MARS HILL, Maine — Steve Hitchcock remembers when people used to pack into downtown Mars Hill on Saturday nights and park in the middle of Main Street.
“We wanted a photo of that activity on the cover of this book,” said Hitchcock, referring to the new book by the Central Aroostook Historical Society, “Stories From the Heart of The County: Mars Hill, Blaine, E. Plantation, Westfield and Robinson in Words and Pictures.”
“If anybody has a photograph of cars parked in the middle of Main Street on Saturday night in Mars Hill, we’d like to know about it.”
Hitchcock and fellow Historical Society charter member Betsy York have spent the past few years editing, writing and assembling the new history book, which debuted this past summer in tandem with Mars Hill’s annual homecoming festival.
“Our goals are to learn local history, preserve local history and teach it. This book does a lot to accomplish those goals,” Hitchcock said. “It doesn’t matter how old a person is and how long they lived in this area, I guarantee they will learn something new.”
Steve Hitchcock started the Central Aroostook Historical Society in 2010 as a project of the Mars Hill Rotary Club. He and York got the idea for the book about a decade ago and started working on stories and recording interviews with long-time residents.
So far, they’ve sold about 300 books, and also have collaborated with Samantha Drost, social studies teacher at Central Aroostook High School, who will be using the book in her classes. An anonymous donor through the site DonorsChoose.org recently agreed to pay for 22 of the books for Drost’s class.
The book covers a range of themes and time periods in central Aroostook County, from the history of education and agriculture to transportation and genealogy.
York, who works as a school media specialist, wrote about the history of area schools, the Snow Cemetery and her grandfather, who was originally from Germany and took an interest in the German prisoners of war who worked as farmhands in Aroostook County during World War II.
Hitchcock, who has a “soft spot for the Prestile Stream,” wrote about how the St. John River tributary was put to use for ponds, dams and mills in early agriculture and forestry industries.
Hitchcock also explores the history of transportation and how that shaped the central Aroostook region’s trajectory into the 20th century.
“I thought this book should have a story that emphasized different milestones in transportation,” Hitchcock said.
“In 1895, the first train came through Mars Hill. It didn’t go through Blaine, where a lot of businesses were. At the turn of the century, Blaine was the place to be. There was just about nothing in Mars Hill. But trains don’t like to climb hills and Blaine is up on a hill. The train came around where Mars Hill is and then all of your commercial activity related to the trains and shipping came to Mars Hill.”
Hitchcock and York said they are looking to build momentum from the book into a larger presence for the Central Aroostook Historical Society, which now owns the former Blaine Grange.
The Blaine Grange, built in 1948, has a new roof that was recently installed and is in overall good structural condition, Hitchcock said.
Hitchcock said that the group would like to open the grange to the public, such as during community festivals, and would like to make it handicap accessible. The grange houses a range of historical documents, items and artifacts, including some items unearthed during the stormwater drainage work the Maine Department of Transportation has been conducting along Route 1.
Hitchcock mentioned to the MDOT project supervisor that the group would be interested in objects they might encounter in the course of digging six feet under the side of the road, especially any remnants of a former wood piping system from Blaine’s original wellhouse.
“Darned if he didn’t find a piece of that in front of the grange,” Hitchcock said, adding that the section of pipe is now housed in the grange, along with an antique shotgun found elsewhere.
Other items were not able to be fully removed, such as a sickle bar mower attachment found within a deep pile of rocks near the Mars Hill pharmacy.
Hitchcock and York added that the Historical Society would welcome any donations of items of potential historical interest.
“We try to get between the family and the dumpster, so that we get those documents, photographs and artifacts,” Hitchcock said. “Something that may not mean that much to the kids may mean a lot.”
“Stories From the Heart of The County” is available for sale at Mars Hill’s Hanson Memorial Library, the Mars Hill Pharmacy and IGA and Blaine and Mars Hill’s town halls. For more information on the Central Aroostook Historical Society, visit CentralAroostookHistory.com.
