USA > Maine > The history of Maine > Part 43
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This measurement was not deemed satisfactory, as their instruments were out of order. Subsequent surveys have given its altitude at about five thousand five hundred feet. Its
1 Williamson gives the attitude of the highest peak at two thousand three hundred feet ; Dr. Jackson, in his Geological Survey, at one thousand nine hun- dred feet ; C. O. Boutelle, in the United States Coast Survey, at one thousand five hundred and fifty-six feet.
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ascent is difficult. Its sides are covered with a dense forest, until within about a mile of the top, where all vegetation ceases. The summit is a plain, about half a mile long, but much more narrow, covered with a surface of dry white moss. The view opened from this point is sublime. The small irregu- larities below seem to be levelled to a perfect plain. Sixty lakes of varied dimensions and very picturesque forms can be counted. On the north-east the view is uninterrupted, till lost in the deep blue of the horizon. Towards the south the spectator can see the heights of Mount Desert, at the distance of one hundred and twenty miles.
Among these mountains, lakes, and rivers there is spread out a region of rich and extensive valleys, which will eventually afford homes to a vast population. It is true that the winters are long and cold ; but the summers are delightful. There is, probably, not a more healthy climate in the world. And the clear winters, with the pure atmosphere, are seasons of great enjoyment. No one, who has spent a winter in South Carolina and in Maine, will deny that there is more suffering in the former place from the cold than in the latter. And in South Carolina there is no escape from the sultry, burning, debilitating heat of the summer nights.
The annual average of temperature in the State, as ascer- tained by tables kept at the observatory on Munjoy's Hill, in Portland, for the thirty-two years between 1825 and 1857, was 43º 23' Fahrenheit. The highest point to which the mercury ascended during that time was 100° 5'. The lowest point was on the 24th of January, 1857, when the mercury descended to 25° below zero. At Portland the proximity of the ocean diminishes both the summer's heat and the winter's cold. Far back in the northern counties the mercury occasionally falls several degrees lower.
At Brunswick, according to the meteorological record kept by Prof. Cleaveland, the annual mean temperature for the same fifty years was 44° 40' Fahrenheit. The highest temperature was 102°; the lowest, 30° below zero.
The average number of rainy days in Maine is sixty-four during the year. The smallest number, in any year, was thirty-
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THE HISTORY OF MAINE.
nine ; the largest, ninety-five. The average number of snowy days was thirty. The lowest was nineteen ; the highest, fifty. July is the only month during the year in which frost in that region has never occurred. The amount of water which fell, consisting of rain, and snow reduced to water, was, in the year 1857, forty-seven inches and sixty-six hundredths. In 1858 it was forty-three inches and forty-two one-hundredths. In 1859 it was forty-eight inches and fifty-five one-hundredths.
In the year 1874 there were published in the State, seventy- two newspapers, most of them weekly, a few daily. There were also sixty-two banks and fifty-six savings banks. There is an increasing appreciation of the adaptation of the State to secure all the blessings of healthful and happy homes which this earth can give. The God of nature seems to deal in compensations. If Maine needs some of the advantages which other States enjoy, she receives in return blessings which make up for the loss. There are many who can say, -
" I love my own State's pine-clad hills, Her thousand bright and gushing rills, Her sunshine and her storms ; Her rough and rugged rocks that rear Their hoary heads high in the air, In wild, fantastic forms."
The beautiful granite of Maine is every year growing more in demand for building purposes, and will eventually become an important item of export. The granite-quarry at Hallowell fur- nishes as admirable building stone as is found in the world. It is of great solidity, and, when dressed, presents a surface quite like marble in appearance. In the year 1874 three hundred thousand tons of ice were shipped from Maine. Ice that is formed where the mercury is twenty degrees below zero is much more solid, and withstands the summer heat more firmly, than that which is formed where the mercury is ten above cipher. The ice-crop promises to be a fruitful source of income.1
There is a general impression that Maine is not a good agri- cultural State. But statistics prove conclusively that in those sections of the State where manufacturing and industrial opera-
1 Address of Gov. Nelson Dingley, 1874, p. 41.
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THE HISTORY OF MAINE.
tions have been well developed, thus opening a market, the farm- ers are as prosperous as in those States where crops are more easily reared, but must be sent to a great distance to find a pur- chaser. The hay-crop of Maine in 1873 amounted to two million tons, whose market value was estimated at twenty-five million dollars. This greatly exceeded the value of the wheat- crop in any of the Western States of equal population. The products of the dairy, which ever command a ready sale, were over two million dollars. The aggregate productions of the farms, including live stock, reached the large sum of fifty-seven million dollars.
It is a very gratifying fact, that emigration from the State is diminishing, and that there are indications that the tide is again turning towards those fertile fields where fever and ague are un- known, where timber is abundant, where pure, cool, crystal water gushes from the hillsides, where the air is invigorating, and glowing health abounds. Not one-half of the State has yet been reached by the tiller of the soil. There are still three million unimproved acres in the region of the Aroostook. The territory there, inviting the settler, is equal to the whole of Massachu- setts. The soil is deep and rich, and there a population of a million people might find homes of competence.
Manufacturing, commercial, mechanical, and mining enter- prises are very rapidly being developed. In the year 1873 the cotton-manufactures of the State amounted to twelve and a half million dollars ; wool manufactures, to seven million ; boots and shoes, nine million ; leather, four million ; paper, three million ; flour and grist-mill products, two and a quarter mil- lion ; iron, cast and forged, two million and a half ; machinery, two million and a half; edged tools, three-quarters of a million ; oil-cloths, a million and a half; bricks, half a million ; fertili- zers, about eighty thousand dollars ; fish and kerosene oils, half a million ; fisheries, three-quarters of a million.
The ice cut from our rivers amounted in value to over half a million dollars ; the granite, cut from supplies which can never fail, brought four and a half million dollars; the lime amounted to nearly two million dollars; and the majestic forests, still covering millions of acres, brought to those engaged in that one branch of industry nearly ten million dollars.
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THE HISTORY OF MAINE.
Ship-building ever has been, and for a long time will proba bly continue to be, one of the most important branches of indus try in the State. Notwithstanding it was a season of great com- mercial depression in the year 1873, there were two hundred and seventy-six vessels built in Maine, with a tonnage of eighty- nine thousand eight hundred and seventeen tons. The esti- mated value of these vessels was five and a half million dollars. It will appear from the above, that, from what may be consid- ered the agricultural products of Maine, the sum of the labors of the year 1873 was nearly fifty-seven million dollars. From manufacturing and other industrial products, the sum reached ninety-six million dollars ; making a total of one hundred and fifty-three million dollars. Surely the sons of such a State need not emigrate far away from friends and home, to other regions, to find remunerative fields of labor.
In the year 1850 there were two hundred and forty-five miles of railroad in the State. In 1874 these lines had been extended to nine hundred and five miles. There are quarries of excel- lent slate discovered, extending more than eighty miles from the Penobscot to the valley of the Kennebec.
Five miles from Skowhegan there has been opened what is called the Madison Slate-Quarry. The mine is not only one of wonderful promise, but already of great performance. Proba- bly there is nowhere to be found slate of more excellent qual- ity for roofing. It is very dark in color, and in toughness and elasticity unsurpassed. Its surface is so smooth that it appears almost polished. The quarry is apparently inexhaustible, yield- ing slate of similar rift and quality with that of the celebrated mine in Wales, which has now been worked fifty years. The slate has been subjected to experiments which have elicited remarkable results. A slab one-fourth of an inch in thickness will support a weight of four hundred and fifty pounds. It can be perforated to any extent without crumbling, so that the piece cut out can be returned and exactly fitted to the hole from which it was cut. It can be carved, or turned in a lathe, like ebony or ivory. When powdered it becomes an admirable arti- cle for the surface-painting of oil-cloths.
The toughness of the slate is marvellous. Nails may be
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driven through every square inch, without injuring the texture, or breaking the slate. A nail may be driven within an eighth of an inch of the edge. It is easily split into plates of exactly the same thickness, so that it will lie perfectly level upon the roof. An ample supply of water-power enables the proprietors to conduct their works with great efficiency. The plates have easy access to market by the Maine Central Railroad.
Several quarries, manufacturing roofing-slate, are in success- ful operation at Monson. The oldest quarries in the State are at Brownville. For more than thirty years these mines have been worked, producing a quality of slate which has given the slate of the State of Maine the highest reputation. It is safe to say that the world produces no finer roofing material than that which is to be found in Maine.
In Farmington, on the Sandy River, a quarry was opened in the spring of 1874. It is called " The Little Blue-Slate Quar- ry." The stone, in quality, very much resembles that obtained at Brownville. The tests usually applied prove it to be every way equal, for roofing purposes, to that celebrated variety. The most competent judges, including mineralogists, architects, slaters, and slate-dealers, award it high praise in respect to color, non-absorption of water, tenacity, and durability. There is good reason to expect that a section of this quarry, recently opened, will afford material for school-slates of superior quality.
The commercial facilities of Maine are unsurpassed by any State in the Union. The sinuosities of the shore are such, that there are between two and three thousand miles of coast-line. Its bays and inlets afford innumerable safe harbors. There is probably no other portion of the globe which exceeds or equals Maine in the magnitude of its water-power. There are one thousand five hundred and sixty-eight lakes within her borders, at an average elevation of six hundred feet above the level of the sea.
" These," says Gov. Dingley, " form the head waters of five thousand one hundred and fifty-one streams, which go rushing down towards the ocean, creating three thousand water-powers, which afford a force measured by not less than one million horse- powers, and equal to the working energy of thirteen million
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THE HISTORY OF MAINE.
men. When it is remembered that not a thousandth part of the water-power of the State is as yet harnessed to machinery, some faint idea of the almost boundless extent of our manufacturing resources may be obtained." 1
The annual rain-fall of Maine, assumed at forty-two inches, would create a lake, covering eight hundred and seventy-one square miles, of the depth of Lake Erie. The inland body of water, including lakes and rivers, covers a surface of three thousand two hundred square miles.
There are in Maine four hundred and seventy-one cities, towns, and plantations, and one hundred and twenty-four town -. ships. It is difficult to give with precision the number of water-powers, but from a careful estimate it is judged that there cannot be less than three thousand one hundred. More than half of these privileges are as yet unused.
If we subtract from the territory of Maine three thousand two hundred square miles for lake, pond, and river surfaces, and five hundred square miles for mountain tops and sides, ledges and heaths, and tracts too barren to support trees, there is left, of cultivated farms and forest surface, twenty-one thousand square miles. Of this region there is about fifteen thousand square miles of the primeval forest, whose silent depths have never echoed to the axe of the settler.
This vast expanse, destined eventually to afford prosperous homes to a large population, is seven times as large as the famous " Black Forest " of Germany. Indeed, it is larger than the States of Connecticut, Delaware, and Rhode Island united. Maine seems to have been designed by nature as a great manu- facturing State. These water-powers are admirably located for access to our own great commercial centres, by river navigation and by railroads. The valleys admit of the extension of rail- ways far into the interior.
" The location of the State amid surrounding seas ; its extent of surface ; the disposition of its slopes; its geological structure ; its surface forms and extensive forests ; its grand system of lakes, with their uniform connection with the rivers, and susceptibility of reservoir improvement; the low annu- al temperature, and especially the low summer temperature, which at once
1 Address of Gov. Nelson Dingley, 1874.
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reduces evaporation, and contributes to vigorous labor; the winds of the State, as a whole maritime in character ; the copious rain-fall, with its uni- form distribution throughout the year, and diffusion over the whole State; the late lingering of the snow in spring; the small percentage of evapora- tion, resulting from the low temperature, from the number of rainy, snowy, and cloudy days; the consequent large residue of water for removal by rivers, and which our favorable surface forms determine to be removed by rivers, - taken together, constitute a sum of favorable conditions, which, it is confi- dently believed, no other equal area of the globe can surpass, or can, indeed, so much as equal. Other districts may have, and certainly do have, some one or more of the advantageous features more decidedly developed than Maine ; but none can parallel fully, as is believed, their combined series." 1
These facts seem to indicate that Maine is to become the great manufacturing State of the Union. When we add to the * above considerations, that its climate is in the highest degree salubrious, and that, in point of economy, water-power is vastly superior to steam-power, it would seem to be inevitable, that eventually the hum of productive machinery will resound through all these valleys. This will afford a basis for the em- ployment of an immense population. And this will give new energy to all industrial pursuits, causing harvests to wave over all the plains, and cattle to graze over all the hillsides. This wonderful water-power is a grand resource of the State, which can never fail. It is based upon features of the country, and upon recuperative processes of nature, which must be permanent. Power is the creator of wealth. Wherever power is found, the ingenuity of man will utilize it. The power of Maine is worth more to the State than mines of precious metals or reservoirs of coal. The State is adopting an eminently wise policy, in en- couraging the formation of companies for manufacturing pur- poses, in exempting such infant establishments from taxation, and in allowing towns to subscribe to the stock of manufacturing enterprises.
In accordance with a recommendation to the legislature by Gov. Joshua L. Chamberlain, in 1869, commissioners were appointed to explore the water-power of the State. The result is contained in an exceedingly valuable volume of about five hundred pages, issued by Walter Wells, Esq., superintendent
1 Water-Power of Maine, p. 64.
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of the Hydrographic Survey. From that volume I glean the following facts in reference to several of the most important rivers of Maine.
The Saco River drains a valley seventy-four miles in length, and thirty miles in its greatest breadth. The area of this valley includes fourteen hundred square miles. Eight hundred of these are in Maine, and six hundred in New Hampshire. The upper half of the valley is still heavily wooded, with but few clearings. It is estimated that one-half of the entire dis- trict is still a wilderness. The length of the river, from its sources among the mountains to the sea, including its windings, is about ninety-five miles. At Saco, the stream is about six hundred feet wide. Even in the drought of summer, forty thousand cubic feet of water can be commanded per minute, for eleven working hours of the day, or eighteen thousand cubic feet for the whole twenty-four hours. There are seventy-five lakes in this valley. By means of these reservoirs, the volume of water may be greatly increased. The descent of the river, for about sixty-seven miles, is seven feet to the mile. The gross power developed is estimated to be equivalent to seven- teen thousand four hundred and ninety-three horse power. This is sufficient to drive six hundred and ninety-nine thousand four hundred and ninety-three spindles.
Five miles from Portland, at Westbrook, on the Presump- scot, there is a very important water power occupied by the paper mills, owned by the estate of S. D. Warren of Boston. There is at this point in the river a fall of twenty feet, which develops at the average flow of the river about two thousand horse power. Some eight hundred men and two hundred women are employed at this mill all the year round. The an- nual product amounts to about two and one-half million dol- lars. The principal markets are in Boston and New York. The product of the mill at the present time is about fifty tons of fine book and printing papers per day.
The valley of the Androscoggin is about one hundred and ten miles in length, and seventy miles in its greatest breadth. It extends from the northerly outposts of the White Mountains to the ocean. The territory drained by the Androscoggin and
PAPER MILLS OF S. D. WARREN & CO., CUMBERLAND MILLS-FRONT VIEW.
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PAPER MILLS OF S. D. WARREN & CO., CUMBERLAND MILLS-REAR VIEW.
BIUSTON EN'C.
PUBLIC LIBRARY, PORTLAND.
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its tributaries embraces three thousand six hundred square miles. It is judged that one thousand four hundred and eighty of these square miles are still covered with the primeval forest. The number of tributary streams contributing to the flood of the Androscoggin is six hundred and sixty-nine. The length of the river from Lake Umbagog to Brunswick, where it meets the tide, is one hundred and fifty-seven miles.
The low run at Brunswick is about one hundred and twenty- five thousand cubic feet a minute for eleven hours of the day, or fifty-seven thousand for the twenty-four hours. The descent of the river, from Lake Umbagog to Brunswick, is twelve hun- dred and fifty-six feet, being nearly eight and a half feet a mile. There are one hundred and forty-eight lakes in this valley, fifteen of which are in New Hampshire. These lakes cover a surface of two hundred and thirteen square miles. It is estimated that the power of the section of the river, between Rumford and the head of the tide, is equivalent to eighty-five thousand two hundred horse power. This would drive nearly four million spindles. Not one-eighth of this is now used.
The basin of the Kennebec River is one hundred and forty- five miles in length, with seventy-five miles of greatest breadth. It covers an area of five thousand eight hundred square miles. There are one thousand and eighty-four tributary streams. The length of the river from Moosehead Lake to the ocean, includ- ing its windings, is one hundred and fifty-five miles. The average width of the river at Augusta is seven hundred feet. In the summer of 1866, Col. De Witt found that one hundred and thirty thousand cubic feet of water per minute passed Augusta for the whole twenty-four hours. It is estimated that the average will be two hundred ninety-six thousand six hun- dred and forty feet each minute, for eleven hours of the day. The depth of water on the dam is usually from five to seven feet. On one occasion it was ten feet.
There are three hundred and sixteen lakes in this basin, covering an expanse of four hundred and fifty square miles. Moosehead Lake is thirty-five miles in length by twelve in breadth. At the outlet of the lake there is a dam. Upon hoisting the gates, it takes the wave of accumulated water
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about forty hours to reach Augusta. A strong southerly wind will retard it nearly three hours. The river is navigable for small vessels to Augusta. The mean period of the opening of the river in spring is on the 6th of April, and of closing on the 12th of December.
We give a view of Skowhegan Falls on Kennebec River. The total fall is twenty-eight feet within half a mile. Much of
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NORTH CHANNEL DAM, AT SKOWHEGAN, ME.
it is nearly perpendicular. The fall could be greatly increased by dams. A small island of rock divides the fall into two channels, and would serve a natural pier to the sections of the dam, and as sites for mills. The bottom of the river is a solid ledge, and so are the banks.
In the towns of Madison and Anson, on the Kennebec River, there is an important water-power known as the Madison Bridge Falls. There is, at this point, a fall of eighty-seven feet within a distance of two and a half miles. There are two principal pitches. The cut represents the upper one, and shows scarcely one-fourth of the descent. The bottom is a ledge, and dams can be located at any desired point.
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In the towns of Embden and Solon, on the Kennebec River, there is a fall of twenty feet perpendicular, called " Carratunk Falls." A dam can easily be built ten feet high. This would give thirty feet fall, equal to that at Lowell. Thus there would be obtained five thousand five hundred horse-power, which would drive two hundred and twenty thousand spindles. The
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MADISON BRIDGE FALLS. ANSON AND MADISON, ME.
facilities for canalling, by the falls, are very good. The ground is admirably graded. An extent of about one hundred acres is well adapted for the erection of buildings sufficient to accommo- date a large population.
The valley of the Penobscot River lies east of that of the Kennebec. It is entirely within the boundaries of the State.
" The Penobscot is the only great fluviatile district in Maine which illus- trates, in its actual configuration, the geographical idea of the river basin, - appearing as a mere point at the mouth of the stream, thence, interior- ward, expanding symmetrically on both sides of the central channel, presently embranching into subordinate basins, themselves disposed likewise Bymmetrically about tributary streams, and themselves yet further breaking
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up into still smaller basins, located upon still smaller tributaries, until the whole takes on the similitude of a mighty tree, that from one trunk ramifies into innumerable branches, and from one grand aorta divaricates into num- berless arteries and veins, by which, upon occasion, its entire volume of fluids is conducted to and poured into a common channel of circulation and discharge." 1
CARRATUNK FALLS, EMBDEN AND SOLON, ME.
The greatest length of the valley of the Penobscot, from north to south, is one hundred and sixty miles, and its greatest breadth one hundred and fifteen miles. It includes an area of eight thousand two hundred square miles. The highest portion of the basin, at the head waters of the main river, is about two thousand feet above the sea-level. The State map represents one thousand six hundred and four streams in the Penobscot system. The river from its extreme head waters, including its windings, is about three hundred miles in length. The chief water-power is between Lake Chesuncook and Bangor, a dis- tance of one hundred and twenty miles, where the fall is about
1 Water-Power of Maine, p. 100.
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nine hundred feet. It is one of the most highly favored streams in the State, presenting, without any artificial aid, remarkable uniformity in the volume of water throughout the entire year.
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