McKeen's Riverside Retreat

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McKeen's Riverside Retreat Year round camp right on the bank of Kennebec River, next to Swan Island & near Merrymeeting Bay Augusta is half an hour north. Meals are not included.

Inside there are beds for 8 plus a sleep sofa for 2, kitchen, dining table, bathroom with shower, sitting area, pellet stove, WiFi, Blu ray player, and a large covered porch. Outside there's a fire ring, picnic table, gas grill, a big lawn with lots of shade and a swing set, space for tents, and canoes and kayaks. It's nice & quiet on a dead-end gravel road. 1 mile away is Richmond with restaurants, pub, gas, stores, laundry and ice cream. A new public boat ramp is only 1/4 mile away on our road for use at any tide level but the boat launch on Richmond is best. You get the peace & quiet of going 'upta camp' without the long drive or the bugs. No septic hookup for your camper or RV. Our home is next door.

Swan Island
10/20/2026

Swan Island

09/24/2026

Before refrigerators existed, Maine kept much of America's food cold, and the business of cutting frozen river water into giant blocks once rivaled the state's timber industry in scale.

Every winter along the Kennebec River, crews would score the frozen surface into massive grids and cut it into blocks weighing hundreds of pounds apiece using long ice saws and horse-drawn plows, a process called ice harvesting. The blocks were hauled by horse teams into enormous wooden ice houses lining the riverbanks, some capable of storing well over 50,000 tons at once, insulated with sawdust to keep the ice frozen through summer. From there it was loaded onto ships bound for Boston, New York, and even as far as the Caribbean and South America, where New England's natural ice cooled everything from household iceboxes to shipments of fresh fish and meat.

At its peak in the late 1800s, the Kennebec ice trade employed thousands of seasonal workers and made towns like Hallowell, Gardiner, and Richmond genuinely important players in a national and international market. It was dangerous, physical work done in brutal cold, and it disappeared almost entirely within a generation once mechanical refrigeration became affordable, leaving the river's ice houses to rot and eventually vanish from towns that had once organized their whole winter economy around them.

It's strange to think an entire industry once depended on Maine winters being cold enough, on schedule, every single year ❄️. Can you think of another industry that vanished that completely once new technology made it obsolete?

Last weekend!
09/21/2026

Last weekend!

Peaceful by the Kennebec
09/16/2026

Peaceful by the Kennebec

Today’s view!
08/27/2026

Today’s view!

What are the chances of meeting our current guests somewhere in Maine other than within 10 miles of home? Astronomical…a...
08/08/2026

What are the chances of meeting our current guests somewhere in Maine other than within 10 miles of home? Astronomical…and yet we did. At a little yard sale in Edgecomb! Crazy!

August 14-23 has just opened up here at McKeen’s Riverside Retreat. Rare opportunity in August!
07/29/2026

August 14-23 has just opened up here at McKeen’s Riverside Retreat. Rare opportunity in August!

Our view today
06/23/2026

Our view today

We have some July weeknights still open! Grab ‘em while you can! It’s Mon, Tues, Wed nights.
06/15/2026

We have some July weeknights still open! Grab ‘em while you can! It’s Mon, Tues, Wed nights.

It’s here
05/17/2026

It’s here

Address

63 Lincoln Road
West Dresden, ME
04342

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