Cousins Island is an island in

Casco Bay Casco Bay is an bay, open bay of the Gulf of Maine on the coast of Maine in the United States. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's chart for Casco Bay marks the dividing line between the bay and the Gulf of Maine as running from ...

within the town of Yarmouth in

Cumberland County Cumberland County may refer to: Australia * Cumberland County, New South Wales * the former name of Cumberland Land District, Tasmania, Australia Canada *Cumberland County, Nova Scotia United Kingdom * Cumberland, historic county *Cumberl ...

Maine Maine ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the United States, and the northeasternmost state in the Contiguous United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Provinces and ...

, United States. It is listed as a

census-designated place A census-designated place (CDP) is a Place (United States Census Bureau), concentration of population defined by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes only. CDPs have been used in each decennial census since 1980 as the counte ...

, with a population of 490 as of the 2010 census. The CDP is part of the

Portland Portland most commonly refers to: *Portland, Oregon, the most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon *Portland, Maine, the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maine *Isle of Portland, a tied island in the English Channel Portland may also r ...

– South Portland–

Biddeford Biddeford ( ) is a city in York County, Maine, United States. It is the principal commercial center of York County. Its population was 22,552 at the 2020 census. The twin cities of Saco and Biddeford include the resort communities of Biddefo ...

, Maine Metropolitan Statistical Area. The island is connected to mainland Yarmouth by the Ellis C. Snodgrass Memorial Bridge (colloquially known as the Cousins Island Bridge), built in 1955. It is also connected to

Chebeague Island Chebeague Island is located in Casco Bay, an open bay of the Gulf of Maine. It was originally used as a fishing ground by Abenaki Native Americans. Also known as Great Chebeague (pronounced "sha-big") Island, today it is a town in Cumberland C ...

by a 15-minute ferry ride on the Chebeague Transportation Company's ferry, the '' Islander''. The island's southwestern peninsula is the site of the Wyman Power Station, an oil-fired electric power plant capable of producing up to 823 megawatts of electricity. Wyman is a

peaking power plant Peaking power plants, also known as peaker plants, and occasionally just "peakers", are power plants that generally run only when there is a high demand, known as peak demand, for electricity. Because they supply power only occasionally, the powe ...

, which means it is fired up to operate only during times of high electricity demand in the region, such as hot summer days. The Wyman Energy Center also includes a

lithium-ion battery A lithium-ion or Li-ion battery is a type of rechargeable battery that uses the reversible intercalation of Li+ ions into electronically conducting solids to store energy. Li-ion batteries are characterized by higher specific energy, energ ...

grid energy storage Grid energy storage, also known as large-scale energy storage, are technologies connected to the electrical power grid that store energy for later use. These systems help balance supply and demand by storing excess electricity from variabl ...

system which was the largest and the first of its kind in New England at the time of commissioning. The battery is designed to provide ISO-New England an option for handling the continual changes in electricity supply and demand. The island,

Cousins River The Cousins River ( Native American: ''Sisquisic'') is a , primarily tidal river in southern Maine. Rising in the town of Freeport at the junction of Harvey Brook and Merrill Brook, it flows south and forms, for most of its course, the boundary be ...

and Littlejohn Island (collectively known at the time as the Hogg Islands) are named after Englishman John Cousins (–1682), who emigrated from

Marlborough, Wiltshire Marlborough ( , ) is a market town and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in the England, English Counties of England, county of Wiltshire on the A4 road (England), Old Bath Road, the old main road from London to Bath, Somerset, Bath. Th ...

. He became the owner of Cousins Island in 1645 after purchasing it from Richard Vines, Steward General and councillor for Sir

Ferdinando Gorges Sir Ferdinando Gorges ( – 24 May 1647) was a naval and military commander and governor of the important port of Plymouth in England. He was involved in Essex's Rebellion against the Queen, but escaped punishment by testifying against the ma ...

.Our History
– cousinsandlittlejohnislands.org Two years later, he sold approximately half of it to Richard Bray, who settled there with William Wise.''Chamber of Commerce Journal of Maine'', Volume 13 (1901), p. 9 Heritage Radio station

WYAR WYAR (88.3 MHz) is a non-commercial radio station broadcasting an Adult standards radio format. Licensed to Yarmouth, Maine, United States, with the transmitter and tower located on nearby Cousins Island, the station serves the Portland and Lew ...

was established in 1998 by Gary King in the basement of his Cousins Island home. King died in 2019, but the station is still on air today.

Geography

According to the

United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the Federal statistical system, U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and American economy, econ ...

, the CDP has a total area of , of which is land and , or 46.51%, is water.

References

External links

* {{authority control Census-designated places in Cumberland County, Maine Census-designated places in Maine Islands of Casco Bay Islands of Cumberland County, Maine Landforms of Yarmouth, Maine Portland metropolitan area, Maine

Geography

See also

References

External links