Portage Lake

 

 

 

 

 

 

[PORT-ij] is a town in Aroostook County, settled in 1844 and organized on September 2, 1850 from the township T15 R3 WELS.

 

After several confirmations of its plantation status, it was incorporated as a town on March 24, 1909.

 

Early settlers were Canadian lumbermen. The name “Portage” is from the French “carry,” usually referring to the carrying of a canoe from one water body to another.

 

Portage Lake itself dominates the town and gives meaning to the slogan on the welcome sign: “recreation center of Aroostook.”

 

The main village, Portage, lies at the southeastern end of the Lake, about twelve miles northwest of Ashland on Maine Route 11.

Access to the North Maine Woods properties is available at the Fish River checkpoint on the Fish Lake Road just beyond the western town line.  A State owned boat launch provides access for trailered vessels to Portage Lake.

 

In 1967 a small community of six Tibetan men was established in Portage. Two years later it had grown to 27 men and two women.

Refugees from Chinese persecution in Tibet, and living in India since childhood, the men were recruited to work in the woods for Great Northern Paper Company.

They stayed at times in a logging camp in Ashland while working in the Allagash woods.

In December 20 of 1969, the Bangor Daily News described the Tibetan community as follows:

For the neatly compact little compound of white-clad building on the west side of Route 11 just north of Portage houses the refugees from far-off Tibet where, for centuries, people paid homage only to Budda (sic.). And allegiance to the Dalai Lama alone hold the scattered remnants of Tibet’s ancient civilization together, in exile. . . . . .

The two married couples and 25 other Tibetans who have come to Maine to learn of a life oriented to the north woods are practical in the observance of their religion. They keep regular prayer hours, even in the woods, And note that prayers, in any language or faith, are wasted, “if a man doesn’t love his neighbor.”

The Company’s project providing work for the Tibetans ended in about 1970 and they scattered to other jobs outside Maine in the United States.

A section of Maine’s Public Reserved Land, accessible from Portage Lake, surrounds Three Burnt Mountain in the adjoining township T3 R5 WELS.

Form of Government: Town Meeting-Select Board-Manager.

Additional resources

Associated Press. “More Tibetan Lumberjacks En Route To Maine Forests.” Bangor Daily News. September 5, 1969.

Associated Press. “Tibetan Couple Marries In Maine North Woods.” Portland Press Herald. September 2, 1969.

Buckley, Ken. “Tibet Woodcutters Head For Lights.” Bangor Daily News. Undated in Maine State Library file on “Tibetans in Maine.”

Guy, Don. “Tibetans Like Work in Allagash, But Yearn For Some Yak Milk.” Bangor Daily News? Undated in Maine State Library file on “Tibetans in Maine.”

Munsungun. With Rod and Rifle in Northern Maine. 1903? [University of Maine at Presque Isle. Library and Learning Resource Center.]

Northern Maine Regional Planning Commission. The Municipal Service Impacts of the Bald Mountain Metal Mine on the Communities of Ashland and Portage Lake: A Comparison of Local Service Costs and Local Revenues. Caribou, Me. The Commission. 1982.

Rhodes, Dean. “Tibetan Woodsmen ‘Beam’ As They Visit Draft Board.” Bangor Daily News. April 12, 1968.

Washburn, C. M. “Lumberjacks Quicken Pace Despite Homeland Troubles.” Bangor Daily News. September 14, 1967.

C. M. Washburn. “Tiny Tibetan Community Has Christmas Respect.” Bangor Daily News. December 20, 1969.