Allen Island or Allen's Island is a
private island
A private island is a disconnected body of land wholly owned by a private citizen or corporation. Although this exclusivity gives the owner substantial control over the property, private islands remain under the jurisdiction of national and som ...
which is part of
St. George,
Knox County, Maine
Knox County is a county located in the state of Maine, in the United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 40,607. Its county seat is Rockland. The county is named for American Revolutionary War general and Secretary of War Hen ...
. it is located near the southeastern end of
Muscongus Bay
Muscongus Bay is a bay on the coast of Maine, United States, between Penobscot Bay and John's Bay. Muscongus was the name of an Abenaki village meaning "fishing place" or "many r largerock ledges." John Smith recorded the river in 1616 as Nusc ...
, roughly midway between the southernmost parts of the St. George's mainland, and
Monhegan Island
Monhegan () is an island in the Gulf of Maine located in Lincoln County, Maine, United States. A plantation, a minor civil division in the state of Maine falling between unincorporated area and a town, it is located about off the mainland. Th ...
.
Description
The island is the largest of a small cluster of islands marking the southeastern extent of Muscongus Bay. To its northwest is Benner Island, from which it is separated by a relatively narrow channel, and to the east, across a wider channel, is Burnt Island (not to be confused with Burnt Island in Boothbay Harbor, where
Burnt Island Light is located). The geographic features match those described in
James Rosier
James Rosier (1573–1609) was an English explorer who is notable for his account of a 1605 expedition to America in which describes native peoples and fauna of northern New England. He describes a journey along a "great river", but the identity ...
's account of the exploratory expedition of
George Waymouth, in which landing and exploration of an island is made.
In 1979, the island was purchased by Betsy Wyeth, wife of painter
Andrew Wyeth
Andrew Newell Wyeth ( ; July 12, 1917 – January 16, 2009) was an American visual artist, primarily a realist painter, working predominantly in a regionalist style. He was one of the best-known U.S. artists of the middle 20th century.
In his ...
. The island had lost its full-time residents when it was purchased by Wyeth and had become "a seasonal home for two fishing families living in decaying houses on the fringe of the fast-encroaching spruce forest".
Betsy Wyeth's World is an Island in Maine
Yankee Magazine, October 2006
Archaeological site
The island contains archaeologically sensitive prehistoric sites. It was surveyed by the state in the early 1980s, seeking confirming evidence of Waymouth's expedition landing, and a stratified Contact Period/Middle Woodland site was identified.National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...
on December 15, 1983.
See also
* List of islands of Maine
This list primarily derives from the Maine Coastal Island Registry, a database of the 3166 coastal islands from the largest (Mount Desert Island) to the smallest islets and ledges exposed above mean high tide. Some notable inland freshwater island ...
* National Register of Historic Places listings in Knox County, Maine
References
External links
*
{{authority control
Private islands of Maine
Islands of Knox County, Maine
Archaeological sites on the National Register of Historic Places in Maine
National Register of Historic Places in Knox County, Maine
Islands of Maine
Coastal islands of Maine