Local city information for Camden, ME

Camden is a town in Knox County, Maine, United States. The population was 5,254 at the 2000 census. Home to Camden Hills State Park, the town is a popular tourist destination.


Penobscot Abenaki Indians called the area Megunticook, meaning "great swells of the sea," a reference to the Camden Hills. Part of the Waldo Patent, it remained wilderness until after the French and Indian War. It was first settled about 1771-1772 by James Richards, who built a home at the mouth of the Megunticook River. Others soon followed, some making modest attempts to farm the broken and often mountainous terrain.

When Castine was held by the British in 1779, Camden became a rendezvous point and encampment for the Americans, who were commanded by Major George Ulmer. During a raid, the British burned a sawmill. On February 17, 1791, the Massachusetts General Court incorporated Megunticook Plantation as Camden, named for Earl Camden, a member of the British Parliament and proponent of civil liberties. During the War of 1812, a battery was built atop Mount Battie near the village. It had both a 12 and 18-pounder gun, but no gunner qualified to operate them. Nevertheless, the fort's appearance of readiness kept the British at bay.

When peace returned, Camden grew rapidly. The Megunticook River provided excellent water power sites for mills. In addition to sawmills and gristmills, by 1858 the town had carriage factories, sash and blind factories and blacksmith shops. There were 6 shipyards, launching 10 to 12 vessels annually. By 1886, the town also made foundry products, railroad cars, woolens and paper mill feltings, anchors, wedges, plugs and treenails, planking, powder kegs, excelsior, mattresses, powder, tinware, oakum, wool rools, boots and shoes, leather, flour and meal, corn brooms and barrels. Camden was second only to nearby Rockland in the lucrative manufacture of lime, excavated at quarries and processed in kilns before being shipped to various ports around the United States. In 1891, Rockport was set off as a town.

Camden's 19th century prosperity endowed it with considerable fine architecture, which combined with its romantic mountain backdrop and schooner cruises, makes the seaport an enduring tourist favorite. The town's charm has not gone unnoticed by Hollywood. Among the movies set here have been Carousel (1956), Peyton Place (1957) and In the Bedroom (2001). In Carousel, the harbor can be seen in the distance during the sequence in which Mrs. Mullin, the carousel owner, confronts Julie (Shirley Jones) and Carrie (Barbara Ruick) after Julie has taken a ride on the merry-go-round. The soap opera Passions uses Camden for shots depicting the fictional town Harmony. Camden was the childhood home of Pulitzer Prize winning poet Edna St. Vincent Millay, who wrote her first major work, "Renascence," there in 1912.

Camden Public Library was built in 1928, and an "underground" addition was built in 1996. The library maintains and oversees two historically-recognized adjacent parks, which are part of the library's overall campus: the Camden Amphitheatre, which was designed by Fletcher Steele, and the Camden Harbor Park (across from the Amphitheatre), which was designed by the Olmstead Brothers.

The town is home to The Camden Conference, an annual public affairs conference held in February. Also, the Pop!Tech conference takes place each fall. During the second weekend of February, the annual U.S. National Toboggan Championships are held at the town-owned Camden Snow Bowl. This nationally-known race started as a lark for something to do during the long Maine winters, and 18 years later is one of New England's premier cold-weather events. The iced chute is long, and the four-man teams attain speeds of up to an hour. Most racers arrive in costume, and 100% percent of race revenue is used to offset operating expenses for this recreation area.

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