Did you know that Maine is the only state in the country that is attached to only one other state? Maine only has about 1.3 million year round residents, or about 40 people per square mile, which makes it the least populated eastern state. Maine is 90% woods, making it the most forested state in the country. The whole state of Maine is nearly the size of the rest of New England combined. The state animal is the moose, which isn’t so surprising considering that Maine has the most moose per square mile. Portland, Maine is the state’s most populous city (coming in at about 65,000), but the capital is Augusta. Maine produces 99% of the US’s blueberries as well as 90% of the US’s toothpicks.
That far north the people of Almost, Maine would be lucky enough to see the northern lights, or aurora borealis, whenever the conditions were right. Although at the right latitude the conditions have to be just right to get the stunning display of northern lights. The sky has to be completely clear, and clouds will obstruct the view. The best time to see the northern lights is between March-April or September-October, or whenever there is a solar storm. The northern lights are caused by “solar wind” a current of highly charged particles produced by the sun interacting with the Earth’s magnetic field. The various shades of green, blue, purple, and even sometimes red, are caused by oxygen, nitrogen and helium particles in the air. The northern lights have appeared in cave paintings discovered in France and are also linked to many different myths and cultures, for example, the Inuit of Alaska believed that the lights were the spirits of the animals they hunted. Other aboriginal peoples believed that the lights were the spirits of their dead and deceased.
Almost is a fictional town but, according to John Cariani, if it were real it would be located 120 miles north of Mt. Katahdin in the middle of Aroostook county. Aroostook is populated about as sparsely as the Dakotas-- 11 people per square mile-- despite being the 6,700 square miles (that means this county is larger than Connecticut and Rhode Island combined). Being so far north Aroostook and the people of Almost would get only about 9 hours of sunlight in January, average temperatures falling somewhere around 9 degrees fahrenheit, and 115 inches of snowfall per year. Almost would have roughly a population of 300 with a median household income of $25,000.
