For decades, big business and environmentalists have battled over access to America’s rivers. Now that  dams are being torn down in record numbers, we went back to the one that started it all for some clues about what happens next.

Driving on the eastern bank of the Kennebec River, past several “No Trespassing” signs and across a set of railroad tracks, I turn onto a narrow access road pocked with potholes. It cuts in front of…

For decades, big business and environmentalists have battled over access to America’s rivers. Now that  dams are being torn down in record numbers, we went back to the one that started it all for some clues about what happens next.

Driving on the eastern bank of the Kennebec River, past several “No Trespassing” signs and across a set of railroad tracks, I turn onto a narrow access road pocked with potholes. It cuts in front of…