Town of Skowhegan

Skowhegan, a town in, and county seat of, Somerset County was incorporated on February 5, 1823 as the Town of Milburn from a portion of Canaan. The name was changed to Skowhegan in 1836.

Recorded as Skwahegan in early reports, the name means watching place for fish, drawn from the falls in the Kennebec River that harbored salmon.

The Dudley's Corner School House, on U.S. Route 2 east of the main village, was the municipal center in the early 19th century, hosting all town meetings but two 1828-1849 according to the plaque placed on it by the Daughters of the American Revolution in 1932.

Long a center of shoe making and textile manufacture, these industries were on the wane when Scott Paper Company opened a $230 million paper mill on the town line with Fairfield. Now owned by South African Pulp and Paper (SAPPI), the mill shelters a portion of the boundary line which runs through it.

A huge sculpture of an Abenaki Indian, by Bernard Langlais, rises from the north end of the municipal parking lot in honor of the area's native heritage. The Lakewood Summer Theater is just five miles north of town.

From Maine: An Encyclopedia (www.themaineencyclopedia.com)