It’s hard to imagine what the Androscoggin River was like when it was free-flowing, before the dams and the mill and municipal pollution transformed it.

Harnessing the mighty Androscoggin’s power was the key to Lewiston-Auburn’s industrial growth, but industries upstream were responsible for adding noxious wastes that, for nearly 50 years, threatened to reverse the fortunes of the Twin Cities.

It became a river of dirty water and overpowering odors. People said the fumes peeled paint from their houses. Whether true or not, it certainly seemed that way.

As a young boy, I played all over our riverside fields in Auburn, but the river was off limits. I would have relished a chance to try some Huckleberry Finn-style rafting, or just some simple fishing time. Although the wide Androscoggin flowed by our farm, I found more play time at the small nearby Bobbin Mill Brook, which brought clear water from the Lake Auburn outlet to mix with the murky Androscoggin.

Things are better now – much better, although some civic, political or conservation-based groups still lobby for more cleanup.

The economic value of the Androscoggin River was, for years, based upon its power production. Now, there’s “cultural capital” in the improved river. The newly opened Gritty McDuff’s brew pub in Auburn features a river-view deck. Pat’s Pizza, a bit upstream, has had a deck for some time, and the soon-to-open Espo’s Trattoria will also have a deck. An Auburn Riverwalk has been built, and Lewiston’s Railroad Park is a perfect riverside site for Balloon Festival launches.

Boat launches are now available at convenient Androscoggin River sites. The Hilton Garden Inn Auburn River Watch was built to take advantage of the spectacular Great Falls, and plans for the Island Point condominium redevelopment of the W.S. Libbey and Cowan Mills on the Lewiston side of the falls will also market the Twin Cities’ scenic treasure.

The Island Point mill project will complete a river-based cycle that began in 1845, nine years before the formation of Androscoggin County. Water power made it possible for the Franklin Co. to construct the original mill, known then as the Lincoln Mill. Its rope-and-pulley drive system ran machinery to produce cotton goods.

Electric power entered the picture when W. Scott Libbey and Harry Dingley bought the mill in the early 1890s. With the purchase of the Lincoln Mill, then vacant and full of obsolete machinery, came waterpower rights – roughly 1,000 horsepower -to which they had first priority ahead of the Union Water Power Co.

Libbey had ambitions centered on electrical generation. He purchased the American Light and Power Co. and the Lewiston and Auburn Electric Light Co., which led to Libbey undertaking has pet project: construction of the Libbey-Dingley Dam at Deer Rips 2 miles upriver from the falls.

From 1902 to 1904 crews of workers, most of them straight from Italy, labored on this huge project. It was designed to supply electricity to mills and to produce surplus power for a region rapidly converting from gas to electric lights and from horse-drawn trolleys to electric rail cars.

The Deer Rips project made it possible for Libbey to start building the Electric Interurban railway between Lewiston and Portland in 1910. It was completed in 1914, but the inaugural run left without Libbey, who had died just two months earlier.

Androscoggin River water power still generates electricity for Lewiston’s streetlight system. However, it’s the recreational and cultural values of the Androscoggin that are likely to generate the river’s greatest power in years to come.

Dave Sargent is a freelance writer and an Auburn native. You can contact him at [email protected].