Phippsburg is a

town A town is a type of a human settlement, generally larger than a village but smaller than a city. The criteria for distinguishing a town vary globally, often depending on factors such as population size, economic character, administrative stat ...

in Sagadahoc County, Maine, United States, on the west side of the mouth of the

Kennebec River The Kennebec River (Abenaki language, Abenaki: ''Kinəpékʷihtəkʷ'') is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map , accessed June 30, 2011 natural river within the U.S. state of Ma ...

. The population was 2,155 at the 2020 census. It is within the

Portland-South Portland-Biddeford metropolitan area The city of Portland, Maine, is the hub city of a metropolitan area in southern Maine. The region is commonly known as Greater Portland or the Portland metropolitan area. For statistical purposes, the U.S. federal government defines three differ ...

. A tourist destination, Phippsburg is home to

Bates Bates may refer to: Places * Bates, Arkansas, an unincorporated community * Bates, Illinois. an unincorporated community in Sangamon County * Bates, Michigan, a community in Grand Traverse County * Bates, New York, a hamlet in the town of Elli ...

-Morse Mountain Conservation Area, Fort Popham State Historic Site; it is also home to Fort Baldwin which overlooks Fort Popham, and Popham Beach State Park, as well as Pond Island National Wildlife Refuge. The town includes part of Winnegance.

History

Site of the

Popham Colony The Popham Colony—also known as the Sagadahoc Colony—was a short-lived English colonial settlement in North America. It was established in 1607 by the proprietary Plymouth Company and was located in the present-day town of Phippsburg, M ...

, Phippsburg was—between 1607 and 1608—the first known English settlement attempt in

New England New England is a region consisting of six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York (state), New York to the west and by the ...

. During its brief existence, colonists built '' Virginia of Sagadahoc'', the first ship in Maine's long history of

shipbuilding Shipbuilding is the construction of ships and other Watercraft, floating vessels. In modern times, it normally takes place in a specialized facility known as a shipyard. Shipbuilders, also called shipwrights, follow a specialized occupation th ...

. The next British settlement at the mouth of the

began in 1653; Thomas Atkins, a

fisherman A fisherman or fisher is someone who captures fish and other animals from a body of water, or gathers shellfish. Worldwide, there are about 38 million Commercial fishing, commercial and Artisan fishing, subsistence fishers and Fish farming, fi ...

, purchased from the

sachem Sachems and sagamores are paramount chiefs among the Algonquians or other Native American tribes of northeastern North America, including the Iroquois. The two words are anglicizations of cognate terms (c. 1622) from different Eastern Alg ...

Mowhotiwormet, commonly called Chief Robinhood, the southern end of Phippsburg (with the exception of Popham). Atkins Bay bears his name. The population gradually increased until

King Philip's War King Philip's War (sometimes called the First Indian War, Metacom's War, Metacomet's War, Pometacomet's Rebellion, or Metacom's Rebellion) was an armed conflict in 1675–1678 between a group of indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodland ...

, when

Indigenous peoples There is no generally accepted definition of Indigenous peoples, although in the 21st century the focus has been on self-identification, cultural difference from other groups in a state, a special relationship with their traditional territ ...

in August 1676 attacked the eastern side of the Kennebec River, massacring and

scalping Scalping is the act of cutting or tearing a part of the human scalp, with hair attached, from the head, and generally occurred in warfare with the scalp being a trophy. Scalp-taking is considered part of the broader cultural practice of the taki ...

the colonists, or else carrying them into captivity. Dwellings were burned and stocks of

cattle Cattle (''Bos taurus'') are large, domesticated, bovid ungulates widely kept as livestock. They are prominent modern members of the subfamily Bovinae and the most widespread species of the genus '' Bos''. Mature female cattle are calle ...

killed. The entire area was abandoned. Resettlement commenced in 1679 at Newtown, located on the southern end of Arrowsic Island (across the river from present-day Phippsburg Center). About 1684, Francis Small had a

trading post A trading post, trading station, or trading house, also known as a factory in European and colonial contexts, is an establishment or settlement where goods and services could be traded. Typically a trading post allows people from one geogr ...

at Cape Small, which bears his name. But in 1689 the area was again destroyed and deserted during

King William's War King William's War (also known as the Second Indian War, Father Baudoin's War, Castin's War, or the First Intercolonial War in French) was the North American theater of the Nine Years' War (1688–1697), also known as the War of the Grand Allian ...

. With the Treaty of Portsmouth in 1713, conflict was formally ended between the

Abenaki The Abenaki ( Abenaki: ''Wαpánahki'') are Indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands of Canada and the United States. They are an Algonquian-speaking people and part of the Wabanaki Confederacy. The Eastern Abenaki language was pred ...

and English settlements. In 1714, Newtown was reestablished, then incorporated in 1716 as Georgetown-on-Arrowsic by the

Massachusetts General Court The Massachusetts General Court, formally the General Court of Massachusetts, is the State legislature (United States), state legislature of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts located in the state capital of Boston. Th ...

. Also in 1716, the Pejepscot Proprietors established a little

fishing Fishing is the activity of trying to catch fish. Fish are often caught as wildlife from the natural environment (Freshwater ecosystem, freshwater or Marine ecosystem, marine), but may also be caught from Fish stocking, stocked Body of water, ...

village called Augusta at the Small Point Harbor area of Phippsburg. Dr. Oliver Noyes, director of the colony, erected a stone fort square to protect it. In 1717, Governor

Samuel Shute Samuel Shute (January 12, 1662 – April 15, 1742) was an English military officer and royal governor of the provinces of Massachusetts and New Hampshire. After serving in the Nine Years' War and the War of the Spanish Succession, he was appo ...

held a conference at Georgetown-on-Arrowsic with tribal delegates, who arrived in a flotilla of

canoe A canoe is a lightweight, narrow watercraft, water vessel, typically pointed at both ends and open on top, propelled by one or more seated or kneeling paddlers facing the direction of travel and using paddles. In British English, the term ' ...

s and encamped on Lee Island. But in summer of 1723 during

Dummer's War Dummer's War (1722–1725) (also known as Father Rale's War, Lovewell's War, Greylock's War, the Three Years War, the Wabanaki-New England War, or the Fourth Anglo-Abenaki War) was a series of battles between the New England Colonies and the Wab ...

, the

Norridgewock Norridgewock (Abenaki language, Abenaki: ''Nanrantsouak'') was the name of both an Indigenous village and a Band society, band of the Abenaki ("People of the Dawn") Native Americans in the United States, Native Americans/First Nations in Canada, ...

s and 250 of their Indian allies from

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

, incited by the French

missionary A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, religious group who is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Thoma ...

Sebastien Rale, attacked the area. Again it was deserted, with the stone fort destroyed. Governor William Dummer's Treaty of 1725 restored peace, and in 1737 an attempt was made to resettle Cape Small Point. The boundaries of Georgetown-on-Arrowsic were enlarged to encompass most of present-day Phippsburg,

Bath Bath may refer to: * Bathing, immersion in a fluid ** Bathtub, a large open container for water, in which a person may wash their body ** Public bathing, a public place where people bathe * Thermae, ancient Roman public bathing facilities Plac ...

(which then included West Bath),

Woolwich Woolwich () is a town in South London, southeast London, England, within the Royal Borough of Greenwich. The district's location on the River Thames led to its status as an important naval, military and industrial area; a role that was mainta ...

and Georgetown. Slow resettlement of the Phippsburg peninsula found ten farms along the Kennebec River by 1751, with five more on the

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 ...

side. But the districts gathered into Georgetown-on-Arrowsic began splitting away; in 1759, Woolwich withdrew, followed in 1781 by Bath. In 1814, Phippsburg was set off and incorporated. The original petition requested that it be named Dromore after one of the town's oldest sections, but

Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...

chose instead to honor one of its royal governors, Sir William Phips—actually a native of Woolwich. Between 1842 and 1890, wooden ships were built at Phippsburg. It also had numerous tidal mills. Fort Popham was built during the Civil War to guard the mouth of the Kennebec, on the site of a much smaller battery built in 1808. It became the control center for an underwater minefield in the 1890s. The more modern Fort Baldwin was built between 1905 and 1912 and was garrisoned in both World Wars. In 1891 Phippsburg ceded Ragged Island to Harpswell, but in 1917 it further added to its roster of islands by annexing nine

islands including Bushy, Hen, Bear, Malaga, Burnt Coat, Black Snake, Wood, Little Wood, and Gooseberry Islands. Malaga was later offered to, but refused by, Harpswell. During the

Gilded Age In History of the United States, United States history, the Gilded Age is the period from about the late 1870s to the late 1890s, which occurred between the Reconstruction era and the Progressive Era. It was named by 1920s historians after Mar ...

, Popham Beach developed into a resort area, with

steamboat A steamboat is a boat that is marine propulsion, propelled primarily by marine steam engine, steam power, typically driving propellers or Paddle steamer, paddlewheels. The term ''steamboat'' is used to refer to small steam-powered vessels worki ...

s transporting excursionists from Bath. Today, the town's principal industries are

and

tourism Tourism is travel for pleasure, and the Commerce, commercial activity of providing and supporting such travel. World Tourism Organization, UN Tourism defines tourism more generally, in terms which go "beyond the common perception of tourism as ...

. In 1971, Phippsburg was the site of the discovery of the Spirit Pond runestones, purported evidence of pre-Columbian European exploration of North America, but now shown to be a modern hoax..Snow, Dean R. (October/November 1981)
"Martians & Vikings, Maldoc & Runes"
'' American Heritage Magazine'' 32(6). Archived fro
the original
on September 29, 2007. Haugen, Einar (1974). "The Rune Stones of Spirit Pond, Maine". ''Visible Language'' 8(1). The three stones were found by Walter J. Elliot, Jr., a carpenter from

Bath, Maine Bath is a city in Sagadahoc County, Maine, United States. Bath is included in the Brunswick, Maine, Brunswick Micropolitan statistical area, micropolitan area. Bath has a 2024 population of 8,870. It is also the county seat of Sagadahoc County ...

. The runestones are now in the possession of the

Maine State Museum The Maine State Museum is the official Maine government's museum and is located at 230 State Street, adjacent to the Maine State House, in Augusta, Maine, Augusta. Its collections focus on the state's pre-history, history, and natural science. ...

Augusta, Maine Augusta is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Maine. The city's population was 18,899 at the 2020 United States census, making it the List of cities in Maine, 12th-most populous city in Maine, and third ...

. Image:Steamer Eldorado of the Bath & Popham Beach Line.jpg, Popham Beach steamer, Image:View of Popham Beach, Phippsburg, ME.jpg, View of Popham Beach in 1906 File:Fort Popham, Phippsburg.jpg, Fort Popham

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 town has a total area of , of which is land and is water. Connected to

by a

bridge A bridge is a structure built to Span (engineering), span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or railway) without blocking the path underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, whi ...

and

causeway A causeway is a track, road or railway on the upper point of an embankment across "a low, or wet place, or piece of water". It can be constructed of earth, masonry, wood, or concrete. One of the earliest known wooden causeways is the Sweet T ...

over Winnegance Creek and sharing a border with West Bath to the east of Winnegance, Phippsburg is on a

peninsula A peninsula is a landform that extends from a mainland and is only connected to land on one side. Peninsulas exist on each continent. The largest peninsula in the world is the Arabian Peninsula. Etymology The word ''peninsula'' derives , . T ...

dividing the

from

in the

Gulf of Maine The Gulf of Maine is a large gulf of the Atlantic Ocean on the east coast of North America. It is bounded by Cape Cod at the eastern tip of Massachusetts in the southwest and by Cape Sable Island at the southern tip of Nova Scotia in the northea ...

, part of the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the ...

. Phippsburg is crossed by state routes 209 and

216 __NOTOC__ Year 216 ( CCXVI) was a leap year starting on Monday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Sabinus and Anullinus (or, less frequently, year 969 ''Ab urbe condita''). The denomination 216 f ...

. Separated by water, the peninsula is near the towns of Harpswell to the west, West Bath to the northwest,

to the north, Arrowsic to the northeast, and Georgetown to the east.

Demographics

2010 census

As of the

census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

of 2010, there were 2,216 people, 963 households, and 665 families living in the town. The

population density Population density (in agriculture: Standing stock (disambiguation), standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geog ...

was . There were 1,748 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the town was 97.5%

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

, 0.5%

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

, 0.3% Native American, 0.3% Asian, 0.1% from other races, and 1.4% from two or more races.

Hispanic The term Hispanic () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...

or Latino of any race were 1.0% of the population. There were 963 households, of which 22.8% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 58.5% were

married couples Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognised union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children (if any), and b ...

living together, 6.5% had a female householder with no husband present, 4.0% had a male householder with no wife present, and 30.9% were non-families. Of all households 24.0% were made up of individuals, and 9.1% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.30 and the average family size was 2.67. The median age in the town was 49.8 years. 16.5% of residents were under the age of 18; 6.1% were between the ages of 18 and 24; 19.4% were from 25 to 44; 36.5% were from 45 to 64; and 21.5% were 65 years of age or older. The gender makeup of the town was 50.3% male and 49.7% female.

2000 census

As of the

of 2000, there were 2,106 people, 859 households, and 622 families living in the town. The population density was . There were 1,554 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the town was 98.53%

, 0.28%

, 0.24% Native American, 0.24% Asian, and 0.71% from two or more races.

or Latino of any race were 0.57% of the population. There were 859 households, out of which 28.5% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 62.5% were

living together, 5.7% had a female householder with no husband present, and 27.5% were non-families. Of all households 21.8% were made up of individuals, and 8.8% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.45 and the average family size was 2.82. In the town, the population was spread out, with 22.4% under the age of 18, 5.3% from 18 to 24, 26.5% from 25 to 44, 30.7% from 45 to 64, and 15.1% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 43 years. For every 100 females, there were 105.9 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 101.7 males. The median income for a household in the town was $46,739, and the median income for a family was $53,631. Males had a median income of $33,214 versus $26,250 for females. The

per capita income Per capita income (PCI) or average income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. In many countries, per capita income is determined using regular population surveys, such ...

for the town was $22,205. About 5.8% of families and 9.2% of the population were below the

poverty line The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line, or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for ...

, including 8.8% of those under age 18 and 14.4% of those age 65 or over.

Sites of interest

* Fort Baldwin * Fort Popham * Hermit Island * Malaga Island

References

External links

Town of Phippsburg, Maine

Phippsburg Map, History, Information, Photos

Fort Popham State Historic Site

Phippsburg Historical Society

Maine's First Ship – project to reconstruct the ''Virginia of Sagadahoc''

Maine Genealogy: Phippsburg, Sagadahoc County, Maine

Sites of interest

Phippsburg Map, History, Information

Bates-Morse Mountain Conservation Area

Phippsburg Historical Society & Museum

Phippsburg Land Trust
*
Popham Beach State Park
{{authority control Portland metropolitan area, Maine Towns in Sagadahoc County, Maine Towns in Maine Populated coastal places in Maine Casco Bay Kennebec River