Walker Woolen Mill
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The Walker Woolen Mill, also known as the Foster Mill, was built in Wilton, Maine, in 1840.[1] It was expanded and refurbished over the next 40–50 years using local local pine and wood eventually shipped using the transcontinental railroad.[2]
Maine is the most wooded state in the United States, and has a long history of manufacturing everything from shoes to paper.[3] Charles Forster, a later owner who has been called the "father of the toothpick"[4] used the mill to produce the world's first toothpick in 1881. It later housed a supplier of fabric to the automotive industry and a factory producing plastic cutlery. In 2015, the Town of Wilton acquired it through foreclosure.[5]
By 2019 the mill had undergone the final stages of demolition.