Hi Tim:
I might be able to add a little to the Estcourt Station Maine
story. It has 5 houses (including one half in Canada and half in
the USA), a gas station which is only accesible via Quebec and a
border 'station' which is actually a booth open from 5am to 2pm.
In Estcourt Station live a few families and even though they
live in Maine their telephone area codes are Quebec area codes as the
phones are linked to Quebec telephone. The gas station is on a road
that is accesible only from Quebec. In theory you have to go about 1
mile down the road, report to the booth that is open for only the am
and early afternoon, drive back into Canada, go about 380 metres into
Canada, hang a left, then cross back into Maine to gas up. Then a
sign is erected in French and English saying YOU MUST REPORT TO THE
NEAREST CANADA CUSTOMS POST at ___________ problem is its not
named. Everyone knows where it is. The residents of Estcourt
Station all speak French either fluently as a 2nd language or as
their mother tongue.
There is a single logging road that leads into the rest of the USA
but it is technically private. About 7 months ago a known local
Quebecois man (who if you ask around town has been in trouble)
crossed to the gas station to get gas and in turn was arrested
because in fact he did not go to the booth down the road. He was
going hunting in Quebec and stopped to get cheaper US gas. He was
arrested because he was a known troublemaker, if you believe the
bartender in Pohenegamook, and had a rifle which meant to the letter
of the law he was an illegal immigrant who was armed. It took
intervention by Colin Powell to finally get him kicked free. If you
go to customscorruption.com which is a US customs whistleblower site
the long and the short of it was the agents were trying to raise
attention to the fact they were left alone and isolated. They
arrested the first easy target and got there publicity.
The people are all nice and the woman at the gas station said a
quote to me I'll never forget. It was along the lines of
"I sell Canadian gas and Canadian milk and Canadian beer to
Canadians with Canadian money all in French, in the USA, what could
be more American than that?"
--- In
BoundaryPoint@yahoogroups.com, "timothykiser"
<timothykiser@h...> wrote:
> my search for estcourt station info is bearing fruit thanks to
fellow
> bp member brian butler and his corners site. here is the best map
of
> estcourt that I can find.
>
> http://www.bjbsoftware.com/corners/pointdetail.php3?point=250
>
> I also contacted north maine woods requesting info
here is their
> response
>
>
> Tim,
> Thanks for contacting us with your questions and for your
> comments regarding our web site.
> Estcourt Station USA is not more than a sawmill, gas station
> and U.S. Customs office. It is on the boundary with Pohenegamook,
> Quebec where most residents reside. There is one or two homes on
the
> US side, but most of the people using this part of the USA live in
> Canada.
>
> We do not have map that we can send to via the Internet, but
> we do have a map/brochure we can mail to you. We are not set up to
> take orders on line at this time so you will need to send along $5
> ($3 for the map/16 page brochure, plus $2 postage and handling) to
> North Maine Woods,
> P.O. Box 425,
> Ashland,ME 04732.
>
> Al Cowperthwaite, Director
> http://www.northmainewoods.org/
>
> please feel free to send me any additional estcourt info that you
> might have. i have but 9 more days before i head north. thanks.
>
> tim