Sweet Spot
The historic town of Bethel and nearby Sunday River
Among the mountains of Western Maine you’ll find a unique kind of quiet. Not far from the New Hampshire border, hills rise up around sleepy towns named for European countries and cities, with worn but beautiful Maine Streets—the kind of downtowns that can’t be built anymore, that are the by-products of old industries. They appeal now to communities of people who share a love of the great outdoors and small-town life, and to second homeowners and visitors who want a taste of both. Surrounded by a collision of mountain ranges, Bethel is a beautiful example of this kind of Maine town, with an extraordinary collection of Federal and Greek Revival–style homes along Broad Street, cozy restaurants twinkling with lights, shops, and cafes like DiCocoa’s, where it is impossible not to feel like you belong.
After growing up in New Jersey and traveling around the country and the world, it was this sense of belonging that drew Robin Zinchuk to Western Maine in the ’70s. “I was searching for the next thing,” says the current executive director of the Bethel Chamber of Commerce. “New Jersey had become increasingly trafficked and so built up. I loved how people here came together for dinner at the grange. How they took care of each other, even if they didn’t necessarily like each other,” she says of her first Maine home in West Paris, a community of about 300. She met her husband there, and they went on to raise their four children in Bethel, where they owned and ran the Chapman Inn from 1984 through 1998, catering to people from away who were looking for that Western Maine kind of quiet. “Since the mid-nineteenth century, people have come here to relax and heal.” says Zinchuk, “There is a feeling that you can breathe here. There’s this sense of calm.”
On the roads leading to and from Bethel, you’re likely to come across logging trucks and cabs with baskets full of wood pellets or—depending on the season— piles of hay. About half of the vehicles are some kind of truck, and among those that aren’t, you’ll see license plates from all over New England and as far south as Florida. This collection of cars and what they carry gives you a sense of the makeup of this town on the Androscoggin. The town’s website quotes Wende Gray, a long-time Bethel resident and president of Maine’s Ski Museum: “Most rural villages are one-industry towns. Bethel is a rare blend of farming, forestry, woods product manufacturing, education, and tourism.” Although the industry has dwindled compared to what it was, logging is alive in this part of Maine, and farmers are still hard at work in the rolling fields. Bethel’s Gould Academy, a college-preparatory school, brings in students from all over the region and even the world, as does nearby Sunday River ski resort—without a doubt one of the area’s major draws.
On the 6-mile drive from Bethel to Newry, where Sunday River is located, outfitters and breweries and Sunday River staples like the Good Food Store and Matterhorn Ski Bar are mixed in among old New Englanders and steep-roofed camps with Swiss chalet–style emblems over the doors. Throughout the woods, Nordic skiers and snowshoers make use of the many trails, sometimes stopping for breaks inside the Artist’s Covered Bridge. The Alpine options are extraordinary. Since Sunday River first opened in 1959, the resort has grown to include 135 trails across eight interconnected mountain peaks, and it has become the most popular ski resort in Maine. The resort is famous for its snowmaking capabilities, with MSNBC recently naming Sunday River a “Top 10 Best Bet” nationwide for early- season snow.
There are two hotels and conference centers at the resort, one of which is located at the bottom of Jordan Bowl, which is known for its extraordinary views of the Mahoosuc mountain range. South Ridge Lodge at the center of the resort is the gathering place, filled with Sunday River regulars and first-time visitors alike, stomping around in ski boots, wearing hat-head and smiles. The smells are of wet wool and hot cocoa. The mood is downright jolly both inside and outside the lodge as people make their way to and from the slopes. The vibe at Peak Lodge is a play on that theme, but with views of the surrounding mountains. Those in ski-in/ski-out condos have the option to bypass the lodges altogether. Built in different decades of Sunday River’s 50-year history, these clusters of condos and townhouses at the base of the mountains each have their own unique look, feel, and views. Perhaps the most distinctive residential community is Viking Village, one of Sunday River’s first subdivisions, which features vintage A-frames mixed with traditional and contemporary ski homes tucked among the trees.
Dan and Janet Ferguson started bringing their family of five up to Sunday River in 2000. Dan, who is from nearby Hanover, had grown up skiing, and it didn’t take long for the others to catch on. They became “weekenders, living in Cumberland during the week and heading up every weekend in the winter,” says Janet. “Slowly we started coming up in the summer also. We fell in love with all the activities the area had to offer, and my husband and I decided that we would retire up here eventually.” When their younger son, Jon, began attending Gould Academy in the fall of 2013, the family moved their home base from the coast to the mountains. With its small class sizes, challenging curriculum, and diverse student body, “Gould was the perfect fit,” says Janet, who has also found a good fit for herself in Western Maine, perched on Mount Will with a view of Sunday River.
It’s hard for Janet to name her favorite spot in town—there are too many. “The area has grown so much since we first started coming here,” she says. One of her favorites is the Millbrook Tavern at the Bethel Inn, a sprawling turn-of-the-century resort situated on historic Broad Street, which—especially in the holiday season, when the fresh snow is piled high and traffic is slow—looks lost in time, or like the set of a movie. “On Friday nights locals and weekenders meet up to talk about the week and make plans for the weekend,” she says. There’s also Suds Pub at the Sudbury Inn, and the Funky Red Barn, with “the best prime rib dinner in town.” But then, everything tastes better after a day on the slopes, or a walk through the woods, or after a hike up and down a mountain.
In Bethel, all of this is right outside your back door. Without the crowds and with an ample amount of adventure to go around, for those who live in the mountains of Western Maine it is possible to be alone in the natural world and to feel a true sense of community all at once.