Allagash River
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The Allagash River is a tributary of the St. John River, approximately 92 mi (150 km) long, in northern Maine in the United States. It drains a remote and scenic area of wilderness in the Maine Woods north of Mount Katahdin.
It issues from Allagash Lake in northern Piscataquis County. It flows generally northeast, passing through a chain of natural mountain lakes. It joins the St. John from the south at Allagash on the international border with Quebec. The relatively unspoiled nature of the river has long made it a popular destination for canoe trips. In the 1850s Henry David Thoreau made two journeys by canoe along the river, guided by Penobscots. He later wrote about the experience in his published account of the Maine Woods.
In 1966, the citizens of Maine voted to protect the river by authorizing a $1.5 million bond that would "develop the maximum wilderness character" of the river. Much of the river was subsequently designated as the Allagash Wilderness Waterway. In 1970 the waterway became part of the National Wild and Scenic River program of the U.S. federal government. Although the wild designation of the river is normally applied to free-flowing streams, the designation left in place the wooden Churchill Dam for historic reasons. In the 1990s, with the dam failing, the citizens of Maine authorized a concrete replacement for the dam to preserve the nearby recreational facilities on the river. The rebuilding of the dam was highly criticized by environmentalists. The expansion of recreational access to the river through new roads and docks has remained a controversial topic in recent years.
External links
- NPS: Allagash Wild and Scenic River (http://www.nps.gov/rivers/wsr-allagash.html)
- Sierra Club: Allagash River Background Information (http://maine.sierraclub.org/allagash_background_information.htm)