Pennsylvania: Mifflin County

Mifflin County (pop. 46,682) is northwest of Juniata County. It’s the only Mifflin County in the U.S.

The county was named for Thomas Mifflin (1744-1800), the first governor of Pennsylvania.

Born in Philadelphia

The communities of Mifflintown and Mifflin are not in Mifflin County – they’re in the adjacent Juniata County.

Dunder Mifflin, Inc. is fictional

The county seat of Mifflin County is the borough of Lewiston (pop. 8,338), which reached its peak population of 13,894 in 1950.

Mifflin County Courthouse (1843)

The Embassy Theatre (1927) in Lewistown is under renovation.

The McCoy House (1843) in Lewiston, built in the Federal style, is now a local history museum

The Pennsylvania State Fire Academy is in Lewiston.

The 64-foot Soldiers and Sailors Monument (1906) in Lewistown contains a stone from Abraham Lincoln’s tomb in Springfield, Illinois.

Actor Joseph Campanella (1924-2018) worked as a radio sportscaster in Lewistown.

On “The Nurses” (1965)

The community of Reedsville (pop. 641) has a 13-foot cow.

The community of Juniata Terrace (pop. 502) is a former company town, built in 1920-24 for employees of the British Crown Rayon Company. About 250 nearly identical brick townhouses were built on three streets.

Still standing

NEXT: HUNTINGDON COUNTY

Maine: Androscoggin County

Androscoggin County (pop. 107,702), northeast of Cumberland County, was named for the Androscoggin River. “Androscoggin” comes from a Native American word meaning  “river of rock shelters.”

The county seat of Androscoggin County is Auburn (pop. 23,055), which was a center of shoe manufacturing from the late 1800s until the 1950s.

Androscoggin County Courthouse (1857)

The Charles A. Jordan House in Auburn dates from 1880.

Second Empire style

The Barker Mill (1873) in Auburn was turned into apartments for senior citizens in 1979.

Now the Barker Mill Arms

Auburn is across the Androscoggin River from its “twin city” of Lewiston (pop. 36,592), largest city in the county.

Actor Patrick Dempsey was born in Lewiston.

Lewiston is the home of Bates College, a private liberal arts college founded in 1855 by abolitionists.

It was coeducational from the start.

The Bates Mill, a textile factory in Lewiston, was Maine’s largest employer for many years. Today, the complex has offices, restaurants, and a museum.

It produced textiles for the Union Army in the Civil War.

The Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul was built in 1936.

Second-largest church in New England

Lewiston’s City Hall was built in 1892.

The spire is 185 feet high.

The town of Poland (pop. 5,376) was the home of the Poland Spring House, a well-known resort.

It burned down in 1975.

Lisbon Falls (pop. 4,100) is where author Stephen King went to high school. The annual Moxie Festival in Lisbon Falls celebrates the carbonated beverage known as Moxie.

The official soft drink of Maine

The “Androscoggin Creature” was an unidentified animal that was hit by a car and killed in the county in 2006.

Doglike

NEXT: OXFORD COUNTY