Maine area, France hail mutual history French explorer a common link

GREENVILLE – Jackman may share a border crossing with Canada, but the ties the town and the greater Moosehead Lake region share with Maine’s neighbor to the north are far more extensive.

Many Canadians who came across the border to work in the woods in earlier years wound up settling in the area and contributing to the local culture.

“It’s a wonderful heritage that we share together,” Francois Gauthier of Boston, counsul general of France, told a group of Greenville and Jackman residents on Saturday. Gauthier sought to make Franco-American culture more visible during his recent visit to Maine.

“I’m eager to know better about this place, its needs, its potential, its wishes, and how we can strengthen our relationship,” Gauthier said. He also has attended similar gatherings in Bar Harbor, Orono, Old Town and Bangor.

Gauthier’s Maine visit came at the invitation of Yvon Labbe, director of the Franco-American Centre at the University of Maine in Orono.

Labbe and others are working to create the Samuel de Champlain Heritage Tourism Corridor from Bar Harbor to Greenville, which will connect with the Kennebec-Chaudiere International Corridor that extends to Quebec.

They hope to have the corridor completed in time for Quebec’s 400th anniversary in 2008, which will be a year-long celebration.

The founder of Quebec, Champlain also explored many parts of Maine, including Bar Harbor and the Penobscot and St. Croix rivers.

While Champlain did not travel as far north as Greenville and Jackman, he did draw the first map of New England and named Mount Desert Island, according to Gauthier. Therefore, Maine should join in the celebration, he said.

“He belongs to your culture as he belongs to our culture,” Gauthier said

Gauthier encouraged the Greenville-Jackman group to sponsor celebrations that focus on Franco-American history that could be intertwined with his country’s anniversary. “The general purpose is to celebrate and shed light on this page of history,” he said.

Any events could be promoted in his country to encourage visits, Gauthier said. Vermont is already preparing a huge celebration to coincide with the event, he noted.

Gauthier said everything is intertwined- culture, history, economy and opportunity.

“I think the Champlain celebration is the vehicle to strengthen this presence and to shed light on something you can be proud [of],” he said.

Greenville Town Manager John Simko told Gauthier and Labbe, who also attended the meeting, that their project is in keeping with Greenville’s vision to promote the history of Maine’s woodlands.

“We know we’re not Disneyland nor do we want to be,” Simko said, yet the area needs tourism to survive.

Tourists now want genuine cultural heritage offerings and local representatives are already looking at ways to capitalize on the region’s history, he said.

Simko, who also is a steering committee member of the Northern Forest Sustainable Economy Initiative, added that the organization is looking for a project to showcase the commonality of the region and this could be the focus.

Some suggestions aired Saturday included the re-creation of a logging camp complete with meals, genealogy research, and a traveling exhibit from Canada that could be on display in the Moosehead Lake region.

“What you are going to give to the French Canadians is pride in their heritage, which is something that’s been lacking,” resident Richard Gould said Saturday.