Presumpscot River
Presumpscot River | |
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![]() Presumpscot River at Westbrook in January 2008 | |
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Location | |
Country | United States |
State | Maine |
Region | Cumberland County |
Physical characteristics | |
Source | Sebago Lake |
• coordinates | 43°49′49″N 70°27′18″W / 43.83028°N 70.45500°W[1] |
• elevation | 270 ft (82 m) |
Mouth | Atlantic Ocean |
• coordinates | 43°41′30″N 70°14′43″W / 43.69167°N 70.24528°W[1] |
• elevation | 0 ft (0 m) |
Length | 25.8 mi (41.5 km) |
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The Presumpscot River (/prɪˈzʌmpskət/)[2] is a 25.8-mile-long (41.5 km)[3] river located in Cumberland County, Maine, United States. It is the main outlet of Sebago Lake. The river provided an early transportation corridor with reliable water power for industrial development of the city of Westbrook and the village of South Windham.[4]
Course
The river flows through the communities of
Sources
The Sebago Lake
Little Sebago Lake originally drained westerly into Sebago Lake through Boody Meadow and Outlet Brook. An artificial outlet was constructed through a moraine at the south end of Little Sebago Lake as an early 19th-century water power diversion to the Pleasant River via Ditch Brook. On 4 June 1814, the diversion became enlarged by erosion as the lake level dropped 50 feet (15 m) within a few hours, draining great quantities of water into the Pleasant River. The resulting flood swept away two mills and six bridges along the Pleasant and Presumpscot rivers as far downstream as South Windham.[7] The erosion scar is bridged today by Maine State Route 115 east of North Windham. The level of Little Sebago Lake was partially restored by construction of a dam which failed with similar downstream damage on 7 May 1861, and has been subsequently rebuilt.[8]
Early industrial development
Sawmills were built on the river during the 1660s. The first Maine paper mill was built on the river at Falmouth in 1731 by General Samuel Waldo.[9]
Canal
The river was an early transportation corridor between Casco Bay and Sebago Lake. A series of dams and locks were completed in 1830 to form the Cumberland and Oxford Canal.[10] The canal operated until replaced by the Portland and Ogdensburg Railway in 1870. The canal lock system provided elevation control of the 45-square-mile (117 km2) surface area of Sebago Lake as a reservoir for water-powered mills along the river. The S. D. Warren Paper Mill in Westbrook vied with the Oriental Powder Company in Gorham and Windham to control water flow after the canal ceased operation of the locks. The paper mill exercised control for more than half a century after the gunpowder factory closed in 1905.[11]
Dams
There are seven
Conservation
The Presumpscot River Preserve, a 48-acre nature preserve, is located in North Deering alongside the Presumpscot River. It was purchased and preserved in 2001 by the Land for Maine's Future program as well as the City Land Bank Commission and Portland Trails.[13]
In August 2014, Portland Trails preserved 20 acres of land in the Presumpscot River estuary in Falmouth around Mile Pond.[14]
Notes
- ^ a b U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Presumpscot River
- ^ Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine: "FOPR". YouTube.
- ^ U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline data. The National Map, accessed June 30, 2011
- ^ Barnes, p.13
- ^ a b DeLorme, p.5
- ^ "Presumpscot River Watershed Coalition". Archived from the original on 2016-11-02. Retrieved 2009-11-27.
- ^ Varney, George J. A Gazetteer of the State of Maine (1886) B.B. Russell, Boston
- ^ Smith, Thomas Lauren History - Town of Windham (1873) Hoyt & Fogg, Portland
- ^ "The Northern: The Way I Remember" (PDF). John E. Mcleod. Retrieved 2012-12-19.
- ^ Ward, p.8
- ^ "The Basin Dam War". Roger Wheeler. Archived from the original on 2011-07-26. Retrieved 2010-07-29.
- ^ https://nid.sec.usace.army.mil/#/dams/system/ME00070/summary
- ^ "Presumpscot River Preserve". Retrieved 22 July 2014.
- ^ Miller, Kevin (August 13, 2014). "Portland Trails preserves 20 acres in Falmouth". Portland Press Herald. Retrieved 15 August 2014.
Bibliography
- Barnes, Diane; Barnes, Jack (1996). The Sebago Lake Area. Acadia Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7385-4943-9.
- The Maine Atlas and Gazetteer (Thirteenth ed.). ISBN 0-89933-035-5.
- Jones, Robert C. (1993). Two Feet to the Lakes, The Bridgton & Saco River Railroad. Pacific Fast Mail.
- Moody, Linwood W. (1959). The Maine Two-Footers. Howell-North.
- Meade, Edgar T. Jr. (1968). Busted and Still Running. The Stephen Greene Press.
- Ward, Ernest E. (1967). My First Sixty Years in Harrison, Maine. Cardinal Printing.
External links
- "Presumpscot River". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey, United States Department of the Interior. Retrieved 2009-04-06.
- The promise of the Presumpscot River KeepMEcurrent.com, March 28, 2013