Above the Gravel Bar: The Native Canoe Routes of Maine »

David Cook lives in Winthrop, Maine, near the capital, Augusta. A former president of the Maine Archeological Society, he is adjunct faculty member at Central Maine Community College and the University of Maine at Farmington.

The author grew up in the town of Milo, Maine. As a paratrooper in the U.S. Army's 101st Airborne Division, he served a tour of duty in South Vietnam. A graduate of the University of Maine, Orono, with a Master's degree in liberal studies, he chose to live in Maine and taught history at Winthrop High School, where he was chairman of the Social Studies Department. He continues to research and explore the history and ecology of Maine and the Northeast.

With this book you can put your canoe in a nearby river or pond in Maine and travel prehistoric routes to campgrounds thousands of years old. Discover the birchbark canoe with the Indians of the Northeast.

David Cook takes the reader on a birchbark canoe journey through the landscape in the context of Northeastern geological development and Indian prehistoric culture. On rivers, lakes, over carries, and through coastal routes, we follow the archaeological and historical record, informed by accounts of early explorers.

First attempted in the early twentieth century, the publication of these ancient canoe routes, in daily use for millennia, is finally accomplished and in its third edition, with translations of Indian place names, a thorough index, notes and bibliography, and a foreword by Penobscot tribal historian, James Eric Francis, Sr. The eminent anthropologist David Sanger, PhD, provides an introduction.

33 B&W illustrations.

Contents
List of Maps
Foreword
Introduction
Preface

1. With a Little Help from My Friends

2. Land and Water

3. The Canoes

4. Canoeing, Camping, Carrying and Castor canadensis
Carries
Castor canadensis

5. The Routes
Canoeing in the Gulf of Maine
Western Maine
Mid-Coastal Canoe Routes
Coastal Cutoffs
The Penobscot System
The St. John River
The Allagash
The Upper St. John

6. The Canoe Routes Today

Notes
Bibliography
Index
The author