Dependency on Shipping waned when the Washington County Railroad began operating with passenger and freight trains on a regular schedule. The 118 mile railroad, which would connect the Sunrise County to the Maine Central System at Washington Junction, three miles east of Ellsworth, was twenty-five years in the planning and construction. On May 18, 1891, the citizens of the County had an opportunity to vote for or against the railroad, the result being 4,115 for the proposal and 1,236 against it. Although the Washington County Railroad was incorporated in 1893, the first passenger train from Calais and Eastport did not make its initial excursion until Thursday, December 29, 1898, travelling over a line built with 60-pound steel rail. During June 1896, a railroad contractor was in Dennysville getting rights of way for the railroad through town, but the actual clearing of the land did not start until November, 1897. In December of that year a contractor, Wheaton, brought his crew to work a cut for the railroad near Falls Bridge. They rented the nearby Charles Wilder house, and worked through the winter months, even when the temperature was -34 degrees on January 31, 1898. In April, John Boyd of Calais brought a crew to build the stone abutments for the railroad bridge. The granite, which was brought by the schooner Rocky Mountain, kept most of the teams in town busy transporting it from Allan's wharf to the Falls. By June there were other crews at work, Joe Orlando's at Stoddard Meadow and McLaughlin's at Shaw Meadow. On June 30, 1898, the townspeople heard the engine whistle blow for the first time. Alice (Allan) Burns (Mrs. Edwards) remembered her father. I Hobart Allan, taking his children out on the porch to listen to it. In July Dominick Romano had a crew working at Great Works, construction cars were on the track, and flat cars loaded with lumber were arriving. Although the iron bridge was not yet constructed, the first engine, No. 4, crossed the river on a false structure on August 27, 1898. During September, the construction train was laying ties and rails between the Falls and Great Works and a steam shovel was at work on the gravel hill by the Falls. On January 2, 1899, the trains began running on a regular schedule. Two days later the first car of corn to be hauled by the Washington County Railroad came into Dennysville for the A.L.R. Gardner Company. The new line did not fare well, financially. On December 17, 1903 it was sold at auction for $2,300,000 to interests connected with the Maine Central Railroad and later, in 1911, became a part of that company. The mine Central Railroad terminate its passenger train and postal service November 23, 1957. The last train, No. 123, left Bangor's Union Station at 6:10 that morning with two coaches, two baggage cars, and twelve persons aboard, among whom was 84 year old Daniel Shaw, who had been a passenger on the the first trip of the Washington County Railroad form Calais to Washington Junction in 1898. After the suspension of passenger and postal service, the freight trains continued to operate. Trucking offered stiff competition to the railroad, causing a downward trend in business. The Georgia Pacific Corporation in Woodland and the Mearl Corporation in Eastport were the major customers until the Mearl Corporation closed its doors in 1981. Then, when different transportation arrangements for many of its products were made by Georgia-Pacific, the freight trains followed the passenger trains into extinction, cutting off the supply of grain to the Eastern Maine Industries fee-grain mill in Dennysville and putting out of business the poultry farms which depended on the mill. In April, 1985, the freight train, BC-3, made its way through Washington County on its last trip for regular service. Since then, with steel rails taken up, the former line has found a new designation as the Sunrise Trail connecting the communities, as had the railroad, with an all-purpose, multi-use trail for both pedestrians and ATV's.

Dennys River Historic PhotographsContemporary Photographs of the Dennys River AreaPhotos for Map

Sunrise Trail Crossing