Odds and Ends From The MUSEUM! By Trudy Wyman, Curator, Millinocket Society Museum Memorial Day is a federal holiday in the United States for honoring and mourning the U.S. military personnel who died while serving in the United States Armed Forces. From 1868 to 1970, it was observed on May 30 no matter what day of the week. Originally called Decoration Day, since 1971, it is observed on the last Monday of May and known as Memorial Day. A long

“You can’t get there from here!” might well had been said often in Millinocket’s early days. Millinocket’s location was very different from many New England towns which were often situated on roads leading to nearby villages. Millinocket’s location, surrounded by woods, was serviced only by the B & A Railroad which passed nearby on its way to Aroostook County to haul potatoes to points south. The early logging operations of GNP were reached by a woods road that followed Milli

Magic City Becoming Famous As One of Vacation Centers reads a 1932 caption in the local newspaper. Sub headlines read: IS NEAR KATAHDIN and Good Fishing and Hunting Abound Near Town – Good Facilities. The article (found in a Chamber of Commerce secretary’s repot book) has the name Frank H. Speed handwritten on it. Speed was secretary of the Chamber at that time. The article highlights some of the area’s attractions and that the town “is fast becoming a recreation

The Millinocket Insurance Agency closed recently after many years of conducting business on Penobscot Avenue. The museum has recently received items from the business from third generation owner Robert Speed. From the beginning of town, Millinocket Insurance was the place to purchase railroad tickets. One item, a Bangor & Aroostook Railroad Time Table from 1907, has many rules and regulations “for employees only.” It outlines the movement for trains and includes

New housing areas continued to develop between the 1920’s and 1950’s and the older areas saw changes. Some of the Italian immigrants had paid off their debts for passage to America and built their own homes across the stream from the mill. Medway Road, the old tote road to Medway and the Penobscot River and the only route out of town at that time, saw homes built on the town end. Many of these small homes had mill wrapper paper on the inside and tarred paper plus

Millinocket’s housing story began with shacks on the mill site for Italian workers and tenement houses and boarding houses near the mill. Over the years, different areas were developed (Little Italy, across the tracks, The Flats, Tin Can Alley, The Pines, etc.) and are still known by the names they were called by early town residents. McLeod in Story of the Great Northern Paper Company quotes an ad in the Bangor Whig and Currier (July, 1899) asking for responsible