Is Denmark named after that other bitterly cold place across the sea? Was it settled by Danes who yearned for their homeland?
Or is there some other colorful story that has nothing at all to do with the European country?
"There are stories, but no one really knows for sure," said Cherylene Booker, the municipal clerk.
The story Booker remembers best is that one of the first settlers was a man named Mark, and the place where he lived was "the Den of Mark."
Not likely.
An article in one of the local historical society's newsletters notes that in 1807, the year the town was incorporated, the Revolutionary War was still fresh in settlers' minds. The article suggests that the settlers heard from local traders that England and Denmark were at war, so they decided to name their new home Denmark as a slap in the face to the British.
No matter where the name came from, the people who live in Denmark today love it so much they wouldn't live anywhere else.
"This is a beautiful town," said Kay Johnson, the president of the local historical society. "I told them the only way they can get me out is in a pine box."
Johnson moved here about 10 years ago, after living in Westbrook and Scarborough, behind the Maine Mall area.
"When I came up here, it was seventh heaven," Johnson said. "And it took me at least three nights to sleep because it was so quiet."
"There's a lot of outdoor recreation of all types now," said Ralph Sarty, a retired warden who serves as the town's first selectman. "It's a three-season situation now, and there are a lot of retirees moving here. So it's one of these little towns in transition, like so many Maine towns."
Ora Brine was born and raised here, and has witnessed the transition first hand.
"A lot of people are buying (homes) for an investment," she said. "Everybody's moving out of the city."
That means taxes are creeping up.
"It's going to put us oldies out of business," Brine said, "but that's the way the game is played, I guess."
FRYEBURG ACADEMY A DRAW
Denmark is about an hour's drive from Portland, and less than a half-hour from North Conway, N.H., so it's between two popular locations. As the cost of living gets higher in those communities, residents increasingly look toward Denmark and other small towns in the region as an alternative.
"We're like the filling in the Oreo cookie," Sarty said. "We're getting squeezed from both sides. And I expect that's going to become more significant over the next five to 10 years."
It's not just retirees who are moving there. The number of new students in the local elementary school increased by 14 last year, which Sarty said is a lot for the town.
Some young families have started to move to the area because the secret is out: They've discovered that if they live in Denmark, they can send their kids to Fryeburg Academy for high school.
The town took a big hit financially this year because of the new school funding formula, and had to pony up an extra $400,000 for its school budget. But even so, Sarty said, "our taxes are still very reasonable for this part of the state compared to surrounding towns."
The area's natural beauty may just make the rising taxes easier to swallow. Exploring around town, there is no shortage of breathtaking views.
"One of the strong things about this town, it is a very pretty town," Sarty said. "Geographically, we've got rolling hills and some mountains. We're very close to the White Mountains, the lakes, and so on. We have two summer camps for children in town, on two different lakes. The history of Denmark has been very much related to natural resource issues, and trying to maintain that is a priority."
When Poland Spring expressed interest in pumping water from the local aquifer, the town hired its own hydrologist and let it be known that it had no interest in seeing big trucks running down local roads. An alternate plan calls for an underground pipeline running from Denmark into Fryeburg.
Denmark is also filled with history, from the federal-style homes that line its streets to the historic Wyonegonic Camps nestled in the piney woods surrounding Moose Pond.
The Wyonegonic Camps, now in their 104th year, are the oldest girls' camps in the United States. They once were accessible only by taking a train to Brownfield, then a stagecoach to Denmark, and finally a boat to one of three camps. There were no roads around the pond at the time.
"When you camped back then, you came for the summer," said Steven Sudduth, the owner and director, whose family has has been associated with the camps since 1956.
Today the three camps have evolved into two, and girls stay for either 3 1/2 or seven weeks. They live in the shadow of Pleasant Mountain, in cabins with no electricity and centralized plumbing, and gather in large log buildings called "wiggies" that date as far back as 1916.
Some of the girls coming to Wyonegonic now are 4th- and 5th-generation campers.
COMMUNITY GET-TOGETHERS
Sudduth travels a lot on business in the winter, but lives year-round in Denmark, and wouldn't have it any other way.
"It's a wonderful town, but I don't want to tell anybody that," he said, laughing. "It's great to be, in my opinion, just far enough out that it still feels like semi-rural Maine, but yet close enough. We're 45 minutes from Portland. I'm only two-and-a-half hours from Logan (International Airport)."
The town hall is in an old converted school building. When the community wanted a public library, volunteers stepped up and built one. Last year, the town built a new fire station.
Year-round residents of Denmark have lots of opportunities to get together. There are regular community dinners, bean hole suppers, block dances and snowmobile rallies sponsored by the local Lions Club, the volunteer fire department, and the public library.
Every Fourth of July, after the town parade, about 300 people show up at the Congregational Church for a lobster dinner hosted by the women's fellowship.
There is only one general store in town, Jimbob's Place, where customers can buy anything from gasoline to a sandwich from the store's deli.
Every town has a place you can go to get the local gossip, and residents say Jimbob's is Denmark's place.
"It's the typical coffee shop moan-and-groan location between 6:30 and 8:30 in the morning," Sarty said.
ARTS CENTER IS ACTIVE
Citizens are proud of their nonprofit arts center, which is located in an Odd Fellows Hall built in 1884.
Then a group of citizens approached the town and purchased the building for $10,000.
The Denmark Arts Center is still being remodeled, but already hosts a range of programs from one-act plays to art shows to children's programs.
It still has ornate tin ceilings, a peephole door used for the Odd Fellows' secret meetings, and even the remnants of a two-story, built-in outhouse.
"This is a spring floor," said Fritz von Ulmer, bouncing a bit as he gave a tour of the building recently. "You get 50 or 60 people dancing on this floor, and it's almost like a trampoline."
The most recent exhibit at the arts center was a show by Mark Hagen, a painter from Cape Elizabeth.
Summer programs include a mime and dance workshop conducted by internationally known artist Karen Montanaro, a music theater workshop conducted by Mary Bastioni, and a singers workshop conducted by Lillian Lee Morse. People who participate in the workshops later perform for the town.
The arts center also hosts artists-in-residence who are encouraged to become active in the arts programs of local elementary schools.
The center is active but "under strain," von Ulmer said.
"Like any rural endeavor, it takes volunteers, and we always seem to run out of volunteers, or they burn out," he said. "So we're very short-handed. We really, really need volunteers to keep this thing going."
Originally published Sunday, July 24, 2005
Staff Writer Meredith Goad can be contacted at 791-6332 or at mgoad@pressherald.com
More about Denmark