Head of Falls, Waterville

I heard from a local person that the plan is to fix up a dirt track along the Kennebec River in this city park into a pleasant riverside walkway, and to extend the current path. That would be really great. As of my visit, the road was muddy and littered, and people drove their cars along it. Not sure why, or what they’re up to. It winds up at a rail yard. The Two Cent Bridge part of the park is nice, though.

The city provides a good overview of this site’s unique history, which “traces its origins to the Canibas tribe, with roots as the village of Teconnet Falls (later Ticonic Falls), a vital trading center until its destruction in 1692.” The village was on the eastern shore, and the Canibas burial ground was on the western side of the river, roughly between today’s Temple Street and the Hathaway Mill complex. The Canibas lived all along this stretch of the Kennebec River, and the former village at the head of falls, which was named after an important chief, was the second largest Native settlement in Maine at the time of the first European visitors.

In the late 19th century, the city says, “the site transformed into an industrial hub, housing water-powered mills and the Waterville Iron Works.”

The “two-cent” pedestrian bridge was constructed in 1902 (after the first one washed away) to “provide nearby workers with easy access to both sides of the river…The bridge is still there today and stands as the last surviving toll footbridge in America.”

Directions: The park’s access road is off Front Street, directly opposite Temple Street.