02:49 EDT, 2 July 2023

Published: 01:32 EDT, 2 July 2023 | 

A tiny town in has been divided by a plan to build the world’s tallest flagpole, with an American flag the size of a football field and an accompanying museum and theme park.

The scheme is the brain child of a local businessman, Morrill Worcester.

Worcester’s family-owned business, Worcester Wreaths, cultivates thousands of acres of balsam forest used to make wreaths for . Since 1992 he has also been donating wreaths for the tombs of American veterans, and in 2007 the charity Wreaths Across America was formed.

Worcester came up with the plan for a gigantic patriotic gesture in his home state, in the town of Columbia Falls – home to 485 people, 50 miles north east along the coast from Acadia National Park.

The town is known for blueberries, lobster fishing and being among the last pristine wildernesses on the East Coast.

But last year, Worcester unveiled his plan to build a flagpole 1,461 feet tall, rising 1,776 feet above sea level, complete with an elevator to take people to the top.

The flagpole would be taller than the Empire State Building, and give views all the way to Canada.

The $1 billion scheme would include history museums telling the country’s story through veterans’ eyes, plus a 4,000-seat auditorium, restaurants and monument walls with the name of every deceased veteran dating to the Revolution – 24 million names.

Worcester has named the project the Flagpole of Freedom Park, and wants to create a patriotic theme park, replete with gondolas to ferry visitors around.

It would require paving over woods for parking spaces and construction of housing for hundreds, maybe thousands of workers – potentially transforming this oasis into a sprawl of souvenir shops, fast-food restaurants and malls.

Worcester proclaimed at the time of the announcement: ‘We want to bring Americans together, remind them of the centuries of sacrifice made to protect our freedom, and unite a divided America.’

The region is struggling economically, with unemployment and poverty rates among the highest in the state.

Logging, blueberry picking and lobstering don’t always provide year-round employment; resourceful residents supplement incomes by digging for clams or collecting balsam tips for wreath-making.

The county’s residents are among the state’s oldest, and it is dealing with rampant abuse of opioids.

But the project has divided the town.

‘This is the last wilderness on the East Coast,’ said Marie Emerson, whose husband, Dell, is a longtime blueberry farmer and university research farm manager. The pair of them are against the scheme.

Charlie Robbins, another local, told AP he was opposed to the plan.

‘It’s like putting the Eiffel Tower in the Maine wilderness,’ he said.

‘It’s just different than my vision. I hunt and fish the area. I don’t like the crowds. It’s kind of selfish, but that’s the way I feel.’

Jeff Greene, a contractor and one of the town Select Board’s three members, said the scale of the project took people aback.

‘Most people were, let’s say, shocked to see that it was that large,’ he said.

In March, residents overwhelmingly approved a six-month moratorium on large developments to give the town time to develop the needed rules and regulations.

Worcester himself has not commented on the controversy.

But Peter Doak said he thought it was a good idea.

He said he objected to one resident telling a town meeting she didn’t like the idea of waking up each morning and looking out her window to see a giant flagpole.

‘That didn’t sit too well with me,’ said Doak.

‘To say that the flagpole with the United States flag on it is an eyesore, I don’t particularly like it. But they don’t mind looking out the window at cellphone towers or the windmills.’

He added: ‘Maybe one day we’ll wake up to the hammer and sickle flying up there.’

Doak, an army veteran, knows Morrill Worcester as a humble but determined man.

And though Worcester never served in the military, no one questions his patriotism.

Each week, Worcester stands alongside U.S. 1 waving flags alongside a group of residents, even in blizzards and rain.

Doak describes his friend as a visionary.

He pointed out that people thought Walt Disney World, built in a Florida swampland, was a crazy idea, and Mount Rushmore was outlandish. Both are now treasured.

‘I’m gonna tell you right now, he’s gonna build that flagpole,’ said Doak.

‘So why shouldn’t it be Columbia Falls?’