Orono: The University of Maine's Land-Grant Town

The town of Orono, settled in seventeen seventy-four and incorporated in eighteen oh six on the Penobscot River, is best known today as the home of the University of Maine, the state's flagship land-grant institution. The university was chartered in eighteen sixty-five under the federal Morrill Act, which directed proceeds from public land sales into agricultural and mechanical colleges. It opened its doors to twelve students on September twenty-first, eighteen sixty-eight, and admitted women by eighteen seventy-two.

Today the University of Maine enrolls about eleven thousand students across eight colleges, making it by far the largest university in the state. Its research programs in forestry, marine science, and engineering reflect the land-grant mission to serve Maine's working economy. The Penobscot Nation's traditional homeland surrounds Orono, and the university has increasingly centered that relationship in its academic mission.