Flood Warning

[Note: This article was originally written on April 4, 2024]

A flood warning has been issued for Calais-St. Stephen today. While not common in recent years floods have in the past devastated the St. Croix Valley, washing out bridges, roads and mills along the river from Baring to Calais.

Maguerrewock was particularly susceptible to flooding.

Maguerrewock is, of course, valued as a local treasure and a paradise for sportsmen but it’s been a curse for anyone traveling north of Calais. In the early days all attempts at roads and bridges were frustrated by the enormous quantities of water which drain through the Maguerrewock watershed into the St Croix River. In the early days it was nearly impossible to get even to Baring by road much of the year.
As late as the 1950s, the road washed out on a regular basis. The fellows in the canoe in the photo below are probably not fishermen.

Folks from Calais who worked at the Woodland mill often had to take a boat to the other side of Maguerrewock to get a ride to work. Sonny Hornbrook remembers a fellow named Earle who had constructed a specially designed vehicle to tow vehicles across Maguerrewock during the floods and State trucks were usually available to provide assistance. It wasn’t until the 60s that the road was engineered to
withstand the seasonal runoff.

The low areas of both Milltown Maine and Milltown New Brunswick were always very susceptible to flooding and the Milltown bridge was washed out on several occasions.

King Street Milltown Maine 1927

Milltown NB 1927

The flood of 1923 washed out every bridge on the river except the Ferry Point Bridge and nearly destroyed the main industry on the river – the cotton mill.