History of Gambo Powder Mills to highlight Windham Heritage Day

It’s a tale of explosions, wartime profit and saltpeter.

That’s the story of the old Gambo Powder Mills that once operated on both sides of the Presumpscot River in Windham and Gorham, producing 2.5 million pounds of black gunpowder a year in its heyday.

Maurice Whitten, author of “The Gunpowder Mills of Maine,” will be retelling the history of the old Gambo Powder Mills this Friday night followed by a tour of the ruins on Saturday as part of “Windham Heritage Day,” a celebration of Windham’s history on August 8.

On Friday, Whitten’s lecture will start at 7 p.m. at the Windham Historical Society Museum on Windham Center Road. On Saturday, Whitten will lead a walk across the Gambo Bridge to the site of the ruins starting at 9:30 a.m.

Whitten, a former chemistry professor from the University of Southern Maine, has extensively researched the old Gambo Powder Mills, rifling through old company records, libraries and newspaper articles to compile a history on its successes and its tragedies.

“What always impressed me was that it was tremendously dangerous, but there were always people willing to go to work the next day,” Whitten said.

The Gambo Powder Mills were the first and longest running gunpowder mills in Maine, in business for more than 80 years during the 19th and early 20th centuries.

The Gambo Powder Mills began in 1824 when Lester Laflin and Edmund Fowler of Southwick, Mass., built the first mill on the Gorham side of the Presumpscot River.

After the two owners died in a boating accident on Sebago Lake, their widows sold the business in 1832 to Oliver Whipple, a prominent Massachusetts businessman who expanded the mill and its operations, but dealt with a series of explosive setbacks.

While importing the other ingredients, charcoal was produced in a furnace house on the river where they cooked certain types of wood.

At the time, the gunpowder was sold to local stores in the greater Portland area and shipped via the Cumberland Oxford Canal south to Casco Bay and on to Boston.

On a good day, these unique canal boats were able to sail the whole distance to Boston with the same sails they used to navigate north across Sebago Lake and pole up the Songo Locks to Long Lake.

The mill also sold large shipments of gunpowder to the Russian government.

Workers had to be extremely careful in powder production. They wore special shoes put together with wooden nails, used all wooden wheel barrows and special tools.

“They had to be very careful not to use an iron or steel tools,” Whitten said, “because if there was any powder in the atmosphere, you could strike a spark and cause an explosion.”

Whipple expanded the operation to the other side of the river during his time running the mills. This expansion included a boarding house and a saltpeter refinery in Windham.

However, a series of explosions meant constant rebuilding and the death of many workers.

Old newspaper accounts of the deaths detail the gruesome explosions caused by the dropping of a tool and the sometimes difficult recovery of the dismembered dead.

But despite the danger, the good pay at the mills kept the workers’ jobs in strong demand.

“They knew it was a very risky occupation,” Whitten said. “There are some newspaper accounts that say men lined up once they heard an explosion to apply for the job before they even removed the dead from the premises.”

Shortly after a series of terrible explosions and mishaps, Whipple sold the powder mill to C.C. Newhall & Co. in 1855.

The main source of income for the mills became the Union Army during the American Civil War.

In the beginning of the war, the British banned export of saltpeter from India to the Union forces while supplying the Confederate Army with gunpowder.

But after protest from Dupont, the nation’s biggest anufacturer of gunpowder, the British agreed to lift the embargo.

“The British put on the embargo because they owned India at that time,” Whitten said. “But as soon as that became known, Dupont persuaded them to lift the embargo. If it wasn’t for Dupont, the industry would have been crippled throughout the country.”

The Gambo Mills made both cannon and rifle gunpowder during the war, producing 4 million pounds a year at the peak of the bloody war. The Gambo Powder Mills are renowned today as having supplied the Union Army with 25 percent of the gunpowder used during the war.

The war’s end was good news for the country and bad news for the mills.

After financial difficulties, C.C. Newhall & Co. transferred ownership of the Gambo Powder Mills to the Oriental Powder Company in 1867, a stock company run by a board of directors.

Luckily for the new Oriental Powder Company, the railroads brought new business and easier transportation.

The Portland & Ogdensburg Railroad opened in 1871 make it easier to transport the powder and, thanks to an expansion of the railroads across the country, there became a high demand for “blasting powder” to clear rock and railroad beds.

The Oriental Powder Company was successful in its production of blasting powder and later “smokeless powder” made from nitroglycerine, the gunpowder now used in modern ammunitions.

The company continued to suffer from numerous explosions that took many men’s lives and, after a bidding war over the mill stock, the Oriental Powder was closed by its competitors.

Many of the ruins of the old Gambo Mill are now under water, but stone foundations of some of the buildings are still present, overgrown with moss and vegetation.

The lecture tonight will be illustrated with old posters, pictures and slides of the ruins today.

Tickets will be sold at both the lecture and the day of the tour for $20.

These tickets pay for a full-day of events during Windham Heritage Day where a series of historic homes will be open to the public and feature old fashioned trades and antiques.

A reenactment of the final skirmish between the Windham settlers and the native American Indians that once roamed Sebago Lake was canceled after organizers and reenactment actors could not resolve “creative differences,” said Walter

Lunt, local historian and event organizer.

However, an 18th century musket, reportedly the same that settler Stephen Manchester used to shoot Indian Chief Polin during that battle, will be on display at the Parson Smith House on River Road between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m.

All proceeds from this powder-packed celebration of Windham’s heritage will go toward the Windham Historical Society’s endeavor to purchase the Parson Smith House, an 18th century landmark and well-preserved mansion that was home to the Windham’s second preacher.

A tour to the Gambo Powder Mill, part of which can be seen above, is on the agenda for Windham Heritage Day.