Event Title
Potato Prisoners
Location
Diamond 342
Start Date
30-4-2015 1:12 PM
End Date
30-4-2015 2:25 PM
Project Type
Presentation
Description
When people first settled Aroostook County, Maine, they went as loggers. Because of harsh and unpredictable weather conditions, loggers and their families survived on hardy crops that would flourish in most weather conditions. Alongside shingles and other wood products, Aroostook County sold surplus hay and oats. After loggers grew disillusioned with the glamorous life of a lumberjack, they had nothing but cleared land. About this time, the Civil War facilitated movement of people throughout the state, and required that trains run from Aroostook County to southern New England. Connections to the outside world, along with ample farmland, convinced farmers to switch to a crop that would rake in greater profits: potatoes. As potato farming flourished, Aroostook county became the potato empire. The industry didnt fizzle out in the same way that textile-based economies in other parts of the state did due to new technologies and global trends. The isolated communities in Aroostook County finally met global issues during World War II. During World War II, the United States chose to send German POWs to Houlton, Maine, capital of the potato empire. Prisoners lodged in Camp Houlton, and labored in the potatoe fields. The prisoners were young men, almost boys, and performed the labor that normal farmers, overseas fighting Germany, could not. The irony of German POWs helping with the harvest of food for the troops did not go unnoticed, but townspeople and prisoners were able to reach an understanding that allowed Aroostook countys main export continue as it had before. This project examines the progression of agriculture in Aroostook County, and the implications of the potato empire and the effect German prisoners had on the crops as well as the county itself.
Faculty Sponsor
Elizabeth Leonard
Sponsoring Department
Colby College. History Dept.
CLAS Field of Study
Social Sciences
Event Website
http://www.colby.edu/clas
ID
1400
Potato Prisoners
Diamond 342
When people first settled Aroostook County, Maine, they went as loggers. Because of harsh and unpredictable weather conditions, loggers and their families survived on hardy crops that would flourish in most weather conditions. Alongside shingles and other wood products, Aroostook County sold surplus hay and oats. After loggers grew disillusioned with the glamorous life of a lumberjack, they had nothing but cleared land. About this time, the Civil War facilitated movement of people throughout the state, and required that trains run from Aroostook County to southern New England. Connections to the outside world, along with ample farmland, convinced farmers to switch to a crop that would rake in greater profits: potatoes. As potato farming flourished, Aroostook county became the potato empire. The industry didnt fizzle out in the same way that textile-based economies in other parts of the state did due to new technologies and global trends. The isolated communities in Aroostook County finally met global issues during World War II. During World War II, the United States chose to send German POWs to Houlton, Maine, capital of the potato empire. Prisoners lodged in Camp Houlton, and labored in the potatoe fields. The prisoners were young men, almost boys, and performed the labor that normal farmers, overseas fighting Germany, could not. The irony of German POWs helping with the harvest of food for the troops did not go unnoticed, but townspeople and prisoners were able to reach an understanding that allowed Aroostook countys main export continue as it had before. This project examines the progression of agriculture in Aroostook County, and the implications of the potato empire and the effect German prisoners had on the crops as well as the county itself.
https://digitalcommons.colby.edu/clas/2015/program/322