The Race Is On! June 25, 2017
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The Ninth Annual Kennebec Rail Trail Half Marathon, Relay & 5K is back and registrations are pouring in. It is a fast race that follows the river along the Rail Trail, from Augusta to Gardiner and back again.
- June 25, 7:30 a.m.
- Registrations Limited. Sign up Early!
- Fast Course | Great trophies.
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 Winter Trail
While we try to have the trail cleared for winter walking, we don’t sand or salt the trail, so there may be patches of ice. So please walk carefully. We don’t sand or salt because it is very expensive and removing the sand residue in the spring is also a big expense.
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Our contracted plowing is done this year by McNaughton Brothers of Hallowell. They have been doing a great job in a rough and icy winter, clearing the trail as quickly as possible after the storms. As Brad says, “My driveway is still a mess, but the trail is in pretty good condition.” Thanks, McNaughton.
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We need your opinion:
Do you want us to continue to plow the entire 6.5 miles of the trail for winter walking? Alternatively, for future years, we are considering plowing most of it, but perhaps leaving a mile or two UN-plowed for skiing and snowshoeing. Let us know what you think—we have a public opinion poll going on the KRRT site.
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History on the trail
The C.E. Tayntor (Taintor) Stone Works was a major granite operation—both quarrying and finish work—that came to Hallowell from Barre, Vt. around 1900. They purchased the former Melvin Quarry which was located off Whitten Road behind the current ice arena, accessed through the old Rockingham Road.
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What we see in this old postcard is the old Tayntor (Tainter) cutting shed circa 1900, a modern facility at the time, approximately 100' x 600', located just off today's trail, where the former fuel tanks were on Wilder Point Road, north of downtown Hallowell, about 100 yards from the overhead rail bridge.
Tayntor, a major competitor of the Hallowell Granite Works, did both building stone and monumental work.
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You can still see the Hall of Records in New York City, one of their biggest contracts. Over 350,000 cubic feet of Hallowell stone was shipped for the project, including huge columns and statuary. All of the stone came from the Whitten Road (Rockingham Road) quarry.
 They also competed nationally in the Civil War memorial trade, sending stone Civil War memorials to all parts of the country. The monument in Memorial Circle in Augusta was one of theirs, (they contracted with the Fine Arts Foundry in New York City for the cast bronze figure which sits atop the column). The Maine Monument at the Andersonville National Cemetery in Georgia was their work from 1904, commemorating Union soldiers from Maine imprisoned in the notorious Andersonville Prison.
In less than fifteen years the granite business had completely collapsed—the First World War really finished it off—and the huge Tayntor Cutting Shed was dismantled and shipped south. The Hallowell Granite Works closed about the same time so by 1920 the massive Hallowell granite industry was reduced to small, independent contractors.
Written with contributions from Gerry Mahoney, Sam Webber and Bob McKintyre.
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Dog-i-pot poop dispenser bags
The Friends of Kennebec River Rail Trail provides dispenser stations for doggy poop bags at various places along the trail, to help dog owners pick up after their pups & keep the Trail clean and appealing. The Friends have been providing these stations for several years and donations from our Trail users (and sometimes sponsors) help support the purchase of both the actual dispensers and the supply of bags. Volunteers, along with staff from the City of Augusta (on the Augusta section of the Trail), check the dispenser stations periodically and refill them. If you notice a dispenser is empty, please message us on Facebook or email us at railtrailnews@krrt.org.
Can you guess how many bags the Trail uses in a year? Over 5000!
 Dispensers are located at the following locations:
In Gardiner:
- At the Trail head in the Hannaford parking lot
In Farmingdale:
- At the Trail entrance by KV Health Club
In Hallowell:
- By the railroad trestle where you turn onto Wilder Road from Water St.
- At Greenville St. on the Trail heading South
In Augusta:
- At the Trail heads at Capitol Park and under the Memorial Bridge
- By the Sewerage Treatment Plant where the Capitol Connector merges into the main Trail
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Smelt shanties as seen from the Rail Trail near the Sheldon St. access point in Farmingdale. Photo taken by Brad Howard on January 26, 2017, the day after one of our storms.
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Broken tree limb near the Sheldon St. access. Winter conditions are difficult on the trail, but we do our best to keep everything cleaned up and accessible. There will be a lot of clean up in the spring. If you’d like to volunteer to help out, sign up on our website to join the group of volunteers. Thanks.
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