View at Riley, Maine 801

View at Riley, Maine 801

This image shows the Androscoggin River about halfway between its headwaters in northeast New Hampshire and its outlet at Merrymeeting Bay in Topsham, Maine. Like many other major Maine rivers, the Androscoggin provided an efficient way to move millions of cords of logs from inland to the mills along the way. This photo is a great depiction of the way logs were channeled and routed to the various milling sites along a river. Here is a view of the railroad line and station and pulp mill at Riley. In this image an immense pile of logs stands ready for milling. The scene is typical of this section of the Androscoggin, where large pulp mills lined the river just downstream in Southern Jay and Chisholm/Livermore Falls. In the middle of the river are two boom piers -- man-made structures of hemlock filled with rocks, built on the frozen river and left to settle during the thaw. Linked by large, long logs chained together, the piers formed lanes to divide one company's logs from another and to corral the logs during and at the end of a drive. Presumably, logs sent down the left hand side of the river were bound for the mills downstream of Riley.