Political Quotes

“today I wish to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the town of Grand Isle, ME. As one who was born and raised in Aroostook County, it is a great pleasure to celebrate the generations of industrious and caring people who have made Grand Isle such a wonderful place to live, work, and raise families. Named for a large and fertile island in the St. John River, Grand Isle is a small town with a rich history. For thousands of years, the river valley has been the home of the Micmac and Maliseet. French explorers, led by Samuel de Champlain, first visited the area in 1604. In the late 1700s, French-speaking Canadians began settling in the area, laying the foundation for the vibrant Acadian culture that is so important in Maine, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and as far away as Louisiana. The Acadian settlers created a vibrant community. They cleared farmland, established lumber and grain mills, railroad roundhouses, and thriving general stores. In the 1870s, as railways expanded in the region, the people of Grand Isle joined with their Canadian neighbors on the opposite shore of the St. John River to build a ferry system that used an 800-foot cable suspended above the river to connect the products of their hard work to faraway markets. When the World Acadian Congress convened in Aroostook County in 2014, the descendants of those neighbors again came together to build a replica of that historic ferry.…”