Archeology LiDAR

Tracing the Medomak River’s Past: From Wabanaki Homeland to Colonial Frontier

The Medomak River in mid-coast Maine is more than a scenic waterway – it’s a corridor rich with history. Its very name is telling: “Medomak” comes from the Abenaki term meaning “place of many alewives,” referring to the once-plentiful migratory fish that each spring filled its waters. For thousands of years before European contact, Indigenous peoples thrived along the Medomak. Later, the river’s shores became a 18th-century colonial frontier, home to a unique German immigrant settlement at “Broad Bay” (today’s Waldoboro). Modern archaeology – from traditional digs to aerial LiDAR scans – is now peeling back layers of history along the Medomak, revealing evidence of ancient campsites, shellfish feasts, colonial homesteads, and more. Below, we delve into the river’s Indigenous and colonial heritage, highlighting key historical accounts, archaeological discoveries, and how these findings shape our understanding of this remarkable region’s past.

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Indigenous Heritage Along the Medomak

Long before any Europeans arrived, the Medomak River lay in the heart of the Wabanaki homeland. The Wawenock (Wawenoc) people, whose name means “People of the Bays,” are traditionally associated with this part of the Maine coast. Like their neighbors along the Damariscotta and Sheepscot rivers, the Wawenock and their ancestors made their lives by the rhythm of the seasons – fishing the alewife runs, hunting and foraging inland, and gathering shellfish in the tidal flats. They left behind rich archaeological evidence of their presence. Enormous shell middens (heaps of discarded shells and other food refuse) line parts of the mid-coast, a testament to thousands of years of Native American “seafood dinners”. Just west of the Medomak, on the Damariscotta River, the famed Whaleback Midden once stood over thirty feet deep – a massive pile of oyster shells accumulated between about 2,200 and 1,000 years ago. While the Medomak’s own middens are smaller, recent surveys have documented significant sites; one intact shell heap on the upper Medomak contains an estimated 800 cubic meters of shell deposits, yet remains unexcavated. These coastal middens, now threatened by erosion and sea-level rise, are treasure troves for archaeologists – their alkaline shells preserve bone, plant, and artifact remains that reveal ancient diets, seasonal patterns, and tools of daily life.

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Archaeological excavations confirm that Indigenous communities extensively used the Medomak estuary. A standout example is the Todd Site, a large stratified shell midden on the lower Medomak (Muscongus Bay) investigated by University of Maine researchers in the 1980s. At Todd, archaeologists uncovered five distinct cultural layers reaching 1.2 meters deep, with the earliest dating back roughly 3,500 years ago. The site was most intensively occupied between about 2,200 and 1,000 years BP (before present), during what archaeologists call the Ceramic Period. Within these layers, the shells of clams and oysters had neutralized the normally acidic Maine soils, miraculously preserving animal bones and plant remains. From these, researchers pieced together a vivid picture of Wabanaki life: the Todd Site inhabitants enjoyed a diverse diet of marine and terrestrial foods, including abundant shellfish, fish, white-tailed deer, and beaver. Many of the clams in the midden were harvested in the colder months (fall through spring), suggesting people occupied the site during those seasons – perhaps living inland or elsewhere in summer. Intriguingly, by around A.D. 1000 the Todd Site was abandoned as a major camp. Geologists working with the archaeologists found evidence of rising sea level and shoreline change: what was once a broad mudflat ideal for clamming had eroded into a steep bank. This suggests environmental change prompted people to relocate their shellfish gathering spots over time, underscoring how dynamic the Medomak’s landscape has been.
 

Beyond the science of shell middens, Indigenous history along the Medomak is also recorded in early written accounts – though often through the distorted lens of European colonists. One famous episode involves the Wawenock leader Samoset of the Pemaquid area (just southwest of the Medomak). Samoset’s name is immortalized as the first Native person to greet the Pilgrims in Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1621. Remarkably, he walked into the Plymouth settlement speaking broken English and saying “Welcome,” having learned the language from English fishermen who frequented the Maine coast. Just weeks earlier, Samoset had been in his homeland near the Medomak. In 1605 – years before the Pilgrims – he and his band encountered Captain George Waymouth, an English explorer scouting Muscongus Bay (into which the Medomak flows). The meeting went terribly: Waymouth kidnapped five Wabanaki men from that area and hauled them back to England. Some eventually returned home with tales of England that must have astonished their kin. Samoset would have heard these stories as a young man. In fact, he likely visited the short-lived English colony at Fort St. George (Popham) in 1607 and observed the newcomers firsthand. All this set the stage for Samoset’s bold greeting of the Pilgrims years later – an encounter that links the Medomak region’s Wabanaki directly into the broader saga of early New England.
 

Through such accounts, we get a glimpse of the Wawenock people’s pivotal (if under-recognized) role in early colonial history. The Wawenock were part of the loose confederacy of “Mawooshen,” an alliance of eastern Algonquin tribes noted by English sources like Captain John Smith and Sir Ferdinando Gorges. Their sachem (high chief), sometimes referred to as the Bashaba, is thought to have held sway from the Penobscot down to the Kennebec and Sheepscot regions – meaning the Medomak lay near the center of this domain. By the early 1600s, however, the Wawenock and other coastal groups had been devastated by epidemics introduced by Europeans. One epidemic around 1616–19 decimated up to “90 percent” of native coastal families (the Town Line article cites a plague in the late 1520s, though most historians place this great dying in the 1610s). Combined with raiding by rival Micmac (Tarrantine) war parties, the Wawenock were greatly reduced in number by the time sustained English settlement began. Nonetheless, Indigenous presence did not vanish – Wabanaki families continued to summer along the Medomak into the 18th century, even as new colonial villages arose. Understanding this deep Indigenous history is essential: it reminds us that the Medomak River’s story stretches back millennia, with the river’s rich resources and strategic location underpinning a vibrant Native culture long before colonial maps and records gave the area new names.

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Early European Claims and “The Broad Bay Settlement”

European interest in the Medomak region ignited in the 17th century during the era of coastal trade and fishing. England’s Plymouth Council for New England issued sweeping land grants, known as patents, to promote colonization. In 1629, a vast tract between the Kennebec and Penobscot Rivers – encompassing the Medomak – was granted to John Beauchamp and Thomas Leverett. This became known as the Muscongus Patent (later called the Waldo Patent). Just to the west, the Pemaquid Patent was granted in 1631, covering 12,000 acres around Pemaquid and the Damariscotta area. These paper claims laid dormant for decades. A small English fishing outpost at Pemaquid (present-day Bristol) did spring up and even build a fort by the 1630s. But repeated wars between New England and the Wabanaki (often allied with the French) shattered early colonization east of the Kennebec. For example, during King Philip’s War in 1676, Native warriors attacked English settlers in the Damariscotta and Pemaquid area, “driving off or massacring” the inhabitants . Forts were built, destroyed, and rebuilt (Fort William Henry at Pemaquid in 1692, obliterated by the French in 1696; Fort Frederick in 1729) in an ongoing contest for the coast. As a result, the Medomak River saw no permanent European settlement in the 1600s – it remained a borderland frequented by fur traders and fishermen, but too dangerous for towns. When peace finally followed the 1713 Treaty of Portsmouth and the 1726 end of Dummer’s War, colonizers again looked to this “eastern frontier.”
 

By the 1730s, the dormant Muscongus Patent had passed into the hands of General Samuel Waldo, an ambitious Boston entrepreneur. Waldo aimed to fulfill the old grant by establishing a colony at the Medomak, which was by then called Broad Bay (for the broad estuary the river forms as it meets Muscongus Bay). Between 1733 and 1740, Waldo sponsored the arrival of dozens of families – notably a group of German Protestants from the Rhineland Palatinate – to settle the area. They founded a village on Broad Bay’s west bank and farms along both sides of the Medomak. This settlement – the Broad Bay Plantation – was one of the earliest German communities in New England. Life was harsh but hopeful at first. The Medomak’s forests were cleared for log cabins and the settlers planted crops, cut lumber, and built sawmills. Crucially, they were unaware that the land on the west side of the river technically belonged to the Pemaquid Patent (owned by other proprietors) – an oversight that would cause legal headaches later.​
 

Trouble, however, arrived sooner in the form of war. In 1744, King George’s War (War of the Austrian Succession) erupted, drawing the colonies once again into conflict with the French and their Native allies. The Broad Bay settlers suddenly found themselves on the most exposed edge of Massachusetts (Maine was part of Massachusetts then). Letters from 1744 paint a vivid picture of their plight. In May of that year, a Broad Bay resident wrote to Waldo that “we are in a great hubbub here – all my neighbors have left me these 3 weeks… The Dutch people [German families] have been in garrison this 3 weeks and are in want of provisions and military stores.” Another plea stated the settlers were “in a poor condition…no provisions nor guns…if you [Waldo] do not take care of us directly we will be obliged to draw off” . Lacking sufficient arms, the Germans crowded into a crude garrison house for protection. In spring 1745, many of the young men of Broad Bay were actually recruited by Waldo to join the British expedition against the French fortress of Louisbourg in Nova Scotia. This left the settlement even more vulnerable. The Wabanaki fighters took note. According to a sworn declaration by settler William Burns, in July 1745 “the Indians, who might easily perceive the settlement greatly weakened, began hostilities at St. Georges, and about the first of Aug’t…they killed & scalped one of the Germans at Madomack River,” after which “all the Inhabitants of that River…betook themselves to garrisons”. By the following year (1746), full-scale raids struck Broad Bay. Homes were burned, several settlers were killed or captured, and the rest fled for their lives. The once-promising colony was temporarily abandoned – its people dispersed to safer areas like Fort St. George (Thomaston) or Pemaquid.
 

Peace returned with the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748, and gradually some settlers drifted back to Broad Bay. General Waldo, determined not to lose his investment, redoubled efforts to attract colonists. Between 1749 and 1753 he traveled to Germany and recruited about 1,500 more immigrants to resettle Broad Bay. These were mostly farmers and tradespeople from the Rhineland and Switzerland – Lutherans and Reformed Protestants, though unlike the Pilgrims they came for economic opportunity rather than religious refuge . The colony revived in the 1750s, even as another conflict – the French and Indian War (1754–63) – loomed. During that war, the Broad Bay settlement managed to hold on, protected in part by colonial militias and the reduced power of Wabanaki in the region (the French influence in Maine waned as the war turned against them). In 1759, the British even built Fort Pownall on the lower Penobscot, extending a protective buffer east of the Medomak. By 1763, with France defeated in North America, the frontier of Maine finally knew relative peace.

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The 1760s brought a new challenge to Broad Bay’s inhabitants: sorting out land ownership. As mentioned, the west side of the Medomak fell under the old Pemaquid Patent claim, which outside investors now pressed. A compromise was reached in which settlers could secure titles by purchasing their farms from the Pemaquid proprietors. While some 300 disheartened Germans opted to leave – trekking off to establish new lives in North Carolina’s Moravian communities around 1769 – the majority stayed and legalized their land claims. A detailed survey in 1773–74 mapped out the lots and owners on the west bank of the “Madomack River,” recording over two dozen German family names and their acreages. (An inscription on the survey even notes it was “Surveyed for the Germans in consequence of the Pemaquid Claim” With these issues settled, the community incorporated in 1773 as the town of Waldoboro, named in honor of Samuel Waldo . By then, English settlers had also joined the mix, and Waldoboro grew into a stable coastal town.

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Life and Legacy of the Colonial Medomak

Despite its violent beginnings, the Broad Bay (Waldoboro) settlement persevered to become an important hub of Midcoast Maine. After the American Revolution, the town’s economy flourished thanks to the Medomak River. The river’s tidal waters and falls were harnessed by many water-powered mills in the late 1700s and 1800s – sawmills for lumber, gristmills for grain, and later fulling mills, tanneries, and other small industries. Waldoboro’s forests of pine and oak, once cleared by settlers for farms, regenerated enough to support a thriving shipbuilding industry. By the 19th century, Waldoboro had become renowned for building large wooden schooners. In 1888, it launched the Governor Ames, the first five-masted schooner ever built, from a local shipyard. Waldoboro even served as a U.S. Port of Entry, with a customs house built in 1857 to handle trade. The Medomak’s sheltered estuary and broad bay were ideal for launching ships and for maritime commerce. Meanwhile, farming and fishing remained staples: the town sent salted fish, lumber, and produce to market, continuing a legacy of living off the land and sea. ​
 

With its mix of New England, German, and Wabanaki influences, Waldoboro developed a distinctive cultural heritage. The Old German Meetinghouse, built in 1792, still stands as a museum, and the adjacent graveyard holds the graves of the first German pioneers. Local lore abounds with tales of those early days – from Conrad Heyer (said to be the first white child born in the town, in 1749) to stories of settlers hiding in hogsheads (barrels) during Indian attacks. Over time, the German language faded, but many descendants of the Broad Bay families remain in the area, and surnames like Welt, Winchenbach, and Hoch still dot the town’s mailboxes. This layered history – Native American, colonial German, and Yankee American – makes the Medomak region especially rich for historical study. Each generation left its mark on the landscape, whether it’s an ancient shell heap eroding out of a riverbank, the faint lines of an old colonial road or cellar hole detectable in the woods, or the neatly laid stone foundations of 19th-century barns and mills.

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Unearthing the Past: Archaeology in the Medomak Region

In recent decades, archaeologists and historians have turned their attention to the Medomak River area to piece together its multi-faceted past. A combination of traditional excavations, surveys of historical documents and maps, and cutting-edge remote sensing technologies has greatly expanded what we know. Notably, experts consider Waldoboro’s soil to hold an unusual abundance of well-preserved sites spanning many eras. Research archaeologist Harbour Mitchell III, who has spent years excavating in Waldoboro, observed in 2024 that he “does not know of anywhere else in the state that compares to the town in terms of archaeological site richness and diversity”. Because Waldoboro’s settlement shifted around during the 1700s (due to wars and land disputes), artifacts from different periods were never built over and destroyed by continuous development. Instead, they lie scattered across fields and forests, waiting to be discovered. This creates a patchwork of archaeological remains: an early settler’s trash pit here, a 1750s garrison cellar there, a prehistoric camp site along the marsh, all relatively undisturbed. Mitchell and local historians have even proposed forming a town archaeology committee to help identify and protect these resources.

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Several significant research efforts and finds can be highlighted:

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• 1980s – Muscongus Bay Archaeological Project: The University of Maine led a multi-year study of coastal archaeology around western Muscongus Bay (the Medomak’s mouth). As part of this, archaeologist David Sanger and students surveyed and excavated shell middens on islands and shorelines, including the Todd Site on Hog Island’s Hockomock Point. They collected dozens of radiocarbon dates and environmental core samples, integrating archaeology with paleo-climate research. The result was one of the best-documented sequences of Native American life on the Maine coast, showing how people adapted to sea-level changes and marine ecosystem shifts over 3,000+ years. The Todd Site alone yielded thousands of artifacts (stone tools, pottery shards) now curated for study, and its data has been featured in theses and publications on Maine’s hunter-gatherers.
   

• 2018 – Shell Middens Under Threat: Awareness of coastal erosion’s impact on archaeology led to public outreach on the Medomak. In July 2018, Dr. Alice Kelley of the University of Maine’s Climate Change Institute led a field trip to shell midden sites along the Medomak estuary. Participants boated to coastal preserves and hiked to middens on the shoreline. There, Kelley explained current knowledge of these middens – how they preserve evidence of native life thousands of years ago – and described efforts to document and save them as rising seas and storm surges eat away at the banks. This citizen-science initiative, done in partnership with local land trusts, has helped flag endangered sites for potential excavation or at least recording before they vanish. (Indeed, volunteers report that in just the past decade, several middens in the nearby towns of Cushing, Friendship, and Waldoboro have been entirely washed out or looted.)
   

• 2020s – High-Tech Surveys of Colonial Sites: Recently, archaeologists have been deploying drone-based LiDAR and other remote sensing to map the Medomak region’s historic landscapes. LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) can penetrate tree canopy and generate detailed elevation models, revealing subtle traces of old human activity. In Waldoboro, Harbour Mitchell has used LiDAR imagery to locate old stone foundations, cellar depressions, and roadbeds hidden in the woods (). For example, a suspicious rectilinear outline spotted in a gulley via LiDAR led Mitchell and local historians into the field, where they identified the remains of a likely 18th-century structure (initially thought to be a cellar, possibly an old garrison house site). Such finds are then investigated on foot with shovel test pits to date them. Over 2018–2023, Mitchell excavated dozens of test pits across Waldoboro, uncovering artifacts like pottery sherds, clay pipes, hand-wrought nails, and even military items that paint a picture of early settler life. In one area of town, archaeologists identified what appears to be the remains of an encampment or garrison from the 1750s, including a large earthen cellar hole and remnants of a stone chimney base, surrounded by an extensive scatter of 18th-century ceramics and bottle glass. The richness of material – from fine Chinese export porcelains to everyday redware – suggests this site was a focal point of the community during the tumultuous French & Indian War period. Discoveries like these are “connecting the dots” between archival records and the ground truth: for instance, a militia Muster Roll of 1744 lists names of Broad Bay settlers who took up arms, and now archaeologists may have found the very spot where such men built their garrison.
   

• Historic Maps and Land Records: Complementing the field archaeology, historians have unearthed old maps, deeds, and surveys that document the Medomak region’s development. A remarkable artifact is the 1774 survey map of the west side of the Medomak River, mentioned earlier. Preserved in the Maine Historical Society archives, this map lists the names and acreage of German landowners 22 years after the initial settlement. It provides a snapshot of Broad Bay just before incorporation – a landscape of farm lots along the river, each tied to a family. For example, one can see the lot of Conrad Heyer (famous locally as the first child born in Waldoboro in 1747) and neighboring plots of other original grantees. The map’s creation “in consequence of the Pemaquid Claim” highlights how legal surveys went hand-in-hand with the transition from a frontier settlement to an organized town. Later maps, such as an 1815 plat of both sides of the Medomak and the 1857 Lincoln County atlas, further show the continuity and change in land ownership – by 1857, one finds Yankee names alongside German, and notes of shipyards, brickyards, and schoolhouses appear. These cartographic records are invaluable for researchers pinpointing where to look for physical remains on the landscape. Combining an old map with modern GPS and LiDAR, one can often find an overgrown cellar hole exactly where a house is drawn on an 18th-century survey.
   

Together, these archaeological and historical investigations are transforming our understanding of the Medomak region. They reveal an area that was not a backwater but rather a dynamic intersection of cultures and events: a place where Wabanaki dug clams and fished for alewives for generations, where an English captain’s betrayal in 1605 set off decades of uneasy relations, where German farmers carved homesteads out of the wilderness, only to see them burn in war, and where a resilient community rebuilt and eventually thrived, launching ships that sailed the world. Each new artifact pulled from the ground – be it a 3,000-year-old stemmed spearpoint or a 250-year-old musket flint – adds a piece to this grand puzzle.
 

Conclusion: Why the Medomak’s History Matters

The history of the Medomak River is the story of Maine in microcosm: Indigenous endurance, colonial ambition, cooperation and conflict, adaptation to a rugged environment, and the blending of cultures over time. The ongoing research into this region’s past is not merely academic; it profoundly enriches the community’s sense of identity. Waldoboro’s residents today take pride in their unique roots – it’s not every Maine town that can claim a sagamore like Samoset and a settler like Jürgen Heinrich (George Henry) Sohon within its early annals! By studying the Wawenock middens, we honor the memory of the first Mainers and gain appreciation for how they lived in harmony with the ebb and flow of tide and seasons.

By excavating the Broad Bay colonists’ cellar holes and trash pits, we give voice to those hardy immigrants – their hopes, struggles, and contributions (from the first Lutheran church in Maine to the shipwright traditions passed down). Even the river’s environmental history, such as the decline of alewives after dams and overfishing (once 40,000 were harvested annually, until they neared “practically extinct” by the 1950s), teaches us lessons about human impact on nature and the importance of restoration efforts today.

 

In sum, the Medomak River’s significance goes far beyond its 40-mile length. Its headwaters in Liberty witnessed Native portage routes and seasonal camps; its tidal shores in Waldoboro and Bremen hosted encounters between civilizations and the growth of a fledgling town; its mouth at Muscongus Bay was a gateway for trade, travel, and cultural exchange. Thanks to the work of historians, archaeologists, and local stewards, we are continually peeling back new layers of this history. Each finding – whether a long-lost map, a drone scan revealing an old farmstead, or a trove of ancient oyster shells – is like a time capsule, bridging us to the people who came before. As we compile these discoveries, a clearer narrative emerges: one of resilience, adaptation, and interconnection. The Medomak River has always been a lifeline – first for the Wabanaki who named it, then for the Broad Bay settlers who built their lives along its banks, and now for us, as a source of heritage and insight. By listening to what the land and water are telling us, we gain a deeper appreciation for this place we call home. The past flows through the Medomak as surely as the current itself, and by exploring it, we ensure that the river’s many stories will not be forgotten.
 

​Sources:​

• Damariscotta Historical Society, Town History: Wawenock (Walinakiak) inhabited the mid-coast, leaving 2,500-year-old oyster shell middens (Town History | Damariscotta ME).

• Lincoln County News, “Local Man Makes History – 400 Years Ago”: Account of Samoset, Waymouth’s 1605 kidnapping of Wawenock men, and early contact in Wawenock territory (Local Man Makes History — 400 Years Ago - The Lincoln County News).

• Wikipedia: Medomak River – Name meaning (“many alewives”) and human history (Waldo Patent vs. Pemaquid Patent, German settlement) (Medomak River - Wikipedia); Waldoboro, Maine – Broad Bay colony timeline, war attacks in 1746, German recruitment of 1500 immigrants, incorporation in 1773 (Waldoboro, Maine - Wikipedia).

• Gilder Lehrman Institute, William Burns Declaration (1747) – German settlers’ experience in King George’s War: Louisbourg expedition, August 1745 Indian raid at Medomak, settlers forced into garrisons ([William Burns's declaration regarding the Muscongus settlement] | Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History).

• The Town Line newspaper, “Scores & Outdoors: The shell-middens…” – Notes on Maine shell middens (age up to 5,000 BP, Red Paint and Ceramic period cultures) and an intact 800 m³ midden on upper Medomak River unstudied as of 1983 (SCORES & OUTDOORS: The shell-middens (what are they?) are trying to tell us something - The Town Line Newspaper).

• University of Maine News, “Field trip to shell middens on the Medomak River” (2018) – Prof. Alice Kelley’s outreach on documenting middens threatened by sea-level rise (VillageSoup advances shell midden field trip led by Kelley - UMaine News - University of Maine).

• CNEA Newsletter (1984) – Mention of the Todd Site, a stratified shell midden on the Medomak (Muscongus Bay) excavated by David Sanger, yielding a well-dated cultural sequence (Ancient Times at Hockomock Point by David Sanger).

• Lincoln County News, “‘Enormous’ Potential for Discovery in Waldoboro Soil” (Jan 2024) – Interview with archaeologist Harbour Mitchell III on Waldoboro’s dense archaeological record, examples of artifacts and foundations from 1700s sites, and the use of LiDAR to locate features like old stone cellar holes (‘Enormous’ Potential for Discovery in Waldoboro Soil, Says Archaeologist - The Lincoln County News) ().

• RootsWeb Broad Bay Chronology – Transcriptions of 1740s letters (Burns to Waldo) describing settlers in garrison, lacking supplies, during 1744–45 attacks (Chapter Twenty-One).

• Maine Historical Society’s Maine Memory Network – Plan of lands on west side of Medomak River, 1774: German landowners’ lots surveyed due to Pemaquid Patent claim, just before town incorporation (Copy of a plan of lands on the west side of Madomack River, Waldoboro, 1774 - Maine Memory Network).

• Maine.gov DACF, Whaleback Shell Midden (history site) – Description of Damariscotta shell heaps, 1886 photo of Whaleback Midden (30-ft deep), and significance of shell middens for archaeology (Popham Colony: History: Discover History & Explore Nature: State Parks and Public Lands: Maine ACF).

• Maine Encyclopedia, “Shell Middens” – Notes that Damariscotta/Whaleback midden had no European artifacts (abandoned before contact), and that Europeans noted these sites from early 1600s (Shell Middens | Maine: An Encyclopedia).

• Smithsonian Magazine, “Mining an Oyster Midden” – Background on the 1886 mining of Whaleback Midden for fertilizer and the preservation of some middens despite exploitation (Popham Colony: History: Discover History & Explore Nature: State Parks and Public Lands: Maine ACF) (Mining an Oyster Midden | Smithsonian).
   

Each of these sources contributes pieces of the Medomak puzzle – from academic analyses to local narratives – allowing us to assemble the comprehensive story told in this post. Through continued research and preservation, that story will only grow richer in years to come, keeping the Medomak River’s heritage alive for future generations.