City of Ellsworth

Before we get started on all our adventuring, I thought it prudent to give a little background information on the place I now call home – Ellsworth Maine.

Ellsworth is located at intersection of routes 1 and 1a, at the mouth of the Union River. Bangor is 30 miles to the North and Bar Harbor is 20 miles to the South. We’re 80 miles from the state capital of Augusta to the West and equally as far away, to the East, from New Brunswick and the Canadian border.

The town was incorporated in 1800 and boasted 9 sawmills, 8 brickyards and 13 ship builders. There were two major disasters in Ellsworth’s history. A Great Flood which took place in 1923 and a Great Fire which occurred 10 years later. After the fire the downtown was re-built and looks pretty much the same as it does today.The population of Ellsworth currently stands at about 7,800 people and, at the time of the 2010 census, was Maine’s fastest growing town. Of course, this number pales in comparison to the population of Nashua (my former hometown) which stands at 86,000 – more than 10 times the size of Ellsworth!

Ellsworth is also Maine’s largest town, by area, at 94 square miles. 79 square miles of that is land and a whopping 14 square miles of that is water. 3 times the amount of land as Nashua and 15 times as much water! Ellsworth is so big that it’s an average of 7 miles from the center of town to its border - in all directions!
The density of Ellsworth is about 97 people per square mile. Nashua, by comparison, has 2,800 people over that same area – almost 30 times more dense! So, needless to say, in Ellsworth there’s plenty of room for everybody! Except, of course, if you’re a minority. Ellsworth is 98% white. With all other races at less than ½ of 1 % each. Not so much on the diversity, I guess.

So, what is life like here in Ellsworth? Well, I’ve only been here for a few days (not counting the multiple trips up with all our stuff) but I can say that everyone I’ve met here has been super friendly. The kids have been welcomed into their new classrooms with open arms. And, despite the quiet nature of the town, I think there will be more than enough things for us to do!

How We Got Here From There

In September of 2015, my wife Johanne was offered (and accepted) a position as Senior Vice President of Audit at Bar Harbor Bank & Trust. So, we sold our home in Nashua, New Hampshire (where we had lived for 12 years), packed up the family (in two separate moving vans) and relocated 4 ½ hours “Down East” to Ellsworth, Maine (where we knew not a soul). In doing so, I quit my full-time job in Architecture to care for our two small children, and hopefully to have a little free time to explore our new and stunningly beautiful surroundings.

Through this blog, I hope to document what I discover here and I further hope that it will be of some amusement to someone other than me.  So please… sit back, relax, and join me on my journey through Permanent Vacationland.