Torsey Pond was originally called Bean Mill Pond and then Greeley Pond. It began to acquire the general outline of its present configuration in 1770 when James Craig constructed a dam at the present dam site and began operating a sawmill there. The foundation of this original sawmill is still visible just across the Old Kents Hill road from the existing dam. When Dr. Henry P. Torsey, an ardent fisherman and the Headmaster at Kents Hill School in Readfield for thirty-eight years, died in 1892, the name of Greeley Pond was changed in his honor to Torsey Pond.

Torsey Pond is irregular in size and shape, extending roughly from north to south (from the inlet at Tingley Brook to the outlet at the dam on Old Kents Hill Road) a distance of approximately 3 and 1/2 miles. At its widest point, the pond is almost a mile wide. It has two narrows included as part of its major expanse that are about one-quarter of a mile wide each. The narrow inlet and outlet stretches of the pond are not usually greater than 100-200 yards in width. The entire water area of the pond covers an area of 770 acres. At its deepest point, Torsey Pond is 45 feet deep. Near the shoreline and in the inlet and outlet stretches, the depth can be as little as three feet.

The pond is a combination of an original natural pond (largely seen today as the wide portions of the pond) and a man-made pond. The man-made area includes the inlet and outlet stretches and the shallow, almost marsh like, portions of the pond. The stumps and residue of the trees formerly standing on dry or marshy land can still be clearly observed beneath the surface. These are to be avoided by watercraft and especially by water skiers.