History
Pre-colonial Times
Native Americans inhabited the area for an estimated 9,000 years before white people came to what we now know as New England. Anasagunticooks, or Androscoggins, were the name of the subtribe of the Abenaki that lived along the Androscoggin River. They set up fishing camps near the falls to catch fish attempting to swim up the river to spawn. Bear, moose, deer, beaver, otter, mink, and foxes were abundant near the Androscoggin River. Thousands of Atlantic salmon would migrate to the river each spring to spawn. Brook trout were found in the river year-round, while alewives and shad would swim partially up the river yearly to spawn. To read more specifics of the pre-colonial history of the Androscoggin, check out “The Indians of The Androscoggin Valley” by Charles Starbird, linked here.
Timeline
Here is a timeline of the colonial perspective and environmental history of the Androscoggin and the Brunswick Dam history. Much of the information has come from an article written by Zachary Bennett, a professor of history at Norwich University, linked here, and the Androscoggin River Alliance’s “The Androscoggin River: An Environmental History,” linked here.
1628: Arrival of Thomas Purchase (first English settler colonist to arrive in Pejepscot, ME), who set up a trading post at Pejepscot Falls to trade the abundant salmon, sturgeon, and furs sourced from the Androscoggin with the Wabanaki people.
1688: Following the destruction of Purchase’s trading post, the governor builds another one intending to control Wabanaki access to resources through controlling access to the Androscoggin.
1689: Massachusetts overthrows Andros and the Pejepscot Fort is abandoned, allowing Wabanaki to reclaim access to the Androscoggin and its natural resources.
1722: War breaks out between the British and Wabanaki due to unresolved disputes over control of the Androscoggin River.
1737: Brunswick residents petition Governor Jonathan Belcher to keep Fort George at Pejepscot Falls due to tense relations with the Wabanaki, arguing that the fort protects the salmon fishery and deters Wabanaki conflict.
1753: The first dam spans part of the Androscoggin River.
1756: “Long Dam” is built from Topsham to Shad Island.
1760: “Gulf Dam” Brunswick to Shad –the main flow and with the Long Dam creating a full river span.
1802: Ruins of Fort George are built over by sawmills. The site is later rebranded as “Fort Andross,” serving commercial purposes.
1806: Complete obstruction of upstream river herring migration.
1809: Brunswick becomes the site of Maine’s first cotton mill, built harnessing the waterpower of the Androscoggin River.
1880s: Paper mills along the Androscoggin switch to a chemical pulping process, resulting in chemical waste polluting the river
1913: Ice was harvested from the Androscoggin, but it was too polluted to be used for ice cubes.
1925: Brown Company develops “Kemival,” a chemically produced wood product, steering away from the exclusive use of soft wood in the Androscoggin
1930s: Log drives begin to decline, and locals begin saying the river is “too thick to paddle, too thin to plow”
1941: The Sanitary Water Board hires a firm to test the waters due to intense odor, and they find almost no dissolved oxygen (which is vital for aquatic life).
1943: Walter Lawrance, a chemistry professor from Bates, is named “River master” and performs annual studies on the Androscoggin
1948: Lawrence sets weekly discharge limits and pollution rates for the paper industry and adds sodium nitrate to the river to increase dissolved oxygen and decrease odor-causing bacteria (he continues to add sodium nitrate until the 1960s).
1961: There is a reduction in the amount of weekly discharge of about 95%
1972: The Clean Water Act takes measures to protect the quality of rivers in the United States
1976: Public Law Chapter 355 is enacted, which ends log drives across the state
1982: Central Maine Power builds the current dam between Brunswick and Topsham.
1997: “Dioxin Color Law” passes, which decreases chlorine waste in the river from the mills
2004: Since 1987, only 247 shad have successfully passed the Brunswick Dam fish ladder
2024: This website goes public.
2029: Brunswick Dam license expires.
Video
Here is a recording of a speaker series hosted by Friends of Merrymeeting Bay titled “River History & the New Environmental Movement,” featuring river historian Scot McFarlane.