A large portion of the St. John Valley lies in the state of Maine and all that was true of New Brunswick, so far as early methods of locomotion are concerned, was and is true of Maine in a great measure. Maine, however, was not bounded on two sides by the ocean.
Both the Kennebec and Penobscot Rivers were ancient and important routes of travel between Quebec and the sea. Of the two the Penobscot was, perhaps, the easier to navigate but the Kennebec was the more important route. James Sullivan writing of the Kennebec in the last decade of the eighteenth century observes: “The Kenebeck ... receives the eastern branch, at fifty miles distance from Noridgewock. The main branch of the Kenebeck, winding into the wilderness, forms a necessity for several carrying places, one of which, called the Great Carrying Place, is five miles across, and the river’s course gives a distance of thirty-five miles, for that which is gained by five on the dry land. At one hundred miles distance, or perhaps more from the mouth of the eastern branch, the source of the main or western branch of the Kenebeck is found extended a great distance along side the river Chaudière, which carries the waters from the high lands into the St. Lawrence. The best description of this branch of the Kenebeck, is had from the Officers who passed this route under the command of General Arnold, in 1775.... The carrying place from boatable waters in it, to boatable waters in the river Chaudière, is only five miles over.”[37]
Among the most interesting maps of the Kennebec-Chaudière route may be mentioned Montresor’s map of 1761, “A Draught of a route from Quebec to Fort Halifax,” in the British Museum.[38] The route is there given as up the “Yadatsou Chaudiere or Kettle River.” When Wolf River was reached it was ascended; then to “River Ahoudaounkese.” Here was a portage of five miles to within about that distance of Lake Oukeahoungauta; portage of about one half mile to Loon Lake; thence into Moosehead Lake at the head of the east branch of the Kennebec. A portage could be made into the Penobscot; and at the southeastern extremity of Moosehead Lake are the words “Portage to the Penobscot.” The return route was up the Kennebec to “The Great Carrying Place to River of Tewyongyadight or the Dead River.” This was Arnold’s route, already referred to by Mr. Sullivan. Ascending the Dead to “The Amaguntic Carrying Place” (a portage of about four miles) the route is marked to “the River of Mekantique” and through “The meadow of Mekantique;” thence through “Lake of Me’ Kantique de St Augustin” and into the Chaudière.
Perhaps the earliest map showing a road throughout the Kennebec and Chaudière valleys is “A New Map of Nova Scotia & Cape Britain” (1755) in the British Public Records Office.[39] The road bears the name “Kenebec Road.”
Among the Haldimand Papers in the British Museum[40] is a most interesting “Journal from the last settlements on the Chaudiere to the first Inhabitants on Kennebec River kept by Hugh Finley, from the 13th of September that he left Quebec until the 30th that he arrived at Falmouth in Casco Bay in the P[r]ovince of the Massachusets Bay—1773.” Finley had been appointed “Surveyor of Post roads on the Continent of North America” and, in view of the tedious length and the common retardments of the Lake Champlain route between Canada and New England, determined to explore the Chaudière-Kennebec route. Four Indian guides accompanied the surveyor, who were “to mark (as they should pass along in their rough way) the Path by which a good road might be cut.” The last farm on the Chaudière was “52 Miles S. Easterly of Quebec.” “The reaches in this river are long between rapid and rapid, but navigable for batteaus only.” On the fifteenth the party had reached “Rapide du Diable;” seven miles further was “La Famine” River where were two huts. Four miles further they arrived at “des loups” River. This was the common upward route of travel as the upper Chaudière route was interrupted by ponds, swamps, etc. Concerning Indian maps Mr. Finley makes an interesting statement: “It is impossible to guess distances from an Indian draft, that people have no idea of proportion.”
On the eighteenth the party encamped early in the afternoon “on purpose to pack up our Provisions &c. in proper Packages to be distributed in proportional burthens to each of the party as we were next day to proceed thro the woods.” Then came a desperate journey of nine miles in nine hours up steeps, over and under trees which tore the canoes and almost exhausted their bearers. At the end of two small lakes a half mile portage brought the travelers to another lake. “Half over this carrying place is the just hight of Land between Canada & New England,” wrote Mr. Finley, “consequently the boundary line between the Province of Quebec and Massachusets Bay will be a line drawn half way between the Lake we just left and this Lake.”
According to Finley this portage was ninety-six miles from Quebec and forty-six from the last house on the Chaudière—by the route he had traversed. He proceeded down the Kennebec, up the “Androcogkin” to Brunswick and across by land to Casco Bay.
It is clear that the route from Quebec to the Kennebec was by way of “des loups” River to Moosehead Lake—named, writes Finley, “from a very remarkable Mountain [on] the S side about nine miles down. the Indians say that it resembles a moose deer stooping.” It is equally clear that the route from the Kennebec to Quebec was by way of the western branch, the Dead River and the Chaudière.
This route was made historic by Arnold’s famous campaign of 1775 and has recently been described with intense feeling by Professor Justin H. Smith.[41]