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BACKROADS • OCTOBER 2021
Frontline Eurosports presents
BIG CITY GETAWAY MAINE MINERAL & GEM MUSEUM
99 MAIN STREET, BETHEL, MAINE 04217 207-824-3036 • MAINEMINERALMUSEUM.ORG Over the years we have learned that you can and will find the most amazing, interesting, and sometimes mysterious people, places, and things when you least expect it and in the most unusual of places. This day, while enjoying a few days romp in New Hampshire, we made a little side trip just over the border into Maine and the tiny hamlet of Bethel. Situated in the fertile Androscoggin River valley surrounded by some of the highest mountains in Maine, the town of Bethel traces its origins
daytrip ideas to get out of the daily grind to a 1768 grant made by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to men whose ancestors had fought in a campaign to conquer Canada in 1690. Originally named “Sudbury Canada,” in honor of these early grantees from the town of Sudbury, Massachusetts, and their campaign against Canada, Bethel was first settled by people of European descent in 1774. With the arrival of the Atlantic & St. Lawrence Railroad in 1851, connecting Bethel to Portland and, later, Montreal, manufacturing and tourism became major factors in the economy. Large summer hotels were constructed at Bethel Hill, and the town rapidly became a significant way-station for the growing White Mountain and Rangeley Lakes tourist trade.
