Casco Bay, Maine
Geography and topography
Casco Bay spans about 229 square miles, with the shore rimming the bay stretching 578 miles. The Presumpscot River is the largest single source of non-saline water emptying directly into Casco Bay, flowing south from its headwaters at Sebago Lake, Maine's second-largest lake. According NOAA's soundings, the bay's deepest point is about 204 feet, southwest of Halfway Rock. Fuller Mountain in Phippsburg along the immediate shoreline has the bay's highest elevation, estimated at 269 feet by the U.S. Geological Survey in 1980, and 277 feet on more recent topographical maps. Chebeague Island has the highest elevation of any Casco Bay island, at 176 feet.
In addition to Portland, Cape Elizabeth, and Phippsburg, municipalities with shorelines fronting Casco Bay include Brunswick, Cumberland, Falmouth, Freeport, Harpswell, South Portland, West Bath, Yarmouth, and the island municipalities of Chebeague Island and Long Island.
In Casco Bay's western reaches, a line of islands west extends from Chebeague to Cushing Island to create protected anchorages for vessels, as the case with narrow peninsulas that jut into the eastern section of Casco Bay. A number of deep-water channels lead into the bay's inner sections, including Cushing Island Reach, Hussey Sound, Luckse Sound, Broad Sound, and Merriconeag Sound.
Casco Bay's shoreline creates a number of smaller bays and tidal embayments, including Harpswell Sound, Maquoit Bay, Middle Bay, New Meadows River, and Quahog Bay.
Casco Bay's topography produces a tidal range of about nine feet on average. Seawater circulates counter-clockwise into Casco Bay via the Gulf of Maine Gyre, which is formed from cold water that passes over the Scotian Shelf off Nova Scotia, then in and out of the Bay of Fundy. Within Casco Bay, currents are stronger between island channels and in smaller bays in the eastern section. In addition to freshwater entering Casco Bay from the Presumpscot River and smaller streams along its length, freshwater that enters Penobscot Bay from the Kennebec River circulates west into Casco Bay.
Name origin
There are multiple theories about the origin of the name "Casco Bay". Aucocisco, the Abenaki name for the bay, means "place of herons", "marshy place", or "place of slimy mud". The explorer Estêvão Gomes mapped Maine's coast in 1525 and named the bay "Bahía de Cascos", translated as "Bay of Helmets", based on its shape.
Colonel Wolfgang William Römer, an English military engineer, reported in 1700 that the bay had "as many islands as there are days in the year", leading to the bay's islands being called the Calendar Islands, based on the popular myth there are 365 of them. The United States Coast Pilot lists 136 islands; former Maine state historian Robert M. York said there are "little more than two hundred".
History
Native American population and arrival of European settlers
At the time of European contact in the 16th century, Abenaki peoples inhabited the region of present-day Casco Bay, including members of the Almouchiquois or Aucocisco group in the vicinity of the Presumpscot River.
Some Casco Bay islands have archaeological evidence of Native American visits and camps extending back 4,000 years, including shell middens and harpoon points.
The first colonial settlement in Casco Bay was that of Captain Christopher Levett, an English explorer, who built a house on House Island in 1623–24. His initial settlement, called Machigonne, failed. The first permanent settlement on the bay was named Casco, which was renamed Falmouth under the governance of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Historic Falmouth was split into two municipalities in 1786, creating Portland.
King Philip's War
Under the Wampanoag chief Metacom in what came to be known as King Philip's War, Native American warriors attacked colonial settlements along the New England coast and inland beginning in June 1675, including in the Casco Bay region. If prodded into action by Metacom's militant contemporaries drumming up support in northern New England, many local tribes followed their own counsel in planning attacks or choosing not to initiate hostilities.
The first attack in the Casco Bay area occurred on September 10, 1675, at a farm north of Falmouth, with Native American warriors killing six people and three more going missing. After another attack at Falmouth in October, heavy snow discourage further action by either side for the rest of the autumn and winter.
Despite concurrent peace talks by tribes to the east, in August 1676 Wabanaki Confederacy warriors raided several farms in Falmouth, killing or capturing 34 people. After colonial militia leader Richard Waldron laid a trap under the ruse of peace talks to capture several Wabanaki warriors who were subsequently executed or enslaved, tribes intensified attacks on settlements throughout Maine, causing most settlers to flee south to safety. After talks failed at Maquoit Bay in February 1677, Waldron again ambushed Native Americans under the ruse of parley.
As Wabanaki peoples got word of colonial authorities reaching out to leaders of the Mohawk people for assistance in Maine, they became more amenable to a truce, though significant attacks continued on Maine coastal settlements west of Casco Bay. Leaders of the Penobscot people signed the Treaty of Casco at Fort Loyal, located in present-day Portland, on April 12, 1678, binding the Wabanaki Confederacy to ending the hostilities of King Philip's War.
King William's War
By degrees over the years following the Treaty of Casco, settlers began returning to Maine, in some instances setting up new farms and homesteads near protective stockades as a fallback option in case of any renewed tensions. In 1700, a stockade that did double duty as a trading post was built in Falmouth east of the Presumpscot River and called New Casco, with two cairns built to commemorate friendship between the Abenaki people and settlers. The Brothers Islands just off present-day Falmouth are thought to have been named for the cairns.
The 1678 treaty did little to address simmering disagreements and discord throughout the region between local tribes and settlers, laying the foundation for a renewal of hostilities in 1688. Historians came to consider the new conflict in Maine part of the larger King William's War, which in turn marked the first installment of an extended proxy war between England and France that came to be known as the French and Indian Wars, with sporadic raids and instances of atrocities on both sides.
In August 1688 in response to an initial English colonial raid of Penobscot Bay settlements, French officer Jean-Vincent d'Abbadie de Saint-Castin led counter raids by Acadian militia and Wabanaki Confederacy warriors, including at Yarmouth. In September 1689, English colonial officer Benjamin Church arrived in Falmouth to defend settlers there, fending off a Wabanaki attack.
Louis de Buade de Frontenac, the Governor General of New France, launched a campaign to drive the English from the settlements east of Falmouth, Maine. On May 16, 1690, the fortified settlement on Casco Bay was attacked by a war party of 50 French-Canadian soldiers led by Castin, about 50 Abenaki warriors from Canada, a contingent of French militia led by Joseph-François Hertel de la Fresnière, and 300 to 400 additional natives from Maine, including some Penobscots under the leadership of Madockawando. Fort Loyal was attacked at the same time. About 75 men in the Casco settlement fought for four days before surrendering on May 20, on condition of safe passage. Instead, most of the men, including John Swarton, were killed, and the surviving settlers were taken captive, including Hannah Swarton and her children. Swarton was ransomed in 1695 and her story published by Cotton Mather.
Church returned to Casco Bay in September 1690 with a contingent of about 300 volunteer militia and indigenous warriors, launching attacks up the Androscoggin River and overseeing the brutal killings of Native Americans who had been left behind in a village, then pulling back to Cape Elizabeth. There, Church's force beat off a Wabanaki attack in what was the last significant clash of King William's War on Casco Bay.
Queen Anne's War and Dummer's War
An uneasy armistice did not hold in North America or Europe, with what many historians classify as the second phase of the French and Indian Wars breaking out in 1701 called Queen Anne's War, and in 1722 the regional conflict in Maine and Acadia called Dummer's War, named for William Dummer, lieutenant governor of the Province of Massachusetts Bay.
In Falmouth on June 20, 1703, Massachusetts Governor Joseph Dudley sought assurances from local Wabanaki chiefs that they would not initiate hostilities against English colonial settlers. The pact would come to be known as the Treaty of Casco of 1703, which recognized the Kennebec River as the dividing line between New England and Acadia and New France to the east.
Fort George, situated on the Androscoggin River west of the Kennebec and about five miles north of Middle Bay, saw multiple fights during Queen Anne's War. There was little fighting on Casco Bay, with one man killed in a Native American raid in May 1724 at Cape Elizabeth.
After initial treaties in December 1725 and 1726, a larger ratification conference was held in August 1727 that came to be called the Treaty of Casco Bay, binding the two sides to terms for peace.
King George's War
In the run-up to the outbreak of King George's War in 1744, French privateers were operating from Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia against New England fishing boats.
Under the leadership of Kittery shipping owner William Pepperrell, Massachusetts and other English colonies mustered a military expedition against the Fortress of Louisbourg on Cape Breton. Pepperrell's fleet commodore was Falmouth native Edward Tyng, who directed the siege and supporting operations from his flagship frigate Massachusetts.
War of 1812
Casco Bay is also home to abandoned military fortifications dating from the War of 1812 through World War II; during World War II, Casco Bay served as an anchorage for US Navy ships.
Civil War
Fort Gorges, on Hog Island Ledge in the middle of Portland Harbor, dates to the American Civil War.
World War II
Since Casco Bay was the nearest American anchorage to the Atlantic Lend-Lease convoy routes to Britain until the U.S. entered World War II, Admiral King ordered a large pool of destroyers to be stationed there for convoy escort duty in August 1941.
New England Shipbuilding Corporation in South Portland was one of 18 major shipyards that received contracts to build Liberty-class cargo and transport ships for transatlantic duty.
The State Historic Site of Eagle Island was the summer home of Arctic explorer Robert Peary.
In popular culture
- The Whales of August, one of Bette Davis's last films, was shot here in 1987.
- In 2008, composers Peter J. McLaughlin and Akiva G. Zamcheck wrote a piece in four movements paying homage to the wreck of the Don, lost near Ragged Island on June 29, 1941. The piece received critical acclaim from the Portland Press Herald and from fellow Maine composers.
Marine economy
Portland has a substantial fleet of deep-sea fishing vessels that offload their catch primarily at the Portland Fish Exchange. Numerous towns and islands serve as ports for lobster boats. Recreational fishing boats can also be chartered.
Marinas include:
- Chebeague Island Boat Yard on Great Chebeague Island;
- Diamond Marine Service Inc. on Great Diamond Island;
- Dolphin Marina and Great Island Boat Yard in Harpswell;
- Handy Boat Service Inc. in Falmouth;
- DiMillo's Old Port Marina, Maine Yacht Center and Portland Yacht Services in Portland;
- Paul's Marina on Mere Point in Brunswick;
- Peaks Island Marina on Peaks Island;
- Port Harbor Marina, South Port Marine, Spring Point Marina and Sunset Marina in South Portland;
- Brewer's and Strouts Point Wharf Co. in South Freeport;
- Royal River Boat Yard, Yankee Marina and Boatyard, and Yarmouth Boat Yard in Yarmouth Harbor.
During the 1980s and 1990s, Bath Iron Works operated a dry dock in Portland Harbor to repair U.S. Navy vessels.
Ecology
Predominant fish in the bay include mackerel, striped bass, and bluefish. Shellfish include lobsters, crabs, mussels, clams, and snails. Harbor seals congregate on certain exposed ledges, and whales on occasion swim into the bay, and in a few instances into Portland Harbor. Seagulls, cormorants and varying species of duck are the most common birds; more rarely osprey, eagles and herons have been sighted. Casco Bay contains bay mud bottoms and banks in some locations, providing important substrates for biota.
Transportation
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The bay's major islands are served by the Casco Bay Lines ferry service at the Maine State Pier in Portland. Peaks Island is served by a car ferry and sees 16 ferries a day during the summer. The other islands see fewer ferries and no car transport. Great and Little Diamond islands and Long Island are primarily served by the Diamond Pass run, which is popular with tourists in the summer. Other services Casco Bay Lines offers include a daily mailboat run, a cruise to Bailey Island, and a sunset run.
Other services such as water taxis are popular alternatives to ferries, but are limited to six passengers per boat.
Notable cities and towns
From south to north:
- Cape Elizabeth
- South Portland
- Portland
- Falmouth
- Cumberland
- Yarmouth
- Freeport
- Brunswick
- Harpswell
- West Bath
- Phippsburg
Islands
Major islands
Minor islands
- Bangs Island
- Basket Island
- Barnes Island
- Bartol Island
- Basin Island
- Bates Island
- Bear Island
- Ben Island
- Big Hen Island
- Birch Island
- Bombazine Island
- Bowman Island
- Bragdon Island
- Burnt Coat Island
- Bush Island
- Center Island
- Clapboard Island
- College Island
- Coombs Islands
- Cow Island
- Crab Island
- Crow Island
- Dingley Island
- Eagle Island
- East Brown Cow Island
- Elm Islands
- French Island
- Frye Island
- George Island
- Gooseberry Island
- Goose Nest Island
- Great Mark Island
- Halfway Rock
- Harbor Island
- Haskell Island
- Hog Island
- Hope Island
- Horse Island
- Home Island
- House Island
- Inner Green Island
- Irony Island
- Jacquish Island
- Jenny Island
- Jewell Island
- Junk of Pork
- Lanes Island
- Little Bustins Island
- Little Chebeague Island
- Little Birch Island
- Little Diamond Island
- Little French Island
- Littlejohn Island
- Little Mark Island
- Little Moshier Island
- Little Snow Island
- Little Whaleboat Island
- Little Wood Island
- Lower Goose Island
- Malaga Island
- Mark Island
- Ministerial Island
- Moshier Island
- Mouse Island
- Outer Green Island
- Overset Island
- Pettingill Island
- Pinkham Island
- Pole Island
- Pound of Tea
- Pumpkin Nob
- Ragged Island
- Ram Island
- Raspberry Island
- Rogue Island
- Sand Island
- Scrag Island
- Sheep Island
- Shelter Island
- Snow Island
- Stave Island (home to Survivor: Gabon winner Bob Crowley)
- Stockman Island
- Sister Island
- Sow and Pigs
- Sturdivant Island
- Turnip Island
- Two Bush Island
- Upper Flag Island
- Upper Goose Island
- Upper Green Island
- The Brothers
- The Goslings
- The Nubbin
- Vail Island
- Whaleboat Island
- White Island
- White Bull Island
- Williams Island
- Wood Island
- Yarmouth Island
Lighthouses
Casco Bay is home to 6 lighthouses:
- Cape Elizabeth Lights
- Portland Head Light
- Ram Island Ledge Light
- Spring Point Ledge Light
- Portland Breakwater (Bug) Light
- Halfway Rock Light
Forts
Forts in Casco Bay:
Fort | Constructed |
Location |
---|---|---|
Fort Gorges | 1865 | Hog Island Ledge, Portland, ME |
Fort Levett | 1898 | Cushing Island, Portland, ME |
Fort Lyon | 1909 | Cow Island, Portland, ME |
Fort McKinley | 1907 | Great Diamond Island, Portland, ME |
Fort Preble | 1808 | Southern Maine Community College/Spring Point Ledge Light, South Portland, ME |
Fort Scammel | 1808 | House Island, Portland, ME |
Fort Williams | 1872 | Fort Williams Park, Cape Elizabeth, ME |
Battery Steele | 1942 | Peaks Island, Portland, ME |
Newspapers
This section may need to be rewritten to comply with Wikipedia's quality standards. (November 2021) |
The newspaper for Portland, the largest city in Casco Bay, is the Portland Press Herald (Maine Sunday Telegram on Sundays). The Island Institute publishes The Working Waterfront, a free monthly newspaper reporting "the news of Maine's coast and islands". For Southern Maine news, obituaries and sports, The Forecaster is published weekly. In the early 20th century, the Casco Bay Breeze published news of the islands from 1901 to 1917. Digitized copies of it from 1903 to 1917 appear for free on the Library of Congress website "Chronicling America".
See also
- List of islands of Maine
- Casco, Wisconsin, named after Casco Bay
References
- Caldwell, Bill (1982). The Islands of Casco Bay.
- Bibliography of Casco Bay
- ^ "NOAA Chart - 13290" (PDF). NOAA. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Retrieved 7 September 2024.
- ^ "Where is Casco Bay?". Cascobay.org. Friends of Casco Bay. Retrieved 8 September 2024.
- ^ "Current Conditions for Maine: Streamflow". National Water Information System. U.S. Geological Survey. Retrieved 8 September 2024.
- ^ "Sebago/Upper Presumpscot". Upper Watershed. Casco Bay Estuary Partnership. Retrieved 8 September 2024.
- ^ "LoJ Lists of Peaks". listsofjohn.com. Lists of John. Retrieved 8 September 2024.
- ^ "Great Chebeague Island High Point, Maine". Peakbagger.com. Peakbagger. Retrieved 8 September 2024.
- ^ "History of the Town of Cumberland" (PDF). Cumberland Maine. Town of Cumberland, Maine. Retrieved 8 September 2024.
- ^ Bohlen, Curtis; Craig, Matthew; Gerber, Caitlin; Stelk, Marla. "Sea Level Rise and Casco Bay's Wetlands: A Look at the Potential Impacts" (PDF). Casco Bay Estuary Partnership. Casco Bay Estuary Partnership. Retrieved 8 September 2024.
- ^ "Port Access Routes: Approaches to Portland, ME and Casco Bay". Federal Register. U.S. Government Printing Office. Retrieved 8 September 2024.
- ^ Sinnett, Gregory H. (2012). Circulation and Transport in Casco Bay, Maine (Thesis). The University of Maine.
- ^ United States Coastal Pilot (PDF). Silver Spring, Maryland: Office of Coastal Survey. September 1, 2024. p. 273. Retrieved 8 September 2024.
- ^ "Eastern Bay". Watersheds of Casco Bay. Casco Bay Estuary Partnership. Retrieved 8 September 2024.
- ^ "The Gulf of Main in Context" (PDF). Gulf of Maine Council on the Marine Environment. Gulf of Maine Council on the Marine Environment. Retrieved 9 September 2024.
- ^ "Understanding Casco Bay: A Circulation Study" (PDF). Casco Bay Estuary Project. Casco Bay Estuary Project. Retrieved 8 September 2024.
- ^ "What's in a name?". Friends of Casco Bay. Friends of Casco Bay. Retrieved 7 September 2024.
- ^ The Islands of Casco Bay, p. 3
- ^ "Robert York '37". abacus.bates.edu.
- ^ "About Falmouth - The Almouchiquois". About Falmouth - The Almouchiquois. The Falmouth Historical Society. Retrieved 17 August 2024.
- ^ "About the Bay". Casco Bay. Casco Bay Estuary Partnership. Retrieved 8 September 2024.
- ^ "Timeline". A Timeline of Harpswell HIstory. Harpswell Historical Society. Retrieved 7 September 2024.
- ^ James Phinney Baxter (1893). Christopher Levett, of York: The Pioneer Colonist in Casco Bay. The Gorges Society.
casco bay christopher levett.
- ^ "About Falmouth - Colonial Origins". The Falmouth Historical Society. The Falmouth Historical Society. Retrieved 7 September 2024.
- ^ Bilodeau, Christopher J. "Creating an Indian Enemy in the Borderlands: King Philip's War in Maine, 1675-1678". DigitalCommons@UMaine. University of Maine. Retrieved 9 September 2024.
- ^ "1668-1774 - Settlement & Strife". Maine History Online. Maine Memory Network. Retrieved 10 September 2024.
- ^ ""A World on the Edge": From the Almouchiquois to New Casco". About Falmouth - Colonial Origins. The Falmouth HIstorical Society. Retrieved 10 September 2024.
- ^ Bottino, Daniel Robert. "Colonizing the landscape: memory, ritual, and perceptions of place in seventeenth-century Maine". Rutgers University Libraries. Rutgers University. Retrieved 10 September 2024.
- ^ "The Phips Expedition Of 1690". New England Historical Society. New England Historical Society. Retrieved 10 September 2024.
- ^ Manross, Brooke Ann. "Freedom of Commerce: The History and Archaeology of Trade at St. Castin's Habitation 1670-1701" (PDF). DigitalCommons@Maine. The University of Maine. Retrieved 10 September 2024.
- ^ Maine History Online: "1668-1774, Settle and Strife," Maine Historical Society
- ^ Coleman, Emma Lewis. New England captives carried to Canada between 1677 and 1760, during the French and Indian wars. Portland, Maine: The Southworth Press, 1925.
- ^ "Beginner's Guide to the French and Indian Wars, All Six of Them". New England Historical Society. New England Historical Society. Retrieved 10 September 2024.
- ^ "1745 — King George's War". The Society of Colonial Wars in the State of Connecticut. The Society of Colonial Wars in the State of Connecticut. Retrieved 11 September 2024.
- ^ "New England Vessels in the Expedition against Louisbourg". Acadian & French Canadian Ancestral Home. Acadian & French Canadian Ancestral Home. Retrieved 11 September 2024.
- ^ "World War II left a big footprint on Casco Bay islands". Island Journal. 2020-07-17. Retrieved 2022-05-16.
- ^ Heinrichs, Waldo (1988). Threshold of War: Franklin D. Roosevelt & American Entry into WWII. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 165. ISBN 0195061683.
- ^ "New England Shipbuilding". www.ShipbuildingHistory.com. Shipbuilding History. Retrieved 7 September 2024.
- ^ "Casco Bay Films: About Casco Bay". cascobayfilms.blogspot.com.
- ^ "Casco Bay - Not for Navigational Use!!!". Archived from the original on 2009-12-19. Retrieved 2010-08-09.
- ^ "Chronicling America | Library of Congress".
- ^ Kewaunee Communities 2025 by Jeffrey Sanders of OMNNI Associates, Inc., Chapter 1: Introduction, page 1 (page 4 of the pdf) (Archived May 14, 2022)
External links
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