Penobscot River

The Penobscot River watershed

Panorama of the Penobscot River in Millinocket

The Penobscot River is 350 mi (563 km) long, making it the second longest river in the U.S. state of Maine and the longest river entirely in Maine. Its drainage basin contains 8,610 square miles (22,300 km²).

It arises from four branches in several lakes in the central Maine, and flows generally east. After the uniting of the West Branch with the East Branch at Medway, it flows south, past the city of Bangor, where it becomes navigable. It empties into the Atlantic Ocean in Penobscot Bay. It is home to the Penobscot people that live on Indian Island.

The United States government maintains three river flow gages on the Penobscot river. The first is on the East Branch in Grindstone (an unincorporated settlement approximately 10 miles south of Stacyville) (45°43′49″N 68°35′22″W / 45.73028°N 68.58944°W / 45.73028; -68.58944) where the rivershed is 1,086 square miles (2,810 km²). Flow here has ranged from 400 to 1,300 cubic feet per second.^[1] The second is in West Enfield (45°14′12″N 68°38′57″W / 45.23667°N 68.64917°W / 45.23667; -68.64917) where the rivershed is 6,671 square miles (17,280 km²). Flow here has ranged from 4,410 to 9,660 cubic feet per second.^[2] The third is in Eddington (45°14′12″N 68°38′57″W / 45.23667°N 68.64917°W / 45.23667; -68.64917), 0.4 miles (0.64 km) downstream from the Veazie Dam where the rivershed is 7,764 square miles (20,110 km²).^[3]

History

Bucksport Harbor, about 1905

View near Winterport about 1906

The first European known to have explored the river was the Portuguese Estaban Gomez in 1524, followed by the Frenchman Samuel de Champlain in 1605. A few years later French Jesuit priests came among the Penobscot people as missionaries and converted them to Catholicism. The French settlement of Pentagouet, now Castine, was founded at the point where the river becomes Penobscot Bay, and the Penobscot people made a permanent settlement at Indian Old Town, on an island above the head of navigation, around the Catholic mission. Throughout the 16th and half of the 17th centuries, these were likely the only permanent settlements on the river, although the Penobscots considered the entire river and bay their hunting ground and maintained other seasonal villages along its banks.

In 1669, the Mohawk tribe made raids from the west that were very destructive to the Penobscot people. The English settlers in Massachusetts also sent periodic raiding parties to the Penobscot in this period but were not strong enough to wrest the area from French control until the 1750s. In a treaty of 1752, however, Massachusetts laid claim to the entire Penobscot watershed, and in 1759 the Pownall Expedition, led by Governor Thomas Pownall, established Fort Pownall on Cape Jellison in what is now Stockton Springs. This signaled the beginning of English domination, and the incorporation of the Penobscot River valley into New England.

The first permanent English settler on the river was Joshua Treat (1726-1802), who was initially the armorer and translator at Fort Pownall. His oldest son, Joshua Treat, Jr., built a log house and sawmill at Marsh Bay in what is now Frankfort, and other members of their extended family, joined by additional settlers from Massachusetts and New Hampshire, pushed ever further up-river, eventually restricting the Penobscot people to Indian Old Town, the present Penobscot Indian Reservation.

The river and bay were the site of battles in both the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812. In both cases the British navy won, and in 1814 they sacked the town of Bangor. To prevent this from happening a third time, and because the nearby boundary between the United States and British Canada was still contested into the 1840s, the Federal government in 1844 began constructing a huge granite fort, Fort Knox, opposite the town of Bucksport, near the mouth of the river. The fort never fired a shot in anger, but remains one of the Penobscot's major man-made landmarks.

Penobscot Narrows and Fort Knox in 2007

In the 19th century the river was a conduit for the transport of logs from the northern woods, to be sawn into lumber at mills around Old Town and Orono, and transported on ships from Bangor, at the head of tide. (The average high tide at Bangor is 13 feet as of 2009.^[4]) A secondary economic use made of the river late in the century was as a source of sawn ice for urban markets.

In the 20th century, lumbering was largely supplanted by papermaking, in the form of large wood pulp and paper mills located all along the river from Millinocket and East Millinocket in the north, to South Brewer and Bucksport in the south. The development of cheap hydropower also attracted other types of light manufacturing, like textiles and shoes.

In the 21st century, with the sudden decline of the Maine paper industry, and the divestiture of its woodlands, the Penobscot watershed is becoming more and more associated with recreational use (fishing, hunting, boating, and tourism) and less with manufacturing

Angling the Penobscot River

Angling, especially fly fishing has always been popular on the river. The West Branch is known as a world class landlocked salmon river while the East Branch is known for its smallmouth bass fishery^[5]. In 2008, the Atlantic Salmon commission opened the main stem of the river to catch and release fly fishing for Atlantic salmon^[6].

Popular culture

Author Stephen King placed his fictional town of Derry, Maine on the Penobscot. It is also featured in the film adaptation of the Tom Clancy novel,The Hunt for Red October.

See also

• List of Maine rivers
• Waldo-Hancock Bridge
• Penobscot Narrows Bridge
• Fort Knox

External links

• Real-time river flow data at Eddington - height only.
• "The Ancient Penobscot, or Panawanskek." Historical Magazine, February, 1872.
• "Joshua Treat: The Pioneer Settler on Penobscot River." by Joseph Whitcomb Porter, 1889 (pdf)
• USGS River Basin Info
• "The Penobscot River Restoration Project"
• National Weather Service forecast of river levels and flow.

References

1. ^ USGS 01029500 East Branch Penobscot River at Grindstone, Maine. U.S. Geological Survey. 10 October 2009. Accessed 10 October 2009.
2. ^ USGS 01034500 Penobscot River at West Enfield, Maine. U.S. Geological Survey. 10 October 2009. Accessed 10 October 2009.
3. ^ G.J. Stewart, J.P. Nielsen, J.M. Caldwell, A.R. Cloutier (2002). "Water Resources Data - Maine, Water Year 2001" (PDF). Water Resources Data - Maine, Water Year 2001. http://me.water.usgs.gov/Maine01adr.pdf. Retrieved 2006-05-07. ^{[dead link]}
4. ^ "Tidal Station Locations and Ranges". NOAA. http://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/tides09/tab2ec1a.html#3. Retrieved 2009-04-08. 
5. ^ Kreh, Lefty; Middleton, Harry (1993). Lefty's Favorite Fly Fishing Waters-Volume One-United States. Birmingham, Alabama: Odysseus Editions. pp. 13–16. 
6. ^ Rules of the Atlantic Salmon Commission