This past spring I made a stop on Asa’s World Tour of Maine in Oxford, but I didn’t share it. Instead, I had it all planned out that I would use it for the start of the school year in September, since its namesake, Oxford in England, is known for its university. But well, my gamble didn’t pay off, because you know what happened to me at the start of this school year, and my brilliant idea got delayed. But have no fear! I’m sharing it today!
The city in England is home to the University of Oxford, the oldest university in the English-speaking world. Oxford, Maine teaches visitors a different type of life lesson. Its casino can be a good teacher in the school of hard knocks where fortunes can be won or lost with the roll of a dice. Opened slightly later than the University of Oxford, which started holding classes in 1096, the Oxford Casino began operations in 2012.
Settled in 1794, Oxford, Maine was incorporated as an independent town in 1829. Whereas its namesake boasts of “buildings in every style of English architecture since late Anglo-Saxon period,” its counterpart across the pond has its own bragging rights with beautiful architecture ranging from rural farm houses, to an Arts and Crafts style historic library, and its Greek Revival and Gothic Revival Congregational Church, which is on the National Register of Historic Places.
Oxford, England has been an important center of car manufacturing since Morris Motors was established there in 1910. Since 2000 the principal production site for the Mini is in the Oxford suburb of Cowley. Oxford, Maine also has a connection to cars. It is home to the Oxford Plains Speedway, which has been hosting races since the 1950s. Today with 14,000 seats, the speedway has the largest seating capacity of any sporting venue in Maine, and its annual Oxford 250 attracts many top NASCAR drivers.
Now mind you, none of the places I’ve mentioned allow dogs. However there is the Smith Bridge Preserve in Oxford, Maine that offers approximately 5 miles of dog friendly hiking. But it being tick season when we visited back in May, we didn’t venture out to explore it. Instead we had plans to return in late summer when ticks tend to be fewer. So again, that gamble didn’t pay off either and we learned a lesson about procrastination. But if you’d like to learn more about the Smith Bridge Preserve, visit the Western Foothills Land Trust. Hopefully once I’m healed, I’ll be back to explore it too.
