Penobscot River

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Penobscot River
Penobscot Narrows Bridge at Bucksport

Penobscot Narrows Bridge at Bucksport

Data
Water code US :  573182
location Maine (USA)
River system Penobscot River
Confluence of East Branch and West Branch Penobscot Rivers
45 ° 36 ′ 15 ″  N , 68 ° 31 ′ 55 ″  W.
Source height 73  m
muzzle at Bucksport in Penobscot Bay coordinates: 44 ° 30 '44 "  N , 68 ° 47' 54"  W, 44 ° 30 '44 "  N , 68 ° 47' 54"  W.
Mouth height 0  m
Height difference 73 m
Bottom slope approx. 0.42 ‰
length approx. 175 km
Catchment area approx. 22,300 km²
Discharge at Eddington gauge ( ⊙ ) A Eo : 19,240 km²
MQ 1980/1996
Mq 1980/1996
 		560 m³ / s
29.1 l / (s km²)
Left tributaries Passadumkeag River , Mattawamkeag River
Right tributaries Piscataquis River , Kenduskeag Stream
Medium-sized cities Bangor
Small towns Old Town , Orono , Brewer , Hampden
Communities Lincoln , Howland , Orrington , Winterport , Bucksport
Navigable from the estuary to Bangor
Penobscot River catchment area

Penobscot River catchment area

The Penobscot River is a river in the US state of Maine .

It arises at the confluence of its two headwaters, East Branch and West Branch Penobscot River . The river is navigable from the city of Bangor , about 90 km before it flows into the Atlantic Ocean in Penobscot Bay . North of Old Town , the 18.5 km long tributary Stillwater River branches off to the right and joins the Penobscot River again at Orono .

An Indian reservation , the Penobscot Indian Island Reservation , has been established on several large river islands near Old Town since 1871. The Penobscot resident there are also the namesake of the river: the name means something like "rocky place" or "the place of the sloping reef" and probably refers to the white water and waterfalls between Old Town and Bangor, near which the tribe is believed to be was originally based.

history

The first known European explorer to sail the river in 1603 was Martin Pring , an English navigator. The French explorer Samuel de Champlain followed just a year later .

The wooded area was quickly settled from neighboring Massachusetts . The first sawmill was built on the banks of the river in 1634; Thousands more followed in the next few years. By 1680 the area was known for exporting wood and agricultural products to Europe, Africa and the West Indies. After the wars between France and England ended in 1757, there was a sharp increase in the number of settlers in the river's catchment area.

From around 1770, the river was also used as a means of transport for the felled tree trunks: felled trees were thrown into the course of the river and then collected from the water and shipped at Bangor, the port furthest inland. Other places, especially Orrington and Hampden , also benefited from this delivery by building sawmills and processing the tree trunks. In this way, temporarily populated places became permanent locations. Since at this time the cities and industry of the USA expanded enormously and the railway construction also required large amounts of wood for sleepers, bridge construction and operation (expensive coal was only rarely burned), the impact areas of Maine, especially on the Penobscot River, were have become important foundations of the American economy.

By 1850, the Bangor River Port was considered the largest timber export port in the world. A number of shipyards were built further downstream to meet the great demand for transport ships. At this point in time, the main impact areas had migrated to the source area of ​​the river. The wood was meanwhile mainly used in the own country; In 1863, 1,626 ships were dispatched to destinations within the USA in the port of Bangor alone and only 190 to export ports. At the height of this development in 1872, 2,774 ships were being dispatched to US ports.

At the turn of the century, the demands on wood products changed. Coarse processing such as boards, pit timber or sleepers were used less and less; instead, the US demand for paper, especially for newspapers, increased rapidly. A large number of paper mills were built on the banks of the river, which not only required a lot of water and wood, but also energy. Large hydroelectric power plants were built using the natural gradient of the current. The towns of Brewer , Lincoln , Howland , Orono, Millinocket and Great Works benefited most from this development, as the largest paper mills were built here.

The strong industrialization quickly led to massive pollution of the river, especially in the area between Bangor and the estuary. The Penobscot River was said to be "too dirty to wash in, but too runny to walk on." It was not until the 1950s that the development of recycling processes gradually made the river water clearer again. But only since 2004 has the river been systematically returned to a natural state.

Nowadays the river, especially in the upper reaches, is also used for tourist purposes. This particularly includes salmon fishing as well as canoeing and rafting tours in the rapids. The logging has now decreased significantly and is also offset by systematic reforestation.

environment

The Penobscot River is, along with the Connecticut River , the most important spawning region for Atlantic salmon in North America. Since the Penobscot River was heavily obstructed by dams and power stations in the course of its industrialization and so the salmon could not reach their spawning grounds, the Atlantic salmon had become rare in this region. Since the early 1990s, however, several superfluous dams (Great Works Dam, Veazie Dam) have been demolished and fish ladders have been set up on the remaining dams so that the fish can easily reach the upper reaches of the river again. Since then the population has risen sharply. Salmon fishing is now one of the river basin's major attractions.

Another important fish of the waters is the sea ​​bass or striped bass ( Morone saxatilis ). It too has important spawning and living areas in the Penobscot River and, like salmon, is very popular with anglers. The sea bass tolerates the polluted waters in the lower reaches of the Penobscot River better than the salmon and is accordingly more common.

Hydropower plants

There are several hydropower plants along the course of the Penobscot River and the Stillwater River . Additional hydropower plants are located along the West Branch Penobscot River .

The hydropower plants in the downstream direction:

Surname Power
in MW		 Number of
turbines		 location operator
Weldon Dam 18th 4th ( ⊙ ) Brookfield Renewable
West Enfield 13 2 ( ⊙ ) Penobscot Hydro
Milford 6.4 4th ( ⊙ ) Penobscot Hydro
Stillwater 1.95 4th ( ⊙ ) Penobscot Hydro
Orono 2.78 4th ( ⊙ ) Penobscot Hydro

The dams at the two decommissioned 8 MW hydropower plants Great Works ( ⊙ ) and Veazie ( ⊙ ) were demolished as part of the Penobscot River Restoration project. The two hydropower plants Stillwater and Orono on the parallel branch of the Stillwater River were modernized at the same time.

Sights and buildings

  • Fort Knox near Prospect , a civil war era defense structure (not to be confused with Fort Knox , Kentucky, which stores gold reserves).

In the media

At the end of the film The Hunt for Red October , the fictional nuclear submarine "Red October" is hidden in the Penobscot River. According to the plot of the film, the river is wide and deep enough to accommodate a submarine of this size. In addition, the area would be far enough away from US Navy bases that no spy satellite would search for the "Red October" in the area.

Web links

Commons : Penobscot River  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ East Branch Penobscot River in the Geographic Names Information System of the United States Geological Survey
  2. ^ Penobscot River in the Geographic Names Information System of the United States Geological Survey
  3. ↑ USGS 01036390 Penobscot River at Eddington, Maine
  4. ^ A b Penobscot River Restoration Trust
  5. ↑ brookfieldrenewable.com
  6. ↑ energyjustice.net
  7. ↑ hydroreform.org
  8. ↑ hydroworld.com PPL Maine completes renovation of 2.78-MW Orono