Iowa state bystander. [volume] (Des Moines, Iowa) 1894-1916, 1912-09-20
WITHOUT A COUNTRY
PEOPLE OF A LITTLE MAINE
TOWN CANNOT VOTE.
Division Of state Into Counties In 1927
Left Small Corner Out and Mis-
take Was Never corrseted-Error
In Surveying.

Bangor. Maine.-Hibberts Fore rolk
don't care a rap who is president. VINO
II governor or what the tax rate may
be, for although lying In the state OF
Maine, u. 8. A., they are residents OF
aeither town nor county, have no gov
eminent, no bosses, no improvements
expenses or taxes. In fact. H1bberts
Gore folk are political orphans, oc'
cupying a little slice Of land wedged
In between Waldo, Lincoln and Knox
counties-a patch Of field and forest
left out in the cold by an error In
surveying.
This 500 acres should have been In
cluded in Lincoln county when that
great section of old Maine was divid'
ed into several counties in the year
1927. No one ever took the trouble
to rectify the error, and SO, for ID
years, the inhabitants Of Hibberts
Originally Hibbards) Gore have been
going on their own hook, or. as the
natives say, "ain't nowheres!" 1t lies
between the towns of Liberty, Somer'
Vile and Washington and Is about
halfway between Augusta and Penob'
scot Bay.
At one time a dozen families lived
on the Gore, but being somewhat re-
mote 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 residents, thirteen in all, In
Guiding four youngsters who are sent
to school in Palermo, the parents pay.
ing their tuition, aided by state ap'
preparation. The balance of the terri.
tory is owned by people living in ad-
joining towns who cut hay and pas
ture their cattle on the once-occupied
farms.
No taxes are raised in Names
orphan township; the one bit of high
way which runs through the Gore is
kept in repair by the residents and
land owners. Schooling is paid for
by the individuals, as stated, and that
Is all there Is in the municipal line.
Nobody seems to want the Gore, and
the Goreites seem to be contented to
stay where they are. If they join
some other town they will have to pay
taxes, which will cost them more than
they pay now for schooling and roads.
II any town takes the Gore Inland
some have considered the matter
the town will get less in taxes from
the Gore property than It would pay
in keeping up the roads and establish
ing school or providing for the edu-
cation of the scholars in the Gore.
So both sides are content to let the
Gore alone.
The peculiar status of Hibberts
Gore has brought about some amusing
situations in the past. The fact that
1t is in no county and in no town has
led to the false impression that it was
out of the Jurisdiction of all law and
it's territory could be a paradise for
freebooters of all kinds. A smart man,
who owned lands on the Gore, drove
all his stock there from his neighbor-
ing town just before the assessors
came around in April When the as
SCISSORS called they found his home
barns deserted. They assessed taxes
on the stock on the Gore just the
same, and threatened to sue him If he
didn't pay. 1t was rather game OF
bluff, but the man thought it better
to pay than to run the risk of having
the cause of the Gore go to the state
legislature and perhaps have his land
there attached to some town where
the taxes were high. Lincoln county
stands as sort of protectorate, as
the land was originally a part ,of that
county, although the Gore is altogeth-
or outside the county lines, but the
titles to properties in the Gore are re-
corded in the Lincoln county records.