Former Kingfield teacher, CVA instructor, Kingfield principal and long-time resident, David Holmes, stands in the basement of a historic building that houses the A.G. Winter grist mill that was saved from being lost about a decade ago or thereabouts. (David Hart photo) KINGFIELD - - "This could be a memorial of all the mills here in Kingfield, this is not a duplication of any one mill; but it could be a tribute to all of them," historian and resident David Holmes said recently.

Holmes was referring to a concept to recreate and duplicate one of the very first mills established in Kingfield.

According to a statement Holmes created, the first mill in the area was a grist mill built by Solomon Stanley on or before 1810. Stanley, a significant part of Kingfield history, settled here in 1807 and was responsible for starting the very first commercial operation in what became Kingfield.

The original mill was quickly washed out and rebuilt a few years later along with a saw mill whose foundation still stands today on the Carrabassett River. The mill changed ownership thereafter falling into the hands of William King (Maine's first governor) and then the French family.

The grist mill, which ground corn and grain into various products, was the first mill in town, providing needed feed for the Great Northern Paper Company horses, local farmers, cows and poultry. The Great Northern horses were used to power many of the woods operations which triggered a thriving economy in the tiny town. Many of these horses were pastured in Jerusalem, now known as Carrabassett Valley, on fields known now as the airport strip and in barns known later as the Red Stallion for example.

Kingfield was a desirable community for many settlers because of it's proximity to the river.

On Dec. 3, 1884 the first Franklin and Megantic railroad car pulled into Kingfield. The freight contained needed supplies for the newly constructed A.G. Winter grocery, grain and hardware store located on Depot Street.

Also arriving from upper New York State and Exeter N.H. was the state-of-the-art components for a new grist mill which was installed on the second floor of that building. Grain was processed in Amos Winter's building and gravity fed to bagging operations below.

"I assume it was a money making operation for Amos and one of the reasons the railroad came here. The people of Kingfield supported the operation because it brought new prosperity for the residents," Holmes said.

In recent years the A.G. Winter store building, after changing hands to Harold Tranten in 1955, later became the Mt. Abram Regional Health Center. During the reconstruction of the new medical building about a decade ago, resident Becky Brown notified Holmes that the Winter grist mill was still in the building and needed to be rescued from demolition. Holmes, a teacher at Carrabassett Valley Academy at the time, grabbed his students and responded to salvage the mill components. Today these parts are fully functional and lay in the basement of the Kingfield Historical Society building.

The historic mill has been recovered and the foundation of one of the first saw mills still stands today on town-owned land on the Carrabassett River.

Holmes is hoping to recreate a working water wheel-powered mill to celebrate Kingfield's heritage and be a memorial to Kingfield's history of how and why the community evolved.

"This is all a pipe dream to save the old mill that we saved a decade or so ago."

Holmes spoke of a 16-by-16-foot building and 10-by-10 sills. He has a vision for the design, the flavor of a tourist attraction and even the hours of operation where they can actually run the mill producing a product. He's hopeful that people of the younger generations will join in to establish such a memorial for the town.

"Maybe, just maybe we'll have a water-powered mill here in Kingfield," he pondered. This may be the only thing of its sort in the state, he said.

He recently brought this concept to a group calling themselves the Kingfield Downtown Revitalization Committee, who support the vision and recently discussed the concept with municipal leaders.

Mills are an important part of Kingfield's history. Beside grist mills, Holmes reported, there were sawmills, cloven mills, carding mills, fulling mills, cant-dog and bullspool mills, spinning rollbuses, spool and bobbins and a wide variety of wood turning mills producing a multitude of products over the centuries.

Of the first mills in Kingfield, agent Edward Dudley wrote a letter to Governor William King in Oct. 1832, "The mill is in operation and grinds with very great dispatch. It is presumed that not a mill within the State of Maine can be found that can compete successfully with it… It grinds a bushel of old hard corn in a little less than five-minutes," Dudley wrote.

"The A.G. Winter grist mill is looking for a home," Holmes said.