I appreciate Terry Karkos noting the Pennacook Falls in Rumford with “Spring runoff woes begin early,” in the Sun Journal of April 15.
As Karkos wrote, “The Androscoggin River at Rumford on Tuesday was a roaring spectacle that could be heard throughout the downtown. And that was before 11:30 a.m., when heavy rain began to fall. The flow over Rumford Falls at Brookfield Dam was expected to get even more spectacular Tuesday into Wednesday, (Deputy Director of Oxford County Emergency Management Agency Teresa) Glick said. Featuring a drop of 176 feet, the cascade-type waterfall is the largest vertical falls east of Niagara Falls.”
Mt. Katahdin is a landmark in Maine, and the Pennacook Falls in Rumford is a landmark in Maine, New England, the Eastern United States.
Historian George Varney described the Falls as, “ … the grandest cataract in New England,” and the New England Waterfalls Guidebook notes the Falls are “ … worthy of drawing the attention of any form of artist.”
When snow melts and spring rains come to the Rumford Androscoggin River valley, the Pennacook Falls present the majesty and power of nature as no other natural event or place in Maine or New England.
The Androscoggin River and Pennacook Falls have been rejuvenated by Rumford native Edmund Muskie’s leadership in the U.S. Congress for the Clean Water Act. A monument to Muskie is in the park below the falls.
Sadly, however, the Pennacook Falls is seldom promoted as the phenomenal Maine and New England landmark in the spring that rivals even Mt. Katahdin.
Thomas Fallon Jr., Rumford
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