Estcourt Station, Maine

Estcourt Station, Maine (elevation: 671 ft, pop. 4) is a hamlet in Big Twenty Township, in northern Maine's Aroostook County. It is the northernmost point in Maine and in New England.

Estcourt Station is located on the International Boundary between Maine and Quebec, at the southern end of Lake Pohenegamook. It derives its name from the adjacent village of Estcourt, which is part of the larger municipality of Pohénégamook.

Estcourt Station consists of several houses, some of which were built before the International Boundary was properly surveyed through the area (see Webster-Ashburton Treaty) and which the border now divides. There is also a general store and a small gas station (which has recently closed). The community does not have public road access to the rest of Maine, although an extensive network of limited-access privately owned logging roads (maintained by forestry companies) extends south of the community into the northern part of the state.

Instead, Estcourt Station's houses, store and gas station access Rue Frontière, a street on the Québec side of the border. Estcourt Station uses Quebec's 418 area code for telephone service and is connected to Hydro-Québec for electricity. The community also receives drinking water and other municipal services from neighbouring Pohenegamook on the northern side of the border.

Canadian National Railway's transcontinental main line between Halifax and Montreal passes immediately north of Rue Frontière.

There are border control stations on both sides of the International Boundary, although they are only staffed for several hours per day, usually for processing logging trucks which access Maine's North Woods to haul timber to local Quebec saw mills.

Michel Jalbert incident

In October 2002, there was an "unfortunate" border incident (referred to as such by Secretary of State Colin Powell, below) that implicated Michel Jalbert, a Pohénégamook resident, who was imprisoned for 35 days in the United States after purchasing gas at Estcourt Station's gas station outside of the U.S. Customs Service's normal operating hours. U.S. Border Patrol agents stated that Mr. Jalbert was a convicted felon (he was convicted of breaking and entering) and in illegal possession of a firearm; he was reportedly preparing for the local deer hunting season and had a rifle in his truck.

ee also

*Hyder, Alaska

External links

* [http://www.seacoastonline.com/2003news/02162003/maine/13264.htm Trouble at the border]
* [http://www.rudman-winchell.com/mbj-2003winter-01.htm The Immigration Case Of Michel Jalbert Teaches Larger Lessons]
* [http://canada.usembassy.gov/content/textonly.asp?section=can_usa&document=powell_graham_111402remarks Secretary of State Colin L. Powell and Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs Bill Graham Press Availability]