This story was originally published in August 2023.
Years ago, Deandra Briggs was stranded at the airport in Denver while she awaited a rescheduled flight to get back home to Bangor. The agent was about to confirm her new tickets and asked for her passport, but Briggs only had her driver’s license.
“The ticket agent said I needed my passport for international flights,” Briggs said. “I was so confused, as the flight was only routed through Chicago. And then she said, ‘Isn’t Bangor, Maine, in Canada?’”
It sounds absurd, but it’s shockingly common: Many people all across the country do not know that Maine is a part of the United States and not, in fact, a part of Canada. It’s as amusing as it is frustrating.
Many Mainers have found themselves chatting with an out-of-state classmate, client or complete stranger, and when the topic of location gets brought up, they are met with blank stares, questions and outright suspicion when the other person is informed that, yes, Maine is a state and not a foreign country.
“I used to work for a medical supply company in the Portland area. People would ask where we were located, and when I said Maine, they would say, ‘We don’t do business with foreign companies’ and hang up,” said Melanie Kollman, a real estate agent in Bangor.
It’s also not a made up fantasyland, as some TikTokers have suggested. Although if we wanted to stop too many people from coming here, it might not be a bad strategy to promote the idea that Maine, like Middle-earth and Westeros, isn’t actually a real place.
“When I first moved to Texas I was getting a haircut and making small talk. The stylist asked where I’m from. I told her I’m from Maine, and her response was, ‘What is Maine?’” recalled Ben Wintle, who grew up in Corinna and now lives in Austin. “Not ‘where’ is Maine. ‘What’ is Maine.”
It wouldn’t be surprising if someone from another country might not know anything about Maine, or even that it exists. But a fellow American? Who should theoretically learn the names of all 50 states before they leave elementary school?
“During my freshman orientation at Connecticut College one of my fellow classmates, a Californian, asked me if I went to the international student orientation the week prior, after I told him I was from Maine,” said Annie Tselikis, who works in the lobstering industry in South Portland. “We gained statehood in 1820. How the hell did he get into college?”
To be fair, thinking Maine is a part of Canada isn’t entirely out of left field. We’re way up in the upper right corner of the map. Maine shares not just a long border with both Quebec and New Brunswick, but also many cultural touchstones, in food, music, language and more. For more than a century, up until 1727, all of what is now Maine east of the Kennebec River was part of New France.
The last war between the U.S. and United Kingdom was the Aroostook War in 1838 and 1839 — barely a war, because no actual combat occurred. If the U.K. had won out in that conflict, most of the northern half of Aroostook County would today be a part of Canada.
And, let’s not forget, before all of that, the Wabanaki lived in this part of the world for thousands of years. When European settlers first arrived in the 16th century, they were definitely entering into a foreign country.
It’s been close to two centuries since the Maine and Canadian borders were settled. That’s probably enough time for folks to learn. Then again, never underestimate how little some people pay attention in class.
“I once successfully convinced someone from Georgia — the state, not the country — that Maine was a small sovereign country bordering Tibet,” said Sara Belisle, a Bangor resident. “I did tell her the truth, but only after she believed me. She was a little embarassed.”
Maybe it’s that Maine, with its mysterious and often impenetrable North Woods, its craggy, mist-shrouded coast and its idiosyncratic people, just seems like a pretend place. Some of us have unusual accents. There are as many moose in Maine as there are people in our largest city. One of our favorite folk tales is about a giant lumberjack with a giant blue ox. We pluck strange, insect-like creatures out of the ocean and serve them boiled and whole, ripping them apart with our bare hands.
The way that sounds, it makes complete sense that the most popular American writer of the last 50 years, Stephen King, would write about Maine as a place full of ancient secrets, strange characters, supernatural beings and ordinary people faced with extraordinary tasks. It looms large in the imaginations of people all over the world; so much so that it must seem like it just can’t be real.
We’re real, though. We’re just lucky to live in a place that seems like someone dreamed it up.
