Discover Where Northern Maine Officially Begins

If you have spent more than a few months living in Maine, there is a good chance that you have noticed there are massive differences between 'Southern Maine', 'Central Maine', and 'Northern Maine'.

With Portland as a focal point, Southern Maine is generally considered to be more populated and affluent than other parts of the state. This part of the state is home to some of the best restaurants and most unique stores in New England. Additionally, the area is home to the majority of the state's white-collar workers.

Lacking any real cities, Northern Maine is dotted with small towns and villages.  While they are not the backwoods hicks that some people make them out to be, the population of Northern Maine lives life a lot more casually.  A significant portion of the population works in some type of blue-collar job.

Central Maine is kind of a mix of the 'northern' and 'southern' lifestyles.  If you go out for drinks at a Central Maine bar, the guy to your right might be a skidder operator and the guy to your left could be a professor at Colby or Bates.

Now that we've discussed how different the northern part of the state is from the souther part of the state, where is the line?  Where does 'Northern Maine' officially start?

Where Does 'Northern Maine' Start?

If you ask a bunch of Mainers, from different parts of the state, this question, they will all likely give you different answers.

Someone from South Portland is likely to tell you the line starts somewhere in Lewiston.  Someone from Bangor will probably tell you it is Houlton.  Someone in Newport might just tell you that it doesn't really matter because "anythin' south of Lewiston/Auburn is just Northern Massachusetts!"

According to the ThoughtCo website, there is a specific point where 'Northern Maine' starts.

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They determined the exact center of each state. Any point north of this center represents the northern half of the state, while any point south represents the southern half.

The coordinates they have for the center point in Maine are  69°14'W 45°15.2'N.  That's about 18 miles north of Dover-Foxcroft.  

Basically, 'Northern Maine' starts just north of Bangor.

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