BIDDEFORD — “I tell tales. That’s what I do,” longtime Biddeford resident and former Pepperell Mill worker George “Pete” Lamontagne said with a smile Thursday morning.

Standing in the space between Portland Pie Company and The Yard, at 40 Main St., Lamontagne was minutes away from giving his first tour of the year through some of the mill buildings that pepper the banks of the Saco River. In all, the mill complex covers 11 acres and includes 1 million square feet of building space.

“I know every nook and cranny in the mill, and I still get lost sometimes,” Lamontagne told a group of seven, before leading them on the two-hour walking tour through rooms that stretch longer than a football field, dark and narrow stairwells, and even underground to see the canals “where it all began.”

Irish immigrants dug out the canal system, which is still intact and now referred to as “the lagoon,” in the 1830s, explained historian Don Guillerault, who led the tour alongside Lamontagne, while Italian and Greek immigrants built the canals’ arches out of locally sourced granite. The canal system funneled the roaring waters of the Saco River underground, he said, and was used to power the mill’s machinery in the days before electricity.

The first mill buildings were constructed on top of the canals in the 1840s, said Guillerault, and for decades they churned out high-quality fabrics that were shipped as far away as China. Working conditions could be harsh in the mill, he said, with room temperatures climbing to 115 degrees in some areas. Many of the workers were injured on the job, he said, and some even died.

One of the several stories Lamontagne told tour participants Thursday was of his grandmother dying in 1928, after she was struck in the head by a leather belt that snapped off of one of the mill’s weaving machines. It was her first day on the job, he said, and she had only intended to work in the mill until she earned enough money to travel to Canada to visit her relatives.

During the tour, Lamontagne also shared some of the “dinner-table stories” his father used to tell him about working in the mill.

“That’s all we knew, was textile,” he said. “Like most folks in the area, we all worked in textile.”

Lamontagne, whose grandfather also worked in the mill, spent 38 years working there himself, until it closed in 2009. Guillerault spent 43 years working in the mill. Both worked for West Point Homes, which produced the once-popular, foam-based Vellux blanket that Francis Spencer invented in 1966.

The mill’s rich history aside, Thursday’s tour also highlighted its future, as Lamontagne and Guillerault led the group through the halls of the business- and housing-saturated North Dam Mill and, standing on the newly constructed Saco River pedestrian bridge, pointed out several buildings that will soon become apartment complexes.

“New life is coming in,” said Guillerault.

The tours, which are hosted by the Biddeford Mills Museum, started three years ago.

There were no tours last year, however, because the city’s Codes Department deemed certain areas, such as the steps leading to the canal system, unsafe for crowds of people, said Guillerault. Fortunately, he said, carpenters who work in the mill recently built a new staircase and a wider platform underground so that tours through the lagoon could resume.

This year, tours will run from 10 a.m. to about noon every Thursday and Saturday ”“ except for Saturday, July 4 ”“ through Oct. 10. A $10 donation per person is required to take the tour; although the cost for those who are 62 and older is $8, and anyone under 18 is $3. Reservations are required and should be made by calling Heart of Biddeford at 284-8520 prior to 2 p.m. on the day before the tour.

Although the proceeds go toward the museum, which plans to use the funds to expand, Lamontagne and Guillerault said for them, leading the tour is about much more than raising money.

“This is where our heart is,” said Lamontagne. “This is what we like to do.”

“This was our home for a long time,” added Guillerault.

Larry Hutchins, of Lyman, was one of the seven men and women who went on the tour Thursday, and afterwards, he said he believes everybody should experience it as a way of educating themselves on the mills, which “built the area.”

“I thought it was fantastic,” said Hutchins. “It was very good, very informative. I thoroughly enjoyed it.”

— Staff Writer Angelo J. Verzoni can be contacted at 282-1535, ext. 329 or averzoni@journaltribune.com.