This is the northern terminus of The Stevens Carrying Place, Just about a third of a mile down the shore from our house. It opens onto Merrymeeting Bay and accesses the Kennebec and Androscoggin River watersheds, in addition to 3 smaller rivers that empty into the Bay Estuary. This was the entrance to a mile long portage or "carry" that was used by native Americans for probably thousands of years up through the 18th century. It was one of the shortcuts that cut many miles and days out of the water trip from inland Maine and Canada to the midcoast of Maine, a trip that was part of an annual migration to summer and winter areas as the weather and wildlife/fishing changed during the year. The picture was taken at low tide and the tidal channel through the wild rice, known locally as a guzzle, is open in the summer for small boats right up to the landing place on the shore at all tides. In the distance you can see the area where the Kennebec River meets the inland Bay. This was a wonderful place for fishing, hunting and waterfowling, and ancient weirs are still visible at extreme low water
This spot was also thought to be the homestead of one of the original European settlers in the area in the late 1600's, for whom the carry was named by whites, though I am sure the natives called it by their own name. There is a long history of both cooperation and conflict that occurred here and further up the rivers, and this was a chancy place to live for these early pioneers and deaths and capture were common. Some of the history has been looked into by the local Merrymeeting Pioneers Project, and an interesting website exists describing their archeological work at this spot and others around the Bay. Also interesting is the website of Friends of Merrymeeting Bay, an organization that I belong to whose goal is to educate about and conserve this unique estuary.
Later in the 1800's into the early 1900's this spot was homesteaded by a family called the Harrisons, who were part of a community of pre civil war free blacks who settled this whole side of the Bay from Brunswick to the Kennebec River where it exits the Bay at a place called the Chops. Just up the bank at the right is a small overgrown cemetery where the Harrisons are buried. They were relatively well off and even had white servants. The second picture is of the foundation of the house they lived in, and you can see by the size of the trees growing inside that it has been a while since they left for better situations or perhaps just married/blended into the local populace around 1900. Our own house is built on land once owned by a free black family named the Hills, and I have traced them back to a slave named Sandy Hill of one of the early Europeans.
I come here often by boat and trail to enjoy the beauty of the place and to try to imagine who has passed through this spot over the centuries.
Olympus C-750 with WCON-07 wide converter
