Scarborough River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline data
The National Map
accessed June 30, 2011 coastal

estuary An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a transition zone between river environments and maritime environm ...

and river draining through the Scarborough Marsh in

Scarborough, Maine Scarborough is a town in Cumberland County on the southern coast of the U.S. state of Maine. The town is a coastal resort area. Located about south of Portland, Scarborough is part of the Portland– South Portland– Biddeford, Maine ...

. It empties into

Saco Bay Saco Bay is a small curved embayment of the Gulf of Maine on the Atlantic coast of Maine in the United States. The name derives "from a map of the coastline made in 1525 by the Spanish explorer Esteban Gómez. He named the bay ''Bahio de Saco'' ...

between

Pine Point Beach Pine Point Beach is a four-mile municipal beach located on the northern edge of Saco Bay in Scarborough, Maine Scarborough is a town in Cumberland County on the southern coast of the U.S. state of Maine. The town is a coastal resort area. Loca ...

and Western Beach and marks the bay's northern end. The main tributaries are the

Nonesuch River The Nonesuch River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed June 30, 2011 river in southern Maine in the United States. It rises in Saco and travels northeast, then east, the ...

, Dunstan River, and Libby River, as well as smaller brooks and streams. In its natural state, it was a

sediment Sediment is a naturally occurring material that is broken down by processes of weathering and erosion, and is subsequently transported by the action of wind, water, or ice or by the force of gravity acting on the particles. For example, sa ...

sink for Saco Bay, storing sediment migrating northward up the bay from the beaches to the south and ultimately from the

Saco River The Saco River (Abenaki: ''Sαkóhki'') is a river in northeastern New Hampshire and southwestern Maine in the United States. It drains a rural area of of forests and farmlands west and southwest of Portland, emptying into the Atlantic Ocean ...

. The channel migrated regularly in response to natural events; as it did so, abandoned sand banks would replenish the sand on both Pine Point Beach to the south and Western and Ferry beaches to the north. In the early 17th century,

Christopher Levett Capt. Christopher Levett (15 April 1586 – 1630) was an English writer, explorer and naval captain, born at York, England. He explored the coast of New England and secured a grant from the King to settle present-day Portland, Maine, the first ...

gave the name of the river, or perhaps the marshes it drains, as ''Owascoag'', after the

Abenaki The Abenaki ( Abenaki: ''Wαpánahki'') are an Indigenous peoples 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 pre ...

Indian Indian or Indians may refer to: Peoples South Asia * Indian people, people of Indian nationality, or people who have an Indian ancestor ** Non-resident Indian, a citizen of India who has temporarily emigrated to another country * South Asia ...

name. The English fishing fleet offshore in 1624 was over 50 vessels, and the shores of the river were settled by fishermen and their families early in the period of English settlement; when the primary road in

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 ...

ran along the coastline for its entire length, a ferry operated across the mouth of the river, running from Pine Point Beach to Ferry Beach. Amtrak downeaster scarborough marsh 2002

Amtrak downeaster scarborough marsh 2002

In the late 19th century, Little River Inlet, a tidal reentrant located at the south end of Pine Point Beach, was dammed and diverted into the Scarborough River. In 1962, the Army Corps of Engineers stabilized the river channel, in part by building a

jetty A jetty is a structure that projects from land out into water. A jetty may serve as a breakwater, as a walkway, or both; or, in pairs, as a means of constricting a channel. The term derives from the French word ', "thrown", signifying some ...

at the southern edge of the river mouth. This has allowed a stable river channel for use by those fishing and pleasure boats harbored in the river and for occasional launches from a town-managed dock. The stabilized channel gradually fills with sediment, and has needed to be

dredged Dredging is the excavation of material from a water environment. Possible reasons for dredging include improving existing water features; reshaping land and water features to alter drainage, navigability, and commercial use; constructing da ...

roughly every five years. Materials from the 2004 dredging were deposited on Western Beach in imitation of the natural sediment flow.

References

{{authority control Rivers of Cumberland County, Maine Scarborough, Maine Rivers of Maine