![Upper Gordon Falls on the Mattawamkeag River (2016) [See video]](https://maineanencyclopedia.com/wp-content/uploads/160425-RW014-Copy.jpg)
The Mattawamkeag River, on which the town is located, is the largest eastern tributary of the Penobscot. See photos. The junction of the two rivers is marked by a gravel bar at the entrance to the Mattawamkeag. Thoreau, on his way to climbing Mount Katahdin, visited the area in 1847. Today, a 1,000 acre Wilderness Park is situated between the two rivers with campsites, fishing, swimming and hiking available.
The Aroostook River flows northward through the middle of the township and by the village of Masardis. The small Pollard Flat Wildlife Management Area lies on the west bank of the river north of the village. A boat launch provides access to Scopan (formerly Squa Pan) Lake. Most of the Lake is in adjoining Scopan Township.
named for Maine politician James G. Blaine, it is a “half-township” town, forming a rectangle only half the size of the typical 6-mile by 6-mile square township. In the heart of potato country, between Bridgewater and Mars Hill on Route 1, the town’s eastern boundary is shared with Canada.
As with many rural Maine towns, Mars Hill is a community of pickup trucks as an essential tool of the farm economy. See photos. It shares a main street, U.S. Route 1, with neighboring Blaine. Mars Hill is located on the Prestile Stream where U.S. Route 1 forks to Presque Isle and Route 1A leads to Fort Fairfield. Established in the 1960’s, the Big Rock Ski Area on Mars Hill was purchased in 2000 by the Maine Winter Sports Center.
The town, with substantial frontage on Graham Lake and the east and west branches of the Union River, was named for William Bingham’s daughter Maria. With over 17% of its area covered with water, it is one of the most water-covered non-coastal towns in the state. While somewhat remote twelve miles north of Ellsworth, the town has a small but consistently growing population.
On May 9, 1775, Captain James Moore sailed the British warship, the Margaretta, into Machias harbor with news of the battles of Lexington and Concord. The vessel had traveled to Maine to insure that a load of lumber was delivered for the British army’s barracks in Boston. In response the people of Machias erected a…
is a town in Aroostook County, incorporated in 1880 from Mapleton Plantation. The early settlers, arriving in about 1836, were from New Brunswick. Potatoes have been a major part of its economy in the 19th and 20th centuries. The Aroostook War of the 1840s discouraged settlement until the 1850s.
Still a basically rural community, Manchester has maintained its old 1793 North Manchester Meetinghouse. It also features a sustainable forestry project within a few hundred yards of the Meetinghouse on Scribner Hill Road. A suburb of Augusta, the town has substantial frontage on the northern half Cobbosseecontee Lake.
The Erle R. Kelley Wildlife Management Area encompasses most of Dresden Bog, within the town of Dresden, and much of the adjoining land, some of which is in Alna. The Bog, one of Maine’s many nature preserves, is accessible from the south side of Bog Road in Dresden, where a nondescript, very narrow stream leads…
Interest in the origin of the name “Maine” continues since, to date, there is no one, clear answer. The name first appears in writing in 1622 as a province, in a charter of the Council of New England granting land to Sir Ferdinando Gorges and Captain John Mason. The portion which came to be Capt.…
was named for the river whose Indian name means “having its outlet among the reeds” and “worn out grass (land).” A monument marks the landing of the Acadians. Its main street, U.S. Route 1, is dominated by Fraser Paper Company, whose plant straddles the border with Edmunston, New Brunswick. Agriculture remains a significant portion of the economy. Most residents in this heavily Catholic community are fluent in French and have extended family members in Canada.
The name (the Indian term for “bog” or “wet ground”) is appropriate since the main village lies at the north end of a bog on Molunkus Stream. See photos. The township has some frontage on Molunkus Lake. A 485 acre section of Maine Public Reserved Land is here.
Earlier called Swansfield, it was named after Theodore Lyman of York, a successful businessman and Boston merchant. Goodwins Mills is a village straddling the town lines of Lyman and Dayton. The first saw and grist mills were located there in 1782. Lyman’s United Methodist Church was established in 1840. Dotted with ponds, the area is a rural commuter community with easy access to Sanford and the Biddeford-Saco areas..
From earliest European presence, the Maine woods have been a source for masts, boat building, housing, and other structures. Later, the paper industry and recreational hunting, hiking, and camping, broadened its importance. Still later, people saw its role in absorbing greenhouse gasses, providing wildlife habitat wildlife, and protecting water resources.
Lubec contains the easternmost point in the United States: West Quoddy Head, on which the famous lighthouse of the same name sits. See video and photos. A State Park is nearby. Lubec is the birthplace of Myron Avery, a key to the creation of the Appalachian Trail and a founder of the Maine Appalachian Trail Club. The sardine industry important in the late 19th & early 20th centuries.
The relatively new town office and community center is in East Lowell on Route 188 near Vinegar Hill Road. See photos. The village is at Eskutarsis Road, Tannery Road and Route 188, known as West Main Road and East Main Road. Mill Stream, the outlet from Eskutarsis Pond, once hosted a grist mill. A piece of its machinery sits on the bank. Lowell has been a high growth town, adding to its population at an average rate of 24% in each census since 1970, though not close to an urban center.
The town is named for John Lovell (or Lovewell), the hero of the Battle of Lovewell’s Pond in 1725, in which he was killed but the remaining Abenaki people abandoned the area. See photos. One of the lodges at Kezar Lake was owned by stage and screen star Rudy Vallee. Center Lovell, in the shadow of Sabattus Mountain, is the primary village, located on the shore of Middle Bay.
is a town in Cumberland County incorporated in 1992, the first new town in Maine since 1925, from an island in Casco Bay once a part of Portland. See map. It has several beaches, harbors, a fresh water marsh, and a 125 acre conservation area. In addition to the post office, there is one year-round store, and a store and a gift shop open seasonally. A “guest house” is also open all year. The village is at the southwestern end with the town office, community center, library, and a K-5 school.
For years Livermore Falls was a thriving paper mill town. See video and photos. Recently, the employment future has become less certain, as shown by the age of the housing stock. Pikes Corner at Route 133 and 106 is in the East Livermore area, in Livermore Falls. The town is directly north of the Lewiston-Auburn area. An extensive logging and manufacturing operation produces wood pallets.
in potato country north of Houlton, it is split by U.S. Route 1 and borders Canada on its east. See photos. It is home to Southern Aroostook Agricultural Museum. Watson Settlement Bridge, built in 1911, is the oldest surviving Howe Truss system in a Maine covered bridge. The Littleton Esker is west of U.S. Route 1 just north of the Littleton-Houtlon town line.