About Clifton
Quick Facts
- Incorporated: 1848
- County: Penobscot
- Area: about 36 square miles
- Population: about 1,100
- Town Office: 135 Airline Road
- School district: SAD 63
- Fire and EMS: Eddington Fire Department
Community
Clifton shares services and organizations with its neighbors. The Clifton Community Food Bank, which meets at the Clifton Baptist Church, welcomes anyone who needs food. The Holbrook Regional Recreation Committee runs youth basketball and baseball for Clifton, Dedham, Eddington, and Holden. The Eddington-Clifton Civic Center at Comins Hall in Eddington is a shared gathering space that Clifton has supported for more than forty years.
Outdoor Recreation
Clifton’s hills, ponds, and woods offer outdoor recreation in every season. Hunting, fishing, and ATV riding are popular, and the town also has hiking, rock climbing, and boating.
- Hiking: the Peaked Mountains (Chick Hill), Parks Pond Bluff, and Black Cap Mountain, which straddles the Clifton–Eddington town line.
- Climbing: Eagle Bluff, a conservation area of more than 160 acres with more than 130 routes, owned and cared for by the Clifton Climbers Alliance.
- Snowmobiling: the Clifton Area Snowmobile Club works on the town’s trail development and safety.
- Ponds: Parks Pond, Chemo Pond (shared with Bradley and Eddington), Fitts Pond, and Little Burnt Pond. Parks Pond, Chemo Pond, and Little Burnt Pond have public boat landings.
- Camp Roosevelt: a Boy Scout camp on Fitts Pond since 1921. Its mailing address says Eddington, but its land and buildings are in Clifton.
A Brief History
The land that became Clifton was once part of Jarvis Gore, named for Leonard and Philip Jarvis, who bought large tracts here in the late 1700s. Settlers began clearing farms in the early 1800s. By 1837 about 138 people lived here, making their living mostly from farming and lumber.
Around 1840, neighbors informally called the settlement Hillsboro. When it was incorporated in 1848 it was given the name Maine, which residents disliked. In June 1849 the name was changed to Clifton, for the cliffs and ledges of the town’s hills.
Two of the town’s historic buildings still stand side by side. Cliffwood Hall was built by local residents in 1892 and served as the Town Hall from 1899 until 1999. Next to it is the Harold Allan Schoolhouse, built in 1863. It is the only one of the town’s five original one-room schools still standing, and it was moved beside the hall in 1912. Both buildings were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2008. The Clifton Historical Society cares for them and operates them as a museum.
In 1999 the town moved into its current Town Office at 135 Airline Road, and Cliffwood Hall and the schoolhouse passed to the Historical Society. The Society holds summer open houses with guest speakers and invites visitors to the museum grounds.
