Site of the
Popham Colony, Phippsburg was—between 1607 and 1608—the first known
English settlement attempt in
New England. During its brief existence, colonists built
Virginia of Sagadahoc, the first ship in Maine's long history of
shipbuilding. The next British settlement at the mouth of the
Kennebec River began in 1653; Thomas Atkins, a
fisherman, purchased from the
sachem Mowhotiwormet, commonly called Chief Robinhood, the southern end of Phippsburg (with the exception of Popham). Atkins Bay bears his name. The population gradually increased until
King Philip's War. Dwellings were burned and stocks of
cattle killed. The entire area was abandoned. Resettlement commenced in 1679 at Newtown, located on the southern end of
Arrowsic Island (across the river from present-day Phippsburg Center). About 1684,
Francis Small had a
trading post at Cape Small, which bears his name. But in 1689 the area was again destroyed and deserted during
King William's War. With the
Treaty of Portsmouth in 1713, conflict was formally ended between the
Abenaki and English settlements. In 1714, Newtown was reestablished, then incorporated in 1716 as Georgetown-on-Arrowsic by the
Massachusetts General Court. Also in 1716, the
Pejepscot Proprietors established a little
fishing village called Augusta at the Small Point Harbor area of Phippsburg. Dr. Oliver Noyes, director of the colony, erected a stone fort square to protect it. In 1717, Governor
Samuel Shute held a conference at Georgetown-on-Arrowsic with tribal delegates, who arrived in a flotilla of
canoes and encamped on Lee Island. But in summer of 1723 during
Dummer's War, the
Norridgewocks and 250 of their Indian allies from
Canada, incited by the
French missionary Sebastien Rale, attacked the area. Again it was deserted, with the stone fort destroyed. Governor
William Dummer's Treaty of 1725 restored peace, and in 1737 an attempt was made to resettle Cape Small Point. The boundaries of Georgetown-on-Arrowsic were enlarged to encompass most of present-day Phippsburg,
Bath (which then included
West Bath),
Woolwich and
Georgetown. Slow resettlement of the Phippsburg peninsula found ten farms along the Kennebec River by 1751, with five more on the
Casco Bay side. But the districts gathered into Georgetown-on-Arrowsic began splitting away; in 1759, Woolwich withdrew, followed in 1781 by Bath. In 1814, Phippsburg was set off and incorporated. The original petition requested that it be named Dromore after one of the town's oldest sections, but
Massachusetts chose instead to honor one of its royal governors,
Sir William Phips—actually a native of Woolwich. Between 1842 and 1890, wooden ships were built at Phippsburg. It also had numerous tidal
mills.
Fort Popham was built during the Civil War to guard the mouth of the Kennebec, on the site of a much smaller battery built in 1808. It became the control center for an underwater minefield in the 1890s. The more modern
Fort Baldwin was built between 1905 and 1912 and was garrisoned in both World Wars. In 1891 Phippsburg ceded Ragged Island to
Harpswell, but in 1917 it further added to its roster of islands by annexing nine
Casco Bay islands including Bushy, Hen, Bear, Malaga, Burnt Coat, Black Snake, Wood, Little Wood, and Gooseberry Islands. Malaga was later offered to, but refused by, Harpswell. During the
Gilded Age, Popham Beach developed into a resort area, with
steamboats transporting excursionists from Bath. Today, the town's principal industries are
fishing and
tourism. In 1971, Phippsburg was the site of the discovery of the
Spirit Pond runestones, purported evidence of pre-Columbian European exploration of North America, but now shown to be a modern hoax. The three stones were found by Walter J. Elliot, Jr., a carpenter from
Bath, Maine. The runestones are now in the possession of the
Maine State Museum in
Augusta, Maine. Image:Steamer Eldorado of the Bath & Popham Beach Line.jpg|Popham Beach steamer, Image:View of Popham Beach, Phippsburg, ME.jpg|View of Popham Beach in 1906 File:Fort Popham, Phippsburg.jpg|
Fort Popham ==Geography==