Times Record "Sustain Maine" op-ed series
Cultural Heritage and Sustainable Development:
A Story from Maine's Mountain Region
27 December 2002
Bruce Hazard and David Vail
What we owe the future is not a new start,
for we can only begin with what has happened.
We owe the future the past,
the long knowledge that is the potency of time to come.
(Wendell Berry, "At a Country Funeral")
Wendell Berry's words ring true at this holiday season, when we are reminded how deeply our cultural inheritance and its cherished rituals shape our sense of identity and well-being.
Civic-spirited individuals and organizations are increasingly investing to conserve and revitalize Maine's diverse cultural heritage for three intertwined reasons. First, our inherited stories, buildings, landscapes, and traditions are "public goods" that enhance our lives and our sense of belonging in this place. Second, our cultural inheritance is a priceless legacy to future generations. Third, cultural heritage represents resources that can be refurbished and recombined to strengthen local economies by attracting tourists, seasonal residents, and in-migrants. These are core contributions to sustainable development.
"New, improved" heritage attractions are all around us: from Bath's Maine Maritime Museum to Bangor's Folk Music Festival; from Brunswick's Joshua Chamberlain House to New Sweden's Scandinavian village. During the 1990s economic boom, revitalization efforts received generous support from countless local historical societies, "friends" groups, and town governments, as well as the Maine Humanities, Arts and Tourism Partnership.
As part of this exciting movement, individuals and community organizations in western Maine's economically strapped mountain counties — from the New Hampshire border to Mt. Katahdin — have launched scores of projects focused on conserving and making use of the region's heritage resources.
Some projects aim simply to preserve something special about a community. Thus, residents of Brighton Plantation (population 90) recently raised $50,000 to refurbish the community's only church, a treasure from an earlier epoch. This desire to nourish historical roots is seen in the dedication with which historical societies and other cultural groups across the four mountain counties have collected and preserved artifacts and documents of local significance.
Other heritage conservation initiatives cross town lines. In Piscataquis County last year, residents from many communities gathered in town halls, schools and community centers to share their most valued stories and images of Piscataquis County life — from handmade wood and canvas canoes, to Finnish Farmers' Club dances, to the "blue bowl" of mountains defining the County's northern perimeter. Cultural conservation has given both longtime and new residents a sense of place and common identity. Beyond this "bonding", it has added an exciting dimension to tourism development, spawning a new crafts guild and a sophisticated plan to link local artisans with distant markets.
Some of the mountain region's most successful heritage-based developments have been economically motivated from their inception. The Franklin Heritage Loop, which guides visitors to little known local heritage sites, grew from collaboration among chambers of commerce to stimulate area tourism. More recently, Norway's dramatically successful downtown revitalization contributes simultaneously to economic development and cultural conservation.
About three years ago, Mountain Counties Heritage, Inc., a small Farmington-based non-profit development organization, convened activists to explore common interests among development projects. Conversations revealed great enthusiasm for coordinating heritage-based development efforts across the region, specifically to help overcome the economic stagnation faced by many of Maine's mountain communities. Out of these discussions, the Maine Mountain Heritage Network was born.
The Network is guided by three basic principles: resource stewardship, true telling of stories, and equitable sharing of benefits. Members are joining forces to identify heritage-based themes and business clusters that could be developed to bring new revenue streams and more livable wage jobs to the region. Members are focusing on strategic combinations, since no single sector or project can provide a sustainable economic base for the region. Several sector studies, focusing on arts and heritage, outdoor recreation, crafts and micro manufacturing, farming and value added food products, wood products, and information services, have revealed both critical infrastructure needs and opportunities to make the region a more exciting tourist destination.
The Network is currently planning action steps. Four examples are strengthening visitor information services in hub communities; engaging local artists, writers and cultural institutions to tell the region's many distinctive stories; weaving the region's outstanding outdoor recreation attractions together with cultural heritage; and developing cluster strategies to market multiple products under heritage themes.
The Network's planning phase has been supported by the Maine Arts and Tourism Partnership, a coalition of state agencies including the Maine Arts Commission, Humanities Council, Historic Preservation Commission, Department of Conservation, Department of Transportation, Department of Agriculture, and State Planning Office. This farsighted interagency effort recognizes the complexity of multi-sector economic initiatives and the need for diverse stakeholders to pool their ideas and resources to take advantage of untapped opportunities.
Despite the downsizing and closure of mills that were once the mountain counties' economic mainstays, there is a renewed sense of energy and optimism about the future. Revitalizing and promoting cultural heritage is a prime reason, with its three-fold contribution to sustainable development: enriching residents' lives, diversifying local economies, and building a legacy for future generations.
Bruce Hazard is director of Mountain Counties Heritage, Inc. David Vail teaches economics at Bowdoin College and advises the Maine Mountain Heritage Network.