Proctor School Fourth Grade: Jesse Goes to Kennebunk, ME

Grandma Joan & Mel Uchenick April 14 – 17^th

1. Kennebunk was first settled in 1621. The town was first a trading center and later became a shipbuilding and shipping center with light manufacturing. The original settlers prior to 1621 were the Abenaki Native Americans. Today Kennebunk is mainly a tourist and fishing town with a population of about 12,000. We have 5 beaches, hiking trails, fishing, restaurants, fun shops, & more. We are the summer home of two expresidents: George H. Bush and his son George W. Bush. They have been a part of our community since they each were children.

2. It is located half way between Portland, ME & Portsmouth, NH. - 1 hour NE of Topsfield, MA. We are less than an hour south of Freeport, home of L.L. Bean. We are on the SW coastal corner of ME. It takes many hours to drive to our northern & eastern borders with Canada. Jesse’s first stop was on the Pacific Ocean and this last stop is on the Atlantic Ocean. We have 9 to 11 foot tides twice a day. It is a great deal of fun to print a tide chart and go to the beaches at different tide times looking for shells, beach glass, stones or creatures.

3. Weather: Summer days after a cool morning usually get up in the 70’s. We often get 6-8 inch snow storms. Winter is full of lots of snow & ice sports. Our town has an ice rink downtown in winter.

4. We have 2 rivers - the Kennebunk & the Mousam [mouse-um]. The town of Kennebunk is along the south side of the Kennebunk River. The town of Kennebunkport is along the north side of the Kennebunk River. On the Kennebunk River in the early 1800’s many ocean sailing schooners were built. They sailed around the world transporting goods from here and bringing back other goods – such as lumber, cotton, fabrics. We took Jesse to our Brick Store Museum to learn more. We took his picture with the schooner Lavinia picture. She was built in 1823. She went down in a storm in 1891. Schooners sailed by wind power as you know. They were replaced when motors were invented.

Today the Kennebunk River is deep sea used mainly for recreational boats, tour boats, lobster and fishing boats.

The Mousam River, because it provided water power, resulted in the growth of light manufacturing. There were factories making shoes, fiberboard suitcases, leather goods from animal hides, ropes [used for farming and fishing] - & many others. Today those factories are gone because water power is no longer used and factories moved to the south.

Today we enjoy the Mousam River for fly fishing, canoeing, kayaking. Both of our rivers are tidal. We live on the Mousam 2 ½ miles from the Ocean. Half the time the water flows past us coming in from the Ocean. Then the tide turns and the river flows back out to the Ocean getting lower and lower. This cycle occurs twice each day – about every 12 hours.

We have enjoyed sharing our area with Jesse. Now we are returning him to you, Daniel, so you can share his travels with your fellow 4^th graders at Proctor!