July, 2005
Historical Musings
The Penobscot River
By Lori Safford
I’ll bet you don’t ponder the origin of the Penobscot River while you’re wrestling with one of its Class IV and V rapids, at least, I hope not—for God’s sake, pay attention to the task at hand!! But, perhaps while softly paddling through one of its quiet, lazy stretches, you let your mind drift here and there. Pure participation in moving with The River engages you in wanting to know it now, and then, way back when it served an even grander purpose than recreation.
Indeed, entire books have been written detailing the Penobscot River’s chronicle in time. I have selected a smattering of what I consider to be interesting historical tidbits that might lure you into further study.
Sagama Barry Dana then Chief of the Penobscot Nation, in his speech on March 11, 2002 to the Maine State Legislature, retold this story passed on to him by an elder as to the birth of the Penobscot River:
“…before there was a river, there were streams from the upland into the valley. But one day, the water in the valley became a trickle and it disappeared and the people grew thirsty. A young hunter went to find out what had happened. He entered the forest and walked for days until he came to the place where the streams converged, and there he saw Kci Cekwalis, a giant frog. The frog grew bigger and bigger as it lapped up the little streams. The people sent for Gluskabe, our hero. Gluskabe followed the trail and when he came to the frog he called out, ‘there are others who are thirsty, too. You must learn to share.’
‘I won’t stop,’ croaked Cekwalis, ‘because I am the biggest and most powerful, I can do what I want.’
Gluskabe pulled up a giant white pine and, lifting it high over his head, he brought it down, striking the frog on the back. Kci Cekalis burst into a thousand pieces. The water shot up into the air and landed in the deep furrow in the ground the tree had made, and the water began to flow. And that is how the Penobscot River came to be.”
There is controversy as to the meaning of the word Penobscot and why it was chosen to name The River. Four of five sources I consulted report that the name comes from panawahpskek , “place of the white rocks” or “where the rocks widen.” According to Fannie Hardy Eckstorm in Indian Place Names of the Penobscot Valley and the Maine Coast (University of Maine at Orono Press, 1978), “the word Penobscot has nothing to do with Pannawambskek, which is the open valley above Old Town, or with Paamtegwetook, which is the main river below Bangor.” (p.1) Eckstorm explains that Penobscot , “the rocky place” or “the descending ledge place”, was originally the name of “about ten miles of the river between Bangor and Old Town, but the name might apply to any steeply inclined place anywhere.” (p.2)
Native Americans named rivers and streams section by section, paying attention to twists, turns, river-bed, current, feeder entrances, chutes, reaches, oxbows, weirs, riverbanks, any and all characteristic features. The ten miles, give or take, at the naming of Penobscot, between Bangor and Old Town, were a succession of rapids, falls, carries, and rocky trenches which obscured any view beyond the tangled woods along the riverbanks. Thus, Eckstorm argues, applying a name that suggests “land that is covered with rocks” or “rocky territory” or “where the conical rocks are” does not describe what was—that “in dropping a hundred feet between Old Town and Bangor, over transverse ledges, the river is a series of rock-hewn steps, causing the difficult falls and hard carries.” (p.2)
Joanne Monaghan, in her publication Our Penobscot River Heritage (Gordon Clapp Travel Services, Bangor, Maine), writes that in 1605 Captain George Weymouth described “Penobscot Harbour” (the Penobscot River) as ”‘the most beautiful, rich, large, secure harbouring that the world affordth.’”(p.2)
Maine historian William D. Williamson, in 1830, characterizes The Penobscot, as a whole river:
“The banks of the river are generally high, some projections are rocky and rugged, and others afford a picturesque appearance. An enchanting expanse of river spreads itself before Bucksport Village, and another before Frankfort, and a beautiful country on either side, extending to the head of the tide, fills the passenger’s eye from the river with captivating views of nature and culture.”
Henry David Thoreau, in 1838, saw the Penobscot as “an inclined mirror between two evergreen forests.” Monaghan laments that “Thoreau and the European explorers before him were privileged to see the Penobscot in the wild, natural glory that had always been its past. Even though Native Americans peopled its banks and utilized its resources as far back as 7000B.C., their culture was oriented towards flowing with their natural surroundings, disturbing and exploiting as little of their environment as possible. Consequently, the Penobscot River entered the 18th Century in as pure and unreviled state as the day it was made millions of years ago.” (p.2)
Users of The Penobscot today have dubbed their own labels, printable and not, for describing sections of the watercourse. Indeed, the riverbanks have changed; the water’s profile and integrity are vastly different from long ago. For better, for worse.
Lori Safford has run 12 marathons, has a B.A. from UMaine, a Master's in Linguistics and is most proud of giving birth to all four of her sons (including the publisher of this rag) at home.
Email nick [at] noumbrella [dot] com with your questions, comments and concerns.
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