Kennebec River
Hubbard Free Library
Late in the fall of 1625 a small boat with seven men aboard slowly made its way up the Kennebec River. They had sailed from the Plymouth Plantation with a cargo of corn, the product of one of the new colony’s first successful harvests, hoping to establish trade with the Abenaki people. About 40 miles from the ocean, when they reached the last point of navigation on the Kennebec, the rapids in Augusta that marked the “head of tide,” they came at last upon the Indian village they were seeking. Settlers were greeted warmly by the “gentle Abenaki” and were able to exchange their corn for 700 pounds of furs.
The interests of the Plymouth men were entirely commercial; the sale of the furs would help to retire debts they owed to England. They learned that this area along the river was called Koussinok (“the place of sacred rites beside the rippling waters”) and was considered sacred by the Abenaki because their ancestors were buried here. This place would become a major trading center connected by the Kennebec to the wider world of commerce.