WILLOW CREEK — Visitors to Willow Creek can now take a self-guided tour of the town’s 200-year history with a new walking map that highlights 14 historic sites along Main Street.
The map, developed by the tourism committee in partnership with the Willow Creek Historical Society, covers a one-mile loop that begins at the town hall and includes the Carnegie Library, the Gazette building, the former Pendelton’s Hardware storefront, the General Store, the Congregational Church, the Thorne’s Bend boat launch and the Dry Dock’s Lydia Barnes Room.
Each stop is marked with a numbered placard that provides a brief history of the site and a QR code linking to additional content on the town’s website. The placards were manufactured by a sign company in Bangor at a cost of $3,400, funded by a grant from the Maine Historic Preservation Commission.
Jed Thorne, the town historian, researched and wrote the content for all 14 stops. He said the map aims to tell the story of how a shipbuilding town became a mill town and is now becoming something else entirely.
“Main Street has been through three economies in 200 years,” Thorne said. “The shipyard, the mill, and now tourism. Each one left its mark on these buildings. The walking map helps people see the layers.”
The map’s design features a vintage color scheme and period photographs from the historical society’s archives. Printed copies are available at the town office, the library and the Dry Dock for free. A downloadable PDF is posted on the town website.
Selectwoman Eleanor Vance said the map gives visitors a reason to linger on Main Street.
“Before this map, a visitor might park at the boat launch, walk to the Dry Dock for dinner, and leave,” Vance said. “Now they have a reason to wander. And when they wander, they spend money.”
The tourism committee printed 2,000 copies of the map. An additional 500 copies in French were printed for Quebec visitors, who represent a growing share of the town’s summer and fall traffic.