On June 10th voters will determine the fate of Montgomery Dam. As we all know, Article 7 has been very contentious; there are so many conflicting sources of information and advocacy, and so many different lenses through which one can consider the issue: economics, ecology, climate resilience, architecture/aesthetics, etc. 

Camden's Historic Resources Committee (HRC) was created in 1992 to preserve the buildings and sites that give the town its unique character and embody its storied past. Though the Camden Code defines one of our duties as "to recommend methods and procedures necessary to preserve, restore, maintain, and operate historic sites and properties owned by the Town," we are currently only an advisory committee, and the formal historical status of Montgomery Dam is an open question. 

Yes, the dam is a longstanding town structure, and the Megunticook River and Camden Harbor are sites of significant pre-colonial and pre-industrial history, but it is up to each voter to determine if the current dam and its associated waterfall and features is a history worth preserving as is, or if perhaps the site has a new story to tell with an evolving history in response to current challenges.

This, of course, is the larger ongoing question of historic preservation in general. Which history do you preserve and how do you balance maintaining the past with adapting to the present? 

To help communities answer these questions and address issues like Montgomery Dam, the Secretary of the Interior creates standards for historic preservation as does the State of Maine's Historic Preservation Commission. While these resources and best practices are available to guide us, local legislation is determinative over state and federal agencies. This is why the HRC, with the approval of Camden voters in November 2024 (Yes 2,778, No 643), has been at work on a Historic Preservation Ordinance.

In creating this new code, the Town of Camden will join the ranks of dozens of towns across the state who are defining for themselves what historic preservations means to them and reaping the rewards of having such a policy. 

As for next week's vote, the HRC stands ready to support the voters' will through either dam removal or rehabilitation, and to make our voice heard that either process be sensitive to town history and archiving. 

Finally, we would be remiss to not inform voters that the 2017 Town of Camden Comprehensive Plan listed Montgomery Dam as a proposed historic site and the State of Maine Historic Preservation Commission in a 2019 study determined that Montgomery Dam met the criteria for eligibility on the National Register of Historic Places. 

Chris Friden, Chair of the Town of Camden Historic Resources Committee