Popham Beach State Park

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Popham Beach

The Popham Beach State Park is a 214 hectare State Park in Sagadahoc County in the US state of Maine .

geography

The park is on the tip of the Phippsburg Peninsula near Bath at the mouth of the Kennebec River . It is one of the few coastal stretches of Maine with a five-kilometer-long sandy beach, the dune belt of which is constantly changing by wind, water and waves. There are several small rock islands off the coast, including Fox Island and Wood Island and Pond Island , which is a National Wildlife Refuge .

history

Popham Colony

Popham Beach was the scene of a short-lived settlement experiment English colonists of the Plymouth Company in 1607. Under the leadership of George Popham , a Fort George built fortified settlement named. However, after Popham's death, the surviving colonists built a ship, the Virginia of Sagadahoc , and sailed back to England in 1608.
In summer, archaeological excavations in the park for the remains of the colony are continued.

Fort Popham and the Kennebec River

Fort Popham

Two miles to the east is Fort Popham State Historic Site at the tip of the peninsula . Construction of Fort Popham began in 1861 during the Civil War . The coastal fortification should protect the confluence of the Kennebec River in the Atkins Bay and should be armed with 42 cannons. The semicircular fortress was built from granite according to the third system , but only two of the three casemate floors were completed before construction was discontinued in 1869. The fort served as a coastal fortification during the Spanish-American War and World War I. In 1924 the fort was sold to the State of Maine and is now open to the public in the summer. It has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1969 .

Fort Baldwin

Since Fort Popham was now obsolete, Fort Baldwin was built between 1905 and 1912 on Sabino Hill south of Fort Popham. The fort was named after Jeduthan Baldwin , a US Army engineer during the Revolutionary War . The armament consisted of three gun batteries with two 7.6 cm guns and three 15.2 cm guns. The guns were dismantled in July 1924. During the Second World War, a garrison was again stationed at Fort Baldwin from 1941 to 1943. The fort's remaining facilities can be viewed as the Fort Baldwin State Historic Site in the summer.

Tourist facilities

The park's sandy beach is a popular destination in summer. In addition to swimming, surfing, sunbathing, and beach walks, visitors can hike to Fox Island at low tide. The beach is guarded by lifeguards, but surfing and swimming can be dangerous due to the tides and strong currents. There are picnic areas and sanitary facilities in the wooded area of ​​the park.

Trivia

Parts of the film Message in a Bottle were filmed in the park in 1999.

literature

  • Barbara Sinotte: Maine: A Guide to the State Parks, National Parks & Historic sites. Kindle Edition 2010

Web links

Coordinates: 43 ° 44 ′ 17.1 ″  N , 69 ° 47 ′ 58.6 ″  W.