Maine Nature Tourism Initiative

THEMATIC FRAMEWORK
for
MAINE NATURE TOURISM EXPERIENCE

INTRODUCTION:

This Thematic Framework identifies a cluster of engaging, coherent and cohesive interpretive messages to serve as a guiding star in the development of public programs for the Maine Nature Tourism Initiative. By placing visitor experiences within a heritage context, this framework draws on the inter-related resources of nature, history and culture. In this way, recreational activities for both residents and visitors are located in a context that is simultaneously stimulating, meaningful and illuminating.

The framework consists of an Overarching Theme and three Sub-Themes. In time, core storylines will be developed and added to the framework. An Overarching Theme, by its very nature, is broad and inclusive. It is suggestive and multi-faceted. It has diverse implications. Sub-Themes, although still broad, are, at the same time, concrete and focused. While they work on more than one level, Sub-Themes are not as abstract pr subtle as an Overarching Theme. Storylines are even more detailed, precise and particular. They combine a series of similar and related stories, events and incidents.

This Thematic Framework draws on the ongoing work of the Maine Mountain Heritage Network as a model. Steeped in local resources, traditions and stories, the Network has developed a series of thematic statements that are, with some modification and refinement, applicable statewide. While the framework delineated in this document has its own distinctive terms and themes, it very much builds on the previous work of the Heritage Network.

GOALS:

Clearly articulated interpretive goals are essential to the planning process. Such goals are especially important in helping to formulate interpretive themes or core messages. In the end these same goals also shape and impact the public programs that visitors encounter while touring the state.

Based on a review of key documents, meetings and interviews, the proposed interpretive goals for the Maine Nature Tourism Experience are:

OVERARCHING THEME: LIVING ON THE EDGE

Bordering on Canada and the Atlantic Ocean, dotted with communities that are immediately adjacent to immense tracts of forests or the rugged seacoast, subject to extreme variations in weather and unrelenting winters, in more ways than one Maine and its residents live on the edge. These conditions make for sturdy character, inventive practices and a rich heritage. At the same time, these very same conditions have long made Maine attractive and exciting to a wide array of visitors. The challenge of engaging life without the easy comforts and amenities of modern civilization has for many years proven to be a magnet for people in search of adventure and immediate experience.

Ecologically, "an edge" has additional meanings. It is a place pulsating with life. Where meadow and woods meet, where land touches water, where one climatic zone intersects with another–all of which can be found in Maine--wildlife is diverse, abundant and active. Similarly, in cultural life there is parallel to this natural phenomenon. Where two cultures intersect–as in Maine where French-Canadian and Anglo-American cultures overlap–unexpected and unusual phenomena appear.

Today, as in past generations, the diverse ways in which life on the edge can be explored and experienced in Maine offers a gamut of meanings and attractions. Living on the Edge is an abiding characteristic of the state in light of its rich nature, history and culture.

SUB-THEME #1: INNOVATIVE BY NATURE

With a vast and rugged terrain of mountains, forests, seacoast, rivers and large lakes, Maine has virtually forced its inhabitants to become innovative, inventive and clever. Those who cannot grapple with the challenging natural conditions will not endure or survive. This state is not for the faint of heart. Furthermore, because nature is dynamic and constantly changing, solutions that work at one time are not easily applicable in another. Changes in nature demand flexible–rather than static--responses.

To make a living under these circumstances, residents of Maine have made use of the state’s natural resources, often in remarkable ways. Agriculturally, residents have marketed dairy products, apples, potatoes and maple syrup. Rivers have been harnessed for lumbering, papermaking, textile production, shoemaking and hydroelectric power. The forests have been logged, clear-cut and now finally managed. Granite and slate deposits mined. Rivers and ocean fished. Ice exported. A shipbuilding industry has bolstered the nation’s commerce and defense. Craftspeople have fashioned custom furniture, wreaths and specialty goods. For well over a century the nature based tourism industry has been a steadily growing part of the Maine economy and experience.

In Maine, even town life is to a degree shaped by nature. Because of location and access to resources some towns have become predominantly agricultural, others manufacturing centers, still others oriented to the lumber industry, while others have served as transportation hubs.

SUB-THEME #2: STATE OF CONNECTEDNESS

Although population in Maine is generally sparse and natural barriers immense, over the generations, residents have gone to great lengths to surmount obstacles and make contact with one another. In many ways, Native Americans–forebears of the Penobscot, the Passamaquoddy, the Maliseet and the Micmac who still reside in the state--led the way in this regard. They not only developed trail systems for land travel and birch bark canoes for water transportation, but they were at the forefront in envisioning the entire natural world as a dynamic, interdependent and interacting entity.

In a more technological era, during the late nineteenth century residents of Maine constructed a far-reaching trolley system that connected most major towns and made it possible to travel from the Kennebec Valley to Kittery by trolley. Today the Allagash Wilderness Waterway, the Northern Forest Canoe Trail, the Carrabassett River Trail, the Nashua River Rail Trail and the famed Appalachian Mountain Trail (which terminates at Mount Katahdin) carry on an old tradition and are only a few of the water, bike and walking trails that join one part of the state to another.

Maine’s towns and cities are yet another way in which the state’s inhabitants have developed a myriad of ways to maintain contact and develop interdependent networks under challenging natural circumstances.

SUB-THEME #3: MAINE IN THE WORLD

Naturally, culturally and historically, Maine has always been a part of a larger world network. Wildlife knows no national, state or county borders, as the flocks of birds migrating to Maine testify each year. Similarly, generations of Passamaquoddy, who lived here well before Europeans settled in the area, freely passed between areas now called New Brunswick and Maine.

Over the centuries, French Canadians, English, Scotch Irish, Swedes, Finns and Italians among others have immigrated to Maine to make it home. In turn, Maine industrialists and entrepreneurs shipped textiles, ice, potatoes, fish, and shoes to distant ports long before the term "global economy" was conceived. Today, tourists from around the world vacation in Maine to experience firsthand the state’s remote forests, mountains, rivers and lakes. Similarly, each year hundreds of hikers leave Georgia intent on hiking the entire Appalachian Trail, with its final 281 miles in the state. In short, although on first impression Maine appears isolated and apart, in fact it is–and has long been–a vital component of a larger world wide system.

Contact FERMATA project manager: Mary Jeanne Packer

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