Kennebec River
The Kennebec River (Abenaki: Kinəpékʷihtəkʷ) is a 170-mile-long (270 km) 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.
| Kennebec River Kinəpékʷihtəkʷ | |
|---|---|
Wyman Lake on the Kennebec River in Somerset County, Maine | |
| Location | |
| Country | United States |
| Physical characteristics | |
| Source | |
| • location | Moosehead Lake |
| • coordinates | 45°35′10″N 69°42′48″W |
| • elevation | 1,024 feet (312 m) |
| Mouth | |
• location | Gulf of Maine, North Atlantic Ocean |
• coordinates | 43°44′06″N 69°46′26″W |
| Length | 170 miles (270 km) |
| Basin size | 5,869 sq mi (15,200 km2) |
| Discharge | |
| • average | 9,111 cu ft/s (258.0 m3/s) at its entrance to Merrymeeting Bay |
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.