Our Maine Street's Aroostook Issue 10 : Fall 2011 | Page 39

Route 161
And the Caribou Connector
by Larry Cyr

With the recent news of a new Caribou Connector
being built to bypass downtown Caribou and Route 161, I
thought I would record my recollections of places and events
along Route 161 in Northern Maine’s Aroostook County.
Route 161 starts at the Aroostook River Bridge in Fort Fairfield
and runs 83 miles to a dead end at the St. John River west
of Allagash. Route 161 passes through the communities of
Fort Fairfield, Caribou, Woodland, New Sweden, Stockholm,
Madawaska Lake, Cross Lake, New Canada, Fort Kent, St.
John, St. Francis and Allagash.

At the start of the road, the Fort Fairfield Blockhouse
stands nearby along the banks of the Aroostook River. This
blockhouse was built to defend the town during the Aroostook
War in 1839. The town of Fort Fairfield is named for the
Governor of Maine (John Fairfield) in 1839. As one leaves
Fort Fairfield and heads north, a tree lined residential street is
encountered. In the 1960’s the Potato Blossom Festival Parade
was observed from this section of the road by our family in July.
It was a nice shady location where we could put up some lawn
chairs. For the past 63 years the parade has included numerous
floats and farm machinery celebrating the beautiful potato
blossoms that are present in the potato fields during the month
of July. The green potato plants bear beautiful white flowers
with yellow stamens. The parade includes a Potato Blossom
Festival Queen which is chosen from Aroostook County towns.
After this tree lined section, rows of potato houses along the
tracks of the Bangor and Aroostook Railroad were seen on the
left hand side of the road. Most of these barns are gone along
with the Bangor and Aroostook Railroad. The road follows the
Aroostook River on its way to Caribou. Along the Aroostook
River banks one will find the fiddlehead fern, which is a
delicious green vegetable when boiled and served with butter.
After crossing the Caribou City line, one will notice the Bubar
Family Cemetery. One of Caribou’s earliest settlers (Nathaniel
Bubar) is buried here along with three graves of Civil War
Veterans. While continuing the drive towards Caribou, one
will see four tall transmission towers which is the location of
the former LORAN Coast Guard Station in Caribou. This
station recently closed as GPS technology has superceded the
need for this means of communication and ship tracking. The
next stop along the way is Goughan Family Farm where one
can pick your own strawberries, visit the petting barn and treat
yourselves to farm-made ice cream. In the fall they even have
a corn maze. The road now approaches the crest of Fort Hill
where the view of the entire community of Caribou and the
Aroostook River unfolds.
SUMMER 2011 Route 161 39
FALL