Madawaska (Maine)

Madawaska
Panorama of Madawaska
	flag
Location in Maine
Madawaska
Basic data
Foundation :	March 15, 1831
State :	United States
State :	Maine
County :	Aroostook County
Coordinates :	47 ° 18 ′  N , 68 ° 15 ′  W Coordinates: 47 ° 18 ′  N , 68 ° 15 ′  W
Time zone :	Eastern ( UTC − 5 / −4 )
Residents :	4,035 (as of 2010)
Population density :	28 inhabitants per km 2
Area :	145.66 km 2  (approx. 56 mi 2 ) of which 143.9 km 2  (approx. 56 mi 2 ) is land
Height :	292 m
Postal code :	04756
Area code :	+1 207
FIPS :	23-42520
GNIS ID :	0582576
Website :	www.TownOfMadawaska.com

Madawaska is a town in Aroostook County in the state of Maine in the northeastern United States . In 2010, 4035 inhabitants lived there on an area of ​​144.2 km². 83.4% of residents speak French, although the official language in Maine English is.

geography

According to the United States Census Bureau , Madawaska has a total area of ​​145.66 km², of which 143.9 km² are land and 1.76 km² are water .

Geographical location

Madawaska is located in northeast Aroostook County, on the Saint John River , in the middle of which the border with Canada runs, and is connected by a bridge to the opposite city of Edmundston . South of the town is Long Lake and in the center of Madawaska is Germain Lake . The surface of the area is slightly hilly, the highest point is the 353 m high Cyr Mountain .

Neighboring communities

All distances are given as straight lines between the official coordinates of the places from the 2010 census.

• North: Edmundston , New Brunswick 5.4 mi
• Northeast: Rivière-Verte , New Brunswick , 7.1 mi
• East: Grand Isle , 8.1 mi
• South: Unorganized Territory from Square Lake , 9.2 mi
• Southwest: Saint Agatha , 4.8 mi
• West: Frenchville , 10.1 miles

City structure

There are several settlement areas in Madawaska: Cleveland , Dionne Corner , Fournier , Madawaska , St. David , Upper Madawaska (location of a former post office) and West Madawaska (location of a former post office).

climate

Madawaska, Maine
Climate diagram
J F. M. A. M. J J A. S. O N D.     46   -8th -17     20th   -6 -15     38   0 -9     71   7th -2     76   16 5     99   21st 10     109   23 13     102   22nd 12     89   17th 7th     64   10 1     74   2 -4     64   -5 -12 Temperature in ° C ,  precipitation in mm Source: www.weatherbase.com

Average monthly temperatures and rainfall for Madawaska, Maine Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Max. Temperature ( ° C ) -8.2 -5.9 -0.2 7.3 15.8 20.7 23.3 22.2 17.2 9.7 2.2 -4.7 O 8.4 Min. Temperature (° C) -17.4 -15.2 -9.4 -1.8 4.7 9.6 12.8 11.6 6.8 1.3 -4.4 -12.3 O −1.1 Precipitation ( mm ) 45.7 20.3 38.1 71.1 76.2 99.1 109.2 101.6 88.9 63.5 73.7 63.5 Σ 850.9 Source: www.weatherbase.com

The mean average temperature in Madawaska is between -12.8 ° C in January and 18.1 ° C in July. Compared to the long-term mean, the place is around 4 degrees cooler in winter and around 0.5 degrees in summer than the mean for the state of Maine. The daily sunshine duration is at the lower end of the range in the USA.

history

The town of Madawaska was founded on February 24, 1869. It got its name from the Madawaska River, which flows into the Saint John River. The town was settled by French settlers or their descendants who fled across the Bay of Minas in 1754 to escape transport and separation by the English authorities in America. The residents were predominantly Roman Catholic.

Many of the francophone residents belong to the Brayon family , the majority of whom can also be found in the neighboring Canadian city of Edmundston. Efforts were made to found the independent Republic of Madawaska . At the time, the borderline between Canada and the United States was controversial and the Aroostook War (1838/1839) almost broke out . The parties came to an agreement in the Webster-Ashburton Treaty in 1842 , and the border disputes were finally settled. The border was drawn right through the river, so that the area inhabited on both sides with Catholic-French population was cut up. But until the 1870s, when the railroad reached the valley, the river remained the only means of transport. The residents were considered extremely peaceful and needed neither police nor prisons, judges or any administration at all.

The French settlers owned extensive land and, according to reports from Maine State officials, grew the best potatoes. They thought they were refugees from the British colonies, academics who were still part of the United States. Soon, however, they were considered simple, if not crude, they lived for their subsistence, not for the "progress" that was so popular in the rest of the country. After all, they were accused of lacking a pioneering spirit because they did not log the forests to sell their votes - although by 1860 their farms were more productive than those of their British neighbors, as a census showed. They did not seem to obey the Protestant work ethic, which could well become an argument for expropriation or even displacement in situations of tension. The lawlessness in the Madawaska River area also led to atrocities such as the arbitrary execution of unpopular Francophones who refused to voluntarily cede their land to the Anglophones.

Finally there was the French-speaking aversion to English schools, which aroused suspicion from the 1850s onwards. This was also due to the fact that they had darker skin due to their French and, above all, indigenous ancestors. In the increasing racism of the English population, all despised traits were soon considered part of the genetic make-up. Politicians tended to send English-speaking officials and set up appropriate schools, because the Francophones were supposed to be integrated into society, which at least linguistically aimed at assimilation, but at the same time also meant the robbery of the settlers' cultural isentities, which were defined in particular by language. By means of perks for evangelical churches, many Catholics were also turned away from their faith, so that the relationship between the religions in the Madawaska area almost completely matched the US average. The brief gold rush of the 1880s brought new settlers and a new mix of people and languages. To prevent the Francophones from regaining their strength, French was banned as a school language in Maine until 1960.

It was only with the civil rights movement of the 1960s that people remembered the oppression and disenfranchisement of the francophone settlers. As the first concession in a long time, French was once again permitted as the school language from 1966. In the 1980s, French-speaking victims of displacement and death were rehabilitated by US courts and their heirs were given the opportunity to petition for restitution. In Madawaska, this led to the erection of memorial plaques for displaced Francophone residents and the closure of a pulp plant that had been established by an Anglophone settler in an expropriated ranch. The company was again compensated with commercial space in the neighboring county, but over half of the local jobs were lost. This briefly led to social tensions in the town in 1988, as the applicants for restitution and a citizens' initiative that campaigned for memorial plaques were held responsible for the economic misery. In 1990 a federal program for economic development took hold and soon made the new tensions forgotten.

Today there is a coat of arms and a flag of the Republic of Madawaska, which is hoisted in front of the town hall in Edmundston and at festivities. The incumbent Mayor of Edmundston also has the honorable title of President of the Republic of Madawaska . Every year at the end of June the nationally known Acadian Festival takes place.

Population development

Census Results - Town of Madawaska, Maine

year	1800	1810	1820	1830	1840	1850	1860	1870	1880	1890
Residents			1114	2487	3460	1276	585	1041	1391	1451
year	1900	1910	1920	1930	1940	1950	1960	1970	1980	1990
Residents	1698	1831	1933	3533	4477	4900	5507	5585	5282	4803
year	2000	2010	2020	2030	2040	2050	2060	2070	2080	2090
Residents	4534	4035

Culture and sights

Buildings

Two buildings in Fort Fairfield are listed and listed on the National Register of Historic Places .

In addition, the Acadian Landing Site is a historically significant site for the French-American Acadian population in the far north of Maine. Located on the southern bank of the Saint John River east of Madawaska and marked by a large marble cross, it is the place traditionally recorded as the landing point of the first Acadians to populate this region of the upper Saint John River. This landmark was added in 1973 under the register number 73000098.

In 1973 St. David Catholic Church was incorporated under registration number 73000101. Built in 1911, it is an architectural feature of the Baroque and Italian Renaissance architecture.

The Isaie and Scholastique Martin House followed in 2009 under the registration number 09001147. It is a well-preserved example of an Acadian log house built using traditional regional techniques.

Economy and Infrastructure

The main livelihood of the residents of Madawascan is now the paper industry , which is operated by the Canadian company Fraser Paper. The pulp required for this is sent via a pipeline from the Edmundston mill through the river and across the border to Madawaska.

traffic

US Highway 1 runs through the north of Madawascas in a west-east direction . It runs parallel to the Saint Johns River and connects Madawascas with Fort Kent in the west and Houlton in the south.

Public facilities

With the Madawaskas Public Library on Maine Street, Madawaskas has its own library. It grew out of a Catholic reading group in 1939 initiated by Reverend Lionel J. Thibodeau. The library developed from this just a year later.

With the High view Manor there is a hospital in the town. Additional medical facilities are available to residents of Madawaska in Fort Kent.

education

Madawaska belongs to the Maine School Administrative District # 33 with Frenchville and Saint Agatha . The following schools are available to school children in the school district:

• Dr. Levesque Elementary School (PK-6) in Frenchville
• Wisdom Middle High School (7-12) in Saint Agatha
• St John Valley Technology Center in Frenchville

Personalities

sons and daughters of the town

• Meagan Toussaint (* 1987), biathlete

literature

• Thomas Albert: Histoire de Madawaska. D'après les recherches historiques de Patrick Therriault et les notes manuscrites de Prudent L. Mercure , mprimerie franciscaine missionnaire, 1920, reprinted by the Madawaska Historical Society, Madawaska 1998.
• Charlotte Lenentin Melvin: Madawaska. A Chapter in Maine New Brunswick Relations , MA thesis, University of Rochester 1955, Reprinted by Madawaska Historical Society 1975.
• Edward Wiggin: History of Aroostook . tape 1 . The Star-Herald Press, Presque Isle ME 1922, p. 150 ff . ( Digitized version ).

Web links

Commons : Madawaska, Maine  - collection of pictures, videos, and audio files

• Town Madawaska website
• Madawaska on Maine.gov
• Madawaska on City-Data.com

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Madawaska in the Geographic Names Information System of the United States Geological Survey , accessed January 27, 2018
2. ↑ Maine 2010 Census Results ; official publication of the Census Authority, (English; PDF; 32.5 MB)
3. ↑ Cyr Mountain . In: peakery.com . ( peakery.com ).
4. ↑ Coordinates of the locations of the Census Authority 2010
5. ↑ Madawaska, Aroostook County | Maine Genealogy. In: mainegenealogy.net. Retrieved February 11, 2018 . 
6. ↑ ^{a b} climate data at www.City-Data.com (English)
7. ^ History of Madawaska, Maine From A Gazetteer of the State of Maine by Geo. J. Varney edited by BB Russell, 57 Cornhill, Boston 1886
8. ↑ Stephen J. Hornsby, John G. Reid; New England and the Maritime Provinces: Connections and Comparisons , McGill-Queen's Press, 2005, p. 78.
9. ↑ Stephen J. Hornsby, John G. Reid; New England and the Maritime Provinces: Connections and Comparisons , McGill-Queen's Press, 2005, p. 79.
10. ↑ Stephen J. Hornsby, John G. Reid; New England and the Maritime Provinces: Connections and Comparisons , McGill-Queen's Press, 2005, p. 85.
11. ↑ Flags in Madawaska ( Memento of the original from September 15, 2004 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
12. ↑ Population 1820–2010 according to census results
13. ↑ Asset Detail. In: nps.gov. npgallery.nps.gov, accessed January 27, 2018 . 
14. ↑ Asset Detail. In: nps.gov. npgallery.nps.gov, accessed January 27, 2018 . 
15. ↑ Asset Detail. In: nps.gov. npgallery.nps.gov, accessed January 27, 2018 . 
16. ^ Madawaska Public Library. (No longer available online.) In: madawaskalibrary.org. Archived from the original on November 13, 2017 ; accessed on January 27, 2018 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
17. ↑ Welcome To MSAD 33. In: msad33.org. Retrieved January 12, 2018 .