Milo Map
Milo is a town in Piscataquis County, Maine, United States. The population was 2,383 at the 2000 census. The town is center for the Schoodic, Seboois and Sebec lakes region. Milo includes the village of Derby.
The community was first known as Township Number 3 in the seventh range north of the Waldo Patent. It was settled by Benjamin Sargent and his son, Theophilus, from Methuen, Massachusetts on May 2, 1802. On January 21, 1823 it was incorporated as Milo, named after Milo of Croton, a famous athlete from Ancient Greece. It would become a trade center, with Trafton's Falls providing water power for early industry. In 1823, Winborn A. Swett built a dam at the 14-foot (4.3 m) river drop and erected the first sawmill. Thomas White soon added a carding and fulling mill. The Joseph Cushing & Company built a woolen textile mill in 1842, but it burned six years later.
The Bangor and Piscataquis Railroad arrived in 1868-1869, and Milo developed into a small mill town. It produced numerous lumber goods, and in 1879 the Boston Excelsior Company built a factory to manufacture excelsior. The American Thread Company built a factory with a narrow gauge industrial railway in 1901-1902, moving its equipment from Willimantic, Connecticut. Milo Junction, now called Derby, was once the second largest railroad car shop and repair facility in New England. Built to service the Bangor and Aroostook Railroad, the facility developed into a company town with a 40-room hotel and stores. There were 72 identical employee houses arranged in four rows along First and Second Streets. These uniformly-colored structures were sold by the railroad in 1959.
Nearby cities include Howland.