To the editor:
In 1832, with a northern Maine boundary dispute brewing, United States soldiers completed the “Military Road” from Bangor to Houlton. The westerly “Aroostook Road” had been cut through to Sherman. A year later, it was extended 37 more miles to the banks of the Aroostook River at Masardis.
In 1839, Aroostook County was established, separating its area from Washington County. The road from Houlton, which had previously terminated at “the creek” [north branch of the Meduxnekeag] in Monticello, was cut through to Presque Isle. Meanwhile, the “Aroostook Road” was extended 11 more miles to Ashland.
A few years later, a stage road from Ashland to Fort Fairfield was grubbed out by the state.
In 1842, the bloodless Aroostook War was settled by treaty, and the first mail delivery to Presque Isle arrived on horseback. In 1843, the road from the Aroostook River to the St. John River (about 35 miles) was cut through, permitting a mail route from Presque Isle to Van Buren.
By 1858, local money was raised to build the 400-foot covered bridge across the Aroostook River north of Presque Isle. The state furnished half of the $6,000 cost. In 1885 and in 1896, the wooden bridge was washed away by spring “freshets.” In 1932, it was replaced by an iron bridge.
A circular prepared by the State in 1858 included information for potential settlers about roads to the new Aroostook Territory. Some of this information was included in Presque Isle’s first newspaper, the weekly “Aroostook Pioneer,” established in the fall of 1857.
“At the ‘forks of the road’ at Molunkus (just inside Aroostook County), the traveled road from Bangor branches into the ‘Military Road’ extending in a northeasterly direction to Houlton, and northerly thence to Presque Isle, in the valley of the Aroostook, thence in a northerly direction to Violette Brook, in Van Buren plantation.
From the ‘forks of the road’ at Molunkus, the ‘Aroostook Road’ pursues a northerly course, passing through Benedicta, Golden Ridge, Patten, townships numbered five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten (Masardis) to number 11 (now Ashland). This is the centre from which are fitted out most of the parties for operations in timber. This road continues also in a similar direction to Fort Kent (forty-eight miles further) which is on the northern boundary of the state, at the mouth of the Fish River.
From number 11, a road tends easterly in the valley of the Aroostook River to Presque Isle and Fort Fairfield, continued to the mouth of the Aroostook and to Tobique, in New Brunswick. Besides these principal roads, there are minor roads diverging from various points, and often intersecting some of the choicest lands in this region.”
The state circular included transportation costs for potential settlers. “In going from Bangor to the Valley of the Aroostook, a person may take the daily Stage to Mattawamkeag Point for $3, thence to Houlton for $3 and thence to Presque Isle for $2, more. Or from Mattawamkeag to No. 11, via Patten, the stage fare is about the same as, by the former route, to Presque Isle.”
Based on an outstanding set of articles published by The Star-Herald in 1940, I see the telegraph line to Presque Isle was completed January 8, 1882. The Presque Isle Water Company was organized in 1887. The water source was Mantle Lake, fed from a “clear spring brook.”
The town’s first electric lights came on December 1, 1887. Rural areas acquired electric service much later. The Reach Road, for example, acquired electrification in 1919, when the State built the Northern Maine Sanatorium.
Agitating to get a “Direct Line Railroad” into central Aroostook over Maine soil continued for a “long and very weary period,” starting about the time the Civil War ended. Finally, Presque Isle citizens saw the arrival of the first Bangor and Aroostook Railroad train in 1895.
In 1929, a new sewage treatment plant was constructed. A Presque Isle Merchants Booklet in 1930 alleged “the treatment which the sewerage receives at this plant makes it one of the most Sanitary and up to date disposal plants in the State.”
Steve Sutter
Presque Isle
