Archaeologists have recovered the oldest, and only pre-European contact, dugout canoe ever found in Maine. They pulled the Native American vessel, which is estimated to be between 700 and 800 years old, from the mud off Cape Porpoise last week.

Only three other dugout canoes have ever been located in Maine and they were all made after Europeans arrived.





“This one carbon dates between 1200 and 1300 A.D., give or take a few years,” said archaeologist Tim Spahr, of the Cape Porpoise Archaeological Alliance.

Europeans didn’t start trying to settle Maine until the 1600s.

The canoe, made from a single yellow birch log, is further proof of a booming, semi-permanent Native American settlement in Cape Porpoise. It’s also a reminder that American history doesn’t start with Columbus in 1492. It stretches back thousands of years before European contact and recorded history, Spahr said.

Archaeology in the mud

The Archaeological Alliance is a joint effort between the Kennebunkport Conservation Trust and Brick Store Museum in Kennebunk. It was formed in 2017 to study the intertidal zone along Cape Porpoise and the islands just off the coast.

That’s just where Spahr located the canoe last November, in the mud between Redin Island, Stage Island and the shore. He’d been out doing his regular survey of the mud flats at low tide and was hustling back, trying to beat the incoming tide.

“All of a sudden, I just came across two lines [of wood] and they looked like boat gunnels,” Spahr said.