The Beginnings
of the Old Canada Road Historical Society

The Old Canada Road Historical Society was founded when a group of regional historians came together around the work of archaeologists Barry Rodrigue and Alaric Faulkner of the University of Maine, who began a survey of the Canada Road in 1993. There was great excitement as this project rekindled local interest in area history and brought together some of our most knowledgeable citizens.

In 2001, the Society sought and received designation as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Soon, an event series called "Community History Nights" was launched, featuring various speakers and topics. All have been well attended by local history buffs.

The Society has long had access to large amounts of material and photographs about the history of the region, but still does not have a physical location to display its collections. That situation led, in December of 2001, to the decision to develop a Web site to share genealogical and historical information about the Upper Kennebec region. The Web site has since been visited by people from around the world who have ties to the villages along the Old Road.

Looking forward: The Society is in the process of some long-range planning and is exploring a collaborative arrangement to share space with the Bingham Union Library. The public will then be able to use the Society's collections in conjunction with the library's own considerable historical resources.

The Society is also gearing up for a busy decade of research and publication. The town of Solon will celebrate its bicentennial in 2009 and its own historical committee is already hard at work on the first of several bicentennials to take place over the next decade. Bingham will celebrate in 2012 and Moscow in 2016. Clearly there is a lot of work to be done in preparation!