about 1906
Norumbega From a sketch he made of what he called the "Riviere de Norenbegue" the river has been identified as the Penobscot though the matter was hotly contested by some nineteenth century antiquarians, who argued that the name should be identified with their own river or region.
Navigation The Penobscot River was an early trade corridor to interior Maine from the Atlantic coast. Ocean ships could navigate upstream to
Bangor. The cities of
Rockland,
Belfast,
Brewer and Bangor, and the towns of
Rockport,
Camden,
Northport,
Searsport,
Stockton Springs,
Castine,
Bucksport,
Frankfort,
Winterport,
Orrington, and
Hampden developed adjacent to the Penobscot River
estuary. The river upstream of Bangor became an important transportation corridor for
log driving to bring
wooden logs and
pulpwood from interior
forests to
sawmills and
paper mills built to use
water power where the city of
Howland and the towns of
Veazie,
Orono,
Old Town,
Milford,
Passadumkeag,
West Enfield,
Lincoln,
Winn,
Mattawamkeag,
Medway, and
Millinocket developed.
European colony The first European known to have explored the river in 1524 was
Estêvão Gomes, a
Portuguese navigator who sailed in the service of
Spain in the 1520s. The Spaniards, led by Gomez, were the first Europeans to make landfall in what is now Maine, 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, Maine on an island above the
head of navigation, around the Catholic mission. Throughout the first 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 made several raids from the west that were very destructive to the Penobscot people. During
Father Rale's War,
New England settlers from
Massachusetts also sent periodic raiding parties to the Penobscot, destroying the primary native village in 1723. 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 end of French influence over the Penobscot, and the incorporation of the Penobscot River valley into
New England. , Maine in 2007
British colony The first permanent settler from
British North America 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 Island (
Old Town, Maine), the present Penobscot Indian Reservation.
American Revolution and modern history During the
American Revolutionary War, the river and bay were the site of the disastrous 1779
Penobscot Expedition, where an entire American fleet was destroyed in a botched attempt to retake Maine from the British. During the
War of 1812, the British again invaded Maine and defeated an American force at the
Battle of Hampden, sacking the town of
Bangor in the process. 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. In the 19th century the river was a conduit for the transport of
logs from Maine's
Great North Woods, to be sawed 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 as of 2009.) A secondary economic use made of the river late in the century was as a source of
sawed ice for urban markets. In 1931 the
Waldo-Hancock Bridge was opened to carry
US Route 1 across the river at the Penobscot Narrows between Prospect, in
Waldo County, and Verona Island just below Bucksport. During 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. Wood pulp and paper mills create
dioxins as a byproduct of the
chlorine bleaching process in making paper. This substance was discharged from seven mills located close to the Tribal community of Penobscot people, along the Penobscot river. Dioxins, which are highly potent toxic chemicals that may cause cancer and other health problems, were being poured daily into this adjacent river, the Penobscot.
Rebecca Sockbeson, a Penobscot, is quoted saying that her people have survived on fish from this river, but "now we are dying from it." She continued on to say that "neither dioxin nor cancer is indigenous to the Penobscot people, however they are both pervasive in my tribal community." The health and survival of the Penobscot people is further threatened by the impact that
persistent organic pollutants (POPs) have on reproduction and the health of their children. The 2015 collaborative report, The Penobscot River and Environmental Contaminants: Assessment of Tribal Exposure Through Sustenance Lifeways, confirms through a four-year quantitative study that these unequal burdens and harmful level of toxins are very real threats and realities faced by the community's indigenous people. Sockbeson concludes that a treaty is required to ensure that "the breast and spoon we feed our babies with is not filled with cancer, diabetes, learning disabilities, and attention deficit [disorder]." HoltraChem was responsible for producing many of the chemicals used in papermaking, such as chlorine and mercury. HoltraChem was the company behind 11 massive chemical spills into the Penobscot River in only 12 months, from 1998 to 1999. Because the Penobscot Tribe is a river based tribe, their culture is directly tied to the River which has become polluted. Through hunting, trapping, fishing, and many other traditional practices, the culture is sustained. Without the continuation of these activities, their culture will begin to become lost. Due to the pollution of the Penobscot river, the waterways, plants, and environment which the nation relies on for their way of life have become contaminated. The Penobscot Nation dates back to more than 9,500 years, Pollution has been gathering in the Penobscot River for at least 150 years, making the consumption of various fish toxic to those who eat them, such as members of the Penobscot nation. In 1987, recommendations for limited fish consumption were given to the Penobscot Nation. It is recommended that members of the Penobscot Nation eat no more than a single serving of fish from the Penobscot River each month. The development of cheap
hydropower also attracted other types of light manufacturing, like
textiles and
shoes.
21st century In the 21st century, with the continuing decline of the Maine paper industry, and the divestiture of its woodlands, the Penobscot watershed has become more and more associated with recreational use (fishing, hunting, boating, and tourism) and less with manufacturing. In 2001, the Old Town Paper Mill won a case against the Penobscot Nation, under the Maine Freedom Access Act, where they were given access to documented tribal correspondence with the EPA in regards to the regulations of water quality. As part of the Penobscot River Restoration Project, several dams were modified or removed to improve river conditions. Demolition began on the
Great Works Dam in 2012, and the
Veazie Dam in 2013. A
fish ladder was installed at
Milford Dam. A fish bypass was installed at
Howland Dam. This led to an increase in the number of
Atlantic Salmon,
Shad, and other fish species in the river. The Old Town Paper Mill, located in Old Town, Maine, has had a long history of environmental issues. The mill has a long history of environmental concerns and has been cited for numerous violations of environmental regulations, including air and water pollution, hazardous waste management, and chemical spills. The mill has also been the subject of numerous citizen complaints and legal actions over the years. On October 7, 2020, it was discovered that the Nine Dragons (ND) Paper Mill in Old Town, Maine had spilled chemicals into the Penobscot River. The spill was discovered after elevated pH levels were discovered in the water, in which ND decided to investigate further. Mercury is a neurotoxin which is extremely dangerous to ingest, especially for young, developing children or fetuses. Because of this, the elderly, children, and pregnant women must be extremely careful about ingesting anything which could potentially contain mercury. A court ordered study was completed by the company Mallinckrodt, which over the course of nine years found that the Penobscot River had levels of mercury which were up to 20 times higher than the surrounding areas. From this study, high levels of mercury were detected in wildlife as well, such as ducks, fish, and snapping turtles. The pollution of the Penobscot River has taken a very large toll on the amount of food and resources which can be collected from the river. Mauian Dana, a Tribal Ambassador, said "[T]he pollution has taken a toll on the vitality of our people. We have sustenance fishing rights but cannot live on the fish. When I was a child, the river was thick with foam, had an odor at all times, and if you swam in it, your clothing would be stained and skin would break out." From this, the Penobscot River Restoration Project was created, with the goals of a cleaner, healthier river, supporting the PIN culture as well as traditions, and restoring the ecosystem for native plants and animals. The project was discontinued in 2016, however they were able to help the river's ecosystem and the health of the areas around it. == River flow and gauges ==