Historical Geographies of Bangor, Maine

This Community Atlas Project completed May 2005, by:

The History Department at Bangor High School:

World Geography (classes: 5/6, 7/8, 9/10, 13/14)

Civics (classes: 9/10, 15/16)

Senior Seminar (classes: 3/4, 5/6, 13/14)

    The first European expedition into central Maine dates back to 1525, when Portuguese explorer Estavao Gomes sailed as far as he could up the Penobscot River to what is now Bangor. In 1604 Samuel de Champlain also explored the region looking for the fabled stone city of Norumbega where natives dressed in fur trimmed with gold.  However, it wasn’t until 1769 that the first European settlement was built to capitalize on the timber resources of the region. In 1791 Bangor became a city and in 1820 Maine became the 23^rd state. The Penobscot River played a major role in shaping Bangor into the lumber capital of the world.  Not only did the river provide a means to transport timber to the mills around Bangor, it also allowed large ships to sail into and out of the city transporting timber to places as far as the Midway Islands. In fact, ships once clogged the river so tightly that it was said one could cross the Penobscot without getting wet by jumping from deck to deck. While the dominance of the timber trade in Bangor has declined, the city still serves as an educational, manufacturing, retail, service, and cultural hub for northern and eastern Maine.

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the following members of the community for so generously providing

us with much of the information and training used to create our Community Atlas:

The National Science Foundation GK-12 Sensors! Program at the University of Maine

The Bangor Historical Society

The City of Bangor, Departments of Planning and Economic Development

The Bangor Public Library

Tom McCord

Michael Pullen