Relics of farmhouses hint at the glory days of Maine’s agricultural tradition. In remote villages, scenes of abandoned homes, churches, and vehicles mark changes in communities as populations ebb. The landscape is littered with these ghosts of Maine’s past, recalling a lost civilization but evoking questions of their secrets.

 

 

                            Abandoned Farmhouse in Westfield (2003)

 

One of the state’s native poets, Edwin Arlington Robinson, captured the spirit of such places in his “House on the Hill.”

                  Abandoned Farmhouse, Aroostook County (2001)

 

They are all gone away,
The house is shut and still,
There is nothing more to say.

                                Old General Store on U.S. Rt. 2 in Dyer Brook (2012)

 

Nor is there one today
To speak them good or ill:
There is nothing more to say.

    Abandoned House in Vanceboro on Hill Overlooking the Village (2013)

Why is it then we stray
Around the sunken sill?
They are all gone away.

 

And our poor fancy-play
For them is wasted skill:
There is nothing more to say.

 

 

                                     Old Barn in Sherman (2012)

                         Abandoned Vehicle in the Brush and Trees (2005)

 

There is ruin and decay
In the House on the Hill
They are all gone away,
There is nothing more to say.

                   Church on the outskirts of Lagrange Village (2005)

 

Some abandonment is not obvious to a casual observer. But poke around in the woods near a now small village and evidence abounds. What looks like a big hole overgrown with trees may be an old dirt cellar. Notice what looks like a square rock wall and you probably witness a well-made rock foundation of an old barn or farmhouse. Even vehicles become backdrops to surging forest growth.

                                                         Abandoned Dump Truck beyond the end of the Scudder Road in Sherman (2016)

 

The remains of a tramway used to transport logs from Chamberlain Lake to Eagle Lake are still visible in the woods off the Grande Marche Road in Eagle Lake Township. The tramway was abandoned in 1907 as a new Lombard steam log hauler made its appearance. The site is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Some early photos and details are in the Greenville article. More photos and videos are in the Eagle Lake Township article.

Inventor A. O. Lombard lived in Springfield and later in Waterville where his 1908 house is on the Historic Register.

From the collections of the Library of Congress, a reminder that abandonment is not a recent phenomenon. The image of “The Witch’s House” dated 1936 July 23, is eerily similar to the 2003 photo at the top of this page! This image at an unidentified location in Maine, is from a collection of photographer Carl Van Vechten, 1880-1964. Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, Carl Van Vechten Collection. http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2004663781/ (accessed December 11, 2011)

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