Ripogenus Gorge | |
---|---|
1870s view of Ripogenus Gorge | |
Length | 10 miles (16 km) |
Width | 700 feet (210 m) |
Geography | |
Location | Northeast Piscataquis, Piscataquis County, Maine, USA |
Coordinates | 45°52′33″N69°09′00″W / 45.8759°N 69.15°W Coordinates: 45°52′33″N69°09′00″W / 45.8759°N 69.15°W |
Rivers | West Branch Penobscot River |
Ripogenus Gorge is a rock-walled canyon formed where the West Branch Penobscot River crosses the Caribou Lake anticline. Ripogenus Falls controlled discharge from Ripogenus Lake until Ripogenus Dam was completed at the upstream end of the gorge in 1916. The dam forms a hydroelectric reservoir raising the level of Ripogenus Lake to include the upstream Chesuncook Lake, Caribou Lake, and Moose Pond. The resulting reservoir is often identified by the name of the largest included lake: Chesuncook. The gorge provides an unusual exposure of Maine North Woods bedrock typically covered by saturated glacial till. The Silurian Ripogenus Formation of weakly metamorphosed shallow marine siliciclastics and fossiliferous limestone has been described from investigation of the gorge. [1]
Spruce forests along the west branch were harvested through the 19th century with logs floated through the gorge to sawmills as far downstream as Bangor, Maine. Log driving rivermen altered the gorge with dynamite and timber cribs filled with stone to prevent log jams. Construction of Ripogenus Dam began in 1915 to provide hydroelectricity for the paper mill at Millinocket, Maine. The dam is 92 feet (28 m) high and 704 feet (215 m) long and impounds the largest storage reservoir ever built with private funding. Hydroelectricity is generated by diverting 2,400 cu ft/s (68 m3/s) through a mile-long penstock around the former falls. Pulpwood was sluiced over the dam until 1971 when Great Northern Paper Company began trucking the lumber to the mill via the Golden Road. [2]
Penstock releases through the gorge create a popular whitewater run through class IV rapids with a class IV+ boulder garden. Rafts and kayaks navigate between rock cliffs through colorfully named Exterminator Hole (IV), Staircase (IV), Fist of God, Big Heater, Little Heater, Troublemaker Hole (III+), Cribworks (V), Turkey Chute, Final Chute, Postage Stamp Rock, and Bonecruncher (III). [3]
Millinocket is a town in Penobscot County, Maine, United States.
The Genesee River is a tributary of Lake Ontario flowing northward through the Twin Tiers of Pennsylvania and New York in the United States.
The Kennebec River is a 170-mile-long (270 km) river within the U.S. state of Maine.
The Penobscot River is a 109-mile-long (175 km) river in the U.S. state of Maine. Including the river's West Branch and South Branch increases the Penobscot's length to 264 miles (425 km), making it the second-longest river system in Maine and the longest entirely in the state. Its drainage basin contains 8,610 square miles (22,300 km2).
The Tallulah River is a 47.7-mile-long (76.8 km) river in Georgia and North Carolina. It begins in Clay County, North Carolina, near Standing Indian Mountain in the Southern Nantahala Wilderness and flows south into Georgia, crossing the state line into Towns County. The river then travels through Rabun County and ends in Habersham County. It cuts through the Tallulah Dome rock formation to form the Tallulah Gorge and its several waterfalls. The Tallulah River intersects with the Chattooga River to form the Tugaloo River at Lake Tugalo in Habersham County, which then joins South Carolina's Seneca River at Lake Hartwell to create the Savannah River which flows southeastward into the Atlantic Ocean.
Rock Island State Park is a state park in Warren County and White County, Tennessee, located in the Southeastern United States. The park is named after the community of Rock Island, Tennessee, which in turn received its name from an island on the Caney Fork upstream from the Collins River confluence and Great Falls Dam. Rock Island State Park is centered on a peninsula created by the confluence of these two rivers and extends downstream to the headwaters of Center Hill Lake.
The West Canada Creek is a 76-mile-long (122 km) river in upstate New York, United States. West Canada Creek is an important water way in Hamilton, Oneida, and Herkimer counties, draining the south part of the Adirondack Mountains before emptying into the Mohawk River near the Village of Herkimer. The name "Canada" is derived from an Iroquoian word for "village" (Kanata).
Big Spencer Mountain is a mountain located in Piscataquis County, Maine. Big Spencer Mtn. is flanked to the west by Little Spencer Mountain.
Chesuncook Lake is a reservoir in the North Maine Woods and Piscataquis County, Maine. It is formed by the damming of the West Branch Penobscot River, by dams built in 1835, 1903, and 1916. It is approximately 22 miles (35 km) long and 1–4 miles wide, with a surface area of 25,183 acres (101.91 km2) and a maximum depth of 150 feet (46 m). It is the third-largest body of fresh water in Maine.
South Twin Lake having about 3,200 acres (13 km2) is wholly within Penobscot County, Maine. It is about 6 miles (10 km) west of Millinocket, Maine and is part of the Pemadumcook Chain of Lakes. The lake is centered at 45°37.25′N68°51′W and has spillway elevation 492 feet (150 m) above sea level. It is part of the watershed of the West Branch of the Penobscot River.
The Pemadumcook Chain of Lakes are a set of large lakes in north-central Maine in the United States.
The East Branch Penobscot River is a 75.3-mile-long (121.2 km) tributary of Maine's Penobscot River. It flows in Piscataquis County and Penobscot County.
The South Branch Penobscot River is a river in Somerset County, Maine. Its source, Penobscot lake, the north end of which at is about 1,000 feet (300 m) from the Canada–United States border in Sandy Bay. This section of the border runs along the height of land separating the watersheds of the Penobscot River and the Monument River, which feeds into the Saint Lawrence River.
The West Branch Penobscot River is a 117-mile-long (188 km) tributary of the Penobscot River through the North Maine Woods in Maine. The river is also known as Abocadneticook, Kahgognamock, and Kettegwewick.
The Eagle Lake and West Branch Railroad was a forest railway built to transfer pulpwood between drainage basins in the Maine North Woods. The railroad operated only a few years in a location so remote the steam locomotives were never scrapped and remain exposed to the elements. Its tracks were located in Penobscot County and Piscataquis County.
Great Northern Paper Company was a Maine-based pulp and paper manufacturer that at its peak in the 1970s and 1980s operated mills in Arkansas, Georgia, Maine, and Wisconsin and produced 16.4% of the newsprint made in the United States.
Chesuncook is a small unincorporated settlement on the northwestern shore of Chesuncook Lake in rural central Piscataquis County, Maine. A small village, originally supporting logging operations in the area, has existed here since at least the time of Henry David Thoreau, who wrote about it in The Maine Woods. The village is now a primarily seasonal settlement that caters principally to outdoors enthusiasts. Seven historic properties on or near the "Main Street" fronting the lake were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.
Caucomgomoc Lake is in the North Maine Woods at the corner of townships 6 and 7 in ranges 14 and 15. Loon Stream flows into the southern end of the lake from Loon Lake, Bear Pond, Big Hurd Pond, Little Hurd Pond, Bear Brook Pond, McDougal Pond, and tributaries from the southwest. Overflow from Little Shallow Lake through Shallow Lake, Daggett Pond, and Round Pond enters the east side of Caucomgomoc Lake through Ciss Stream. Smaller tributaries Avery Brook, Middle Brook, and Ramsell Brook flow into the north end of the lake. There is a dam at the lake outlet on the eastern shore a short distance south of Ciss Stream. Discharge through the dam flows down Caucomgomoc Stream through Black Pond and Chesuncook Lake to the West Branch Penobscot River at Ripogenus Gorge. White perch and yellow perch have largely replaced historic trout populations in the lake.