Emergency Biohazard Cleanup Near Gerry Old Town, ME

Old Town is a city in Penobscot County, Maine, with a population of 7,431 at the 2020 census.

The 2020 census counted 3,327 households in Old Town, and the city covers 43.24 square miles in total, of which 38.81 square miles is land.

Old Town was settled by English pioneers in 1774, was incorporated as a town on March 16, 1840, and was incorporated as a city on March 30, 1891.

The city's developed area is chiefly located on Marsh Island, which is surrounded by the Penobscot River to the east and the Stillwater River to the west.

Old Town takes its name from Indian Old Town, the English name for the largest Penobscot Indian village, now known as Indian Island, and the Penobscot Nation's reservation on Indian Island lies within the city limits in the Penobscot River.

The Abenaki people called the place Pannawambskek, meaning where the ledges spread out, referring to rapids and drops in the river bed, and the French established a Jesuit Catholic mission here in the 1680s.

Old Town is best known for the Old Town Canoe Company, a major manufacturer of canoes and kayaks that has been based in the city for more than 100 years.

The city's location along rapids in the Penobscot River made it an ideal site in the 1800s for mills processing the spruce and pine logs floated down the river, and today the city is home to the Old Town paper mill owned by Nine Dragons Paper Holdings Limited.

Old Town is part of Regional School Unit 34, which includes the towns of Alton, Bradley and Old Town, and its schools include Old Town Elementary School, Leonard Middle School and Old Town High School.

The city is crossed by Interstate 95, U.S. Route 2 and 2A, and state routes 16, 43 and 116, and it borders Orono to the south and Glenburn to the west.