Starks, Maine

Thompson's Bridge is a historic stone bridge in rural Franklin County, Maine. Built c. 1808, it is one of a very small number of surviving stone lintel bridges in the state, a type that were once quite common. It carries a local dirt road across Josiah Creek in the Allen's Mills section of Industry, and is located near (and possibly on) the border with neighboring Somerset County. The bridge was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1991.The bridge abutments consist of local fieldstone arranged in dry laid courses. The main span consists of large granite slabs laid across the narrow opening between the abutments. A layer of earth is built above these slabs, supporting the dirt roadway, which is about 10 feet (3.0 m) wide. The southern abutment has extensive wingwalls, giving that structure a total width of about 20 feet (6.1 m).The road which the bridge carries was probably laid out in 1808, during the early period of Industry's settlement. John Thompson had a house and established a grist mill nearby in 1805. The area had been abandoned by the late 19th century, and the roadway south of the bridge is unmaintained and in deteriorated condition. In a 1924 survey, the state identified more than 100 of this type of bridge; as of 1987, only three were known to survive in relatively unaltered condition. The bridge is also one of the town of Industry's oldest structures; its oldest surviving building has an estimated construction date of 1820.

Lemon Stream is a 15.2-mile-long (24.5 km) tributary of the Sandy River, that rises in the New Vineyard mountain range in Franklin County, Maine, USA. Via the Sandy River, it is part of the Kennebec River watershed. The source of Lemon Stream is a spring located 1,460 feet (450 m) above sea level between Little Mountain and Caswell Mountain. It flows southeasterly across the northeast corner of Industry, enters Somerset County through the southwest corner of Anson, and then meets the larger Sandy River which forms the southern boundary of Starks. It is not to be confused with the deeply shadowed north-flowing brook in New Portland, Maine of the same name. Lemon Stream flows from upper level wetlands on the southeastward slopes of the New Vineyard mountains, drops over numerous falls into the fields of upper Lemon Stream valley, then moves south through the sugar maple woodlands into the lower Lemon Stream valley. Here it widens and slows behind a small hydroelectric dam in Starks. Below the dam it snakes further south through more woods and farmland until the shifting sands of its delta yields to the eastward flowing Sandy River.

The Ingalls House is a historic house on Main Street in Mercer, Maine. Built c. 1835–37, it is a particularly elaborate local example of Greek Revival architecture, made more distinctive by the relatively advanced use of stoves as a heating system at the time of its construction. The house was built by a son-in-law of American Revolutionary War General Henry Knox, and was owned for many years by Hannibal Ingalls, a prominent local businessman. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975.

Mercer is a town in Somerset County, Maine, United States. The town was named after Revolutionary War hero Brigadier General Hugh Mercer. The population was 709 at the 2020 census.

The Henry Knox Thatcher House is a historic house at Main and Elm Streets in Mercer, Maine. Built c. 1826, the building is a fine blend of late Federal and Greek Revival styling. It is most significant as the longtime home of Henry Knox Thatcher, an admiral in the United States Navy during the American Civil War. The property was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2002.

The Mercer Union Meetinghouse is a historic church in Mercer, Maine, USA. Built in 1829 for several different denominations to share, this church is a relatively early and rare example of transitional Federal-Gothic styling in the state, with its tower set partially over the entrance vestibule, another uncommon feature. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2007.

The Sandy River is a 73.3-mile-long (118.0 km) tributary of the Kennebec River in the U.S. state of Maine. The Sandy River originates in the Sandy River Ponds (44°53′37″N 70°32′26″W) at an elevation of 1,700 feet (520 m) in Sandy River Plantation. The river flows south to a confluence with Chandler Mill Stream in Maine Township E and then easterly to its confluence with Saddleback Stream in Madrid, and Orbeton Stream in Phillips. The river then flows southeasterly through the villages of Phillips and Strong. The river flows south from Strong to Farmington and flows northeasterly from Farmington Falls through New Sharon to discharge into the Kennebec River in Norridgewock a short distance south of the Madison town line. Maine State Route 4 follows the river from the Sandy River Ponds and bridges it at Strong along the way to Farmington, where it is again bridged. The river is bridged once more at Farmington by U.S. Route 2. Route 2 follows the river downstream to New Sharon where it makes the last bridged crossing of the river before its confluence with the Kennebec.

The Battle of Norridgewock was a raid on the Abenaki settlement of Norridgewock by a group of colonial militiamen from the New England Colonies. Occurring in contested lands on the edge of the American frontier, the raid resulted in a massacre of the Abenaki inhabitants of Norridgewock by the militiamen. The raid was undertaken to check Abenaki power in the region, limit Catholic proselytizing among the Abenaki (and thereby perceived French influence), and to allow the expansion of New England settlements into Abenaki territory and Acadia. New France defined this area as starting at the Kennebec River in southern Maine.: 27  Other motivations for the raid included the special £100 scalp bounty placed on Râle's head by the Massachusetts provincial assembly and the bounty on Abenaki scalps offered by the colony during the conflict. Captains Johnson Harmon, Jeremiah Moulton, and Richard Bourne (Brown) led a force of two hundred colonial New Englanders, which attacked the Abenaki village of Narantsouak, or Norridgewock, on the Kennebec River; the current town of Norridgewock, Maine developed near there. The village was led by, among others, the sachems Bomazeen and Welákwansit, known to the English as Mog. The village's Catholic mission was run by a French Jesuit priest, Father Sébastien Râle.Casualties, depending on the sources consulted, vary, but most accounts record about eighty Abenaki being killed. But both English and French accounts agree that the raid was a surprise nighttime attack on a civilian target, and they both also report that many of the dead were unarmed when they were killed, and those massacred included many women and children. As a result of the raid, New Englanders flooded into the lower Kennebec region, establishing settlements there in the wake of the war.

Norridgewock was the name of both an Indigenous village and a band of the Abenaki ("People of the Dawn") Native Americans/First Nations, an Eastern Algonquian tribe of the United States and Canada. The French of New France called the village Kennebec. The tribe occupied an area in the interior of Maine. During colonial times, this area was territory disputed between British and French colonists, and was set along the claimed western border of Acadia, the western bank of the Kennebec River. Archaeological evidence has identified several different sites associated with the settlement known as Norridgewock. The last one, where the French Jesuit priest Sebastian Rale had a mission, is today called Old Point, and is located in Madison. Other sites are located nearby in Starks and the present-day town of Norridgewock. Three of these historically and archaeologically significant areas have been collectively designated as the Norridgewock Archaeological District, a National Historic Landmark District.

Central Maine Airport of Norridgewock (IATA: OWK, ICAO: KOWK, FAA LID: OWK) is a public use airport in Somerset County, Maine, United States. It is owned by the Town of Norridgewock and is located four nautical miles (7.4 km) west of the central business district.

Anson is a census-designated place (CDP) in the town of Anson in Somerset County, Maine, United States. The population was 818 at the 2000 census.

New Sharon is a town in Franklin County, Maine, incorporated in 1794. The population was 1,458 at the 2020 census. The town is roughly bisected by the Sandy River, a tributary of the Kennebec River. Fred H. Hale Sr., who was recognized as the world's oldest living man from March 5, 2004 to November 19, 2004, was born in the town on December 1, 1890.