Our service area covers most of Somerset County. For information about any of the towns we serve, click below.
Anson
Anson, formerly known as Plantation Number One in Somerset County, was incorporated on March 1, 1798. Settled in 1772, it was named for British Lord George Anson. During the 19th century it ceded land to Industry (1823) and New Portland (1830), and annexed land from Embden (1828) and New Vineyard (1840).
It has been known as Brookfield, Seven Mile Brook Plantation, and Titcomb Town. North Anson, now a village in the town, was briefly a separate town by that name between 1845 and 1855. The rocky Carrabassett River flows through North Anson to the Kennebec River in Madison.
During the mid-twentieth century many residents in Anson village (in the south), especially those near the Kennebec River, worked in the Madison paper mills. The twelve o’clock whistle not only signaled lunch time for the workers, but was a marker for life in town, including mothers admonishing children to be home when the whistle blows.
The town office lies near the bridge to Madison in Anson village. The upper floors were once used for minstrel shows, community events, and town meetings. It was also the basket ball court for the elementary school in the 1950’s.
Benedict Arnold’s trail to Quebec cuts through the town in Anson village along the Kennebec.
Population: 2,496
Phone: (207) 696−3979
Athens
Settled by Revolutionary War soldiers, this town in Somerset County was incorporated on March 7, 1804. In 1821 it annexed land from Hartland, and later from Brighton in 1838 and 1862. Somerset Academy, the early educational institution, now acts as the town office, the American Legion hall, and a Christian Fellowship meeting place.
Athens is adjoined by Solon, which was incorporated five years later. As Ava Chadbourne put it, When Athens was incorporated the name of the capital of ancient Greece was chosen for it by its inhabitants. At the incorporation of Solon, the name selected was that of one of the seven sages of Greece. Some lovers of ancient Greece and its lawgivers must have lived in this little town in Maine. It had a Greek Revival style meeting house at one point. The Union Meetinghouse, not a Greek Revival style, has served the community since 1840.
As have many rural communities, Athens has hosted a small agricultural fair for many years, including animal pulling contests, 4-H and other exhibits vying for blue ribbons, and a social gathering just after harvest time.
The main village in the town is north of Skowhegan following Route 150 to the junction with state routes 43 and 151. It is located at the fork of the East and West branches of Wesserunsett Stream, which joins the Kennebec River just below Skowhegan.
Population: 1,019
Phone: (207) 654−3471
Canaan
Canaan is a town in Somerset County, incorporated on June 18, 1788, though significant settlement began in 1803 when mills were erected on Wesserunset Stream.
Variously known as Heywoodstown, Howard’s Town, plantation of Wesserunset, and Old Canaan, it once included the area now encompassing the town of Skowhegan. In 1814 it set off land to the new town of Bloomfield; in 1823 more land was ceded to form the Town of Milburn. Milburn’s name was later change to Skowhegan and that town eventually annexed Bloomfield.
The village is served by the Carrabassett Stream and by Maine Route 23 and U.S. Route 2. Lake George and Sibley Pond are popular summer and ice-fishing attractions.
In an area of diminished economic activity, its 23 percent population growth in the 1990–2000 decade is impressive.
Population: 2,327
Phone: (207) 474−8976
Cornville
Cornville is a town in Somerset County, incorporated on February 24, 1798 from the unorganized township of T2 R1, N.P.C., E.K.R. After acquiring the Mile and a half Strip in 1807, it conceded land in several transactions in the 1830’s to Milburn to reach its current boundaries.
Originally called Bernadstown No. 3 after Moses Bernard who purchased it from Massachusetts, it gained its permanent name from the richness and productivity of its soil, especially for Indian corn. Early white settlers arrived in the mid-1790’s, attracted by the ability to purchase large tracts of land in the Maine wilderness.
By the dawn of the nineteenth century, several mills and a tannery were established on the Wesserunset River.
Just north of Skowhegan on Maine Route 150, Cornville is a growing community in a rural setting.
Population: 1,343
Phone: (207) 474−3275
Embden
Embden is a town in Somerset County, incorporated on June 22, 1804 from the unorganized township of T1 R2.
Embden was also known as Emden, Queenstown, and Windsor. The latter two names apparently reflected the loyalist sympathies of the early settlers. According to one account, the settlers’ petition to form a town suggested the name Windsor, though it was stricken from the proposal and replaced with Emden. The b was added in the early town records and became the accepted form.
Embden Pond, in the shadow of Dunbar Hill, dominates the northwest portion of the town.
Indian & Fowl Meadow Islands, nature preserves in the upper Kennebec, are flooded regularly, giving them distinctive flora including lush ferns and wildflowers in the spring. Migrant waterfowl rest here near evidence of old logging drives.
Population: 957
Phone: (207) 566−5058
Madison
Madison is a town in Somerset County, incorporated March 7, 1804. In 1846 it ceded land to Norridgewock.
Father Sebastian Rasle arrived in 1695 in the Old Point area, living with and ministering to the Indians there until he was killed by the British in 1724. He built the first church in the town.
Named for President James Madison, it was surveyed in 1791 and permanent white settlers arrived at least be 1775.
The Lakewood Summer Theater, opened in 1901 in East Madison, on the west side of Lake Wesserunsett. On the east side in the village of East Madison, a dam hints at its history as a mill site.
Population: 4,848
Phone: (207) 696-3971
Mercer
Mercer is a town in Somerset County incorporated on June 22, 1804 from Industry Plantation.
First settled in the early-1780’s, it was named for Revolutionary War Brigadier-General Hugh Mercer.
With forty-one residents in 1800, Mercer exploded to a population of 1,432 by 1840. Soon thereafter, Maine’s first starch factory was established soon to be followed by another, which joined the saw, grist, shingle, and joiner’s mills and a tannery.
The Congregational Meetinghouse, which still stands, was dedicated on June 11, 1829. However, the Methodist Vestry, built in 1860, was destroyed by fire in 1901. Reconstructed almost immediately, the new structure was restored to look exactly like the original.
The town lies on U.S. Route 2 just west of Norridgewock with frontage on North Pond at its southeast corner.
Population: 687
Phone: (207) 587−2911
Norridgewock
The Town of Norridgewock is located in southwestern Somerset County, on the western boundary of Skowhegan and 15 miles northwest of Waterville.
The commercial downtown area is situated roughly in the center of town, on the Kennebec River and at the junction of U.S. 201A and U.S. 2.
The Central Maine Regional Airport (general aviation) is located in the western part of town.
The town covers roughly 50 square miles.
Population: 3,396
Phone: (207) 634−2252
Skowhegan
Nestled in the heart of the picturesque Kennebec River Valley sits the town of Skowhegan. Settled in 1773, it’s brimming with American History yet is host to modern businesses such as SAPPI Fine Paper, New Balance Shoe, Howard P. Fairfield, and Redington Fairview General Hospital.
Aerial photo of Skowhegan, MaineSkowhegan is also nationally known as the home of Senator Margaret Chase Smith, the first woman U.S. Senator. The Margaret Chase Smith Library houses the Senator’s memorabilia and serves as a museum and educational center on her life and career.
Downtown Skowhegan, a Mainstreet Maine Community, is watched over by the world’s largest sculptured Indian… a 62 ft. giant crafted by the renowned sculptor Bernard Langlais of Cushing.
When Colonel Benedict Arnold set out in 1775 to take Quebec from the British, he and his troops traveled along the waterways through Skowhegan, and a bronze tablet on the island in the center of town marks their route. Now, as then, Skowhegan’s commercial and industrial development has always revolved around the river gorge that runs through the downtown.
One of the future projects for Skowhegan is the creation of a white water paddling facility in the gorge. This facility will host white water paddling events during the year and will be the corner stone of expanded use of the Kennebec River for recreation in the region.
Located at the junction of US Rte. 2 and Rte.201, and only thirteen miles from Interstate 95, we are easily accessible to everyone, come and visit, come and stay!
Population: 8,584
Phone: (207) 474−6902
Smithfield
Smithfield is a rural and seasonal community of under 1,000, located in the southwestern corner of Somerset County.
Smithfield Village, a small commercial and resort settlement, is approximately 13 miles west of Waterville.
Seasonal housing stock in Smithfield represents about 40 percent of the total, clustered around North Pond and East Pond.
There are no arterial roads in Smithfield. The town covers 20 square miles.
Population: 1041
Phone: (207) 362−4772
Solon
Solon is a town in Somerset County, incorporated on February 23, 1809 from the township T1 R2 EKR.
Settled in 1782 by William Hilton of Wiscasset, it was named for one of the great sages of Ancient Greece, in keeping with its neighboring town of Athens.
A substantial number of Indian artifacts, including pottery, knife blades, projectile points, and fire pits, have been discovered at an apparent camp site near the Kennebec River.
Just below Caratunk Falls at Arnold’s Landing, Benedict Arnold and his army camped on October 7, 1775 before carrying their boats around the falls.
Solon is located at the junction of U.S. Route 201, 201A, and Maine Route 8. The Solon Hotel is a landmark at the village center.
The South Solon Meeting House is a period piece well preserved, with colorful murals depicting religious themes on the walls.
Population: 1,061
Phone: (207) 643−2541