The Aroostook River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline data
The National Map
, accessed June 22, 2011 tributary of the Saint John River in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sover ...

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 north ...

and the

Canadian province Within the geographical areas of Canada, the ten provinces and three territories are sub-national administrative divisions under the jurisdiction of the Canadian Constitution. In the 1867 Canadian Confederation, three provinces of British North ...

New Brunswick New Brunswick (french: Nouveau-Brunswick, , locally ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. It is the only province with both English and ...

. Its basin is the largest sub-drainage of the Saint John River. The name is derived from the

Malecite The Wəlastəkwewiyik, or Maliseet (, also spelled Malecite), are an Algonquian-speaking First Nation of the Wabanaki Confederacy. They are the indigenous people of the Wolastoq ( Saint John River) valley and its tributaries. Their territory ...

name ''Wool-ahs-took'', translated by Ganong as "good river for everything". It appears as ''Arassatuk'' (DeRozier, 1699).

History

In the late 1830s, the territory comprising the river's drainage area was the scene of the

Aroostook War The Aroostook War (sometimes called the Pork and Beans WarLe Duc, Thomas (1947). The Maine Frontier and the Northeastern Boundary Controversy. ''The American Historical Review'' Vol. 53, No. 1 (Oct., 1947), pp. 30–41), or the Madawaska War, wa ...

, a boundary dispute between the United States and the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

Geography

The river rises in northeastern Maine from the

confluence In geography, a confluence (also: ''conflux'') occurs where two or more flowing bodies of water join to form a single channel. A confluence can occur in several configurations: at the point where a tributary joins a larger river (main stem); o ...

of Millinocket Stream and Munsungan Stream in Maine Township 8, Range 8, WELS, in northern Penobscot County. The river winds east and northeast through

Aroostook County Aroostook County ( ; french: Comté d'Aroostook) is a county in the U.S. state of Maine along the Canada–U.S. border. As of the 2020 census, the population was 67,105. Its county seat is Houlton, with offices in Caribou and Fort Kent. Kn ...

. It runs through Ashland, and passes north of Presque Isle and east of

Caribou Reindeer (in North American English, known as caribou if wild and ''reindeer'' if domesticated) are deer in the genus ''Rangifer''. For the last few decades, reindeer were assigned to one species, ''Rangifer tarandus'', with about 10 subspe ...

. It joins the Saint John River in

Aroostook, New Brunswick Aroostook ( ) (2016 population: 306) is a Canadian village in Victoria County, New Brunswick. Geography The village is located on the west bank of the Saint John River at the mouth of the Aroostook River. It is approximately 11 kilometres nort ...

, after crossing the

Canada–United States border The border between Canada and the United States is the longest international border in the world. The terrestrial boundary (including boundaries in the Great Lakes, Atlantic, and Pacific coasts) is long. The land border has two sections: Can ...

. The United States government maintains two river flow gages on the Aroostook. The first is located near Masardis, Maine () where the rivershed is . The second is at Washburn, Maine () where the rivershed is . By

Fort Fairfield, Maine Fort Fairfield is a town in Aroostook County, eastern Maine, United States, located along the Canada–US border. The population was 3,322 at the 2020 census. History Fort Fairfield is named for John Fairfield, 13th and 16th governor of Mai ...

the rivershed is . At Masardis, the maximum recorded flow is and the minimum per second. At Washburn, the maximum recorded flow is per second and the minimum per second. Annual maximum flows occur during the spring snow melt and minimums in the fall. The highest flood levels at both gages occurred during ice-dam induced floods, which occur relatively often on this river. Such flooding occurred in March and April 1999, April and May 2003, and April 2004. The

International Appalachian Trail The International Appalachian Trail (IAT; french: Sentier international des Appalaches, SIA) was originally a hiking trail which ran from Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument, in Maine, through New Brunswick, to the Gaspé Peninsula of Q ...

runs along the river for several miles. Hikers cross the river, pass through customs, and cross the international boundary at

Nature

The river has a small run of

Atlantic salmon The Atlantic salmon (''Salmo salar'') is a species of ray-finned fish in the family Salmonidae. It is the third largest of the Salmonidae, behind Siberian taimen and Pacific Chinook salmon, growing up to a meter in length. Atlantic salmon are ...

. From 1998 to 2001, the number of adults returning to the river ranged from seventeen to thirty.

References

External links

* USGS real-time river flow data a
Washburn, Maine
o
Masardis, Maine
(Masardis also has air temperature.) *See
panorama
of the Aroostook River at Washburn *National Weather Servic
forecast
of river levels and flow. *Real Time Aroostook Rive
WebCam
* {{Authority control Rivers of Aroostook County, Maine Rivers of New Brunswick Tributaries of the Saint John River (Bay of Fundy) International rivers of North America North Maine Woods

History

Geography

Nature

See also

References

External links