Houlton, Maine

The area was occupied for thousands of years by varying cultures of indigenous peoples. In historic times, these were the Algonquian-speaking Maliseet people. When Maine was part of Massachusetts, parcels of land were dealt out to schools and colleges. The area that was to become Houlton was deeded to the Academy of New Salem, Massachusetts. Thirteen men from New Salem bought the land from the Academy though only three settled there.[5]

Decades after the American Revolutionary War, Anglo-American pioneers Aaron Putnam and Joseph Houlton started a village. They named it for Houlton, who had moved to Maine in 1807 from the more populated part of Massachusetts.[6] Maine separated from Massachusetts in 1820 and became an independent state.

In 1828 the United States government established Hancock Barracks, a military post, in the area. Houlton officially incorporated as a town in 1831. When the Aroostook War flared in 1839 over the border with Canada, three companies of the 1st Artillery Regiment manned Hancock Barracks under Major R. M. Kirby. Major Kirby helped to restrain the twelve companies of militia that Maine sent there from starting a shooting war. The Webster-Ashburton Treaty settled the boundary dispute in 1842, and the Army abandoned Hancock Barracks in 1847.[7]

The U.S. Army installed its first transatlantic[8] Radio Intelligence Station 1.5 miles east of the town center of Houlton, Maine,[9] during World War I. The Houlton Radio Intelligence Station intercepted German diplomatic communications, primarily from its Nauen Transmitter Station. MI-8 created the Radio Intelligence Service, using selected Signal Corps personnel for the sole purpose of supporting strategic intelligence through radio intercepts during World War I. The United States intelligence services built Houlton as the first unit of its type, and its success helped to lay the foundation for many more United States long-range radio-intercept stations.

The AT&T receiving Beverage antenna (left) and radio receiver (right) at Houlton, from a 1920s magazine

On January 7, 1927, AT&T initiated the first transatlantic commercial telephone service,[10] linking New York and London. The AT&T Transoceanic Receiver Station was located at the end of Hand Lane, 46.1270°N 67.8841°W / 46.1270; -67.8841, two miles west of the town center. The massive receiving Beverage antenna,[11] over three miles long and two miles wide, straddled what is now Interstate 95 in Maine four miles west of the center of Houlton. The receiver station worked with the large long-wave transmitting facility of AT&T located at RCA[12] in Rocky Point, New York. The receiver station received the longwave telephone signal from the British General Post Office Rugby transmitting station near Rugby, England.[13] The Rugby Radio Station ceased operations in 2007. On its site is a new large scale housing development, which has also been named Houlton, in honour of the historic links with its American namesake.[14]

The US Army established Houlton Army Air Base in 1941 immediately adjacent to the Canada–US border.[15] Prior to the United States' entry into World War II, American army pilots flew planes to the base. They could not fly the planes directly into Canada, a member of the British Commonwealth, because that would violate the official United States position of neutrality. Local farmers used their tractors to tow the planes into Canada, where the Canadians closed the Woodstock highway so that aircraft could use it as a runway.

A Royal New Zealand Air Force pilot, officer George Newall Harrison,[16] died on December 5, 1942, when he crashed 500 yards south of the runway while ferrying a Hudson Bomber to Britain.[17] Survivors buried his body in the Evergreen Cemetery plot for veterans. Few other New Zealand casualties from World War II were buried in the United States of America. His 19-year-old radio operator, Sergeant Henry Bordewick,[18] also died and was buried there; he was from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The American Legion post in Houlton maintains both these Commonwealth War Graves.

Houlton Army Air Base closed in July 1944. In 1944, the Army adapted a major part of the Houlton Army Air Base for use as prisoner of war internment in Camp Houlton. At its peak, the internment camp held 3,700 German prisoners of war. Forcing prisoners of war to work violated the Geneva Convention; however, they could volunteer to work. Camp Houlton provided laborers for local farms to harvest peas, pick potatoes, and do other labor. For security reasons, the government did not allow every prisoner of war to work on the farms. Most prisoners selected to work did not want to harm their captors or cause trouble. Many farmers came to consider the prisoners of war who worked their fields as good laborers rather than enemy soldiers. They paid the prisoners $1/day in scrip, which the prisoners could spend at the post exchange, the base store, to buy toiletries, tobacco, chocolate, or beer. After the prisoners repatriated, the Army closed Camp Houlton in 1946. The site was redeveloped as Houlton International Airport.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 36.73 square miles (95.13 km²), of which 36.71 square miles (95.08 km²) is land and 0.02 square miles (0.05 km²) is water.[1] Houlton is drained by the Meduxnekeag River.

Interstate 95 has its northernmost two exits in Houlton. The Houlton/Woodstock Border Crossing, located to the east of downtown Houlton, marks the northern terminus of Interstate 95. The town is also crossed by U.S. Route 1 and U.S. Route 2, which have a brief concurrency in the center of town.

Typically for Maine, Houlton has a humid continental climate (Köppen Dfb) with warm summers and cold, snowy winters comparable to Fargo or St. Petersburg. The coldest month between 1971 and 2000 was January 1994 with a mean temperature of 0.7 °F or −17.4 °C, though data from nearby stations suggest the Januaries of 1920 and 1925 were equally cold.[19] Snow depth typically reaches 14 inches or 0.36 metres in February, and has been as high as 71 inches or 1.80 metres at the close of January 1998. Temperature extremes range from −41 °F (−41 °C) on January 4, 1981, up to 99 °F (37 °C) on August 2, 1975.

Houlton High School is the public high school in the town.

Market Square in 1911

Cary Library, a Carnegie library designed by John Calvin Stevens

• Amazeen House, built in 1882 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places
• Aroostook County Courthouse and Jail
• Aroostook County Historical & Art Museum
• Blackhawk Putnam Tavern
• Cary Library
• Edward L. Cleveland House
• Market Square Historic District
• Unitarian Church of Houlton
• Walter P. Mansur House

• Ralph Botting, pitcher for the California Angels
• Michael E. Carpenter, Maine Attorney General and state legislator
• Shepard Cary, US congressman
• Marcus Davis, mixed martial arts fighter with the Ultimate Fighting Championship
• William Dufris, original voice of Bob the Builder in North America
• Ira G. Hersey, US congressman
• Stan Hindman, defensive lineman for the San Francisco 49ers
• Debra Lee Hovey, Connecticut State Representative
• Jean E. Howard, George Delacorte Professor of the Humanities at Columbia University
• Frank M. Hume, colonel; commanding officer of the 103rd Infantry, 26th Division during World War I
• Happy Iott, Major League Baseball outfielder
• Natalie Kalmus, influence Technicolor engineer
• Alton Kelley, psychedelic poster artist
• Lester D. Mallory, diplomat
• Henry Clay Merriam (1837–1912), Civil War-era general, awarded the Medal of Honor
• Bern Porter (1911–2004), artist, writer, and scientist
• Samantha Smith (1972–1985), child peace activist
• Danny Wilde (musician), guitarist, singer, and founding member of pop group The Rembrandts
• Eliza Tupper Wilkes (1844–1917), Unitarian Universalist minister, suffragist

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Houlton, Maine.

Wikivoyage has a travel guide for Houlton.

• Town of Houlton, Maine
• Greater Houlton Chamber of Commerce
• Historical photographs of Houlton at the Maine Historical Society's Maine Memory Network