WILLOW CREEK — Spring runoff combined with the newly completed dam at Homan’s Pond has created the highest water levels ever recorded at Thorne’s Bend. The old Thorne & Sons Shipyard launching slip, where forty-seven vessels were launched between 1803 and 1882, is now submerged under four feet of water.
The flooding was anticipated, but the extent surprised even the engineers. The new dam, combined with an unusually wet May and June, has produced a Willow River higher than any in memory.
Ezra Thorne II has written an indignant letter to the Gazette, published on page two, in which he calls the flooding vandalism in the name of progress. “The launching slip was built by my great-grandfather in 1803,” he writes. “It survived eight decades of spring floods and the abandonment of the yard itself. It has not survived the mill race.”
The mill itself is nearing completion. The Bangor & Aroostook Railroad has laid the spur line connecting the mill to the main track, and the steam-powered planer, shipped from Bangor, arrived by rail last week and is being installed. The mill is expected to open within the month.