Rumford is a paper town, and you can smell it before you see it. The mill on the Androscoggin River has been the center of local life since the 1890s, when Hugh Chisholm built a big pulp-and-paper operation beside the river's great falls, and the plume of steam over the plant is a landmark visible from the surrounding hills. The falls themselves, which drop about 177 feet in a short distance, powered the mill, and they remain among the highest falls in the eastern United States east of Niagara, though the flow is now regulated.
The town of Rumford and its twin, Mexico, which sits on the opposite bank and carries the oddly pronounced name of the country, grew together in the mill's shadow. Both have the stacked, hillside houses of a company town, built in tiers above the river, and a certain stubborn pride. Edmund Muskie, who became governor of Maine, a United States senator and Secretary of State, was born in Rumford in 1914, the son of a Polish immigrant tailor, and the town remembers him fondly. The river valley here is steep and wooded, with the white peaks of the western mountains showing to the north.
Riders pass through on Route 2, the long, old highway that runs east-west across northern New England, and Route 5 and Route 17, which lead north and south. Route 17 north of town climbs through forest to the Height of Land and Oquossoc, a long stretch of winding road with moderate climbs and views. The surface is serviceable but has frost heaves, and logging trucks are common. The scenery is working Maine rather than postcard Maine, with mill smoke, clearcuts and ridge after ridge of spruce.
Rumford has all the services you might want: several stations, a supermarket, diners and a motel or two. It is the last sizable town before the lakes country, so fill the tank and eat well. The best months are late spring and autumn, when the air is clear and the foliage turns, but even in summer the river valley is pleasant. Winter is long and snowy, with ice on the falls. The mill has had hard times in recent years, so some parts of town feel quieter than in its heyday, but the welcome is warm.