Louds Island is an island in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Round Pond, Maine. It is approximately five miles in length and three miles wide. The island is an "unincorporated territory" that did not have a flush toilet until 2009.[1] The 2010 Census lists Louds Island with a population of zero.
According to island chronicler Charles McLane, Louds seceded from the town of Bristol and also the United States in the early 1860s--although there are differing versions of exactly why. McLane says "the secession, in any case, was real enough and Louds has remained townless to the present day and remained stateless until the early 1900s."[2]
Louds Island hosted a "vigorous settlement that peaked in the post-Civil war era," but its year-round community dwindled over the next century. Its school closed in 1962 and the last of the year-round residents departed soon thereafter. Since then Louds has hosted only summer rusticators.[2]