

To promoters, the $1 billion project, funded in part by donations, would unite people of all political stripes and remind them of shared values in an era of national polarization.


And atop it? A massive American flag bigger than a football field, visible from miles away on a clear day. Which makes it a striking backdrop to one family’s bold vision for the region: a flagpole jutting upward from the woodlands toward spacious skies - the tallest one ever, reaching higher than the Empire State Building. Maine’s Down East region is where the sunlight first kisses the East Coast of the United States each day, where the vast wilderness and ocean meet in one of the last places on the East Coast unspoiled by development. Farmers tend expanses of wild blueberries. COLUMBIA FALLS, Maine (AP) - Lobster boat engines rumble to life in quiet coves.
