Riceville, Maine: The Ghost Town Whose Plague Never Happened

Riceville, Maine. Somewhere in the forest of eastern Maine, there's a town that no longer exists. It's a summer morning, sometime in the early 1900s. A traveler makes his way down a rutted logging road through dense strands of hemlock and spruce. He's headed for Riceville, a company town built around a tannery on Buffalo Stream. He knows the place. Maybe a hundred people live there. Workers, families, children who attend the schoolhouse at the north end of town. But when he arrives, something is wrong.

TIMELINE
1879: In 1879, a company called F. Shaw & Brothers established what they called a Bark Extract Works.
1880: By 1880, census records show just 10 people living there.
1883: In 1883 money, that's an almost incomprehensible sum.
1890: By 1890, Riceville had exploded to 136 residents.
1898: Two years later, in 1898, James Rice and his brothers Francis X and John took full control, forming the Hancock Leather Company.
1900: By 1900, census records painted a detailed picture.

WHY THIS MATTERS
The story of Riceville is a reminder that the events that shaped America didn't always happen in the biggest cities. What unfolded here left marks on the community that are still visible today. The full story is more complicated, and more human, than the version most people know.

Episode 194 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

Hometown History explores forgotten stories from small-town America. The overlooked events, hidden triumphs, and buried tragedies that shaped the country we live in. New episodes every Tuesday. Find every episode at mythsandmalice.com/hometown-history

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