LEWISTON – Wilton will be the focus of a special Maine Public Broadcasting Network series tonight.

MPBN has partnered with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Rural Development to showcase six Maine towns that have employed “unique” approaches to economic recovery.

According to Lou Morin, marketing and communications manager for public broadcasting, the towns chosen for the six-week series have each suffered severe, and sometimes sudden, economic decline because of departing businesses or, in the case of Limestone, closure of a military base.

In Wilton, timber, textile milling and shoe manufacturing had been the mainstays of the economy since the town’s establishment in 1803. Slowly, timber and textile moved away, and, in 1998, the Bass Shoe Co., once the town’s largest employer, closed its mill.

After years of economic uncertainty, during which former manufacturing employees were offered training assistance through local and state agencies, Nichols Development LLC purchased the former G.H. Bass & Co. property in 2004 and started the process of re-establishing a manufacturing base in the mill.

The focus of the Wilton segment is on the resurgence of manufacturing there and what it means to the economic climate of the town.

As part of its series, MPBN is holding community meetings with business leaders to talk about resurgent economies. In Wilton, that meeting was held July 12.

Ann Murray is the host of the series.

For more information, including detailed advances for coming segments, go to www.mpbn.net/hometown.

Following is the series schedule, broadcast statewide on MPBN (see local listing for channel):

Wilton: Thursday, Sept. 7, at 8 p.m., and again on Sunday, Sept. 10, 7 p.m.

Lincoln: Thursday, Sept. 14, 8 p.m.

Rockland: Thursday, Sept. 21, 8 p.m.

Limestone: Thursday, Oct. 5, 8 p.m.

Bangor-Brewer: Thursday, Oct. 13, 8 p.m.