Hiking in the Head of Falls and RiverWalk: trails, map and practical info

Head of Falls is a riverfront site in Waterville, Maine, on the Kennebec River. According to the City of Waterville, the Canibas, a tribe of the Wabanaki, lived along this stretch of the river, and their village, Teconnet, was a trading centre until it was burned in 1692. The area was known as Teconnet Falls, later Ticonic Falls.

The Two Cent Bridge

A pedestrian footbridge was built in 1901. It washed away in 1902, and a replacement was completed about a year later. The City calls it the last surviving toll footbridge in America. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973. Repairs in 2010-11 raised the Waterville approach by 3 feet and rebuilt the foundation to allow ADA access. The City's history of the site also includes Two Cent Plaza, a plaza leading to the bridge; in 2010 the City hired a landscape design firm as part of a proposal to create it.

From mills to urban renewal

• Water-powered mills were built on the western shore below Ticonic Falls.
• The Waterville Iron Works was built at Head of Falls in 1896, as a foundry and machinery business especially serving pulp and paper mills.
• Riverview Worsted, later Wyandotte Worsted, operated a woolen mill on the site from the early 1900s until the late 1960s.
• In the late 1960s an urban renewal project razed the buildings, and the property then served as a City snow dump for many years.
• A comprehensive planning effort later produced a Riverfront Master Plan.

On the ground

Maine by Foot lists a 19-acre site with about a mile of trails and rates it easy. The main manicured area has a paved path and benches, a granite amphitheatre, sculptures reflecting the city's past and history panels, and a rougher path continues about half a mile upriver. Its quick facts list pets as permitted. The access road is off Front Street, across from Temple Street.