2 ideas of Maine collide in woods…sound familiar?

People here, who don’t complain much about snow in winter, mud in spring or flies in summer, are bothered plenty by those people "from away."

That’s an old Maine term for anyone not from Maine. But these days, in northern Maine, "from away" is also applied to Mainers from what increasingly seems like another state — southern Maine.

"Let them go back to Massachusetts," says State Rep. Henry Joy, proponent of a quixotic plan to split Maine into two states: one called Maine, the other "Northern Massachusetts."

In many ways, there already are two states of Maine.

One, mostly northern, inland, rural and conservative, is symbolized by the moose; the other, largely southern, coastal, suburban and liberal, is symbolized by the lobster. Most important, the first is declining while the second is booming.

The biggest issue that splits the two Maines is the future of what both agree is the heart and soul of their Pine Tree State: the North Woods, the biggest unprotected forest east of the Mississippi.

This wilderness helped give Mainers a common identity — independent, resourceful, stoic — and bind them together. Now, it threatens to tear them apart.

By Rick Hampson, USA TODAY

Full Story: http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2006-05-21-two-maines_x.htm