WILLOW CREEK — A proposal to build a steam-powered hardwood flooring mill on the Willow River set the town meeting hall buzzing for three hours Tuesday evening, as a group of Bangor investors presented their plan to more than one hundred residents.
The investors, led by lumber merchant Asa Pendleton, propose a mill capable of processing ten thousand board feet per day. The mill would draw power from a dam on Homan’s Hole and would ship finished flooring via the Bangor & Aroostook Railroad.
“The railroad has made this town viable for industry,” Pendleton told the crowd. “You have the best white oak and hard maple in Aroostook County. You have the rail connection. What you lack is a mill. We aim to build it.”
William Thorne, whose Thorne & Sons Shipworks closed last year, rose to speak against the plan in what the Gazette described as a long and occasionally heated exchange. He argued that damming the pond would alter the river’s flow at Thorne’s Bend, potentially damaging the old shipyard site.
“The river made this town,” Thorne said. “It carried our vessels and our timber for three generations. And now, because the railroad has come, we are ready to turn our backs on it.”
Others disagreed. Elias Homan, who owns the land containing the pond, argued that the mill would bring jobs. “Mr. Thorne speaks of the past,” Homan said. “The railroad has given us an opportunity that the river never could. We would be fools not to take it.”
No vote was taken. The investors will return with more detailed plans.