There are so many defining factors of Fryeburg. Fryeburg is a recreational and agricultural paradise that exemplifies Maine's motto "the way life should be". With thirty-three miles of winding river, unparalleled views of the White Mountains and the fertile bottomland, locally known as the Interval, it is hard for visitors and locals alike to imagine a higher quality of life anywhere else.
People are drawn to Fryeburg for the four seasons of great natural recreation such as canoeing, camping, water sports, endless hiking and biking trails, National Forests, snowmobile trails that reach to Canada, major ski resorts, wildlife viewing, wild berry picking, and the list goes on. Another major attraction is the 160 year old agricultural Fryeburg Fair. Organized and established in 1851, this eight day event is held annually on the first week of October. Hundreds of thousands of visitors descend on the tranquility of this quaint community during this autumn week. (Fryeburg Business Association)
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The western Maine town of Fryeburg was once a major Abenaki Indian village known as Pequawket, meaning "crooked place," a reference to the large bend in the Saco River. (Because of this the term 'Freyburg' is now known to mean "Crooked place" or "crooked town") It was inhabited by the Sokokis tribe, whose territory along the stream extended from what is now Saco on the coast, to Conway, New Hampshire in the White Mountains. In 1706, Chief Nescambious would be the only Indian
knighted by the French. The tribe was not hostile to English settlements, even hiring British carpenters to build at Pequawket a 14-foot (4.3 m) high palisade fort as protection against their traditional enemy, the Mohawks. In 1713, Sokokis sachems signed the Treaty of Portsmouth to ensure peace with English colonists. Nevertheless, during Father Rale's War, Pequawket was attacked in the Battle at Pequawket on May 8, 1725 by John Lovewell and his militia. Lovewell was killed, as were Chief Paugus and others. The tribe subsequently abandoned
their village and moved to Canada. The township was granted on March 3, 1762 by the Massachusetts General Court to Colonel Joseph Frye of Andover, Massachusetts. Colonists called it Pigwacket, a corruption of its former Indian name. The first permanent settlement was in 1763 by Nathaniel Smith and his family from Concord, New Hampshire, although it is said that John Stevens, Nathaniel Merrill and a slave named Limbo spent the winter of 1762 here. Many pioneers were veterans of the French and Indian
Wars. When a portion of the grant was discovered to lie in New Hampshire, replacement land was granted as Fryeburg Addition in what is now part of Stow. On the eve of American independence, the Province of Massachusetts Bay granted township privileges to Fryeburg. These were recognized and validated by the Continental Massachusetts government on January 11, 1777, when Fryeburg was incorporated.
It began as a strategic frontier outpost, and the earliest town in the White Mountain region. Excellent soil helped Fryeburg develop into a prosperous agricultural center, and the first gristmill was established using Saco River water power in 1766. Other mills and factories produced lumber, leather, harness, tinware, cheese and canned vegetables. After the Civil War, the Portland and Ogdensburg Railroad passed through the town, bringing tourists escaping the heat and pollution of cities.
Inns, hotels and boarding houses were built. Tourists began arriving by automobile after designation of the Theodore Roosevelt International Highway in 1919 (identified as United States Route 302 since 1935). Fryeburg is today a year-round resort area. It is also an academic town. Fryeburg Academy, a private preparatory school, was founded in 1792.
Before his career as a statesman, Daniel Webster taught for a year at the school, one of the oldest of its type in the nation. In 1924, Dr. Abraham Krasker founded Indian Acres Camp For Boys. Two
years later, he founded the less influential Forest Acres Camp For Girls. In 1997, the International Musical Arts Institute was founded at Fryeburg.
People are drawn to Fryeburg for the four seasons of great natural recreation such as canoeing, camping, water sports, endless hiking and biking trails, National Forests, snowmobile trails that reach to Canada, major ski resorts, wildlife viewing, wild berry picking, and the list goes on. Another major attraction is the 160 year old agricultural Fryeburg Fair. Organized and established in 1851, this eight day event is held annually on the first week of October. Hundreds of thousands of visitors descend on the tranquility of this quaint community during this autumn week. (Fryeburg Business Association)
