In the state of Maine, a plantation is a type of minor civil division falling between unincorporated area and a town. The term, as used in this sense in modern times, appears to be exclusive to Maine. Plantations are typically found in sparsely populated areas.
History
No other New England state has an entity equivalent to a plantation. Massachusetts used the term "plantation" in colonial times for a community in a pre-town stage of development. Maine probably originally got the term from Massachusetts, as Maine was once part of Massachusetts. The term, however, has been out of wide use in Massachusetts since the 18th century. The term was also used in colonial Rhode Island, and a vestige remained in the official State name until 2020, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations.
Writing in 1949, author Richard Walden Hale in The Story of Bar Harbor described the formation of a plantation as follows:
First came the survey, without which no settlement was legal. Land so surveyed was divided into 'townships,' which in New England means areas planned for development into full-fledged towns. Then certain proprietors--who might be a religious congregation, a group of speculators, or a group of would-be settlers--bought the 'township,' 'planted it' with settlers, and saw to it that land was reserved for a church and school. When enough settlers had been planted, limited self government was granted, and the township was raised in status to a 'plantation.' When the population of the 'plantation' should have grown large enough, another step forward was taken, the area received full civil rights, the full town organization came into force, and in those days one representative in the legislature or 'General Court' was automatically allotted to the new town. ... Such a system still holds good in Maine.
... To this day one can go thirty miles northeast of Bar Harbor and find, still unsettled, Township Number Seven, just back of Gouldsboro and Sullivan, and then go twenty miles southeast--in each case as the crow flies--and find Swan's Island Plantation, where to this day there is not enough population for the full complement of town officials.
Despite a further shrinking population, with a permanent population of 468 in 1950 and only 331 in 2012, Swan’s Island was later incorporated as a town, possibly aided by regular state ferry service which began in 1960. Today the town is a popular summer colony, with a seasonal summer population of over 1,000.
More from the Maine Encyclopedia:
Plantation form of government was at first indistinguishable from that of a town. As Massachusetts gradually gained more Jurisdiction in the Province of Maine, the General Court would occasionally place a tax on a new tract and the inhabitants then met and elected plantation officers for the collection of that tax. After Maine became a state in 1820, the plantation status remained generally unchanged for 20 years.
At no time in the history of Province, District or State [of Maine] has it been required that a plantation become a town, nor that a town should have a previous existence as a plantation. In 1840, a law provided that plantations could organize themselves ”for election purposes,” only requiring a return to the Secretary of State of the date of organization and a description of bounds. This act was the impetus for groupings of scattered settlers or, more often lumbermen, and large areas were often organized into one plantation; there were several – 4 township plantations and two of 8 townships – during this period. Since 1859, a plantation organized for election purposes may comprise not more than one township. State and county taxes are assessed directly on the owners in such organizations, which are now known as “plantations taxed as wild lands.”
It should be explained that this type of organization has been closely allied with the lumbering industry. The land of these tracts is largely owned or leased by lumbering corporations; often, there is little probability of permanence, for when the cutting of the timber is completed, the workmen move on. A number of plantations have grown larger in population than some towns; when the township acquires a population of 200 or more, a warrant is issued by the county commissioners for organization “for the assessment of taxes.” This latter type of plantation has all the powers of towns and differs only slightly in its responsibilities; plantation assessors serve both as selectmen and as assessors and there are fewer minor officers than in towns.
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