A plan to build the world’s tallest flagpole — higher than the Empire State Building — to hoist an American flag larger than a football field in the Maine wilderness has divided a small town close to its proposed site.
The $1 billion project — dubbed the Flagpole of Freedom Park — is intended to “bring Americans together, remind them of the centuries of sacrifice made to protect our freedom, and unite a divided America,” said Morrill Worcester, founder of Worcester Wreath, a company that makes Christmas wreaths.
Instead, it has split residents of Columbia Falls — a town with a population of just 485 people closest to the plot of land where the immense flagpole would be erected.
Residents have debated whether the flagpole — which would be visible for miles — would spoil the gorgeous natural landscape and have questioned its environmental impacts.
The project has also faced backlash at a time when the American flag itself has become so politicized.
The flagpole would stand 1,461 tall — seven feet taller than New York’s Empire State Building — and include elevators to bring visitors to observation decks, where they could experience stunning views of vast green clear into Canada. It would take 10 years to complete.
“It’s like putting the Eiffel Tower in the Maine wilderness,” one concerned resident told the Associated Press.
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But the colossal scale of the project doesn’t stop there.
Worcester also envisioned a village with living museums telling the history of the US through veterans’ eyes.
There are plans for a 4,000-seat auditorium, restaurants and a monument wall with the names of every dead soldier dating back to the Revolutionary War — about 24 million names.
Slick presentations showed what amounted to a patriotic theme park, replete with gondolas to ferry visitors around.
The proposal shocked the people of Columbia Falls
Completing the park would include paving over sprawling green woods for roads and parking lots as well as constructing housing for hundreds, if not thousands, of workers.
The land right now is an oasis of evergreens, wild blueberry barrens, ponds, lakes and streams filled with trout and Atlantic salmon. Deer, moose, black bears, beaver and fisher cats wander the forest floor.
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Some residents are concerned that their little slice of paradise could turn into a tourist trap, with gift shops, fast food joints and shopping malls.
“This is the last wilderness on the East Coast,” said Marie Emerson, whose husband, Dell, is a Columbia Falls native and longtime blueberry farmer and university research farm manager.
She believes the pristine wilderness is what makes the area so special.
A large development could mean the end for the wildlife that has been there for 10,000 years, with Native Americans being the first stewards.
“Do you want to kill the goose that laid the golden egg?” she asked.
Worcester’s wreath-making company became nationally known for donating wreaths to Arlington National Cemetery. His wife runs the nonprofit spinoff organization Wreaths Across America, which annually donates millions of wreaths for service members’ graves.
The wreaths have put Columbia Falls on the map as a patriotic tourist attraction.
Motorists entering the sleepy town are met with successive flags and phrases from the Pledge of Allegiance along US 1.
A welcome proclaims, “Columbia Falls, Home to Wreaths Across America.”
Worcester unveiled the proposal for the Flagpole of Freedom Park last year in a flashy presentation that showed the flagpole stretching into the sky — 1,776 feet above sea level.
“Most people were, let’s say, shocked to see that it was that large,” said Jeff Greene, a contractor and one of three members of the town’s Select Board.
Residents opposed to the project also faced a hurdle, in that the 10,000-acre plot for the project is in a neighboring town under a state agency.
Worcester’s solution: Push through the Legislature a bill to let residents vote to annex the land.
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The population of Columbia Falls quickly took sides. Some saw Worcester as a sympathetic businessman who wanted to build the attraction to bring much-needed relief to the economically depressed area.
Others saw a hawkish businessman trying to impose his version of America on others.
“It would be out of place.” Charlie Robbins, a retired Maine Department of Transportation worker who enjoys hunting and fishing, told AP while hiking through the woods.
He doesn’t question the motive behind the flagpole but just feels it would not be right for the area.
“It’s just different than my vision,” he said. “I hunt and fish the area. I don’t like the crowds. It’s kind of selfish, but that’s the way I feel.”
In March, Columbia Falls residents overwhelmingly voted in favor of placing a six-month moratorium on large developments to give the town time to develop the needed rules and regulations.
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But as the debate rages on, some residents have found themselves in the difficult position of criticizing the American flag — albeit on a never-before-seen scale. One resident said at a recent meeting that she didn’t want to look out her window every day and see the pole, which struck a nerve.
“That didn’t sit too well with me,” said Peter Doak, a retired school principal.
“Maybe one day we’ll wake up to the hammer and sickle flying up there,” he added.
“To say that the flagpole with the United States flag on it is an eyesore, I don’t particularly like it,” he said. “But they don’t mind looking out the window at cellphone towers or the windmills.”
Worcester, meanwhile, has kept quiet as the project remains frozen in administrative moratorium limbo.
“As we refine our plans,” the statement said, “we remain committed to our vision, and remain more confident than ever that our evolving plan will result in a place where all Americans can celebrate our country’s history of service together.”
With Post wires
