Welcome to Houlton Maine | Aroostook County
Houlton Maine, the oldest town in Aroostook County and a shire town. What is a shire town you wonder?
A shire town is the county seat and Aroostook is the largest of Maine’s sixteen counties. “The County” is bigger than Connecticut and Rhode Island combined and the largest east of the Mississippi.
What is it like in Houlton Maine?
How to best describe a small Maine town should not be left to a faraway team of writers cranking out press releases by the hundreds.
When you don’t live, work and play in that small Maine town.
If you never set foot in the community on vacation.
Did not spend some of your childhood, college or career years here.
Or lack some sort of family connection in the small Maine town. (Crickets sound)
How do you “bring it all home” as Johnny Cash would tell his band while picking and grinning?
You can not. No rich experience perspective to draw from… To share what exactly it is really like here never happens.
The small Maine town blurb is just a wall of words from a couple Google search.
Good enough.
No.
No it is not. And it all starts to read like so many other generic write ups about small Maine communities.
So Houlton Maine, the up to date highlights.
There is the history, the current what to do for fun, what is it like and what’s ahead in Houlton Maine.
The total solar eclipse in Houlton Maine is coming up very quickly at the time of this hunt and peck blog post.
Let’s have a Houlton Farms Dairy ice cream and celebrate together in the darkness.
Hear all about this latest event where all hands on deck for total darkness, totality in Houlton Maine’s solar eclipse.
Everyone in the Greater Houlton Maine area volunteers to roll out the VIP welcome to our small Northern Maine town red carpet.
Okay, getting off community calendar of events mode and spill the facts, hit the details in listicle fashion.
Houlton Maine, (5-6-7-8) first just the numbers ….
Latest US Census Houlton population 6064 (Aroostook County population 67,351)
Exit 302, beginning of Interstate 95 (302 miles from Kittery, the Big Green Bridge)
Houlton Maine settled by Joseph Houlton and Aaron Putnam in 1807
(With a LOT of help from the local Maliseet first nation population.)
How far is Houlton from (pick the destination).
What can I tell you about Houlton Maine, the place?
Quick observations from a local native who calls Houlton Maine his home.
The people in my small Northern Maine town are friendly, helpful, funny and hardworking. Families are tightly knit and the Houlton and the ring of communities around the town pull together during tough times to help their neighbors.
You’re never alone in a small Maine town.
How do I know? Just pop the hood on your stalled car or pick up or snowmobile. Bang. Instantly all kinds of folks rise to the occasion and show up to help you out pronto.
Why? Because they can and someone else did the same for them.
They put themselves in your shoes and figure that could be me. Do something good.
Need a hand? Run out of gas? I have jumper cables for that tired battery or here. Here. Use my cell phone to make a call.
Folks who live in the greater Houlton area surrounding communities take turns creating some amazing home grown experiences.
It’s not just Houlton Houlton Houlton (chanted like Marcia Marcia Marcia refrain).
For example, the Lumberman’s Museum in Patten Maine’s bean hole bean supper and yesteryear logging tour.
Walk through the sheds filled with axes, saws, chains, horse harnesses, peaveys, Lombards, twitch cables.
Learn about river runs and using the waterways to transport the logs to mills downstream.
The entire northwest half of Aroostook, Penobscot Counties is “The Great North Woods” where we hunt, fish, ply the vast trail network on ATV four wheelers and snowmobiles.
The Southern Aroostook Agricultural Museum community suppers and interesting farming exhibits in Littleton Maine.
Learn about local family farming traditions picking potatoes. Why Aroostook County is called the “Garden of Maine” and about her rich fertile farm field history.
I grew up on a Maine potato farm.
My four kids all picked fall harvest baskets of freshly dug golden farm field spuds.
To fill empty barrels then ticketed, hoisted up and hauled away for potato house winter storage.
The work ethic learned heading out early and staying late in the Maine potato farm field is invaluable.
A child managing their own hard earned money is way more careful with impulse control spending it.
Climb aboard, ride the rails on a passenger train in Oakfield Maine.
Tour the train station that celebrates the Bangor & Aroostook Railroad rich history hauling potatoes and passengers through out “The County” and beyond.
Stay at one of many woods camp sporting lodges in Southern Aroostook, Northern Penobscot and Washington Counties.
Houlton Maine is at the crossroads of US RT 1, 2, 2A and I-95 that connects to the Trans Canada highway.
Explore the recreation trails any of Maine’s four seasons. Get away from the noisy slow moving crowds and break free.
Run away up to camp in Maine.
Unplug and recharge in front of a crackling wood’s fire under the star filled sky.
The silence is deafening at first. You replace the city sounds of EMS vehicle sirens, jet engines overhead, honking horns.
No garbage truck back up alarms and clanging dumpster bin sounds.
Visit one of many Amish communities surround the Houlton Maine area of Southern Aroostook.
The local farm to table vegetables, home made baked goods taste delicious and you get to know the grower and their families.
Others living off the land peddle their produce at the area local farmer’s markets. Farm to table is a beautiful thing.
Four seasons outdoor natural unspoiled beauty is what surrounds Houlton Maine in Southern Aroostook County.
In all directions, you can hit the rec trails and find total peace and quiet. See wildlife, watch the seasons changes and hear yourself think.
No better place to raise a family, run a small business, retire or vacation than Houlton Maine. Period.
Houlton Maine, US border town with perks, Gateway to Atlantic Canadian Provinces.
The on the border distinction provides visitors with a two nation vacation experience.
Head over to Hartland New Brunswick to cross the longest covered wooden bridge in the World.
Or down to Nackawic to see the largest axe on the planet. Visit Kings Landing to step back in time in an early Canadian settlement.
The International boundary line border crossing creates lots of jobs. US Border Patrol, Customs, Immigration employment generate money for the local economy.
Those jobs and others attract new families who add so much to Houlton Maine and the surrounding communities.
No better place to raise your family, start a small business or enjoy the blend of work and play in Northern Maine!
Houlton Maine. it hits you as you drive the streets.
These people are friendly, courtesy, let me go at the four way stop sign with a smile.
Everyone nods hello or makes a how you doing comment. No one has a need of a taser.
No one is worried about personal safety.
Living where you want to be makes a major improvement in anyone’s attitude.
Maine pulls on your heartstrings that way.
Full of gorgeous Victorian era architecture and grand well preserved older houses.
Classy historic downtown loaded with brick structures in Market Square. are used for a variety of community events.
Watch the Farmer’s Market held in Market Square, Houlton Maine.
Grab a fresh hot home made donut from Sadie’s Bakery that’s been serving them up and more since 1948.
Visit the County Co Op for a healthy tasty lunch or break time snack. Take in a movie at the Temple Theater in Market Square Houlton Maine.
Several nearby lakes, a golf course, ski area, river walk, recreation trails a short drive from Houlton Maine.
Houlton Maine is served by large, full service modern health care facilities.
Small Houlton International airport for private and commercial pilots.
Large farms, heavily forested land and level to rolling terrain surround greater Houlton Maine, Southern Aroostook County.
Diversified employment (Smith & Wesson, Louisiana Pacific, Tate & Lyle)
Low cost power from not for profit Houlton Water Company keep juice prices attractive.
Local high speed Internet broadband connections second to none in Houlton Maine (Pioneer, Consolidated, other providers).
In small Maine towns get used to low crime (Maine is 4th least crime state in USA) and no traffic.
Want to go to Walmart shopping quick and easy or to the local hardware store while puttering?
No time suck getting what you need or even double tracking back for the right item if you mess up. Have to back track for a second try to get it right. To cross off the DIY to do list.
Small towns like Houlton Maine are way easier to maneuver.
Less time spent at traffic lights or in grid lock. Your fellow motorists are way way kinder, gentler and no angry hand gestures.
Welcome to Houlton Maine, the way life should be.
Space, clean surroundings, friendly locals and home town pride volunteering. Find that in Houlton Maine. Your neighbors check in and want to help when you are struggling. You want to give back and pitch in to make the community what it is. Pick an event, that’s your contribution for life and you love it.
Small towns like Houlton Maine are not pay the price of a ticket to attend an event.
It’s working behind the scenes volunteering to put on the event year after year. That’s the way you give back and how you get to know the other members of your small but mighty population.
Houlton Maine had the largest local soap box derby race in the nation five years running.
Check out a soap box race on Derby Hill inspired and engineered like the All America race in Akron Ohio.
Everyone tightly connected in towns like Houlton Maine.
There is not the disconnect I hear about from people living in crowded areas. Where just too many people and you find a wall of impersonal and keep your distance. Back off Jack.
So to sum it up, small town Houlton Maine living provides wide open outdoor recreation.
Lower cost real estate, less traffic and crime. You get more nature experiences, meet friendlier people, enjoy a sense of community. Most of the recreation is low or now cost and the food and lodging is cheaper.
Every been on a vacation and thought what if I lived her full time and thought maybe I should consider relocating there? Maine is so much of what is missing where 8 out of 10 people live… in an urban setting.
Small Maine towns like Houlton in Aroostook County.
Barrels of money not needed to enjoy them like many expensive tourist trap locations. Simple camping, trail hiking, lake or river canoeing or kayaking.
You’re in Maine, surrounded by unlimited natural beauty whether high atop Mt Katahdin looking out over the landscape.
Or on your boards at the summit of Mars Hill Mountain’s Big Rock, Quoggy Joe or some other small Northern Maine ski area.
Everything is low or no cost which amplifies the enjoyment of all Northern Maine, Southern Aroostook and Houlton Maine.
Constant opening up the wallet wide is taken out of the picture here.
You can let go and get caught up in the vast open space and outdoor natural setting.
The down to Earth people here want to share suggestions on what to do for fun.
Locals are proud of where they live and will answer questions to make sure your visit is worthwhile and memorable.
In small Maine towns like Houlton, everyone is an ambassador.
The circles are smaller, tighter, more intimate and everything moves more efficiently when the communities are really just like large families.
Whether it is a movie in the historic Temple Theatre, stepping up to order a Houlton Farms Dairy Bar ice cream treat.
Or heading out to NIckerson Lake’s Crescent Park, Birch Point on Pleasant Lake or taking in the Million Dollar View in Weston Maine’s scenic turn out.
Welcome to Houlton Maine.
It’s not like this many other places. Far enough away from population centers to stay small, personable and off peace and quiet. Insulated from over commercialization or exploitation.
Loaded with all natural four season beauty, wildlife, woods, farms, waterways to discover. All kinds of wildlife, natural resources with crystal clean water, fresh air to tap.
In life it is not one size fits all.
And these days folks seem to have strong, louder opinions on what you should or should not be doing in your life.
But maybe too small is just right because too big is impersonal and expensive.
In my job, I hear it a lot.”I want to run away from too many people, HOA’s and heavy layers of regulations and code enforcement”.
Or “I’m in Florida, Arizona Texas and burning up”. And lastly, “it’s too expensive where I live now and can not afford to retire here”.
If housing is too expensive where you live now, consider small town Houlton Maine real estate prices and selection.
When crime is high, traffic is heavy, small town Maine communities are such a contrast.
If where you live now people don’t smile, avoid making eye contact and keep to themselves, that’s not the feeling of community you get vacationing or living in small town Houlton Maine.
Walking to everywhere easily happens in small town Houlton Maine.
Leave your car or SUV or pick up parked with the keys in the vehicle.
Walk downtown, to the movies, to the tennis courts, baseball field, basketball court, along the Riverfront Park trail.
Get out, hoof it and see how folks smile and are friendly.We use our open porches and wave, say hello.
Simple living, easier day to day interactions with local folks who want to help.
Ask for help.
What kind of experience are you looking for?
This blog post simply attempts to describe what greater Houlton Maine is like.
It’s up to you to feel whether a visit here is worth the time and expense to come sample this special corner of Maine.
Here to help and please ask us all your questions.
Love where I live and want to help save you money, to make your vacation stay memorable, whatever you need.
Call, text, email, send a carrier pigeon capsule or send a smoke signal.
Come visit us in Houlton Maine!
Thanks you for following our Me In Maine blog posts!
I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker
207.532.6573 | info@mooersrealty.com |
MOOERS REALTY 69 North Street Houlton Maine 04730 USA