Shirley

House with Mountain View on the Lower Shirley Corner Road in Shirley (2011)

Located just south of Greenville on Maine combined Routes 6 and 15, its main village, Shirley Mills (see photos), grew up around early 19th century clapboard and saw mills, using water from the Piscataquis River. Along the east side of the pond, the B&A Railroad North Road runs north along the river. It was created from the old rail bed.

Sebec

Several small ponds dot the landscape, including the 28-acre Garland Pond. Located between Dover-Foxcroft to the west and Milo to the east, the town is connected to both by Maine combined Route 6 and 16, and by the Piscataquis River.

Medford

Apparent Ruins of an Old Dam on Cold Stream in Medford (2005)

Medford Center village is the site of the very modest town office, the park with the veterans memorial, and a small church. See photos. Cold Stream, which runs through the village, provided power for a grist mill in the nineteenth century.

Maxfield

Maxfield is definitely “off the beaten path” in northeastern Penobscot County. No main route passes through it and the town is split by the Piscataquis River with no bridge spanning it within the town. A bridge in nearby Howland crosses the river just before it empties into the Penobscot.

Howland

Penobscot River South of Howland Village on Route 116 (2005)

Att the junction of the Piscataquis River with the Penobscot, and Seboeis Stream with the Piscataquis, it once had a thriving paper mill, The Advance Bag and Paper Company. See photos. The old mill remains empty. Maine Inland Fisheries and Wildlife supervises the Old Pond Farm Wildlife Management Area featuring eagles, osprey, deer, moose, and water birds.

Guilford

Park in Guilford with mill buildings downtown (2002)

The Piscataquis River flows through the main village with neighboring Sangerville, formed with some land from Guilford, on the southern shore. The town was long a center for textile production. The late 20th century was marked by fires, floods, and economic instability, but the early 21st century opened with efforts at renewal with a river festival and downtown revtlalization.

Abbot

is a town in Piscataquis County, incorporated on January 31, 1827. It was one of several tracts granted to Bowdoin College in 1794 and was named for the College’s treasurer, John Abbott. (The final “t” in the town’s name seems to have been lost over the years.) In the 1870’s the town was prospering with two railway stations and a rail link to Bangor. Two covered bridges spanned the Piscataquis River.