Mousam River Dams: What Was Lost Can Still Be Regained
Mousam River Dam at Old Falls, ca. 1905 by Fred Philpot (courtesy of the Maine Memory Network)
For the Wabanaki, the lands and waters of Wαpánahkik, the Dawnland, are living relatives. This kinship, rooted in reciprocity, has guided Wabanaki lifeways since time immemorial. When Europeans arrived four centuries ago, they imposed a very different worldview, one that saw rivers and forests not as kin, but as commodities to control, extract, and profit from. This worldview justified land theft, resource exploitation, and oppression.
Dams became a defining symbol of that colonial mindset. Settler colonists came to recognize that Wabanaki strength and cultural continuity depended on free-flowing rivers. By damming waterways to power sawmills, settlers sought to displace Wabanaki people by severing their access to life-sustaining waters.
“When Wabanaki people were actively displaced from these life-giving places, it was not long before river herring were affected by the development of early saw mills and dams and development that occurred to these rivers in the name of resource extraction.”
In Kennebunk, the Mousam River was first dammed in 1669, anchoring colonial settlement around the mills. Through the 1800s, new dams fueled the cotton industry and altered the river’s natural course. Today, fifteen dams fragment the Mousam- making it one of Maine’s most heavily dammed rivers. The dams transformed the river into an artificial series of impoundments, damaging water quality, fisheries, and ancestral sites.
Locally, the Kesslen, Twine Mill, and Dane-Perkins dams once powered industry, producing nearly half of Kennebunk’s electricity by 1945. Hydropower ceased in 2019, yet the ecological damage remains. The river below these dams no longer meets Clean Water Act standards and blocks sea-run fish from spawning grounds. Kennebunk Light and power, alongside various state and federal agencies, have been working to determine a path forward.
Mousam River dam status, 2024. Courtesy of the Wells National Estuarine Research Reserve
“The Mousam does not meet State water quality standards due to the low levels of dissolved oxygen (DO) and the absence of any provisions for fish passage. Restoration of a free-flowing river … would most likely best mitigate the effects on DO and aquatic life caused by the operation and continuing presence of the [Kennebunk Light & Power District] dams.”
In 2020, the future of the Kesslen, Twine Mill, and Dane Perkins dams on the Mousam River became uncertain after America First Hydro backed out of buying them when federal regulators rejected its license application. The dams’ owner, Kennebunk Light & Power District (KLPD), had already decided to give up its licenses because fixing the dams and adding fish passages would cost up to $11.7 million—far more than the $2.3 million estimated cost to remove them. Some residents supported removing the dams to help the river’s ecosystem, while others worried about property values and flooding. Later, in July 2024, Maine’s Department of Environmental Protection told KLPD that its plan to surrender the dams’ licenses without removing them still broke state water-quality rules. The agency said KLPD needed additional permits and urged it to consider full dam removal to restore a healthy, free-flowing river.
Still, rivers remember how to heal. Across the Dawnland, dam removals have restored fish populations, improved water quality, and renewed cultural relationships. When rivers flow freely again, both ecosystems and communities can begin to recover.
The Mousam River
“My hope would be that in fifty years, there would be no dams. There would be no pollution and our tribal members would be enjoying this tremendous gift that the creator has placed here with us in this place.”
Additional Resources
Mousam River dams in limbo after federal agency rejects buyer - Portland Press Herald, May 2020
Maine DEP letter to Kennebunk Light & Power District (KLPD) - July 2024
Reflection Questions
Where do you see the legacies of environmental colonialism in Kennebunk’s landscape today? What could healing look like here?
How does this learning impact your relationship to place? What is visible to you now?
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 posters below for educational use, please contact where@atlanticblackbox.com.
Poster by Meadow Dibble
Poster by Meadow Dibble