Solon, Maine

Solon is a town in Somerset County, Maine, United States.

At a rock ledge over the Kennebec River at Embden, 3 miles from the centre of Solon, there are Native American carvings dating to between 900-1400 CE.

Originally called T1 R2 EKR, the plantation was known as Spauldingtown, after Thomas Spaulding, a grantee.

The surface of the town is uneven, the underlying rock is slate, but the sandy and occasionally gravelly loam produced good crops of hay and grain.

Solon village was established at Fall Brook, its water power used to operate mills.

By 1859, when the population was 1,419, there were two sawmills, a gristmill, a shovel handle factory, two fulling and two carding machines, and two blacksmiths.

The byway follows the Kennebec River valley through various villages and into the forests near the Canada–US border.

It borders the towns of Bingham and Brighton Plantation to the north, Athens to the east, Cornville and Madison to the south, and Embden to the west.

The racial makeup of the town was 98.83% White, 0.43% Black, 0.21% Native American, 0.11% Asian, and 0.43% from two or more races.

Caratunk Falls in 1909
The New Caratunk in 1907
Somerset County map