My friend was an EMT up near Pittsburg & he said it was bleak, but he was responding to drug overdoses/driving morbidly obese people to Dartmouth. Beautiful hiking/mountains. Great fishing.

I think they were putting in (or already did?) fiber internet in Colebrook. So you could work from home around there, if that was the case (speculation based on vague recollection; you’ll want to do some fact-checking!)

There is a hospital located in Lancaster that provides some job opportunities and I think it’s the second largest town in the county? A lot of the people I knew who worked there commuted from the Milan area. It’s also not a bad commute from Lancaster to Littleton or St. Johnsbury VT. Littleton is great: nice coop grocery, coffee shop, bakery, brewery, all the standard amenities. There is also a branch of an Old Testament cult (Twelve Tribes) and an annual Free State Project festival in Lancaster. Make of that what you will…

I lived in Gorham and felt like I met a lot of friendly people who recognized me as a regular/local. Grocery store is a Walmart but that was fine. We’d go to Bethel, ME for movies & skiing. Paddled the river a lot. There’s a new brewery in Gorham. For jobs, there is also a hospital in that vicinity, hotels around Mt. Washington, the Appalachian Mt Club (mostly lower paying/unsalaried since their home office is Boston), a prison, a community college branch, a few state parks & some ATV & snowmobile businesses. A lot of people up there will drive down to North Conway for groceries, shopping & movie outings.

Coös county has a decent amount of initiatives designed to support/improve the area (tillotson fund, economic dev grants, etc). I felt like it was fairly easy to get to know people who genuinely cared about the community.

I can’t speak to friendliness or political leanings except where I lived (Gorham). Overall, politics was rarely alluded to. My neighbors didn’t hold the same political views as me and they are who I miss most in terms of living there.

I personally wouldn’t want to live in Berlin, high property taxes and bleak looking downtown. I liked being within a reasonable commute of the other places I mentioned that have more amenities (Bethel, Littleton, North Conway) so for that reason while I enjoy outdoor recreation much further north, I have never felt drawn to living in that area. I’d lean towards Randolph in terms of very small population towns, if I had to choose.

People absolutely respond to friendliness/kindness/common sense. The political ranting on here does not accurately reflect daily life. (I know it’s out there, but it’s avoidable.) So please ignore the random assholes here who’ll pop up saying stuff like “we’re full, try VT.”