This is a picture of Pennacook Falls from the Rumford Historical Society's website. On September 4th, around 3 in the afternoon, my friends and I stopped at the falls, now usually referred to as Rumford Falls, on the way to camp. The falls weren't as easy to see as this picture let on. Since it's summer time, the water was lower than it would usually appear just after the snow melts in the spring. It's also from a farther vantage point since the falls has since been broken up by the dams that force it into distinct sections. From what a native of the town (and a brochure I picked up at the town information center) told me, I was expecting a much grander site. According to the New England Waterfalls website, this falls is a cascading 176 foot drop in the Anderscoggin River. It's supposed to be the largest falls east of Niagara! From where I stood, it wasn't so impressive.
On the bank where my friends and I viewed it, artists had set up black cut-out style sculptures to represent the Native American tribes who used to inhabit the area. There are cutouts of them carrying fish in baskets, making fires, and even ones of a canoe and a tee-pee. The four of us really enjoyed posing with the cutout shapes (as I imagine other kids must also enjoy since I didn't see children there). The site was pretty scarce save for a few elderly couples wandering around the beach and rocks. Overall, I suppose I didn't view the site at it's best time but I hope to go back in the Spring and really experience the site.
Rumford was settled as New Pennacook in 1774 as a small farming community. In 1800, the town was incorporated as Rumford and has since grown from that small community into the center of business for the region with the paper mill. The Rumford Falls Paper Company was constructed in 1882 by Hugh Chisholm. According to the brochure I picked up in the information booth, this business employed immigrant families in the area and at one point was the world's largest paper mill. Scottish, Irish, Russian, Lithuanian, Polish, French, Italian, and Canadians worked together under one roof in this secluded area along the Anderscoggin. The Falls have also been host to dams that dissect the waterfall into it's separate parts. The Rumford Falls Power Company powered not only the mill but the community. Artists have made their livings here as well, painting and photographing the falls.
Rumford Falls is also historically significant to Maine for inspiring the nation's (and the world's) first environmental legislation, the Clean Air Act, as well as other environmentally friendly pieces of legislature to come. Edmund Muskie, a Rumford native born of Polish immigrants, became a Maine Senator, Govenor, U.S. Senator, and Secretary of State. He was also authorized said Clean Air act. The Encylopedia states that, "Laws regarding water quality, regional clean air standards, and a model cities program were among his successes." Without Muskie's history of growing up in a town with terrible water pollution due to mills, we might not have had the laws put into effect when they were or at all.
Rumford Falls came to be a very interesting site to visit. Not only is the area seen for it's beautiful landscape that inspires art but the practical uses that have helped boost Maine economy for 127 years.
playing with the art
The falls.
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