The Windham Historical Society is happy to be back and able to present programs once again for the 2023 season. We’re very excited about our first program of the year. Did you know that right off of Gambo Road in the Newhall section of Windham, there used to be a gunpowder mill?

Photo courtesy of Patrick Bonsant

The Gambo Gunpowder Mill was a large employer inboth Windham and Gorham during the Civil War. This local mill was responsibe for supplying about 25% of the gunpowder used by the Union army during the War Between the States. Today, all that remains are the shells of what was once there, a thriving mill that employed a large work force in our local area.

Working at the mill was dangerous. Accidents and explosions were a distinct possibility during a day at work, but the pay was good and many people in both Windham and Gorham desired a position there.

Their story and the story of the mill have been chronicled in a documentary film entitled The Gunpowder Mills of Gorham and Windham, Maine. The Windham Historical Society will be presenting the film on March 11 at 1 p.m. at the Little Meetinghouse. You’ll meet filmmaker Patrick Bonsant who worked with Georgia Humphrey of Gorham Community Access Television to produce the film. They used the book The Gunpowder Mills of Maine by Maurice Whitten as source material for the film and they also interviewed former Windham Historical Society President Linda Griffin, historian David Tanguay, and Don Wescott of the Presumpscot Regional Land Trust for further historical details.