Review: Forgotten on the Kennebec by David Fiske

Review: Forgotten on the Kennebec: Abandoned Places and Quirky People
by David Fiske

reviewed by Michelle Souliere

This slender volume is an excellent addition to the library of anyone who enjoys exploring the history of Maine for themselves. While many tomes of Maine history spend their pages listing dusty names and dates, this little book will literally take you to the very sites of the history itself.

Focusing on the Kennebec River area, it selects three choice locations which are open to public entry and proceeds to give the reader not only an overview of each spot's history but also capsule portraits of notary personages that were associated with each location. With this approach, author David Fiske provides just enough practical information to get visitors to the spot in question, and allows the reader to explore the land on foot, while giving a taste of the personalities that helped shape and inhabit the landscape. In this way he paints a picture of how the now-empty structures were once filled with life and history in the making.

The three locations that Fiske turns his attention to include some of Maine's old fortifications, still standing, and one island which once housed a township, where today birds and wildlife roam among long-abandoned buildings: Fort Popham and Fort Baldwin in Phippsburg, Maine, Fort Western and the Kennebec Arsenal in Augusta, Maine, and Perkins Township on Swan Island, offshore from Richmond, Maine.

Each section is peppered with photos taken by the author at the location, and illuminated with quick prose sketches that clearly flesh out the historic lay of the land and its personality. This slim volume will tuck easily into any day-explorer's backpack, and while it won't add much weight to your pack, it will undoubtedly add to your enjoyment of a few of Maine's quieter historic spots, where the state's history waits for you to discover it in person.

Another nifty feature is the inclusion of a bibliography with each section, allowing readers to research the locations’ history further at will. This is a real bonus for amateur historians, and is an often overlooked element in standard guidebooks.

Sturgeon Collision Shocks Cops

Sturgeon have long been a part of Maine. The town of Gardiner celebrates Sturgeon Day on September 27th [Source], and the fish is the town's mascot. Eva8 writes on her Flickr site (where you can see a great photo of a golden sturgeon weathervane), "the city of Gardiner has adopted the sturgeon as it's symbol, because a long time ago, people used to catch huge sturgeon in the Kennebec River, and because of the removal of a dam, and a long process of unpolluting the river, we are hoping the sturgeon will come back."

According to Wikipedia, the sturgeon belongs to "one of the oldest families of bony fish in existence" and "are distinctive for their elongated bodies, lack of scales, and occasional great size: Sturgeons ranging from 7–12 feet (2-3½ m) in length are common, and some species grow up to 18 feet (5.5 m)." They are rascally fish, giant, armor-plated and strong. Witness a recent event on the Kennebec River! Video available at WCSH site.

Leaping Fish Takes Out Marine Patrol Boat

BRUNSWICK (NEWS CENTER) -- Friday morning, Marine Patrol Sergeant Paul Joyce and Officer Chris Hilton launched their patrol boat on the Kennebec River.

They routinely patrol the area to check on boat safety and compliance with fishing regulations. But this routine patrol turned into a bizarre emergency. As they passed through Fiddler's Reach, their day took a turn for the worse.

Sgt. Paul Joyce, of the Maine Marine Patrol, said, "We were going at a decent clip and that fish came right up here into the windshield and the windshield just exploded, just made an explosion noise, bam! It was unbelievable. Chris was sitting right there, he ducked in towards me, and I ducked away toward the port side of the boat."

A big fish had jumped out of the water and collided with their patrol boat.

"That fish had to be easily a four foot long sturgeon, they leap out of the water constantly, and he had at least an 8 to 10 inch girth on it."

Sturgeon are bottom feeders but often can be seen leaping through the air on that part of the Kennebec.

Christopher Hilton, a Marine Patrol Officer, remarked, "You watch them come out of the water all the time and some of them get some big air and good hangtime. He was just up in the air and we came through at the right time and when I saw him leap over and clear the bow the next thing I knew was he was going to hit the windshield."

Officer Hilton was at the wheel and took the brunt of the impact. Glass shards and fish scales showered them both. Hilton was taken to mid-coast hospital for minor cuts.

While they are laughing about the incident now, they both know that it could have been much worse.

The marine patrol officers had never heard of this happening before, but a commander in the Augusta office says while it is a rare occurrence, boaters should be aware of the dangers of leaping sturgeon.

[Source]

Giant sturgeon make themselves known in rivers all over the place, knocking people unconscious and so on. Do they find this activity entertaining? One can only wonder. Northern Maine's legendary lake monster,Ponik, has been rumored to have as his secret real identity that of a great sturgeon.

Scribal Terror has a great post about the huge fish which mentions a description of them which Nathaniel Hawthorne recorded during his time in Maine in the early 1800s:

But while looking at the rushing and rippling stream, I saw a great fish, some six feet long and thick in proportion, suddenly emerge at whole length, turn a somerset, and then vanish again beneath the water. It was a glistening, yellowish brown, with its fins all spread, and looking very strange and startling darting so life-like from the black water, throwing itself fully into the bright sunshine, and then lost to sight and pursuit. (Augusta, Maine. July, 1837.)

For more on the fish, including photos, please read the full Scribal Terror post, which is very interesting: Source]

Body found behind Morning Sentinel office

I wonder if these boys are going to take up their father's trade of reporting after this early start to their investigative careers? See link below story for the latest.

BODY DISCOVERED: Man's death ruled 'suspicious'
By Alan Crowell, Morning Sentinel staff
03/17/2008

Morning Sentinel staff photo
FOUND BODY: Jake Hickey, left, and his brother, Ben, of Watervillle speak on Sunday about finding the body of a male down by the Kennebec River behind the Morning Sentinel building off Front Street. The teenagers were down by the river while waiting for their father, reporter Colin Hickey, inside the building. Police officers, from left, William Bonney, Tim Hinton, Chief Joe Massey and Kris Mckenna wait for state police investigators in the back parking lot.

WATERVILLE -- Police are investigating the suspicious death of an unidentified man whose body was found behind the Morning Sentinel building off Front Street Sunday night.[...]

"We are treating it as a suspicious death," said Gould late Sunday night after the body was recovered.

The body, that of a white male with short dark hair, was about 20 feet down a steep embankment that ends at the Kennebec River. It was between 5 and 10 feet from the river, near a platform that juts out from the bank. It was lying face down on top of the snow, clothed in blue jeans but naked from the waist up. Blood was clearly visible on the upper part of the back. One arm was folded under the corpse.

Waterville police strung yellow crime scene tape over a section of the river bank about 100 yards long Sunday night, as they waited for state police and a representative of the chief medical examiner's office.

At about 8 p.m., a hearse from Gallant Funeral Home arrived, and police used a section of rope to pull the body, encased in blue plastic, up the embankment.
...
The body was discovered by two brothers who were waiting in the parking lot for their father, a Morning Sentinel reporter.

Ben and Jake Hickey, the children of reporter Colin Hickey, discovered the remains at about 5 p.m. Ben, 17, said he and his brother had planned to climb down the bank to watch the fast-flowing river, but got no further than the top of a snow bank.

Jake, 14, was the first to see it.

"I said, 'Oh my God, is that a dead body?'" said Jake Hickey.

He then ran into the Sentinel and told his father. Matt DiFilippo, a sports reporter, said the boy seemed shaken after running up the stairs. Leaving the office with the boys and their father, DiFilippo saw the corpse and ran across the street to the police station to report it to a dispatcher.

"He said 'Are you sure it is not a mannequin?'" said DiFilippo.

"I said 'No, I don't think so, there is blood on his back,'" said DiFilippo.

Read full article here: [Source]

Follow-up article: Death not suspicious?