Penobscot River

Penobscot Narrows Bridge in Bucksport

Catchment area of ​​the Penobscot River

The Penobscot River is a river in the U.S. state of Maine.

It is formed at the confluence of its two source rivers East Branch and West Branch Penobscot River. The river is from the city of Bangor, about 90 km before it flows into the Atlantic Ocean in the Penobscot Bay, navigable. North of Old Town branches of the 18.5 km long sidearm Stillwater River to the right and joins the Penobscot River again at Orono.

An Indian Reservation, the Penobscot Indian Reservation Iceland is established since 1871 on some great river islands near Old Town. The resident Penobscot are also the namesake of the river: the name means something like "Rocky Place " or " The place of the sloping reef " and probably refers to the whitewater and waterfalls between Old Town and Bangor, near which the strain probably was originally established.

History

The first known European explorers who sailed the river in 1603, was Martin Pring, an English navigator. Just one year later, the French explorer Samuel de Champlain.

The wooded area was settled rapidly from the neighboring Massachusetts. The first sawmill was built in 1634 on the banks of the river; Thousands more followed in the next years. In 1680, the area for the export of timber and agricultural products to Europe, Africa and the West Indies was known. After the end of the wars between France and England in 1757, there was a sharp rise in settler numbers in the catchment area of the river.

From about 1770, the river was used as a transport for the felled tree trunks: Felled trees were thrown into the river and then at Bangor, the -most inland port, collected from the water and shipped. Other places, especially Orrington and Hampden, benefited from the delivery, by building sawmills and the logs processed. So from temporarily populated places were fixed localities. Since at this time the cities and the industry in the U.S. vastly widened and also railway construction large quantities of wood for railway sleepers, bridge construction and operation ( it was rarely expensive coal fired ) were used, were the areas designated Maine, but especially on the Penobscot River, become important foundations of the American economy.

In 1850 was the river port Bangor as the largest timber export port in the world. Further downstream, resulting in a range of shipyards to meet the great demand for transport ships. At this time, the main impact areas were hiked up in the source area of the river. The wood was now used mainly in their own country; so alone 1,626 ships were dispatched to destinations within the United States in 1863 in the port of Bangor and only 190 after export ports. At the peak of this development in 1872, 2,774 ships were handled by U.S. ports.

Around the turn of the century changed the requirements for wood products. Coarse processing such as boards, mine timbers, or thresholds, were used less and less; Instead, the paper needs the U.S. rose, particularly for newspapers, rapidly. On the river banks, a large number of paper mills that not only needed a lot of water and wood, but also energy originated. So in addition, large hydroelectric plants were built, which made ​​use of the natural gradient of the stream. The cities Brewer, Lincoln, Howland, Orono, Millinocket and Great Works benefited from this development the most because here the largest paper mills were built.

The strong industrialization led but quickly became a massive pollution of the river, especially in the area between Bangor and the mouth. It was said that the Penobscot River was " too dirty to wash it, but too runny to go to it." It was not until the 1950s was the development of recycling processes the river water gradually clearer. But only since 2004 the flow is systematically returned to a natural state.

Today, the river is, especially in the headwaters, also used for tourism purposes. This includes especially the salmon fishing, canoeing and rafting in the rapids. The logging has now fallen significantly and is also offset by systematic reforestation.

Environment

The Penobscot River is, along with the Connecticut River, the most important spawning region of Atlantic salmon in North America. Since the Penobscot River was heavily obstructed by dams and power plants in the course of its industrialization and so the salmon could not reach their spawning grounds, the Atlantic salmon in this region had become rare. Since the early 1990s, but several unnecessary dams ( Great Works Dam, Veazie Dam ) were demolished and set up at the remaining dams fish ladders, so that the fish again easily able to reach the headwaters of the river. Since then, the population has risen sharply. Salmon fishing has become one of the major attractions of the river basin.

Another important fish in the waters is the wolf or striped bass ( Morone saxatilis ). He also has important spawning and living areas within the Penobscot River and is, like the salmon, loved by anglers. The sea bass can withstand the polluted water in the lower reaches of the Penobscot Rivers better than the salmon and is accordingly likely to find.

Hydropower plants

On the riverbank of the Penobscot River and the tributary Stillwater River there are several hydroelectric plants. For more hydropower plants are located along the West Branch Penobscot River source river.

The hydropower plants in downstream direction:

The dams on the two disused 8 MW hydropower Great Works ( ⊙ 44.919097-68.633248 ) and Veazie ( ⊙ 44.832218-68.702307 ) were demolished as part of the Penobscot River Restoration Project. The two hydroelectric power stations in Stillwater and Orono on parallel sidearm Stillwater River were modernized at the same time.

Sights and monuments

• Fort Knox in Prospect, a fortified building built in the time of the American Civil War ( not to be confused with Fort Knox in Kentucky, are stored in the gold reserves).