Maine History Online

Tourism grew from 10 million travelers annually in 1972 to 45 million in 2004.

Maine's economy melded almost imperceptibly with regional and national trends, but persistent problems in rural districts back from the I-95 Corridor gave poverty a somewhat distinctive cast in the "other" Maine.

During the 1970s Maine moved to the forefront among states in environmental legislation. Galvanized by pressure from sports enthusiasts, resort proprietors, coastal and riverside residents, and business leaders, the Curtis administration stiffened Maine's antipollution laws.

In the last three decades of the 20th century Maine brought its economy into line with the American mainstream, but even as the state became more modern, it managed to preserve a traditional way of life. This was possible because citizens chose to balance, and indeed blend the state's need for an expanding economy with its commitment to protecting a rich environment and unique culture.

The choices necessary to maintain this balance were neither easy nor simple, but they reflected a responsive and inventive commitment to Maine on the part of natives and newcomers alike.

State government was a key to forging this new Maine. The legislature passed a state income tax in 1969, and Governor Kenneth Curtis increased spending to protect the environment, equalize school funding, and improve highways.

To offset these expenses, he consolidated the state's labyrinth of bureaus, boards, and agencies into some 20 larger and more manageable departments and brought the state's Library, Archives, and Museum together in a new building in the capitol complex.

This rising demand for state services triggered a legislative cost study chaired by James B. Longley, who, in 1974 became Maine's first independent governor. Longley held the line on taxes and state services. He was followed by Democrat Joseph E. Brennan who, like Curtis, used the government to boost Maine's economy, attracting several thousand new jobs.

In the 1970s, Maine's textile slump finally eased, and an influx of young, well-educated newcomers helped speed the transition to a more technologically sophisticated economy. The economic pace slowed late in the decade, but expansions in paper production, defense, electronics and assembling, and services kept unemployment under the national average.

Maine's economy faltered in the 1990s, but again losses were offset by growth in light manufacturing, services, and durable goods. Structurally Maine's economy remained sound. Its transportation and communications were on par with the rest of the nation, its civic life was vibrant, and the state government was among the most honest and accessible in the nation.

The paper industry endured two devastating mill strikes and a work stoppage by wood contractors in last decades of the century, along with rising worker-compensation insurance costs and a severe spruce budworm epidemic.

To contain the insect infestation, companies adopted clear-cutting techniques, which resulted in a political backlash.

By the 1980s paper producers were facing national and global competition, and these new uncertainties, coupled with shorter investment horizons, touched off a rash of company buy-outs.

These unsettling changes triggered public concern and inspired several public and private efforts to acquire wildlands for conservation and recreational purposes. The Nature Conservancy purchased 175,000 acres of timberland along the St. John River, and in 2003 entrepreneur Roxanne Quimby acquired an entire township near Baxter State Park hoping to build consensus for a new national park.

After paper, tourism was Maine's most important "export" industry, bringing in $4 billion yearly. While 19th-century tourism depended on railroads, steamships, trolleys, summer hotels, and wilderness camps, the 20th-century variety required a new auto-based infrastructure, beginning with completion of U.S. Routes 1 and 2 in the 1920s, the Carleton Bridge across the Kennebec in 1928, and the Waldo-Hancock Bridge in 1932.

The Maine Turnpike, finished to Augusta in 1955 and to Houlton via I-95 in 1967, extended the reach of auto tourism during years when the Maine Central and Bangor and Aroostook railroads were ending passenger service.

Tourism grew from 10 million travelers annually in 1972 to 45 million in 2004. While much of this was concentrated in southern Maine and during peak summer months, fall color promotions, new ski resorts, and services for snowmobiling broadened the geographical base and seasonal reach of the industry.

Maine's per capita income remained at 85 percent of the national average, but paper, tourism, service, light industry, and defense were all somewhat immune to recession, giving the economy a stability Maine had not seen since the first half of the 19th century.

Older industries remained precarious, however. In the mid 1960s, multi-million-dollar foreign factory trawlers appeared off the coast, and within six years the fisheries stood on the brink of collapse.

The 1976 Magnuson Fishery Conservation and Management Act established a 200-mile limit, within which only U.S. vessels could fish, and provided government loans to modernize the U.S. fleet, but in 1984 the World Court gave Canada sovereignty over most of the productive Georges Bank, and on the U.S. side, fish populations declined quickly. Under the Magnuson Act, the New England Fisheries Council was tasked with restoring the Georges Bank and Gulf of Maine; whether the damage was irreparable remained to be seen.