PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • September 18, 2025
North Yarmouth residents did not want the beloved pastures and woods of Skyline Farm to turn into the proposed 15 housing lots. The 54-acre parcel near Walnut Hill had belonged to Horace “Ken” Sowles, and his death in 1997 left questions of its future, as his wife intended to sell it. Purchasing Skyline Farm in 1970, Sowles had owned the farm buildings, horses and indoor horse riding arena that was built in 1959, the first of its kind in Maine. So a group of North Yarmouth residents raised the approximately $75,000 needed to purchase the property, with $25,000 approved for the purchase at the annual town meeting, smaller gifts from the community and $30,000 from a wealthy private donor in Virginia who never visited the property but had a passion for horses. In the summer of 2000, the newly formed Skyline Farm nonprofit and the Sowles family agreed to a purchase of the property with a conservation easement by the Royal River Conservation Trust.