Browse Items (74 total)

  • Collection: A River's Journey images

Androscoggin River near Gilead

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Fishing on the Androscoggin river near Gilead

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Remains of boom piers at Berlin

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Canoeing on the Androscoggin

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International Paper Company kraft mill at Jay

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Opened in 1966, the former International Paper Company kraft mill at Jay was built at a cost of $54 million dollars. The operation’s primary treatment facility (part of which shows at upper right), installed in 1968-69, has been expanded over the…

Edmund S. Muskie

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Growing public concern for controlling water pollution led to a 1977 amendment to the Federal Water Pollution Control Act of 1972, commonly known as the “Clean Water Act.” Maine Senator (and later, Secretary of State) Edmund Muskie—a Rumford…

Bethel Wastewater Treatment Plant

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The published findings of the 1941 survey carried out by Metcalf & Eddy included recommendations for the construction of sewage treatment plants in most of the larger communities on the Maine portion of the Androscoggin. The published findings of the…

Lewiston Falls pollution

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A thick layer of waste material coats the Androscoggin River in this aerial photo taken just below the Great Falls at Lewiston-Auburn around 1930. By the early 1960s, the Androscoggin had become one of the most severely polluted rivers in the United…

Gulf Island Dam

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Over twenty dams, including this impressive structure at Lewiston, now exist on the Androscoggin. The view of those trying to clean up the river is that such dams have eliminated the aerating function of the falls on which they are located, hold…

Androscoggin River at low water

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Before the introduction of treatment plants along the Androscoggin, low water levels turned this once proud waterway into a slow-moving sewer.

Rumford Falls and mills, 1934

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This 1934 view of Rumford was taken from “Falls Hill,” where Route 2 climbs to the top of the now-harnessed Great Falls. A good deal of the foam floating in the pool below the Falls was due to the dumping of tons of industrial and municipal wastes…

Maine Central Railroad bridge between Auburn and Lewiston, 1936

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During the famous 1936 flood, the Maine Central Railroad placed cars full of gravel on its bridge above the Great Falls at Lewiston-Auburn to prevent the span from being washed downstream. The scheme worked and the bridge is still there today!

Flood damage near the Hanover-Rumford line

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The main “highway” leading from Hanover village to Rumford Point (now Route 2) was blocked by chunks of ice after the flood of 1896. Much hand labor was needed to re-open this section of the road.

Hanover Dowel Mill in March 1896

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Flooding in the nearby town of Hanover was severe in March of 1896. The Hanover Dowel Mill is shown in this photo, with the Androscoggin in the background.

Pulpwood in upper Androscoggin

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Pulpwood fills the Androscoggin from bank to bank in this photograph. As with earlier drives of long logs, bark and resinous sap from the pulp wood discolored the water and deposited solids on the bottom, adding to the already severe pollution…

Cutting room, Oxford Paper Company

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The cutting room at Rumford’s Oxford Paper Company as it appeared around 1910. To reach this stage in papermaking, many unwanted substances from wood were extracted and discharged directly into the Androscoggin. Industrialists, like Hugh Chisholm,…

Oxford Paper Company

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Rumford’s Oxford Paper Company, as it looked when paper production started on November 9, 1901. In the foreground is the Androscoggin River, with the “Strathglass Park” housing development on the hillside in the near distance. Some of the chemical…

International Paper Co. mill, Rumford Falls

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The mills of the International Paper Company at Rumford and a broad stone-walled canal are shown in this view dating from about 1910. In the center distance may be seen the power station atop the Great Falls.

Two views of Rumford Falls

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Two views of the Great Falls at Rumford illustrate the dramatic changes that took place there between the 1890s (top photo) and the 1930s (bottom photo) as the cataract was harnessed to produce electricity. During times of drought, most of the river…

Construction of canal at Rumford

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The construction of canals to furnish Androscoggin water to the several mills at Rumford Falls was of paramount importance in the early 1890s. Hugh Chisholm also purchased controlling stock in the Rumford Falls and Buckfield Railway Company, which…

Otis Falls Paper Company in Jay

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A view of the Otis Falls Paper Company in Jay, Maine, after it became part of Hugh Chisholm’s larger International Paper Company conglomerate. On the left a power plant captures energy from the Androscoggin, while at the right is the village of…

Umbagog Paper Mill and Livermore Falls

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Hugh Chisholm’s Umbagog Paper Mill, in the foreground, was being expanded when this 1885 photo of Livermore Falls was taken. The smaller mills on the opposite side of the Androscoggin included a sawmill, pulp mill, leatherboard mill, gristmill, and…

Hugh J. Chisholm

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Ambitious and imaginative, Canadian-born industrial giant Hugh J. Chisholm moved to Portland in the 1870s, where he established a successful publishing business. Fascinated by the undeveloped areas of the Androscoggin valley, including those…

Burgess Sulphite Paper Mill, Berlin

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The earliest paper mills at Berlin, New Hampshire, relied on the soda process to making wood pulp—a process that was never completely satisfactory. With the perfection in the mid-1880s of the sulfite process for breaking down wood fibers, this large…

Pejepscot Paper Company mill and bridge

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Constructed in 1868 and still standing on the Topsham side of the Androscoggin, the Pejepscot Paper Company is the earliest surviving example in Maine of a wood-pulp mill in the river valley.