About Us:

Located near the head of the Damariscotta River, twelve miles from the ocean, Damariscotta is a key focal point for mid coast Maine residents and visitors. Damariscotta's fine public and private elementary schools, high school, modern hospital and public library, thriving arts community and diverse businesses provide residents and visitors with a full range of "modern" conveniences and opportunities in a truly unique historic and natural setting. In addition to its many beautiful houses and buildings of the Colonial period, a unique feature of interest are the oyster shell middens along the Damariscotta river, which record Indian gatherings dating back more than 2,500 years. The Town of Damariscotta provides its residents with a full range of municipal services including a full-time police force. The town's three-season waterfront offers a convenient boat landing and a large harbor ideal for all kinds of recreational boating.

Damariscotta operates under a Selectmen/Town Meeting/Town Manager form of government. The Board of Selectmen is the municipality's executive branch as well as the agent of the municipality's legislative branch, the Town Meeting. The five Selectmen are elected at large for three-year staggered terms. The Town Manager is responsible for providing general management and administrative oversight of all operations, programs and services.

History:

The area was once inhabited by the Wawenock (or Walinakiak, meaning "People of the Bays") Abenaki Indians, who left behind 2,500-year-old oyster shell middens along the banks of the Damariscotta River. The Whaleback Shell Midden is now a state historic site. The land became part of the Pemaquid Patent, granted by the Plymouth Council in 1631 to Robert Aldsworth and Gyles Elbridge, merchants from Bristol, England. At Pemaquid (now Bristol), they built a fort and trading post.

Some colonists moved upriver from the village at Pemaquid about 1640 to settle what is today Damariscotta. But the settlements were attacked in 1676 during King Philip's War, with the inhabitants either driven off or massacred. Attempts to rebuild alternated with further attacks during the French and Indian Wars. The Province of Massachusetts Bay constructed Fort William Henry at Pemaquid in 1692, but it was destroyed in 1696. Its replacement, Fort Frederick, in 1729, successfully resisted the region's final two attacks and was pulled down at the Time of the Revolution so that the British could not occupy it. With peace at last, Damariscotta grew as a trade center. It was incorporated as a separate town on March 15, 1848, set off from parts of Bristol and Nobleboro.

The name Damariscotta comes from the Algonquian word Madamescontee, meaning "place of an abundance of alewives," which are small, salty fish that spawn in Damariscotta Lake. The main village is located at the lower falls and head of navigation on the Damariscotta River. Early industries included two sawmills, a match factory and a tannery. Along the river were established several brickyards, which supplied much of the brick used to build Boston's Back Bay neighborhood. But shipbuilding in particular brought Damariscotta wealth in the 1800s, when clipper ships were launched at the town's shipyards. During that time, many fine examples of Federal, Greek Revival and Italianate style architecture were erected, giving the old seaport a considerable charm which each summer attracts throngs of tourists.