Upton

This small community borders New Hampshire and Umbagog Lake that straddles the two states and is the source of the Androscoggin River. However, the river runs south through New Hampshire before entering Maine in Gilead. Upton is far from other sizable Maine towns on Maine Route 26 as it ends at the New Hampshire border.

Mount Vernon

The village of West Mount Vernon, with a small church and fire department, is located at the north end of Echo Lake and the south end of Taylor Pond. See photos. In 1926, the novelist Erskine Caldwell moved to an old farmhouse in Mount Vernon, where he lived until the early 1930’s. The main village, Mount Vernon, is in the north of the town on Minnehonk Lake.

Masardis

Railroad Crossing in Masardis near Fraser Timber Mill on Route 11 (2015)

The Aroostook River flows northward through the middle of the township and by the village of Masardis. The small Pollard Flat Wildlife Management Area lies on the west bank of the river north of the village. A boat launch provides access to Scopan (formerly Squa Pan) Lake. Most of the Lake is in adjoining Scopan Township.

Holeb Township

Holeb was and is a place for harvesting forest products. Amos A. Logging crews and camps were here and in the 19th century. See photos. Most of the shores on Attean and Holeb Ponds, and a significant length of the Moose River including Holeb Falls, lie within the Maine Public Reserved Lands. Canoe trips are frequent.

T1 R11 WELS

Detail of 1952 Jo-Mary Mountain, Quadrangle Topographic Map

The township is completely within a tract of Maine Public Reserve Land and lies immediately south of Rainbow Township, host to the next northerly section of the Appalachian Trail. Traveling south, hikers encounter Nesuntabunt Mountain and Nahmakanta Lake that reaches back into Rainbow Township. According to a 1960 survey, Nahmakanta (Abenaki for “plenty of fish”)…