the insidious problem with the Maine map
Buy a Maine road map, look one up on the Internet, or watch a TV weather report. When a state map appears in a southern Maine newspaper, check it against this page. Chances are, the first image below more closely matches the proportions you'll find on those other maps. The state is deliberately compressed at the top. Why...?
First: Maine as depicted on maps originating in the southern part of the state. (In this example, the northern 3/5 of the state is 20% compressed vertically. On some of the TV weather reports, the compression is much worse.) This is done, not to make the northern boundary appear nearer to Massachusetts, but to make it appear less consequential and, for those in perpetual eco-political panic, a much smaller and therefore more threatened wilderness.
Middle: Maine as depicted accurately. Residents from around Portland ('P') can barely bring themselves to travel to Augusta ('A'). Augusta is in "central" Maine, if you ask anyone from there southward. (Why else, for instance, is Central Maine Medical Center located in Lewiston and not in Dover-Foxcroft? It would be just as logical for an enterprise in Houlton to call itself, say, Central Maine Regional Airport.)
Now suppose the folks in Aroostook County took it in mind to publish maps that squeeze southern Maine by 20%. After all, the southern part of the state is irrelevant to them. The result...
2002
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