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() is a town in and the county seat of Somerset County, Maine, United States. As of the 2000 census, the town population was 8,824. Every August, Skowhegan hosts the annual Skowhegan State Fair, the oldest continuous state fair in the United States. The Skowhegan School of Art is an internationally known residency program for visual artists, though it is technically located in neighboring East Madison.
The Skowhegan Falls (which have since been replaced by the Weston Dam) descended 28 feet over a half mile on the Kennebec River. This was once territory of the Norridgewock tribe of Abenaki Indians, whose village was located in Madison until 1724, when it was sacked during Dummer's War. From spring until fall the tribe fished here, where abundant salmon and other species could be caught by wading. Consequently, they named the area Skowhegan, meaning "watching place fish ."
The land was settled in 1773 as a part of Canaan. Colonel Benedict Arnold and his troops passed through the village in 1775 on their way to the ill-fated Battle of Quebec. It would be set off from Canaan and incorporated on February 5, 1823 under the name Milburn. But inhabitants preferred the old name of Skowhegan, as it would be renamed in 1836. In 1861, the town annexed Bloomfield across the river. Skowhegan became county seat in 1871.
Farms produced hay, potatoes, wheat and wool. In 1818, the Skowhegan Fair was organized, with the first fair held in 1819. The Somerset and Kennebec Railroad (later part of the Maine Central Railroad) reached the town in 1856. Skowhegan Falls provided water power for industry, and Skowhegan developed into a mill town. Numerous mills were built on Skowhegan Island, which separates the river into north and south channels. In the 19th-century, the town had a paper mill, sawmill, 2 sash and blind factories, 2 flour mills, a wood pulp mill, 3 planing mills, a woolen mill, an oil cloth factory, 2 axe factories, a scythe factory, 2 harness and saddlery factories, a shoe factory and a foundry. In 1986, the S. D. Warren Company, a division of Scott Paper Company, opened a plant in Skowhegan. In 1997, the S. D. Warren mill was sold to Sappi Fine Paper. The New Balance Athletic Shoe Company operates a factory in the community.
Among the town's features is the Swinging Bridge, a suspension footbridge first constructed in 1883 to connect Skowhegan Island with the south side of the Kennebec River. Another landmark is the Beaux-Arts style Municipal Building and Opera House, designed by noted Portland architect John Calvin Stevens, and built in 1907-1909. On the north side of the municipal parking lot stands a 62 foot tall sculpture depicting an Abenaki Indian, carved by Bernard Langlais. In 2003, Skowhegan was a major filming location for an HBO movie based on the 2001 book,
, by Richard Russo. Skowhegan is the home of the annual KNEADING Conference established in 2007 where topics including local wheat production, milling, baking and wood fired oven building are highlighted. Skowhegan is one of nine designated Main Street Maine communities utilizing a strategic four point approach to downtown revitalization, a program endorsed by the National Trust for Historic Preservation.