Newry, Maine

Episode 125 / 27 June 2019 / 145 min / full

The Shining, But More Quaint

"It's Newry, Maine, in western Maine, up in the mountains right near the New Hampshire border, this is in Oxford County, zip code 04261." about 0:06:43

The case: Black Bear Inn murders (September 2006). Read the case file.

The figures, as told in 2019

Population

358

Median age

48

Median household income

$58,333

Two-bedroom rent

$836

Cost of living

92.3

Religious

18.2%

Property crime

▼ about 20% under

Violent crime

▼ about one third

History, in brief

• The place was first called Sunday River Plantation. about 0:08:57
• It was settled in 1781 by Benjamin Barker and his two brothers, who came from Massachusetts with another man who was not their brother. about 0:09:01
• About a year later the settlement was plundered by Indians and the settlers abandoned it. about 0:09:12
• John J. Holmes of New Jersey bought the land in 1794 and put his sister's name, Bostwick, on the deed, so it became the Bostwick Plantation. about 0:09:59
• It was renamed Newry in 1805, after Newry in Northern Ireland, where the new settlers came from. about 0:10:37
• A trade route from Portland, Maine, up to New Hampshire was completed between 1800 and 1802 and passed through Newry, which put the place on the map. about 0:11:42
• Farms became established on excellent soil, with hay the principal crop. about 0:11:50
• A sawmill and a grist mill were built on the Bear River, and by 1870 the population had reached 416. about 0:13:47
• As farming faded the town turned into a ski area, and old farmhouses were turned into inns and bed and breakfasts for visitors. about 0:14:01
• In 1960 a US Air Force tanker of the 380th Air Refueling Squadron took off from Plattsburgh to refuel a Strategic Air Command B-47 over Newry at 15,500 feet. about 0:14:27
• A lubrication failure made the tanker's outboard port engine supercharger impeller disintegrate; fragments caused fuel leakage, the bomber caught fire and broke away, and the tanker spiralled down. about 0:15:03
• The fuselage hit a forested slope of granite and the fireball was seen fifty miles away; three hundred people at a drive-in seven miles off saw it. about 0:15:41
• The port wing tip was found in Howard Pond, three miles from the crash site; the five-man tanker crew all died. about 0:15:57
• Wet vegetation kept the fire from spreading, but fuel covered the trees and a five-acre patch on the hillside was visible for years. about 0:16:20

Open the episode file