Just 20 miles northwest of Bangor and adjacent to Newport, the town is a growing, but still rural community. Settled in 1800, it was soon organized as a plantation for election purposes. The post office opened in 1829. In the 1880’s Stetson was home to three sawmills, a grist mill, Stetson Cheese Factory, and a carriage factory.
Etna Campground, since disbanded, was the site, at Etna Pond, of annual summer meetings of spiritualist beginning in 1876. In 1928 Camp Katahdin for boys, founded by Douglas W. Crate, Sr., opened at the pond. The town, in Penobscot County, incorporated in 1820
The site of many mills in its history, its largest has been a paper mill at the dam where U.S. Route 201 crosses the Kennebec River from Anson. Until the end of the log drives in 1976, the river was often choked with pulp logs destined for this mill and others. The Lakewood Summer Theater, opened in 1901 in East Madison. Benedick Arnold passed through on his way to Quebec.