The beauty and strength of the landscape of northwestern Maine is reflected in the people who have lived here since the area was first settled in the mid-nineteenth century. Arriving from as far away as Sweden and as near as the next village, the first pioneers transformed a hard and often unforgiving land known as "the last frontier" into settlements, farms, and homes. These settlements are still with us today: Ashland, Castle Hill, Crouseville, Mapleton, Masardis, Oxbow, Perham, Portage, Sheridan, Wade, Washburn, and Woodland.The settlers and their descendants earned a reputation for honesty, thrift, dependability, tenacity, and hard work which spread far beyond Western Aroostook County itself. Over two hundred vivid photographs show the way life used to be. We meet loggers and farmers, hunters and guides, and innkeepers and blacksmiths, while also getting a glimpse into the daily lives of the rich variety of people that make the western area of Aroostook County so unique. Whether pictured bustling down Main Street, enjoying Christmas sleigh rides, mourning a departed relative, hauling logs, or tending the farm, our forebears reach out to us across the decades in this fascinating book.