In Bowdoin, Maine there is a piece of property that sits between two branches of the Cathance River. The path of the river is very indirect, winding back and forth and over and down, over rapids, down some falls, through a mill, through two other towns, and finally into the Merrymeeting Bay at Bowdoinham. The name comes from a native word that meant “twisted”, which is very descriptive.

When I started working for FHC, Inc. they were in Bowdoinham, right on the Cathance at one of it’s wider spots. They had recently purchased the school property in Bowdoin and were making plans to move their operations there over the next couple of years. Part of my job was to versee the renovation of the old school and to work with vendors and contractors as the project went forward. I felt that the site needed some name other than “the old school”, so I looked around to see if any other place names in the area were already using Cathance. There were none, except a trailer park in another town, so I dubbed the place “The Cathance Center”, and the name stuck.

Almost immediately, I reserved the domain name for CathanceCenter.com and put up a template page that said what the site was for and added a link to the company web site. I had envisioned that the company would take over the web site and use it to inform the local community about what was happening at the site, which included the building of a fitness center and plans for a bank branch and child care. I also grabbed cathance.com and cathancefitness.com so that they would be available to us.

The company never really did anything with the web sites and I finally got them to take over two of the domains. I kept cathance.com because they did not need it. I keep thinking I might do a little informational site about the river and link to local interests, but it is not a priority.