Northern Exposure
If your town was built on timber, what do you do when the mills close and lumberyards leave? In the case of Patten, you bravely face the future.
By Brian Fiske, Photography by Dean Abramson
It's a typical late-September scene in northern Maine. A blanket of light fog hangs over the roadway; the brilliant yellows, reds, and golds of the changing leaves are muted in the pre-dawn light. Car traffic is minimal. In fact, traffic isn't the right word for the few vehicles that travel into Patten at this time of day. Any obvious sign of early morning commuters disappeared onto I-95 in Bangor, 100-plus miles to the south.
The light traffic is both good and bad news. It's good, because the moose lounging in the grass along the highway would have induced a lot more anxiety had there been more cars on the road.
