Biohazard Cleanup Near Whitlocks Mill Calais, ME

Calais is a city in Washington County, Maine, with a population of 3,079 at the 2020 census and 1,354 households, making it the largest municipality by population in Washington County but the third least-populous city in Maine, after Hallowell and Eastport.

Calais sits on the St. Croix River at the head of tide and has three Canada-United States border crossings connecting to St. Stephen, New Brunswick, Canada.

The first permanent settler, Daniel Hill of Jonesboro, arrived in 1779 during the American Revolutionary War and built the first sawmill in 1782.

Plantation Number 5 PS was incorporated as Calais on June 16, 1809, named after Calais, France, in honor of French assistance during the American Revolution, and Calais was incorporated as a city on August 24, 1850.

Calais is the home of the first railroad built in the state of Maine, the Calais Railroad, incorporated by the state legislature on February 17, 1832, to carry lumber to tidewater.

During the War of 1812, the United States and British North America agreed to a ceasefire on the border between St. Stephen and Calais, and on July 18, 1864, Confederate agents crossed from New Brunswick and attempted to rob a bank in Calais.

The Calais Free Library, designed by Boston architect Arthur H. Vinal, opened on July 4, 1893, and its Romanesque Revival building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2001.

Calais is the primary shopping center of eastern Washington County and of Charlotte County, New Brunswick, with retail, service, and construction businesses as the main parts of its economy.

Calais is the northern terminus of the East Coast Greenway, a trail that runs south to Key West, Florida.

The city recently acquired Devil's Head, a 318-acre site with a 340-foot granite headland towering over the St. Croix River estuary and a mile of river frontage.