How a coastal Maine town almost became part of Canada

Jacques Poitras · CBC News

· Posted: Jun 23, 2025 5:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 7 hours ago

When U.S. President Donald Trump started talking astir annexing Canada to marque it the 51st state, radical successful Castine, Maine, took notice.

The town, aft all, was doubly occupied by Great Britain 2 centuries ago.

The British wanted to carve retired a caller colony that would beryllium portion of British North America — successful effect doing the other of what Trump has been musing about.

"When I bash walking tours, I jokingly archer radical that this could person been Canada precise easily," said Lisa Lutts, the precocious retired enforcement manager of the Castine Historical Society.

"If the War of 1812, if the Treaty of Paris had been different, this would person been Canada. And I ever gag and say, well, I would person had amended wellness care. That's my joke, and radical emotion it."

Castine's past of concern is disposable successful the humanities markers and remnants of British forts that dot its tiny grid of streets overlooking Penobscot Bay.

Kamala Harris bushed Donald Trump present by 47 percent points successful the statesmanlike predetermination past fall, and the president's assertive comments astir Canada were profoundly unpopular successful Castine and adjacent coastal communities.

"This isn't however you dainty your allies," said Pete O'Brien, a nonmigratory of adjacent Rockland who was showing relatives from California the earthworks of Fort George, built by British troops successful 1779.

"We're astir arsenic adjacent arsenic it gets to you politically, culturally, geographically."

Liam Riordan, a historiographer astatine the University of Maine astatine Orono and an adept connected the revolutionary period, said Trump's rhetoric represents "a nonaccomplishment to recognize the adjacent ties and adjacent relationships that we share."

"I deliberation successful Maine, the absorption to that has truly been 1 of being appalled and embarrassed."

WATCH | 'I spot america arsenic a borderland': Occupied Maine past and now:

Castine's elevated geographical determination astatine the extremity of a peninsula connected the eastbound broadside of Penobscot Bay made it a strategical determination for assemblage powers warring implicit North America.

A paper analogous referred to its seizure successful 1814 arsenic "perhaps 1 of the astir admirable subject positions successful the world." 

In the 1600s, present-day Castine was the occidental borderline of the French colony of Acadia, with the British-held Massachusetts Bay Colony connected the different broadside of the bay. 

France gave up each its North American territory successful 1763, but erstwhile it backed the rebels successful the American Revolution, the British seized Castine successful lawsuit the French decided to instrumentality it back.

A revolutionary fleet sailed to Castine to propulsion retired the British but failed miserably.

"A batch of Americans person nary thought astir the Penobscot expedition and the conflict that took spot here, due to the fact that we lost," Lutts said. "We retrieve the ones that we won."

When the gyration ended and the British recognized U.S. independence, "any tenable idiosyncratic during the pact negotiations … would person said astir surely the Penobscot River would beryllium the border," Riordan said.

But John Adams, 1 of the negotiators, pushed for the St. Croix River to beryllium the borderline due to the fact that helium recognized however Castine would springiness the Americans amended entree to lucrative food stocks and commercialized routes. 

Four 100 loyalists who had travel to Castine during the Revolution to stay nether the British Crown moved again, this clip settling what would go Saint Andrews, N.B.

Several adjacent moved their houses determination connected boats and placed them connected a thoroughfare grid akin to Castine's, the crushed the 2 towns lucifer each other. 

Three decades later, during the War of 1812, the British returned to seizure Castine again.

The communicative goes that American troops astatine Fort Madison knew they were outnumbered, fired 1 perfunctory cannon changeable for honour's involvement and rapidly fled.

A section pastor, William Mason, grabbed a achromatic array cloth from his eating country and headed down to the harbour to question it arsenic a awesome of surrender.

Castine was a boomtown nether British concern acknowledgment to commercialized with different British ports specified arsenic Halifax and Saint John.

"Business is brisk and speculators are regular flocking successful from each quarter," the Hartford Courant reported successful November 1814. "The war, oregon alternatively peace, with the British is becoming precise fashionable here." 

But the pact that ended the War of 1812 returned Castine to the U.S. again.

Thousands of pounds collected by the British customs location successful Castine remained with the British and was utilized by Nova Scotia's governor, Lord Dalhousie, to found a assemblage that aboriginal became Dalhousie University. 

"Another crushed wherefore we consciousness precise adjacent to Canada is that our wealth is up determination astatine that university," Lutts joked.

"They're not letting america successful for escaped though. They should fto Castiners successful for free, don't you think?"

The extremity of that warfare besides marked the extremity of Castine changing hands, but the town's past remains a touchstone for residents to this day.

"We recognize ourselves by reasoning astir our narration with the past," Riordan said. "And Castine truly leans into this much than galore different section towns."

Some section residents aren't definite beingness would beryllium that antithetic present if past had taken a antithetic turn.

"If the Canadian borderline had been here, I don't deliberation a batch would person changed, due to the fact that erstwhile I look astatine Maine, I spot america arsenic a borderland betwixt Canada and the United States anyway," O'Brien said. 

"I deliberation there's besides a batch of knowing and acceptance and appreciation of the Canadians down present arsenic well. And truthful it would person conscionable pushed each of that a small farther south, right?"