The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1912-08-25
SECTION OF MAINE
IS IN NO COUNTY
Inhabitants Pay No Taxes
and Have No Schools
MISTAKE IN SURVEY
Five Hundred Acres Are Nowhere"
and the Landowners Are Not
Anxious to Have Themselves
Annexed to Anything

Bangor, Me- Cor. New York Press.
Tiibbert's Gore folk don't care rap
who is President, who Is governor or
what the tax rate may be, for although
lying in the state of Maine, United States
OF America, they are residents of neither
town nor county, have no government,
no bosses, no improvements. expenses or
taxes. In fact, Hibberts Gore folk are
political orphans, occupying little slice
Of land wedged in between Waldo, Lin
coin and Knox counties--a patch Of field
error In surveying. This 500 acres should
have been included In Lincoln county
when that great section of old Maine was
divided into several counties In the year
1927. No one ever took the trouble to
rectify the error and SO, fer s. years.
the inhabitants of Hibbert's Originally
TIibbard's) Gore have besn going on their
own hook or, as the natives say, amt
aowheresv 1t lies between the towns OF
Liberty. Somervills and Washington and
is about half way between Augusta and
Penobscot Bay.
At one time a dozen families lived on
the Gore, but being somewhat remote
from schools and stores and the land not
over fertile, they gradually sold their
holdings and moved away, leaving three
of the farms. occupied by actual resi-
dents, 10 in all, including four youngsters.
who are sent to school In Palermo. the
parents paying their tuition, aided by
state appropriation. The balance or the
territory Is owned by people living In adj
Joining towns, who cut hay and pasture
their cattle on the once occupied farms
No taxes are raised in Names orphan
township; the one bit of highway which
49, 10 M
by the residents and land owners SCHOOL,
ing is paid for by the individuals as
stated, and that IS all there 10 In the
municipal lite. Eobody seems TO want
the Gore, and Goreites seem to be con-
tented to stay where they are. II they
Join some other town they will have to
pay taxes, which VIII cost them more
than theJ pay now Tor scnoonns ana
rosds. II any to7,n tskes, the Gore In
ana some have considered the matter
tee town viii get loss in taxes from the
Corc prope-tv tnaa Il would pay out In
keeping u, the roads and establishing a
schoo, or providing for the education of
the scholars In tire Gore. SO both sides
arc content to let the Gore alone
The peculiar status of Hibberts Gore
has brought about some amusing situa-
lions In the past. Tho fact that 1t Is in
no county ard IL no town has led to the
false impression thaI 1t was out of the
suriHlict!oa of all law and its territory
could be a paradise for freebooters Of all
kinds. A smart man. who owned lan1
on tho Gore. drove all his stock there
from his noizhborinE town just before the
esscsaors came around in April. When
the assessors called they found his home
barns deserted. They assessed taxes on
tho stock OF the Gore just the same. and
| threatened 10 sue him IL he didn't pay.
Il was rather game OF bluff but the
man thought Il bettcr to psy than to
run tho risk OF hsvi.,s the cause OF the
Gore IS to the state legislature and per-
| haps have his land there attached to some
| town where the taxes were high. Lin
coin county stands as sort of protector
| ate. as the land was originally part Of