Indigenous Canoe of Cape Porpoise
Evidence of the Dawnland’s Earliest Maritime Traditions
Image courtesy of Tim Spahr
In June 2019, members of the Cape Porpoise Archaeology Alliance, headed by principal archaeologist Tim Spahr, excavated the Northeast region’s oldest known canoe—a remarkable dugout vessel dating between 1200 and 1300 A.D. Found preserved in the tidal mudflats off Cape Porpoise, it is thought to be the only pre-European contact canoe ever found in the state. Carved from a single yellow birch log, this vessel offers rare physical evidence of Indigenous life along Maine’s southern coast more than 700 years ago.
Crafted by Algonquin-speaking ancestors of today’s Wabanaki people, the canoe was likely shaped by burning and hollowing the log with stone tools. Unlike the lightweight birchbark canoes of later centuries, dugouts were sturdy but heavy, designed for short trips in protected waters. Archaeologists believe this canoe may have been used to tend fish weirs or transport shellfish and catch to shore for drying.
Image courtesy of Tim Spahr
For the Cape Porpoise Archaeological Alliance, the find helps to deepen understanding of Cape Porpoise as a vibrant seasonal settlement. Archaeological evidence confirms oral traditions, showing that Indigenous families camped along these shores in summer months, harvesting fish and clams, and cultivating crops like corn and squash before migrating north for the winter.
Because Maine’s acidic soils rarely preserve wood, the survival of this canoe is extraordinary—its protection owed to centuries of burial in coastal mud. Together with other artifacts and oral traditions, it testifies to a deep Indigenous maritime tradition long preceding European arrival, illuminating the enduring relationship between the Wabanaki peoples and the waters of the Dawnland.
“We organized the program with the Brick Store Museum and the Kennebunkport Conservation Trust. For the past six years, we have been conducting grant funded archaeological test surveys and some excavations off the islands of Cape Porpoise. Our research has shown that peoples have visited Cape Porpoise for [at least] eight thousand years. Also, That Cape Porpoise was a place of early contact between Indigenous peoples and some of the first Europeans to arrive in Northern New England. There has been little archaeology done in southern Maine to document and archive this, which makes our work even more important; accruing data before it is lost to erosion.”
Due to the vulnerability of the canoe and concern that it would not survive conservation, a technical drawing was completed as it was found in situ. Drawing: Elizabeth Kelley
This research was compiled as part of the Just History Walk: Lives Between Two Rivers which took place on November 8, 2025. For more information about this walk, click here. For more research related to this area, click on the tags below. To download a hi-res version of the poster below for educational use, please contact where@atlanticblackbox.com.
Poster design by Meadow Dibble