livelihood from the Kennebec #39

Atlantic salmon, American shad, the alewife and blueback herring-both river herring species, rainbow smelt and striped bass are all native Kennebec anadromous fish.

Estimates of the early abundance of salmon on the river prior to the 18th century range as high as 70,000 fish, of just this one species.

Vast numbers of salmon and other anadromous fish used to swim up the Kennebec every year to spawn. These fish were an important subsistence food source for the native people of the Kennebec Valley. Hunting by the Wôban-aki Nation #112 people was mainly by spears and traps, to provide enough food for the local people.

Not much changed in the river with the early European settlers. The fish were abundant and even with increased use the fish stocks were not, initially overused. Indeed early reports by the settlers expressed their awe at the great abundance of fish in the river.

a·nad·ro·mous /əˈnadrəməs/
adjective
Zoology
(of a fish such as the salmon) migrating up rivers from the sea to spawn.

overfishing

As more Europeans settled along the Kennebec the the river became more exploited for commercial use in addition to fishing to sustain the local people. Shiploads of fish began to be netted from the river and sent down river on route for sale down the coast in ports of Portland, Boston and New York.

Kennebec salmon was prized in restaurants down the colonial coast as well at European tables. And initially, the salmon was so bountiful and cheap, laws were enacted to restrict logging camps around the state from serving the fish more than three times per week.

However, by the late 18th century people were noting the depletion of the fish in the Kennebec valley. By the 1820 when Maine became a state, the Atlantic salmon were almost gone. The real depletion of all the anadromous fish on the Kennebec came after the Edwards Dam in Augusta was built in 1837.

The settlers along the Kennebec had seen raw the potential of the river to power industry. With this first dam being built at the head of tide in Augusta, the salmon and other fish could no longer swim up stream to their spawning grounds.

By 1850, just 13 years later, the Atlantic salmon was so scarce several drift net fisheries businesses were completely abandoned. And one hundred years later in the 1950’s and Atlantic salmon numbers had dwindled to just a few hundred fish on the Kennebec.

Industry on the Kennebec in the early 20th century also polluted the river so intensely that the Kennebec river, once pristine and prized for its clear ice in winter and delicious fish, had the gained the reputation of its reek and fish too unhealthy to eat.

This is an early stage of the river in the mural. The fisherman was bigger and made a dramatic element. Howver, as the mural evolved more things and people needed to be added, so I had to tone down the fisherman and make the river less busy. But I really liked this version as a design by itself.

artist, Chris Cart