Washburn, ME

Washburn is a town in Aroostook County, Maine, along the Aroostook River and the potato-farming country of northern Maine. The 2020 census counted 1,527 residents. The town has about 7,800 acres of farmland, with Main Street, the river, and roads toward Caribou and Presque Isle organizing daily life. MSAD 45 operates David J. Lyon Washburn District Elementary School and Washburn District High School for students from Washburn, Perham, and Wade. The Benjamin C. Wilder House, built in 1852, predates the town itself.

Washburn was incorporated on February 25, 1861, and named for Israel Washburn, then governor of Maine. Early settlers worked the Aroostook’s rolling farmland, forests, mills, and potato fields, giving the town a practical agricultural base. The Historical Society and Agricultural Museum keep that farm-and-town story in view, while ATV and snowmobile trails extend into the surrounding woods. Washburn remains a northern Maine town with a river, a working farm belt, old houses, and schools serving several neighboring communities.