\n<\/p>\n
Knox County. Camden, Maine. In summer, beach roses tumble over dry stone walls and the long lupine spines streak roadsides and garden beds with purple. On certain winter days, when the temperature\u2019s right, sea smoke\u2014a vaporous, ghostly fog\u2014rises from the harbor. The craggy face of Mount Battie looms to the north<\/a>. On the cover of Camden\u2019s 2024 annual report, available for passersby at the town office, the town slogan: \u201cWhere the mountains meet the sea\u2026.\u201d<\/p>\n For visitors, Camden might be a stop along US Route 1, called the Coastal Highway<\/a>, though it only briefly kisses the water. What the drive on US Route 1 lacks in actual coastline it makes up for in dense stretches of trees, various rock and mineral shops, excellent thrift stores, and the Taste of Maine restaurant\u2014almost impossible to miss, given that the world\u2019s largest inflatable lobster<\/a>, a 700-pound behemoth named Larry, sprawls across its roof. Once you see Larry, you\u2019re about an hour out.<\/p>\n In Camden you\u2019ll find a town of tidy Colonials and Cape Cods<\/a> and bungalow<\/a> cottages with names like \u201cShamrocks\u201d and \u201cMillstones.\u201d After a fire decimated 40 buildings on the main drag during the shipbuilding boom back in 1892, business owners got together and decided to remake the district in brick, rendering it more fire-resistant and perfectly picturesque. When it came time to choose a filming location<\/a> for 1957\u2019s Peyton Place,<\/em> a story of gossip and violence<\/a> roiling against a backdrop of New England charm<\/a>, the filmmakers chose Camden<\/a>. Today, thanks in part to a local ordinance, even the Walgreens sign is quaint, its logo rendered not in the usual oversized red plastic but instead in a tasteful, unassuming gold on black.<\/p>\n The population is just above 5,000, and there are a little more than three times as many registered Democrats<\/a> as there are Republicans<\/a>. Per the 2020 census<\/a>, 93 percent of residents are white. It\u2019s a year-round town, locals will be quick to tell you\u2014not like Bar Harbor<\/a>! Most of the businesses stay open for the winter, kept afloat by full-time residents and visitors to the Camden Snow Bowl, which houses a 400-foot wooden shoot that allows \u201cmany toboggans to reach speeds up to 40 miles per hour,\u201d according to the website<\/a>\u2014and, more notably in a town that prizes the expanse of its harbor above much else, it \u201cis also the only ski area on the East Coast with ocean views.\u201d<\/p>\n Less than a mile from the town center, Lisa Gorman\u2019s two-story cedar-shingled vacation home<\/a> nestles on a low bluff above the Atlantic, with floor-to-ceiling windows offering an unobstructed panorama of Camden Harbor and a set of private steps winding down to a public beach. Native oaks, spruces, and hemlocks encircle the property at 3 Metcalf Road, which covers a little over half an acre and abuts two neighboring plots. It\u2019s a prime spot in a rarefied neighborhood, one befitting the 74-year-old widow of the chairman emeritus of L.L. Bean<\/a>. The town\u2019s median income is about $91,000 and its median home price hovers around $800,000. Down the street from Gorman, a five-bedroom waterfront property is listed for just shy of $4.5 million, and her own home is valued at $5 million. Her neighbors include John Reed<\/a>, the former CEO of Citigroup and chairman of the New York Stock Exchange, and at least one heir to the IBM Watson fortune.<\/p>\n Sometime in the spring of 2022, a caretaker noticed that several of the trees on Gorman\u2019s property were ailing: Leaves withered, turning yellow and brown. The failing trees were along the property line that divided Gorman\u2019s house from her uphill neighbors at 1 Metcalf Road, Amelia and Arthur Bond, both in their mid-60s. In May, Gorman\u2019s landscapers arrived to suss out the scene. The crew found themselves working in close proximity to another team of landscapers\u2014not unusual in a town where gardening, as one local said, is \u201cblood sport\u201d\u2014contracted by the Bonds. The unusual thing was that, according to a document written by Gorman\u2019s lawyer and sent to the town of Camden, her guys found the Bonds\u2019 guys putting ladders on Gorman\u2019s trees, as if they were preparing to cut them down. Gorman\u2019s team ran them off, but shortly thereafter, Gorman noticed that more than a dozen appeared to be missing their tops.<\/p>\n