The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1894-05-18
THE PEJEPSCOT WASHOUT.
A Description of the Scene Where the
Great Pulp Mill Is to Be.

About $4,000 Went Down River Last
Thursday Night - Two 5000 Engines
Swept Away and Lost-When the New
Dam Was Undermined.
If you go up the river road from Bruins
wick on the Topsham side, you will
traverse the worst sand-waIlow that ever
unworthlly bore the name of a road in
this country. You will also, after going
about three miles, come to cross road
that goes over to the river through the
woods, about third of mile distant,
This is new road, made of clay and
nard and smooth. 1t is significant of
the intelligent labor that is going on at
the end of it on the bauk of the river.
AS you approach the river the birch
growth has been cleared away for several
acres. On the top of the great slope
that leads down to the river is large
frame house. Farther along, perched
here and there, on the top of stumpy and
rocky knobs, are numerous small shanties
OF tailed paper and laths. Still further
down, there are great sand pits, where
A4S1A anu llOISCo dIO 1dDOIIuS anu OIL
around are donkey engines and putting
steam drills and heaps of rocks. just
beyond is a vast abyss, 100 feet long and
so feet wide and 40 feet deep, with 20
feet of water in the bottom. One side
and emu are the faces of the blasted
ledge. The up river side is great wall
of masonry, 20 feet thick at the bottom,
II feet thick at the top and 43 feet high.
Along the middle of this wall are
eleven great holes in which are as many
huge iron cylinders ten feet in dame
ter.
The whole place is swarming with
workmen. 1t is the foundation of the
great pulp mill that is being built by
the Pejepscot Pulp Co. that owns the
Bowdoin Paper Mill in Brunswick
and the great Fibre mill at Lisbon
Falls. The place is now called Pejep-
scot. 1t was formerly known as Jacks
Crossing.
A catastrophe Of great proportions took
place there last Thursday night Ex-
tending from the end of the great wall of
masonry. in which are the conduits for
the turbine wheels, is the dam. 1t was
begun last July and completed last Janu-
airy at cost of between $40, 900 and $780,
00O 1t is a peculiar dam, and is called
horse shoe dam. 1t describes large
curve up river, SO large that while the
distance from shore to shore along the
top is 500 feet, the distance straight
across the river from buttress to but
tress is only 200 feet. There is no horse
shoe dam in the State of such an extern
sive curve as this, and there are only one
or two of them anywhere. The object of
the curve is to present larger surface
of dam for the river to find an outlet
over in case of a sudden freshet. This
dam is pyramidal in shape, go feet in
diameter at the bottom. 6 feet at the
top and "a feet high. On the lower side
at the surface OF the river is an "apronn
or platform, about six feet wide Its
object is to carry off the water more
effectually, as it comes pouring over
from the top. The dam is covered with
heavy planikng, and inside consists of
a cobble of timbers and rocks. Last
Thursday the water was pouring over
the top of tbs dam from the great mill
pond above, to the depth of two feet
and roaring down into the depths be-
low. 1t was a grand waterfall.
Friday morning when the men came
down to work from their tarred paper
shantles, they were asuonished at the
spectacle before them. There was no
longer mill pond. The river had de-
manded it's primeval rights again, and was
flowing at the same level above and be-
low the dam that the Indian knew as hea
ell, 1e 1. L.. Il.
And the dam! Nearly half of it had
disappeared in the night, and the water
swilred and boiled unconcernedly
through the great aperture where 1T had
been. That portion of the dam had van
ished as completely as if it had never
existed, and with it vanished two three
ton donkey engines, worth $500 apiece,
shore, below the mill. at a point 10 feet
above the level of the river. When the
great mill pond was let loose it Ieaped
upon the banks below and carried away
everything within it's path.
For 100 rods the river bed has been
dragged, but there is no trace of the
missing engines. 1t is believed that
bottom and covered up by the thousands
of yards of sand and debris that went
down with the flood. The dam will
of course be rebuilt. The cause of the
break is supposed to be the sandy nature
of the bottom of the river that was un-
dermined, thus leaving the dam with
no foundation. There will be a new
dam of course. If the old one is simply
repaired it will involve an expense of
at least S25, 600 If new and different
kind of dam is built, of which there is
some talk, of course the original expense
will be duplicated and possibly more
too
The foundation of the mill is being
built by Messrs. Hacker & Cobb ofBruns-
wick. The latter is stone mason the
former brick mason. They began
work in March, 1898, continued until
last December, and began again last
February. They have blasted out 5000
yards of stone and laid 1000 yards of it in
the foundation walls and the dam. They
have expended $55, 600 already, and will
expend about $50, 900 before they get
through. The dam was built by the
company itself, SO upon the company
of the engines swept away and lost be-
1onged to the company; the other to Mr..
Cobb. AS ii is a matter of 5000 there is
some Importance attached to who bears
the loss of Mr.. Cobb's enigne. 1t was the
breaking of the company's dam that
caused the loss of the engine. ITnon