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I n the far reaches of Washington County, Grand Lake Hunt Preserve has grown from a five-customer operation to a business booked solid more than a year in advance, largely because it can finally stay consistently connected to the outside world. Corey and Christiana Lord pur- chased the Danforth hunt preserve in April 2019. The property came with infrastructure, but a minimal customer base. Since then, the Lords have built the business around a mission Corey Lord describes as making hunting ac- cessible to "hunters from all walks of life," offering an authentic hunting experience they aim to keep affordable, memorable, and successful. Today, that mission has expanded well beyond the original Danforth preserve: the Lords have added a second location in Staceyville focused on hunting, and are actively exploring further expansion. None of that growth would have been possible, Christiana Lord says, without reliable internet. A rural business built on connectivity Grand Lake Hunt's clientele comes al- most entirely from outside the region: hunters who find the business online, re- search their trips online, and sometimes even pay online. For years, spo y rural internet made that model precarious. "Our entire customer base comes from outside the region. The only way that they know about us is via the inter- net," Christiana Lord said. "Just us being able to reliably reach out to the larger world is life or death for our business." The business relies on Facebook as its primary marketing and sales chan- nel, supplemented by a website and an annual trip to the Great American Outdoor Show. When fiber internet be- came available in the region through a Maine Connectivity Authority grant program, the Lords didn't wait to sign up. "As soon as we heard that fiber was coming, we were first to call," Christiana Lord said. Reliable connectivity hasn't just helped the Lords reach new cus- tomers, it has helped keep existing ones coming back. Many of Grand Lake Hunt's guests are small busi- ness owners who can't fully step away from their companies, even on a hunting trip. Dependable internet at the lodge means they can check in with employees or manage oper- ations remotely instead of skipping the trip altogether. "We have a law- yer who comes up from Texas and runs a couple of restaurants of his own," Christiana Lord said. "He would not come at all, period" without that connectivity. Growth that ripples through the region Over seven years, Grand Lake Hunt has gone from five customers to a business fully booked for the coming year and taking reservations into the year af- ter that. Christiana Lord a ributes this growth to repeat visitors and word of mouth reaching further each season. That success, she says, extends well past the Lords' own bo om line. Washington County has faced a shrinking economy for decades, and Christiana Lord sees the region's outdoor recreation businesses as one of the few sectors gaining ground rather than losing it. Local gas stations, grocery stores, and other staples depend heavily on the seasonal traffic that hunting and outdoor tourism bring in. Increasingly, these customers arrive because businesses like Grand Lake Hunt can be found and booked online. "That network effect is helping keep the local grocery store open, and it's helping keep the gas station open," Christiana Lord said, noting that out- fi ers in the region share a spirit of collaboration rather than competition, working together to sustain the broader local economy. Closing Maine's digital opportunity gap Grand Lake Hunt's story reflects the mission of Maine Connectivity Authority (MCA), the public agency leading the statewide expansion of high-speed in- ternet and digital opportunity. When MCA was founded in 2021, more than 100,000 Maine homes and businesses had insufficient internet or none at all. In the four years since, MCA has worked with government agencies, internet ser- vice providers, and local organizations to improve or establish connectivity for 120,000 homes and businesses statewide, reaching rural pockets of the state, like Danforth, that had long been overlooked. In 2023, MCA awarded more than $8 million through its Connect the Ready program to serve more than 1,700 homes and businesses in Danforth, Drew Plantation, Glenwood Plantation, Orient, Reed Plantation, and Weston, in partnership with Fidium Fiber. "Creating digital opportunities for Maine people is a statewide effort sup- ported by local organizations, libraries, schools, tribes, nonprofits, and commu- nity leaders," said Jessica Perez, MCA's senior manager of digital opportunity. "This work succeeds because of the organizations across Maine that help people navigate technology every day." The need remains significant: an estimated 89% of Mainers face bar- riers to connectivity, including older adults, people in rural areas, veterans, and low-income households. Beyond infrastructure, MCA's work spans four other pillars: devices, digital skills, tech- nical support, and resources–connecting residents to education, healthcare, jobs, and essential services through initiatives like TechHelpforME.org. For a business like Grand Lake Hunt, that mission has played out in a very concrete way: infrastructure that finally reached a remote corner of Washington County, and a business owner ready to put it to work. SPONSORED CONTENT From Five Customers to Fully Booked: How Reliable Internet Turned a Remote Maine Hunt Preserve into a Regional Economic Anchor By Jessica Perez, Maine Connectivity Authority's senior manager of digital opportunity. expaNDiNg Digital OppOrtuNity MCA maineconnectivity.org/opportunity See our vision for connectivity in Maine Learn more about how Maine Connectivity Authority is expanding digital opportunity at maineconnectivity.org/opportunity.

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