The Skowhegan Island was, and still is, one of the most important and interesting parts of Skowhegan, Maine. In fact, the island is the only part of Skowhegan that was always called Skowhegan. The surrounding areas, now known as Skowhegan, were called Bloomfield, Millburn. Thousands of years ago, the Native Americans (who lived near what would eventually be our town) called the island "Skouhegan", which roughly translated to "a place to watch." They watched the fish jumping up the falls on either side of the island.

The church on our island was one of two churches on the island. It was built in 1852 as Congregational Church. Is is now the Federated Church. The other church was a Methodist church and was located about the same place of current day Prism music, right beside the firestation. It was built in 1858. The Methodist church is now on the Doctor Mann Road. The fire station is another interesting part of the island, being the only town fire station in the United states to be located on a island in a river. Once there was no town of Skowhegan, only Millburn and Bloomfield, therefore this strange location came to be. The firestation had to be used by both towns, so it was put on a central location, the island.

The island was also the big location for businesses. This was because of the water power needed to run the buildings. A problem for most early businesses was that there were no bridges until 1809. People had to take boats across the river to the island to get to work, and to transport goods.

One of the major companies located on the island was a wool making factory that went out of business, much like many other American wool businesses at the end of WWII. At the end of the war, America imported most of it's wool from Europe where it was being spun much more efficiently and cost less.

The walking bridge that leads to the island has quite a history, like most of the island. It was created when a man bought a large farm, using all the land for housing lot's. He had the walking bridge built to make more people buy homes. The bridge was built around 1883. Unfortunately, the cables for the bridge were faulty, with steel on the outside and string on the inside. The bridge collapsed in 1888 but was rebuilt, only to be washed away in 1901. Yet another bridge was built, and sadly, that one collapsed too, in 1936. The current walking bridge is the fourth walking bridge built on that location. The fourth walking bridge stayed strong even through the flood of 1987.

The flood of 1987 was a horrible flood where the water went over the two dams and over the bridges too. Sadly, the firestation was unusable because of this. For, if you remember, it is located on the island.