing to do with Maine (where there’s absolutely nothing for miles).  It would be weird living there!

Let’s just say you wanted to go to the nearest town in Maine.  Well, I figured out that would Ashland (pop 1,200).  There are two major rivers to cross to get to any town in Maine (the St. John and the Allagash), and here’s the route that actually has a bridge over each river:

Ouch.  Three hours and 26 minutes! And Ashland doesn’t even have a Walmart – you’d have to go a half hour further to Presque Isle. . .

Heading southwest from Saint-Pamphile, we can find Saint-Fabien-de-Panet.  The website Chaudiere Apalaches (a tourist website about the Quebec Appalachian region) has some local pics.  Here’s a very cool bridge:

And a realistic statue of a mom with a young son:

I know, I know. I didn’t notice the little boy, either. When her son’s a little older – say a teenager – he’ll have friends who think that he’s got quite the mother . . .

I found what appears to be an ordinary picture (taken in 1942) of some guys and a dog and car in front of a building just outside of Saint-Just-Bretenieires (from Wiki-data):

It looks to me like the guys on the left are clearly the locals.  The guy on the right could be military.  It’s 1942 – could he be looking for recruits?  And that could be a reason that the photo was taken in the first place. 

So, what about all of these Saints?  From the Canadian Encyclopedia:

A distinctive characteristic of Canada’s toponymy* especially in Québec, is the profusion of saints’ names; the Québec toponymic records list over 2,200 of them. Many of the hagionyms** not only recall specific saints but were also the forenames of certain community founders, missionaries and priests.

* study of place names

** names of saints

From the Chaudiere Apalaches website referenced earlier, I found great pictures associated with the town of Sainte-Lucie-de-Beauregard.  I’ll close with some of them.  First, this shot of the town:

And then some lovely scenery shots:

That’ll do it . . .

KS

Greg

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