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Maine · The County · Potato Country · #290 Most Populous County in the US
Aroostook County, Maine
The County - Aroostook is both the largest county in Maine and the largest county east of the Mississippi River. Presque Isle, Caribou, Houlton, and the St. John Valley's Acadian French culture anchor America's potato capital, where autumn harvests still bring school closures for Harvest Recess. Property tax, courts, public records, probate, and senior services for Aroostook County residents.
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Tell us your goal and we'll guide you step-by-step to the right office, forms, and official resources.
Aroostook County's assessment ratio means effective tax rates are low — but incorrect appraisals still cost money. Ownwell manages the appeal with no upfront cost.
Office: Aroostook County Emergency Management Agency – administrative offices in Houlton, with additional county offices in Caribou and Fort Kent given the county’s vast size; confirm current contact via aroostook.me.us.
Sheriff: Aroostook County Sheriff’s Office – 25 School Street, Suite 216, Houlton, ME 04730 | (207) 532-3471 | Fax (207) 532-7319; Sheriff Peter A. Johnson, Chief Deputy Shawn D. Gillen; operates the Aroostook County Jail (medium-security, houses inmates with sentences generally under 24 months); court security/transport also covers the Superior Court locations in Houlton and Caribou.
Notes: For an active emergency, call 911.
Roads & Utilities
ROADS & TRANSPORTATION
Roads: I-95 (its northern terminus is in Houlton) and US-1 serve the county seat, on the Canada-U.S. border.
Notes: Aroostook County is genuinely Maine’s largest county by area and the second-largest county east of the Mississippi River (behind only St. Louis County, Minnesota) – at roughly 6,671 square miles of land, it is larger than the states of Connecticut and Rhode Island combined. Known locally simply as “The County,” it borders Canada’s Quebec and New Brunswick provinces along its northern, eastern, and western edges.
Business & Permits
BUILDING & PERMITS
Office: Aroostook County Courthouse – Houlton, ME, with additional Superior Court locations in Caribou.
Notes: Houlton, the county seat, is the birthplace of Samantha Smith, a child who became an internationally recognized “goodwill ambassador” during the Cold War after writing a 1982 letter to Soviet leader Yuri Andropov asking about the risk of nuclear war; her subsequent visit to the USSR at Andropov’s invitation made her a symbol of peace efforts before her death in a 1985 plane crash at age 13.
Veterans Services
VETERANS SERVICES
Office: Aroostook County Veterans Affairs – confirm current contact via aroostook.me.us.
Libraries
LIBRARIES
Cary Library (Houlton) / Presque Isle area libraries – confirm current address/phone via respective town websites.
Parks & Recreation
PARKS & RECREATION
Key Assets: The 92-mile Allagash Wilderness Waterway, Aroostook National Wildlife Refuge (on the former Loring Air Force Base), and the county’s extensive potato-farming heritage sites are the premier attractions.
Notes: The genuine “larger than Connecticut and Rhode Island combined” scale of Aroostook County is one of the more striking geographic facts covered anywhere in this project.
GIS & Maps
GIS & MAPS
Appraisal/Parcel Search: Aroostook County Registry of Deeds – confirm current contact via aroostook.me.us.
Animal Services
ANIMAL SERVICES
Central Aroostook Humane Society – 24 Cross St, Presque Isle, ME 04769 | (207) 764-3441 | Email: [email protected]; founded 1966, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to placing stray, displaced, and unwanted pets into forever homes; adoption fees range roughly $38-$70 depending on species/age/altered status, with a refundable $100 deposit for unaltered animals. Hours: Tue-Sat 10 AM-4 PM, closed Sun/Mon.
PAWS Animal Welfare Society, Inc. – Fort Kent, ME, serves the northern (St. John Valley) part of the county.
Environmental & Waste
ENVIRONMENTAL / WASTE MANAGEMENT
Office: Aroostook County Department of Environmental Programs – confirm current contact via aroostook.me.us.
NOTES: Aroostook County is the second county in the first batch of the Maine v2 A+ sourced standard. The genuine “larger than Connecticut and Rhode Island combined” scale of Aroostook County is one of the more striking geographic facts covered anywhere in this project. All contact information above was sourced via web search as of early August 2026 and should be reconfirmed directly with the relevant office before a visit, deadline-sensitive filing, or emergency-adjacent decision.
About Aroostook County
Aroostook County is simply The County to Mainers – a term of geographic pride and cultural distinctness reflecting a county so large and so self-sufficient that it needs no further description. At 6,829 square miles, Aroostook is larger than Connecticut and Rhode Island combined and is the largest county east of the Mississippi River.
Potato farming is Aroostook County’s defining agricultural identity – the county produces approximately 90% of Maine’s potato crop and is one of the most productive potato regions in the United States. The Aroostook potato is a genuine agricultural brand: the county’s cool climate, rich glacial soils, and long summer days produce high-quality potatoes for chipping, processing, and fresh market. Harvest Recess – school closures in September and October to allow students to help with potato harvesting – is an Aroostook tradition that has only recently begun to fade as mechanical harvesting has replaced hand harvesting on most farms.
The St. John Valley – the northernmost part of Aroostook along the St. John River bordering New Brunswick – is home to Maine’s Acadian French community, descended from the French-speaking Acadians who settled the valley in the 18th century. Communities like Madawaska, Fort Kent, Van Buren, and St. Francis maintain a distinct French-Acadian culture – French is spoken as a primary language in many St. John Valley homes, and Acadian cultural festivals (Festival Acadien) celebrate this heritage annually.
Fort Kent – at the northern tip of US Route 1 (which runs 2,369 miles south to Key West, Florida) – is the northernmost point on the Atlantic Coast’s most famous highway. The Fort Kent Blockhouse (1839) preserves the site of the Aroostook War – a largely bloodless border dispute between Maine and New Brunswick over the valley’s timber resources.
Loring Air Force Base – Caribou – was one of the primary Strategic Air Command bomber bases during the Cold War, hosting B-52s and later KC-135 tankers until its closure in 1994. The base’s closure was devastating for Aroostook’s economy; the redeveloped Loring Commerce Centre now operates as an industrial park, international trade zone, and aviation hub.
University of Maine at Presque Isle (UMPI, enrollment ~1,500) and University of Maine at Fort Kent (UMFK, enrollment ~1,000) are the county’s primary higher education institutions.
All Services
Browse every category and topic available for this county.
Maine requires municipal assessment at 100% of just value. Aroostook County’s 87 municipalities (and numerous unorganized territories) have their own assessors. Unorganized territories – a significant portion of Aroostook’s vast area – are assessed by the Maine Revenue Services Property Tax Division.
The abatement process: File by March 1. If denied, appeal to Maine Board of Assessment Review or Aroostook County Superior Court within 60 days.
Agricultural land: Aroostook’s potato and timberland qualifies for Maine’s Tree Growth Tax Law (timberland) and Farm and Open Space Tax Law (farmland) – both provide significant assessment reductions in exchange for maintaining qualifying uses.
Maine estate tax: Above $6.41 million (2025). No Maine inheritance tax.
OWNWELL CTA: Aroostook County abatement deadline March 1. Unorganized territory owners file with Maine Revenue Services. Agricultural land use-value assessments require specific expertise. Maine estate tax at $6.41M. Ownwell manages the abatement with no upfront cost.
Recommended
Aroostook County abatement deadline March 1. Unorganized territory owners file with Maine Revenue Services. Agricultural land use-value assessments require specific expertise. Maine estate tax at $6.41M. Ownwell manages the abatement with no upfront cost.
Courts & Legal
Courts & Legal
The Aroostook County Superior Court at 144 Sweden Street, Caribou (207-493-3144) and a southern division at 26 Court Street, Houlton (207-532-2147) handle major civil and criminal matters. The Aroostook County Probate Court at 144 Sweden Street, Caribou (207-493-3144) handles all estate administration. The Aroostook County Registry of Deeds (207-532-1500) at 26 Court Street, Houlton and a northern registry at 144 Sweden Street, Caribou (207-493-3143) maintain all land records.
Acadian cultural heritage and estate planning: The St. John Valley’s French-Acadian community maintains cultural practices and family structures rooted in Acadian tradition. Cross-border family connections (many Aroostook Acadian families have relatives in New Brunswick) create cross-border estate planning considerations.
Potato farm succession: Aroostook potato farms – often in families for multiple generations – face specific succession challenges around crop year timing (potato income arrives in fall but expenses are year-round), equipment value (large mechanical harvesters, planters, and storage facilities are substantial assets), and potato processing contracts.
Senior Services: The Aroostook Agency on Aging (207-764-3396) at 26 Industrial Drive, Presque Isle coordinates senior centers, home-delivered meals, transportation, Maine SHIP Medicare counseling, caregiver support, and connections to Maine Medicaid programs.
Marriage & Vital Records
Marriage licenses, divorce records, and birth & death certificates are handled by the following office(s):
CLERK OF COURTS (Court Records)
26 Court St., Houlton, ME 04730
(207) 532-2147
Houlton Town Clerk
(207) 532-7111
Genealogy
County-level record sources
Aroostook County Probate Court (estate/probate case files – see Probate section above).
Aroostook County’s Acadian and Franco-American heritage in the northern part of the county is documented through regional archives, given the area’s border proximity to Quebec and New Brunswick.
Local societies
No dedicated Aroostook County genealogical society was confirmed in available directories.
Probate & Estate
Losing someone and having to deal with courts and paperwork at the same time is hard. This section won’t make that easier, but it should tell you what to expect, what it costs, and where to go – so at least you’re not walking in blind.
Where to go
Aroostook County Probate Court 26 Court Street, Suite 103, Houlton, ME 04730 (207) 532-1502 Aroostook County is Maine’s largest county by area, in the state’s far north, seated in Houlton.
Step 1: figure out which path applies
Maine adopted the Uniform Probate Code effective July 1, 2019 (Title 18-C), replacing the prior Title 18-A. Maine is one of fewer than 20 UPC states, so its informal/formal probate tracks and terminology follow the uniform model used elsewhere.
Collection of Personal Property by Affidavit (Small Estate Affidavit) – under 18-C §3-1201, available when the estate’s personal property value is below a threshold that’s adjusted annually for inflation. No probate case or personal representative appointment is required; a successor can present a sworn affidavit directly to banks or others holding the decedent’s property. Each county’s Probate Court publishes the current year’s threshold on its website.
Informal Probate – the path most Maine estates use. Available when the will (if any) is uncontested, the estate is straightforward, and no interested party objects. A Probate Registrar (not a judge) reviews and approves the application without a hearing.
Formal Probate – required when a will is contested, the personal representative appointment is disputed, or supervised administration is requested. These matters go before the elected Judge of Probate at a hearing.
Step 2: filing for probate
For informal probate with a will, file Form DE-201(I) (Application for Informal Probate of Will or Appointment of Personal Representative); for informal intestate proceedings (no will), file Form DE-101(I) – both with the Probate Court in the county where the decedent was domiciled. Applications cannot be filed earlier than 5 days after death.
In informal probate, the Register reviews the application and, if in order, issues a Statement of Informal Probate and Letters appointing the personal representative – no hearing required.
The personal representative must file an inventory of estate assets with the court within 3 months of appointment.
Notice to creditors must be published once a week for 2 successive weeks in a newspaper of general circulation in the county, and the personal representative must mail written notice to known creditors within 4 months of appointment (18-C §3-801).
The personal representative pays valid debts and taxes in priority order, then distributes remaining assets and files a final accounting to close the estate.
What it costs
Filing fees are based on estate value, set by each county’s fee schedule.
Publication costs for the creditor notice typically run in the low hundreds of dollars.
Maine does not set a statutory percentage fee for attorneys or personal representatives; fees must be “reasonable” based on the time and complexity of the work involved.
While not legally required, hiring an attorney is commonly recommended, especially for formal probate or if the estate is at all complex.
Probate filings, estate administration, and guardianship matters are handled by the following office(s):
Public Safety & Arrests
Arrest records, inmate search, and law enforcement services are handled by the following office(s):
SHERIFF
26 Court St., Houlton, ME 04730
(207) 532-5400
Health & Human Services
Offices & Contacts
Health services, social services, and assistance programs are handled by the following office(s):
carymedicalcenter.org (Caribou — quality community hospital)
Public Health Information
PUBLIC HEALTH
Office: Aroostook County / Northern Maine public health resources – contact 2-1-1 Maine for referrals.
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