Isle au Haut, Maine — If you take a ferry to Isle au Haut, an island community off the coast of Maine, you can visit a gift shop and a general store. And that's it, because there are no other businesses on the island.
“The people who live here are resilient, they're creative,” Bob Olney, president of the Isle au Haut Community Development Corporation, told CBS News. But that's not enough, Olney said.
The population of the island ranges between 45 and 50 people. “It's essential that we continue to attract families,” Olney said.
Last year, this community put out a post on social media and the island's official website in hopes of luring a new family. They were careful not to oversell the site.
“While it's not everyone's cup of tea, who knows, it just might be yours,” the post read.
And they got a taker: a young family from central Massachusetts.
Dakota and Hannah Waters, and their children Flynn and Amelia, moved here a few months ago.
“Our whole family thought we were psychos,” Hannah said. “They say, 'A remote island in the middle of the ocean?'”
And yet here they live, the newest members of a dying breed. At one point, there were about 300 communities here on Maine's most isolated islands. Now there are just over a dozen. And keeping communities alive will require attracting people who are looking for a different lifestyle, people who value solitude over Starbucks and really don't mind a little adversity.
“People have traded the good life for a convenient one,” Hannah said. “And convenience is not always the best.”
Up to this point, the Waters raise some of their own food and work multiple jobs. Dakota does plumbing, lawn maintenance and even works on a lobster boat. As for the children, Flynn was one of two students attending school at the K-8 school on the island.
The place is so small. But Dakota says being small is more of a blessing than a curse.
“We have a lot more time to bond with the kids,” Dakota said. “It is indescribably healthy.”
Hannah plans for the family to stay.
“I'm not moving my stuff off that rock again,” Hannah said. “It was too hard to get here.”
Steve Hartman
