Harrison is a town in Cumberland County, Maine, United States. The population was 2,730 at the 2010 census. A historic resort area, Harrison straddles Long Lake and Crystal Lake. It is part of the Portland–South Portland–Biddeford, Maine metropolitan statistical area.
Naples is a town in Cumberland County, Maine, United States. It is part of the Portland–South Portland–Biddeford, Maine metropolitan statistical area. The population was 3,872 at the 2010 census, and it is home to part of Sebago Lake State Park. Naples is a resort area.
Windham is a town in Cumberland County, Maine, United States. The population was 17,001 at the 2010 census It includes the villages of South Windham and North Windham. It is part of the Portland–South Portland–Biddeford, Maine Metropolitan Statistical Area.
The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, abbreviated as the C&O Canal and occasionally called the "Grand Old Ditch," operated from 1831 until 1924 along the Potomac River from Washington, D.C., to Cumberland, Maryland. The canal's principal cargo was coal from the Allegheny Mountains.
The Soo Locks are a set of parallel locks, operated and maintained by the United States Army Corps of Engineers, Detroit District, that enable ships to travel between Lake Superior and the lower Great Lakes. They are located on the St. Marys River between Lake Superior and Lake Huron, between the Upper Peninsula of the U.S. state of Michigan and the Canadian province of Ontario. They bypass the rapids of the river, where the water falls 21 feet (6.4 m). The locks pass an average of 10,000 ships per year, despite being closed during the winter from January through March, when ice shuts down shipping on the Great Lakes. The winter closure period is used to inspect and maintain the locks.
Long Lake is an eleven-mile (18 km) lake between the towns of Naples, Maine, Bridgton, Maine and Harrison, Maine. It is connected to Brandy Pond through the Chute River. Long Lake was created by receding glaciers, and has many coves and rocks.
Brandy Pond, also known as Bay of Naples Lake, is a small lake in Naples, Maine, United States, that is connected to Long Lake by the Chute River. Brandy Pond is connected to Sebago Lake by the Songo River, which runs through Sebago Lake State Park. To get to Sebago Lake through the Songo River, one must pass through Songo Lock, one of the last remaining hand-operated locks in the country.
Sebago Lake is the deepest and second-largest lake in the U.S. state of Maine. The lake is 316 feet (96 m) deep at its deepest point, with a mean depth of 101 feet (31 m), covers about 45 square miles (117 km2) in surface area, has a length of 14 miles (23 km) and has a shoreline length of roughly 105 miles (169 km). The surface is around 270 feet (82 m) above sea level, so the deep bottom is below the present sea level. It is in Cumberland County, and bordered by the towns of Casco, Naples, Raymond, Sebago, Standish and Windham. The seasonally occupied town of Frye Island is on an island in the lake. Sebago Lake and the surrounding area is known for its erratic and sudden changes in weather during all seasons, likely due to its proximity to the Atlantic Ocean and to Mt. Washington, a very notorious extreme weather hotspot. Sebago means "big still water" in Abenaki.
The Champlain Canal is a 60-mile (97 km) canal that connects the south end of Lake Champlain to the Hudson River in New York. It was simultaneously constructed with the Erie Canal and is now part of the New York State Canal System and the Lakes to Locks Passage.
The Presumpscot River is a 25.8-mile-long (41.5 km) river located in Cumberland County, Maine. It is the main outlet of Sebago Lake. The river provided an early transportation corridor with reliable water power for industrial development of the city of Westbrook and the village of South Windham.
Sebago Lake State Park is a public recreation area encompassing 1,342 acres (543 ha) on the north shore of Sebago Lake in the towns of Naples and Casco, Cumberland County, Maine. It opened in 1938 as one of Maine's original five state parks. The mostly forested park is divided into east and west sections by the Songo River. It is managed by the Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry.
The Cumberland and Oxford Canal was opened in 1832 to connect the largest lakes of southern Maine with the seaport of Portland, Maine. The canal followed the Presumpscot River from Sebago Lake through the towns of Standish, Windham, Gorham, and Westbrook. The Canal diverged from the river at Westbrook to reach the navigable Fore River estuary and Portland Harbor. The canal required 27 locks to reach Sebago Lake at an elevation of 267 feet (81 m) above sea level. One additional lock was constructed in the Songo River to provide 5 feet (1.5 m) of additional elevation to reach Long Lake from Sebago Lake. Total navigable distance was approximately 38 miles (61 km) from Portland to Harrison at the north end of Long Lake. A proposed extension from Harrison to Bear Pond and Tom Pond in Waterford would have required three more locks on the Bear River, but they were never built.
The Bear River is a 2.7-mile-long (4.3 km) tributary of Long Lake in the U.S. state of Maine. It originates at the outlet of Bear Pond in the town of Waterford in Oxford County, then flows southeast into the town of Bridgton in Cumberland County and finally the town of Harrison, where it reaches Long Lake. Via Long Lake, the Songo River, and Sebago Lake, the Bear River is part of the Presumpscot River watershed, flowing to Casco Bay on the Atlantic Ocean.
The Crooked River is a 58.0-mile-long (93.3 km) tributary of the Songo River in Maine. It is the longest of the tributaries of Sebago Lake, the outlet of which is the Presumpscot River, flowing to Casco Bay on the Atlantic Ocean.
The Songo River is a 3.1-mile-long (5.0 km) river in Maine. The river flows from Brandy Pond at the south end of Long Lake into Sebago Lake at Sebago Lake State Park. Songo Lock, the last remaining lock of the 19th-century Cumberland and Oxford Canal, controls the elevation of Long Lake and allows navigation of large boats between Long Lake and Sebago Lake.
The Newichawannock Canal is a man-made canal which drains Great East Lake into Horn Pond at the border between Wakefield, New Hampshire, and Acton, Maine, in the northeastern United States. It is at the head of the Salmon Falls River, which the Abenaki called Newichawannock, meaning "river with many falls". Begun in 1850 by the Great Falls Company to increase the water available for its mills in Somersworth, New Hampshire, the 0.75-mile (1.21 km) canal is unusual as it was built for strictly industrial purposes in an area remote from the actual industrial site. The canal forms the boundary between the states of New Hampshire and Maine, and is spanned by a stone bridge built at the same time. The canal and bridge, along with related artifacts, were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2014.
The Georges River Canal, also known as the General Knox Canal was a short-lived canal that operated on and near the course of the Saint George River in Knox and Waldo Counties in south-central Maine. First owned and operated by American Revolutionary War General Henry Knox between 1794 and 1806, it was briefly revived in 1847–50, but was not financially successful. It provided for transport of goods from near the river's headwaters in Searsmont to the head of navigation at Warren. A few elements of the canal survive today, and its route was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1970.
The Great Falls Historic District encompasses the remains of an early 19th-century mill hamlet in Windham, Maine. On the east bank of the Presumpscot River north of Windham Center Road are a cluster of three houses from the period, as well as the archaeological remains of a few mills that lined the river at the falls just north of the road. The district was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1995.
The Pennyfield Lock and lockhouse are part of the 184.5-mile (296.9 km) Chesapeake and Ohio Canal that operated in the United States along the Potomac River from the 1830s through 1923. The lock, located at towpath mile-marker 19.7, is near River Road in Montgomery County, Maryland. The original lock house was built in 1830, and its lock was completed in 1831.
Riley's Lock (Lock 24) and lock house are part of the 184.5-mile (296.9 km) Chesapeake and Ohio Canal that operated in the United States along the Potomac River from the 1830s through 1923. They are located at towpath mile-marker 22.7 adjacent to Seneca Creek, in Montgomery County, Maryland. The lock is sometimes identified as Seneca because of the Seneca Aqueduct that carried the canal over the creek to the lift lock. The name Riley comes from John C. Riley, who was lock keeper from 1892 until the canal closed permanently in 1924.
