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    The Saco River
    The Saco River
    The Saco River
    Ebook175 pages52 minutes

    The Saco River

    By David Robinson and Elizabeth Tanefis

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    About this ebook

    From its source in New Hampshire's White Mountains to its mouth at Saco-Biddeford, the Saco River draws visitors and residents alike to swim, fish, canoe, and white-water kayak. The Saco brought tourists to the White Mountains and influenced the development of both large and small towns, shaping their history and creating bustling centers of industry. The Saco River documents the river through postcards from 1905 to the 1940s, when mills dominated the landscape.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArcadia Publishing
    Release dateNov 22, 2010
    ISBN9781439638934
    The Saco River
    Author

    David Robinson

    David Robinson is the founder and CEO of Vertical Performance Enterprises, a leadership and management consulting company specializing in executive leadership development and organizational performance improvement. A former fighter pilot, TOPGUN instructor, and U.S. Marine Corps colonel with over three decades of experience leading high-performing teams in complex, dynamic, high-stakes operating environments, David is a senior advisor to Fortune 1000 companies and an international speaker on the subject of leadership effectiveness. His passion is helping leaders inspire their teams to change their world. David grew up in Winchester, Virginia and currently lives with his family in Hilton Head, South Carolina. www.verticalperformance.us

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    • 5/5
      This is a great detailed book. If you’re researching or curious this is the book for you. I would definite recommend reading it. If you have a friend or family member that is interested you can email one of the authors. If you Google her number is: (866) 351-8484 I think. You could also get it autographed and discuss this information further

    Book preview

    The Saco River - David Robinson

    Society.

    INTRODUCTION

    Although other books of historical images have captured parts of the Saco River in detail, there has yet to be a book that uses postcard images to look at the river as a holistic, interconnected system. The Saco River seeks to do just this, identifying the common themes and images among the many towns that line the banks of the Saco from its source in the White Mountains of New Hampshire to its mouth below the cities of Saco and Biddeford in Maine. Examining the Saco River through the lens of postcards provides a unique firsthand perspective on history. Looking back, historians can identify the area’s most important people, places, and events, but what did people at the time think was important and noteworthy? Here postcards can illustrate history better than any written text, as we can see the world through the eyes and minds of those who lived and worked on the Saco between 1900 and 1950. This collection of postcards helps us to understand what events, people, and places were most important to those who witnessed development firsthand on the Saco River.

    While this book’s postcard images depict a very specific period of time, the postcard era, understanding the broader history of the Saco River lends insight into the ebb and flow of the river’s development. The Native Americans of the Saco Valley were the first people to utilize the Saco for their livelihood. The Sokokis tribe believed the river was a spiritual pathway connecting the ocean to the mountains and used the river for transportation and fishing. The Sokokis lived in a large village near Fryeburg and often traveled up and downriver, spending summers at Factory Island or near the mouth of the Saco. Factory Island was known to be a favorite spot for clambakes.

    In the 1630s, the first English settlers established a settlement at Winter Harbor, near present-day Biddeford Pool. They later established a more permanent village at Saco-Biddeford near the falls. Early on, settlers relied on the river for economic vitality, having discovered that they could cut massive pines upriver and float them down the Saco to be used for ship masts. Despite several decades of peaceful coexistence, relations between the settlers and Native Americans had deteriorated by 1675, when the village of Saco was attacked during King Philip’s War. More conflicts ensued, limiting the livelihood of both the settlers and Sokoki people, until a peace treaty was signed in 1763 ending the French and Indian War.

    Peace and stability allowed development to flourish with many sawmills and manufacturing centers springing up on the banks of the river in the early 1800s, propelling Saco-Biddeford industrial centers. In 1827, twenty-one million feet of lumber was produced in their sawmills alone. Saco and Biddeford are unique when compared to other towns along the river in that they became one of New England’s major textile manufacturing centers. As in other textile towns, these mills provided increased employment opportunities and economic advancement for the local community. As the riverbanks became crowded with mills and factories, entrepreneurs began looking upriver for suitable places to locate their new pulp mills and sawmills. As a result, the villages of Salmon Falls, Bar Mills, West Buxton, Bonny Eagle, Limington, Steep Falls, and Hiram all enjoyed economic growth as mill proprietors began to build and operate in these towns. These mills produced lumber, pulp, and paper products and were dependent on the Saco River for power and transportation and the log drives to provide them with raw materials.

    While this industrial development was occurring, the upper section of the Saco River was becoming a thriving tourism and recreational area. Development in the White Mountains did not focus on industry, but instead on building infrastructure to attract sightseers to the area. Throughout the 1800s, new roads through the mountains were being constructed, hotels and resorts were blossoming, and the railroad was expanding into Crawford Notch. What resulted was an influx of well-to-do tourists who appreciated the serene beauty of mountain vistas as well as the recreational activities offered by the natural landscape. The beautiful terrain also attracted renowned artists like Benjamin Champney who captured the majestic views in an artistic style, which would become known as The White Mountain School. Tourism was not limited to the White Mountains, but also spilled farther downriver into Fryeburg, where people enjoyed recreational activities in the foothills of the mountains.

    This history leaves us at the start of the 20th century, which marks the beginning of the postcard era. By this time, most of the sawmills had ceased operation, soon to be replaced by more modern mills and hydroelectric power stations. Tourism and sightseeing upriver were still flourishing, but would see a downturn in business at the time of World War I. Postcard images in The Saco River capture this period of transition to new types of industry in the early 1900s and then finally, after World War II, a change in the landscape of the Saco River as businesses that had become less dependent on the river moved elsewhere. While industrial development started near the mouth of the Saco and moved upriver, this book instead begins at the source of the Saco in the White Mountains and follows the river’s route through New Hampshire, into Maine, and finally out to the Atlantic. Highlights of the collection include a rare close-up image

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