Dixfield
Welcome to Dixfield!
According to Maine an Encyclopedia, Dixfield was “incorporated on June 21, 1803 from a portion of the Holman Grant. Dr. Elijah Dix, a substantial landowner in the area, bought the town (and Dixmont) which bears his name. He allegedly promised to establish a library if the town were named after him. Afterwards, he sent a set of old medical books and some dictionaries, to the consternation of the towns people.”
The town once thrived on the water power provided by the Androscoggin and Webb Rivers, and this legacy continues at the large Irving Forest Products sawmill in downtown Dixfield. The population is about 2250 (2020 CEnsus).
Fun Facts
- The local legend of Bullrock has it that a moose walking past Bull Rock, a ledge near downtown Dixfield, was so struck by the beauty of the view that it stumbled and fell from the ledge. A statue commemorating the legend stands at Dixfield’s village green.
- “Inventor Leonard Norcross was a resident of the town in the early 19th century. According to Isaacson, “In 1834 Leonard Norcross invented and patented a type of ‘diving armor’ that utilized Goodyear’s invention of India rubber cloth. Old newspaper articles say the Norcross diving outfits were used in raising the Russian fleet sunk off Sebastopol in the Crimean War and in cleaning gunboats in Civil War times.”
- Dixfield had one of the recommended “travel homes” in the post World War II guide “The Negro Travelers’ Green Book.” In this case, it was the Marigold Motel on U.S. Route 2, approximately 10 miles east of Rumford, that served African Americans when many others did not.” (Maine an Encyclopedia)