Discovering the Past: Freeport's Land and Its First Inhabitants

Wolfe’s Neck Center for Agriculture and the Environment is collaborating with the Penobscot Nation on a significant project to explore the land's rich history.

Project Overview

• Partnership: Wolfe’s Neck Center and the Penobscot Nation
• Objective: Learn about the land's history, once home to the Wabanaki and Abenaki peoples
• Grant: $10,000 from the Maine Semiquincentennial Commission
• Duration: Research until 2026, leading to future projects with the Penobscot and Abenaki peoples

Research Focus

• Timeframe: Examining the land from 1,300 years ago through the Revolutionary War
• Archival Search: Tilly Laskey, a public historian, will search six archives in Maine for old manuscripts and maps
• Fieldwork: Walking the land at Wolfe’s Neck Center and Wolfe’s Neck Woods State Park with Penobscot Nation members to verify cultural uses

Goals and Objectives

• Educational: Teach Freeport residents about the Penobscot people's traditional homelands
• Historical Insight: Understand why the Penobscot people are no longer on the land
• Cultural Practices: Learn about the regenerative farming practices used by the Penobscot people

Historical Context

• Pre-Settlement: About 10,000 to 20,000 Wabanaki people lived in southern Maine
• Settlement Impact: English settlers in the 1600s focused on making money from the land, differing from Wabanaki culture
• Wolfe’s Neck Farm: Established by the Smith family in the 1950s
• Casco Bay History Lab: Connects the landscape to history
• Regenerative Agriculture: A focus of Wolfe’s Neck Center, inspired by Wabanaki practices