Strong

Canoe on the Shore of the Sandy River in Strong (2013)

The main village is located about eleven miles north of Farmington on a big bend in the Sandy River at the junction of Maine Routes 4, 145, 149 and 234. Maine’s Republican Party was founded here on August 7, 1854 by a coalition of anti-slavery Democrats, other Democrats, and Whigs.

Avon

Mount Blue and Webb Lake in Weld (2017)

in Franklin County, named for the river in England and incorporated in 1802. Settled after the American Revolution, by 1886 Avon had two saw mills and eleven public schools, supported by an 1880 census population of 571. The 3,000-foot Mount Blue is located in the southwest corner of the town in Mount Blue State Park.