Aroostook County, Maine: History
Named for the Wolastoq River, Aroostook's bounds fall completely within Wolastoqey Country, natively called Wolastokuk. Confederated with neighboring nations like the Mi'kmaq and Abenaki, the Wolastoqiyik (or Maliseet) Nation and their country comprised and still comprises one part of the Wabanaki Confederacy. This confederation covering several countries across Dawnland (what is now New England and the Canadian Maritimes) came together and confederated during the European and British colonization of the Americas.
The sparsely populated North Maine Woods, roughly defined as the headwaters of the Saint John, Penobscot and Kennebec Rivers, was populated during the colonial era by refugees fleeing oppressive governments. Native Americans, particularly Dawnlanders, (retreating from hostile European colonists, and smugglers trading with them, and between English Massachusetts and French Acadia) lived in small communities along the Atlantic coast on the disputed border between those colonies. As England dominated the Gulf of Maine following the French and Indian Wars, these occupants of the border region retreated up the large rivers into the interior, joined by Acadians escaping the Acadian Expulsion. Most Acadians and Wolastoqewiyik found refuge in Canada's Madawaska county, but several communities stayed in what would become the United States, including the Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians, also known as the Metaksonekiyak Wolastoqewiyik. Although the survivors might have preferred to remain independent, surrounding governments dividing their refuge, considering Aroostook County as the west bank of the Saint John River drainage basin upstream of Canada. Under United States control, the area was initially dominated by lumber manufacturing interests, although agriculture became important as population increased. Transportation along the Saint John River, and early rail connections into New Brunswick, created strong business ties with Canada, until the county was connected to the United States rail network by the Bangor and Aroostook Railroad in 1894. Aroostook County residents retain an independent cultural identity established during their history of isolation on the border frontier.
Aroostook County was formed, in 1839, from parts of Penobscot and Washington counties. Between 1843 and 1844, the county gained more land from Penobscot County, and further exchanged land with Piscataquis County. In 1889, Aroostook gained a small amount of Penobscot land, subsequently giving it back in 1903, when Aroostook County took on its current form.
Some of the territory in the county was part of the land dispute that led to the "Aroostook War", a dispute which would be settled by the Webster–Ashburton Treaty. …