Kennebec River

Kennebec River
Kinəpékʷihtəkʷ
Wyman Lake on the Kennebec River in Somerset County, Maine
Map
Location
CountryUnited States
StateMaine
CitiesBath, Gardiner, Hallowell, Augusta, Waterville
Physical characteristics
Source 
 • locationMoosehead Lake
 • coordinates45°35′10″N 69°42′48″W / 45.5861558°N 69.7133907°W / 45.5861558; -69.7133907
 • elevation1,024 feet (312 m)
Mouth 
 • location
Gulf of Maine, North Atlantic Ocean
 • coordinates
43°44′06″N 69°46′26″W / 43.7350850°N 69.7739341°W / 43.7350850; -69.7739341 (Kennebec River)
Length170 miles (270 km)
Basin size5,869 sq mi (15,200 km2)
Discharge 
 • average9,111 cu ft/s (258.0 m3/s)
at its entrance to Merrymeeting Bay
The course of the Kennebec River

The Kennebec River (Abenaki: Kinəpékʷihtəkʷ) is a 170-mile-long (270 km)[1] river within the U.S. state of Maine. It rises in Moosehead Lake in west-central Maine. The East and West Outlets join at Indian Pond and the river flows southward. Harris Station Dam, the largest hydroelectric dam in the state, was constructed near that confluence. The river is joined at The Forks by its tributary the Dead River, also called the West Branch.[2]

It continues south past the towns of Madison, Skowhegan, the city of Waterville, and the state capital Augusta. At Richmond, it flows into Merrymeeting Bay, a 16-mile-long (26 km) freshwater tidal bay into which also flow the Androscoggin River and five smaller rivers.

The Kennebec runs past the shipbuilding center of Bath, and has its mouth at the Gulf of Maine in the Atlantic Ocean. The Southern Kennebec flows below the fall line and does not have rapids. As a consequence, ocean tides and saltwater fish species, such as the endangered Atlantic Sturgeon, can go upriver affecting the ecology as far north as Waterville, a small city located more than 35 miles inland. Tributaries of the Kennebec include the Carrabassett River, Sandy River, and Sebasticook River.

Segments of the East Coast Greenway run along the Kennebec.

  1. ^ U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline data. The National Map Archived 2012-03-29 at the Wayback Machine, accessed June 30, 2011
  2. ^ John F. Hall, The Upper Kennebec Valley, p. 7. The main stem from Indian Pond was sometimes called the East Branch.