A long maritime history

In 1762 the first pioneers of European descent, Deacon Pease Clark #109, his wife and son and his family staked a claim on the bend in the Kennebec River #29 that is now Hallowell, Maine.

Although 41 miles by water from the mouth of the Kennebec River in Phippsburg, Hallowell was known as last seaport upriver with waters deep enough for larger vessels.

The ships of the Kennebec were known in all the ports of the world. Many ships were built on Hallowell’s shores and many more came to Hallowell for goods to ship worldwide.

Ice cut in the winter from our lakes and rivers was first stored in huge ice houses #38 and then shipped down the coast to Boston and New York and as far as the Caribbean islands to preserve foods. One report states that in one year over a 1000 schooners hauled ice down river.

It is estimated that more than half of all the men and boys from the Hallowell to Gardiner went to sea on Kennebec ships at some point in their lives.

Ships from Hallowell carried lumber from the saw mills up river and granite from Hallowell’s quarries. The river was the main highway for shipping until the advent of the railroad to Hallowell.

Erik Peterson, the seaman in the rigging, upper left. #1

Zack Cart, climbing the ratlines #2

I made the entire upper left quarter of the mural about the sea to indicate its importance to the early life of Hallowell.

artist, Chris Cart

Coos Trail

The Coos Trail, originally pronounced “ko-oss”, derives its name from Coos County, the northernmost county in New Hampshire. The county name derived from an Indian band known as the Coo-ash-aukes, or ‘Dwellers in the Pine Tree Country,’ according to a report on the history of the trail prepared in 1936 by Mrs. W. Raymond Davis of Farmington.

The trail was established after the Revolutionary War, in the late 18th Century, along an ancient Wabanaki route, which ran from Colebrook NH, through Dixville Notch, and connected to what was called the Coos Road in northwestern Maine and all the way to Hallowell. The Coos Trail was pivotal in the settlement of Northwestern Maine and New Hampshire.

People in search of cheaper lands were traveling north in New Hampshire, and what is now Maine to settle, start homesteads, farms and businesses. The Coos Trail became the most direct route to a shipping port, the piers in Hallowell on the Kennebec, where these people could sell their goods for shipment to ports south.

local models

Local Hallowell people who posed for this section of the mural are:

• Erik Peterson, the seaman in the rigging, upper left. #1
• Zack Cart, climbing the ratlines #2
• Buddy Iaciofano, seaman hauling the halyard #13
• Dave Pottle as Captain Drew #12