In the wilderness of northern Maine, a long tradition of allowing public access, even on privately owned lands, has shaped the region's culture and identity since the 1800s. So when "No Trespassing" signs showed up around Burnt Jacket Mountain, at the edge of Moosehead Lake, this summer, it did not go unnoticed. Neither did the new surveillance cameras and locked gates in the woods, nor the crews cutting a new road up the mountain who deflected questions from neighbors by citing nondisclosure agreements.
My mum was very ill and she couldn't move around any more, he said. She, by the end of her life, had her leg amputated and she could barely communicate. She was very, very ill. She loved her donkeys and I wanted her to be able to see her donkeys. I bought a field for 20,000 at the back of their house. I said, here's your field. It's yours for as long as you may live.
Power hides by setting us against each other... Rural people are endlessly instructed that they're oppressed not by the lords of the land, but by vicious and ignorant townies.