SUN JOURNAL • April 20, 2020
When Bruce Brown moved to his apartment at High and Main streets in Sabattus last year, he heard a river a stone’s throw away but couldn’t see it because of the overgrown vegetation along its banks. “I then realized there was a waterfall across the street, but you wouldn’t hardly know it with all the brush growing around it,” the retired logger and state highway worker said. He researched the network of mills and nine water wheels along a fairly short stretch that powered local industries, including processors of corn, grain and locally grown rice that was stone-ground using the river’s power. He took it upon himself to start a brush-clearing project and “earth relocation,” something the state used to do a few decades ago.