Moir Farm, Allagash Wilderness Waterway U.S. Customs Station, Houlton 66 p o r t l a n d monthly magazine vanishing maine pond remained in use into the 1980s. “The state made us shut it down in 1986 because of all the sawdust washing down the riv- er,” Edward Moulton, the current owner of Moulton Lumber and great-grandson to Charles Moulton, says. “We didn’t want to take care of the building anymore, so we sold it to Anthony Tedeschi from Lim- erick in 1995. He had plans to refinish the mill into a museum, but with all the rotting wood, it turned out to be cost-prohibitive in the end.” The mill is dangerous for trespassers, but photos from urbex groups prove warn- ings have been ignored. “When we still had it, we lost a lot of antiques to trespassers,” Moulton says. “Back then, we didn’t have the ‘no trespassing’ signs up yet. Town assessment: $78,600. U.S. Customs Station, Houlton “It looks absolutely terrible. It’s com- pletely run down,” historian Leigh Cum- mings says of the former customs build- ing at 16 Border Lane. “I’ve seen images of the building printed on linen postcards from the 1920s and 1930s. I suspect it was built around 1906. During that period, we cracked down on immigration to the U.S. Sound familiar?” “The old customs building is boarded up,” says Anthony Coldwell, manager of Houlton Duty Free Station. “We were looking to demolish it, but with the asbes- tos inside, it was going to be a lot of money. The town decided we could board it up to keep people out.” A ccording to Bangor Daily News, the current station was built along In- terstate 95 on October 25, 1985, with the completion of New Brunswick Route 95. The newly constructed crossing subsequently closed the U.S. Route 2 facil- ity. Cast off like an old shoe, the old place has now been left empty for 33 years. “Something unique about this spot is, it’s the starting point of Route 2, which continues all the way across the coun- try to Washington,” Cummings says. “The new border station is the starting point for Route 1. There are three blocks in downtown Houlton where U.S. Route 1 and 2 merge and cross the same bridge. This is the only place in America where you can stand on both Routes 1 and 2 at the same time.” Town assessment: $65,300. Milo Textile Company Mill, Milo Unnerving in its silence, this vast emptiness on the Sebec River has had a “varied history,” Allen Monroe of Milo Historical Society says. “In 1879, Boston Excelsior Company purchased the building for the manufacturing of many different wood products.” The mill was eventually bought by the Milo Textile Company, “which produced yarn and simi- lar products starting in 1922.” “In its heyday, [the Milo Textile Compa- ny] employed about 70 people.” Today, the mill remains a remnant of industrial times now long past. “It’s not being used. There’s nothing in it, but whoever owns it must be paying their taxes.” That owner was Leon A. Cousins of East Millinocket, who died in 2013. Lil- ia Cousins says her husband bought the mill a while back with plans to use the barn on the property. “He never got around to doing what he wanted.” Lilia currently has no plans for the building, but recognizes its beauty. Town assessment (both buildings and land): $33,870. Moir Farm, Allagash Wilderness Waterway This old farmstead was first settled in the mid-1800s by George Moir and his wife Lu- cinda (Diamond) Moir “after the Native Americans moved elsewhere,” according to the website of the Maine Bureau of Parks and Lands. (Though the ‘moving’ of Na- tive Americans and the settling of colonists aren’t exactly isolated events.) George and Lucinda raised a family of seven children on the farmstead, and the land remained in their family until 1906. Their only son, Thomas Moir, sold it to Frank W. Mallet, M.O. Brown, and Charles B. Harmon for the sum of $2,500. Hen- ry and Alice Taylor acquired the property from them shortly after. Henry built sport- ing camps along the riverbanks, and during the decades he was there, he used the Moir house as a barn and hay shed. Marguerite Dusha, the Taylors’ grand- daughter, remembers visiting her “pioneer” grandparents twice a year at the camps. “I loved waking up early and finding a moose