Gore (surveying)

A gore (or, sometimes, grant or purchase), in parts of the northeastern United States (mainly northern New England), is an unincorporated area of a county that is not part of any town and has limited self-government (if any, as many are uninhabited).

Historically, gores were generally the result of errors when the land was first surveyed and the towns laid out. A gore would lie in an area between two (supposedly abutting) towns but would technically be in neither. Surrounding towns have been known to absorb a gore—for example, the gore between Tunbridge, Vermont, and Royalton, Vermont, was eventually attributed to Tunbridge. Some gores have become towns in their own right, such as Stannard, Vermont.

Different states have different laws governing gores and other unincorporated territories. In Maine, all unincorporated territories (whether townships, gores, plantations, or grants) are governed directly by the Maine Land Use Regulation Commission, a state agency. They do not, therefore, enjoy the rights and obligations of direct local self-governance of a corporate Maine municipality, via local elections of town boards of selectmen, and town meetings that debate and approve the town budget and expenditures. Occasionally, a town will choose to become unincorporated after having been an incorporated town; a recent example of this is the former town of Madrid, Maine.