Moose Island is an island in

Eastport, Maine Eastport is a city and archipelago in Washington County, Maine, United States. The population was 1,288 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making Eastport the least-populous city in Maine. The principal island is Moose Island, Maine, ...

, located at the entrance to

Cobscook Bay Cobscook Bay is located in Washington County in the state of Maine. It opens into Passamaquoddy Bay, within the Bay of Fundy. Cobscook Bay is immediately south of the island city of Eastport, the main island of which (Moose Island) straddles th ...

from

Passamaquoddy Bay Passamaquoddy Bay () is an inlet of the Bay of Fundy, between the U.S. state of Maine and the Canadian province of New Brunswick, at the mouth of the St. Croix River. Most of the bay lies within Canada, with its western shore bounded by Was ...

in the

Bay of Fundy The Bay of Fundy () is a bay between the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, with a small portion touching the U.S. state of Maine. It is an arm of the Gulf of Maine. Its tidal range is the highest in the world. The bay was ...

. Shackford Head State Park is on Moose Island. Connected to the mainland portion of Washington County at

Passamaquoddy Pleasant Point Reservation Passamaquoddy Pleasant Point Reservation ( Maliseet-Passamaquoddy: ''Sipayik'') is one of two reservations of the federally recognized Passamaquoddy tribe in Washington County, Maine, United States. The population was 692 as of the 2020 census. ...

by a

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 ...

, the city of Eastport occupies several islands, including its major land mass, Moose Island. Other islands comprising the city include Carlow Island, Spectacle Island, Goose Island, and Treat Island, along with other islets. Quoddy Village lies at the north-western end of Moose Island, while the city's downtown lies at the eastern end of the island. The

Eastport Municipal Airport Eastport Municipal Airport is a city-owned public-use airport located one nautical mile (1.85 km) west of the central business district of Eastport, a city in Washington County, Maine, United States. Although most U.S. airports use the same ...

lies between Quoddy Village and downtown Eastport.

History

During the

War of 1812 The War of 1812 was fought by the United States and its allies against the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom and its allies in North America. It began when the United States United States declaration of war on the Uni ...

, British forces under Captain Sir Thomas Hardy and Lieutenant-Colonel

Andrew Pilkington Lieutenant-General Sir Andrew Pilkington (1776 – 23 February 1853) was a British Army officer who served through the Napoleonic Wars and War of 1812. He saw initial service fighting as a marines, marine at the Glorious First of June in 1794 w ...

seized Moose Island while taking control of the entire Maine coast from

Penobscot Bay Penobscot Bay () is an inlet of the Gulf of Maine and Atlantic Ocean in south central Maine, a stretch known as Midcoast Maine, in a broader Atlantic region known as Down East. The bay originates from the mouth of Maine's Penobscot River, ...

to the St. Croix River. Following the war, the United States relinquished its claim in 1817 on several larger islands in the Bay of Fundy that Britain also claimed: (

Campobello Island Campobello Island (, also ) is the largest and only inhabited island in Campobello Parish in southwestern New Brunswick, Canada, near the border with Maine, United States. It is the site of the Roosevelt Campobello International Park, Head Ha ...

, Deer Island,

Grand Manan Island Grand Manan is a Canadian island in the Bay of Fundy, part of the province of New Brunswick. Grand Manan is also the name of an incorporated village, which includes the main island and numerous nearby islands; White Head Island, small islands ne ...

). In return, Britain relinquished its claim on islands in

. During the 1930s, President

Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), also known as FDR, was the 32nd president of the United States, serving from 1933 until his death in 1945. He is the longest-serving U.S. president, and the only one to have served ...

promoted the ill-fated Quoddy Project as a

tidal power Tidal power or tidal energy is harnessed by converting energy from tides into useful forms of power, mainly electricity using various methods. Although not yet widely used, tidal energy has the potential for future electricity generation. T ...

project for the

area as part of his

New Deal The New Deal was a series of wide-reaching economic, social, and political reforms enacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the United States between 1933 and 1938, in response to the Great Depression in the United States, Great Depressi ...

through the

Public Works Administration The Public Works Administration (PWA), part of the New Deal of 1933, was a large-scale public works construction agency in the United States headed by United States Secretary of the Interior, Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes. It was ...

. Part of this project involved construction of a tidal barrage between Moose Island and Pleasant Point to contain the waters of Cobscook Bay, resulting in the present-day causeway carrying

Maine State Route 190 State Route 190 (SR 190) is a state highway that travels from Water Street in Eastport to U.S. Route 1 (US 1) in Perry. It serves as the connector route to Eastport from the mainland. Though the road travels in a southeast–northwe ...

and the abandoned

Maine Central Railroad The Maine Central Railroad was a United States, U. S. class 1 railroad in central and southern Maine. It was chartered in 1856 and began operations in 1862. By 1884, Maine Central was the longest railroad in New England. Maine Central had expand ...

. However, the railroad was built 1897-1898, on trestles between islands, to reach Moose Island. The causeway filled in where the trestles ran. Moose Island is the birthplace of Brigadier General James Henry Carleton (b. 1814), commander of

New Mexico New Mexico is a state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States. It is one of the Mountain States of the southern Rocky Mountains, sharing the Four Corners region with Utah, Colorado, and Arizona. It also ...

and architect of the infamous

Long Walk of the Navajo The Long Walk of the Navajo, also called the Long Walk to Bosque Redondo (), was the deportation and ethnic cleansing of the Navajo people by the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government and the United States A ...

. Author Hampton Sides states: "The time of Carleton's youth was a fragile period in the history of eastern Maine. During the War of 1812, British forces had occupied most of Maine east of the

Penobscot River The Penobscot River (Abenaki: ''Pαnawάhpskewtəkʷ'') is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed June 22, 2011 river in the U.S. state of Maine. Including the river's W ...

and annexed the territory to New Brunswick....Some have speculated that it was Carleton's memory of this unpleasant experience from his adolescence—of his family having to endure a bitter, protracted, worrisome dispute along what amounted to a wild frontier—that gave him later in life such an urgent impatience to solve the Navajo problem with clean, stark finality." "Moose Island, Maine" was the fictional location where Jimmy Olsen's Aunt Louisa lived in the first season, second episode of "Adventures of Superman" which originally aired on September 26, 1952.'The Haunted Lighthouse', S1 E2, "The Adventures of Superman", 1952.

References

{{authority control Islands of Washington County, Maine Eastport, Maine Islands of Maine Coastal islands of Maine

History

See also

References