The Foreign Cities and Countries of Maine

You don't need your passport to venture into the great state of Maine, but within a few miles, you can visit Peru and Mexico. If you're not into the southern climate, you can head over to Sweden or Norway. If you want fine cuisine and culture, go to Paris or Rome.

Or not.

I did a little research on Maine's many curiously named places. One scholarly tome---Maine Place Names and the Peopling of Its Towns (1957), by Ava Harriet Chadbourne, ----is presently out of my hands and in some dusty library, but it seems to be the cited authority on the subject. Other than this, I found a few tourist articles.

I'm going to boldly surmise that Maine's odd place names are for many reasons. For one, the early settlers (and later settlers) of Maine had a good sense of humor. Why not name a one horse town of 235 souls after a famous European capital? Two, the early Mainers of the 1600's thru the 1800's --stalwart Yankees indeed, admired the revolutionary quests for independence of many countries in the world at the time.

Oddly enough, many towns were not named in reference to ethnic background. No French is regularly spoken is Paris, Maine, and very few Mainers of Italian ancestry reside in Verona. And Poland is a spring, not a country. More than likely, the main (Maine) reason for giving towns lofty names was pride. As Mainers & most New Englanders know, any Maine town measures up to any of the greatest of cultures of the world. Finally, the tourists notice these Maine oddities and want to visit, even though they're "people from away."

Maine has other funny places, like Lobster, Maine, (very expected) and Massachusetts Gore (I don't think I want to visit there). Many names are from the native peoples. Try saying Mattamiscontis three times after drinking three beers or seeing three bears, or both. And Jim's Pond, Maine must be an exciting place to visit. Finally, Maine has many gorgeous place names that roll off the tongue. 'Damariscotta' is one of my favorites.

Maine: Let us go now and make our visit:

map is approximate location of towns.....