Kennebec County is home to Augusta, capital of Maine. Long before Europeans came up the Kennebec River to the "head of the tide," Algonquian-speaking Indians, considered Wabanaki or "People of the Dawn," were already here. As early as1607, the area was explored by English settlers from the short-lived Sagadahoc or Popham Colony at the river’s mouth.
Representatives of Plymouth Colony were the first English to actually live here. In 1625, on a river expedition to find a place to trade agricultural products for Indian furs, Plymouth pilgrims chose the east shore for their "House at Kennebeck." The post, probably built in 1628, was operated by the original traders and, later, by Plymouth Company with varying degrees of success, until it was abandoned some time between 1669 and 1676.
In 1799, Augusta became the shire town of the newly formed Kennebec County. In 1827, the town was designated the capital of Maine, which had entered the union in 1820 as the 23rd state. The Maine Legislature met here for the first time in January, 1832. Augusta was chartered as a city in 1849.
Old Fort Western, built in 1754 and a National Historic Landmark, is America's oldest surviving wooden fort - a reminder of the great contest of cultures that dominated New England life 250 years ago.
The Fort was built by the Kennebec Proprietors, a Boston-based company seeking to settle the lands along the Kennebec River that had been granted to the Pilgrims more than a century earlier. The company and the Province of Massachusetts both were interested in expanding their influence in the area as part of an effort by Britain and her colonies to take final political control of North America and to sever the ties between the Abenaki and the French in Canada.
The Androscoggin Yacht Club is located just off of Route 133 in Wayne, Maine. It is one of the oldest yacht clubs in the United States, having been in existence for over 90 years. You don't need to own a boat to join, and everyone is welcome!
The Colby College Museum of the Arts located in Waterville, was founded in 1959. The museum has an outstanding permanent collection of 18th-, 19th- and 20th-century American art, as well as an active temporary exhibition program. Admission, gallery talks, lectures and receptions are open to the public free of charge. The museum gift shop offers a variety of cards, posters, and books.
