The Maine North Woods is the northern geographic area of the state of Maine in the United States.
It covers more than 3.5 million acres (14,000 km²) of top forest land bordered by Canada to the west and north and by the early 20th century transportation corridors of the Canadian Pacific International Railway of Maine to the south and the Bangor and Aroostook Railroad Ashland branch to the east. It includes western Aroostook and northern Somerset, Penobscot, and Piscataquis counties. Much of the woods is currently owned by the timber corporations, including Seven Islands Land Company, Plum Creek, Maibec, Orion Timberlands and Irving timber corporations. Ownership changes hands quite frequently and is often difficult to determine.
Its main products are timber for pulp and lumber, as well as a thriving hunting and outdoor recreation economy.
Included within its boundaries are two of the most famous wild rivers of the Northeastern United States: the St. John and the Allagash. The North Maine Woods completely surrounds the Allagash Wilderness Waterway.
Read more about Maine North Woods: Wildlife, Folklore, Proposed National Park
Famous quotes containing the words maine, north and/or woods:
“The surface of the ground in the Maine woods is everywhere spongy and saturated with moisture.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“By the North Gate, the wind blows full of sand,
Lonely from the beginning of time until now!
Trees fall, the grass goes yellow with autumn.”
—Li Po (701–762)
“If a man walk in the woods for love of them half of each day, he is in danger of being regarded as a loafer; but if he spends his whole day as a speculator, shearing off those woods and making earth bald before her time, he is esteemed an industrious and enterprising citizen. As if the town had no interest in its forests but to cut them down!”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)