Portland Headlight Maine William Aiken Walker

Casco Bay is an inlet of the Gulf of Maine on the southern coast of

Maine Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and ...

New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York (state), New York to the west and by the Can ...

, United States. Its easternmost approach is Cape Small and its westernmost approach is Two Lights in Cape Elizabeth. The city of Portland sits along its southern edge and the Port of Portland lies within.

European discovery

There are two theories on the origin of the name "Casco Bay". ''Aucocisco'' is the Abenaki name for the bay, which means 'place of herons' (sometimes translated as 'muddy'). The Portuguese explorer

Estêvão Gomes Estêvão Gomes, also known by the Spanish version of his name, Esteban Gómez (c. 1483 – 1538), was a Portuguese cartography, cartographer and explorer. He sailed at the service of Crown of Castile, Castile (Spain) in the fleet of Ferdinand M ...

, mapped the Maine coast in 1525 and named the bay "Bahía de Cascos" (Bay of Helmets, based on the shape of the bay). The first colonial settlement in Casco Bay was that of Capt. Christopher Levett, an English explorer, who built a house on House Island in 1623–24. The settlement failed. The first permanent settlement of the bay was named Casco; despite changing names throughout history, that settlement remains the largest city in the Casco Bay region, now called the city of

Portland, Maine Portland is the largest city in the U.S. state of Maine and the seat of Cumberland County. Portland's population was 68,408 in April 2020. The Greater Portland metropolitan area is home to over half a million people, the 104th-largest metropo ...

. It was first reported in 1700 by Colonel Wolfgang William Römer, an English

military engineer Military engineering is loosely defined as the art, science, and practice of designing and building military works and maintaining lines of military transport and military communications. Military engineers are also responsible for logistics ...

, that the bay had "as many islands as there are days in the year",''The Islands of Casco Bay'', p. 3 leading to the bay's islands being called the Calendar Islands based on the popular myth there are 365 of them. The '' United States Coastal Pilot'' lists 136 islands; meanwhile, Robert M. York, the former Maine state

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the st ...

, said there are "little more than two hundred islands".

History

Native American occupation and relations

At the time of European contact in the sixteenth century, people speaking an Eastern dialect of the Wabanaki language inhabited present-day Casco Bay. A number of Treaties were negotiated and signed between the British colonies and members of the

Wabanaki Confederacy The Wabanaki Confederacy (''Wabenaki, Wobanaki'', translated to "People of the Dawn" or "Easterner") is a North American First Nations and Native American confederation of four principal Eastern Algonquian nations: the Miꞌkmaq, Maliseet ( ...

in Casco Bay, including the Treaty of Casco (1678), the Treaty of Casco (1703), and Treaty of Casco Bay (1727). The latter Treaty was the result of a Conference between the British and the Abenaki in August, 1727, at which the parties agreed to uphold the terms of the 1725 Treaty of Peace and Friendship which ended Dummer's War, and to cooperate with each other in keeping the peace. Chief Loron Sagouarram, who had signed the Treaty of 1725, addressed the gathering in 1727, providing his understanding of the Treaty relationship. During King William's War, Louis de Buade de Frontenac, the Governor General of New France, launched a campaign to drive the English from the settlements east of Falmouth, Maine. On 16 May, 1690, the fortified settlement on Casco Bay was attacked by a war party of 50 French-Canadian soldiers led by Jean-Vincent d'Abbadie de Saint-Castin, about 50 Abenaki warriors from Canada, a contingent of French militia led by Joseph-François Hertel de la Fresnière, and 300-400 additional natives from Maine, including some Penobscots under the leadership of

Madockawando Madockawando (born in Maine c. 1630; died 1698) was a sachem of the Penobscot, an adopted son of ''Assaminasqua,'' whom he succeeded. He led the Penobscot on the side of the French against the English during King William's War. Biography The Penobs ...

. Fort Loyal was attacked at the same time. About 75 men in the Casco settlement fought for four days before surrendering on 20 May, on condition of safe passage. Instead, most of the men, including John Swarton, were killed, and the surviving settlers were taken captive, including Hannah Swarton and her children. Swarton was ransomed in 1695 and her story published by Cotton Mather.Coleman, Emma Lewis. ''New England captives carried to Canada between 1677 and 1760, during the French and Indian wars.'' Portland, Maine: The Southworth Press, 1925.
/ref>

War of 1812

Casco Bay is also home to abandoned military fortifications dating from the

War of 1812 The War of 1812 (18 June 1812 – 17 February 1815) was fought by the United States, United States of America and its Indigenous peoples of the Americas, indigenous allies against the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom ...

through

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

; during

, Casco Bay served as an anchorage for

US Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

ship A ship is a large watercraft that travels the world's oceans and other sufficiently deep waterways, carrying cargo or passengers, or in support of specialized missions, such as defense, research, and fishing. Ships are generally distinguished ...

Civil War

Fort Gorges on Hog Island Ledge in the middle of Portland Harbor, dates to the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states ...

World War II

Since Casco Bay was the nearest American anchorage to the Atlantic Lend-Lease convoy routes to Britain prior to US entry into World War II,

Admiral King Ernest Joseph King (23 November 1878 – 25 June 1956) was an American naval officer who served as Commander in Chief, United States Fleet (COMINCH) and Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) during World War II. As COMINCH-CNO, he directed the Un ...

ordered a large pool of destroyers to be stationed there for convoy escort duty in August 1941. The State Historic Site of Eagle Island was the summer home of

Arctic The Arctic ( or ) is a polar region located at the northernmost part of Earth. The Arctic consists of the Arctic Ocean, adjacent seas, and parts of Canada (Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut), Danish Realm (Greenland), Finland, Iceland, N ...

explorer Robert Peary.

In popular culture

*''

The Whales of August ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

'', one of

Bette Davis Ruth Elizabeth "Bette" Davis (; April 5, 1908 – October 6, 1989) was an American actress with a career spanning more than 50 years and 100 acting credits. She was noted for playing unsympathetic, sardonic characters, and was famous for her pe ...

's last films, was shot here in 1987. *In 2008, composers Peter J. McLaughlin and Akiva G. Zamcheck wrote a piece in four movements paying homage to the wreck of the Don, lost near Ragged Island on June 29, 1941. The piece received critical acclaim from the ''Portland Press Herald'' and from fellow Maine composers.

Marine economy

Portland has a substantial fleet of deep-sea

fishing Fishing is the activity of trying to catch fish. Fish are often caught as wildlife from the natural environment, but may also be caught from stocked bodies of water such as ponds, canals, park wetlands and reservoirs. Fishing techniques inclu ...

vessels that offload their catch primarily at the Portland Fish Exchange. Numerous towns and islands serve as ports for lobster boats. Recreational fishing boats can also be chartered.

Marinas A marina (from Spanish , Portuguese and Italian : ''marina'', "coast" or "shore") is a dock or basin with moorings and supplies for yachts and small boats. A marina differs from a port in that a marina does not handle large passenger ship ...

include: * Chebeague Island Boat Yard on Great Chebeague Island; * Diamond Marine Service Inc. on Great Diamond Island; * Dolphin Marina and Great Island Boat Yard in Harpswell; * Handy Boat Service Inc. in Falmouth; * DiMillo's Old Port Marina, Maine Yacht Center and Portland Yacht Services in Portland; * Paul's Marina on Mere Point in Brunswick; * Peaks Island Marina on Peaks Island; * Port Harbor Marina, South Port Marine, Spring Point Marina and Sunset Marina in South Portland; * Brewer's and Strouts Point Wharf Co. in South Freeport; * Royal River Boat Yard, Yankee Marina and Boatyard, and Yarmouth Boat Yard in Yarmouth Harbor. During the 1980s and 1990s,

Bath Iron Works Bath Iron Works (BIW) is a major United States shipyard located on the Kennebec River in Bath, Maine, founded in 1884 as Bath Iron Works, Limited. Since 1995, Bath Iron Works has been a subsidiary of General Dynamics. It is the fifth-largest ...

operated a dry dock in Portland Harbor to repair U.S. Navy vessels.

Ecology

Predominant

fish Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Approximately 95% of ...

in the bay include mackerel, striped bass, and bluefish. Shellfish include lobsters, crabs, mussels,

clam Clam is a common name for several kinds of bivalve molluscs. The word is often applied only to those that are edible and live as infauna, spending most of their lives halfway buried in the sand of the seafloor or riverbeds. Clams have two shel ...

s and

snail A snail is, in loose terms, a shelled gastropod. The name is most often applied to land snails, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod molluscs. However, the common name ''snail'' is also used for most of the members of the molluscan class G ...

s. Harbor seals congregate on certain exposed ledges, and

whale Whales are a widely distributed and diverse group of fully aquatic placental marine mammals. As an informal and colloquial grouping, they correspond to large members of the infraorder Cetacea, i.e. all cetaceans apart from dolphins and ...

s on occasion swim into the bay, and in a few instances into

Portland Harbor Portland most commonly refers to: * Portland, Oregon, the largest city in the state of Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States * Portland, Maine, the largest city in the state of Maine, in the New England region of the northeas ...

. Seagulls, cormorants and varying species of

duck Duck is the common name for numerous species of waterfowl in the family Anatidae. Ducks are generally smaller and shorter-necked than swans and geese, which are members of the same family. Divided among several subfamilies, they are a form ...

s are the most common birds; more rarely

osprey The osprey (''Pandion haliaetus''), , also called sea hawk, river hawk, and fish hawk, is a diurnal, fish-eating bird of prey with a cosmopolitan range. It is a large raptor reaching more than in length and across the wings. It is brown o ...

eagle Eagle is the common name for many large birds of prey of the family Accipitridae. Eagles belong to several groups of genera, some of which are closely related. Most of the 68 species of eagle are from Eurasia and Africa. Outside this area, j ...

s and herons have been sighted. Casco Bay contains bay mud bottoms and banks in some locations, providing important substrates for biota.

Transportation

The major islands in the bay are served by the Casco Bay Lines ferry service at the

Maine State Pier The Maine State Pier is a municipal-owned deepwater marine facility and music venue located at the intersection of Commercial Street and Franklin Street on the eastern waterfront in Portland, Maine. It was completed in 1924. In the mid-2000s, co ...

in Portland. Peaks Island is served by a car ferry and, during the summer, sees 16 ferries a day. The other islands see fewer ferries and no car transport. Great and Little Diamond islands and Long Island are served primarily by the Diamond Pass run, which is popular with tourists in the summer months. Other services offered by Casco Bay Lines include a daily mailboat run, a cruise to Bailey Island, and a sunset run. Other services such as water taxis are also popular alternatives to the ferry, but are limited to six passengers per boat.

Notable cities and towns

From south to north: * Cape Elizabeth * South Portland * Portland * Falmouth * Cumberland * Yarmouth * Freeport * Brunswick * Harpswell * West Bath * Phippsburg

Islands

Major islands * Bailey Island *

Bustins Island Bustins Island is an island in inner Casco Bay, Maine, United States. It is part of the town of Freeport, in Cumberland County. Although physically located within Freeport, the Bustins Island Village Corporation is a self-governing entity. The i ...

Cliff Island Cliff Island is an island in Casco Bay, Maine, United States. It is part of the city of Portland. As of the 2000 census, the island had a year-round population of approximately 60 people. In the summer, the island's population grows to about ...

* Cousins Island * Cushing Island * Great Diamond Island * Great Chebeague Island * Long Island * Mackworth Island * Orr's Island * Peaks Island * Sebascodegan Island (Great Island) Minor islands * Bangs Island * Basket Island * Barnes Island * Bartol Island * Basin Island * Bates Island * Bear Island * Ben Island * Big Hen Island * Birch Island * Bombazine Island * Bowman Island * Bragdon Island * Burnt Coat Island * Bush Island * Center Island * Clapboard Island * Coombs Islands * Cow Island * Crab Island * Crow Island * Dingley Island * Eagle Island * East Brown Cow Island * Elm Islands * French Island * George Island * Gooseberry Island * Goose Nest Island * Great Mark Island * Halfway Rock * Harbor Island * Haskell Island * Hope Island * Horse Island * Home Island * House Island * Inner Green Island * Irony Island * Jacquish Island * Jenny Island * Jewel Island * Junk of Pork * Lanes Island * Little Bustins Island * Little Chebeague Island * Little Birch Island * Little Diamond Island * Little French Island * Littlejohn Island * Little Mark Island * Little Moshier Island * Little Snow Island * Little Whaleboat Island * Little Wood Island * Lower Goose Island *

Malaga Island Malaga Island is a island at the mouth of the New Meadows River in Casco Bay, Maine, United States. It was the site of an interracial community from the American Civil War until 1911, when the residents were forcibly evicted from the island. It ...

* Mark Island * Ministerial Island * Moshier Island * Mouse Island * Outer Green Island * Overset Island * Pettingill Island * Pinkham Island * Pole Island * Pound of Tea * Pumpkin Nob * Ragged Island * Ram Island * Raspberry Island * Rogue Island * Sand Island * Scrag Island * Sheep Island * Shelter Island * Snow Island * Stave Island (home to Survivor: Gabon winner Bob Crowley) * Stockman Island * Sister Island * Sow and Pigs * Sturdivant Island * Turnip Island * Two Bush Island * Upper Flag Island * Upper Goose Island * Upper Green Island * The Brothers * The Goslings * The Nubbin * Vail Island * Whaleboat Island * White Island * White Bull Island * Williams Island * Wood Island * Yarmouth Island

Lighthouses

Casco Bay is home to 6 lighthouses: * Cape Elizabeth Lights * Portland Head Light * Ram Island Ledge Light * Spring Point Ledge Light * Portland Breakwater (Bug) Light * Halfway Rock Light

Forts

Forts in Casco Bay:

Newspapers

The newspaper for Portland, the largest city in Casco Bay, is th
''Portland Press Herald''
(''Maine Sunday Telegram'' on Sundays). The Island Institute publishe
''The Working Waterfront''
a free monthly newspaper reporting "the news of Maine's coast and islands." For Southern Maine news, obituaries and sports
''The Forecaster''
is published weekly. In the early twentieth-century, the Casco Bay Breeze published news of the islands from 1901 to 1917. Digitized copies of The Casco Bay Breeze from 1903 to 1917 appear for free on the Library of Congress' website Chronicling America.

References

External links

{{Coord, 43, 38, N, 70, 03, W, source:GNIS_scale:500000, display=title Bays of Maine Bodies of water of Cumberland County, Maine