Augusta is the capital of the U.S. state of Maine and the county seat of and most populous city in Kennebec County. The city's population was 18,899 at the 2020 census, making it the 12th most populous city in Maine, and 3rd least populous state capital in the United States after Montpelier, Vermont, and Pierre, South Dakota.
The area was explored in 1607 by English settlers from the Popham Colony at the mouth of the Kennebec River. Before European settlement, Algonquian-speaking Indians lived in the area. In 1625, representatives of Plymouth Colony chose the east shore of the Kennebec for a trading post, which was likely built in 1628 and became known as "Cushnoc". The Kennebec Proprietors, successors to the Plymouth Company, built Fort Western near the site of the abandoned trading post in 1754 and began settlement efforts. The new village was incorporated as Hallowell in 1771, and the upriver part of town separated in 1797 to form the town of Harrington. On June 9, 1797, Harrington changed its name to Augusta and, in 1827, it was designated capital of Maine.
Augusta is the easternmost state capital in the United States. Located on the Kennebec River at the head of tide, it is the principal city in the Augusta-Waterville micropolitan statistical area and home to the University of Maine at Augusta. Because of the city's position on the Kennebec, downtown Augusta is vulnerable to floods in spring. The Maine flood of 1987, known as the "Great Flood", affected the city. Bond Brook runs from northwest to southeast through the city center, and has been called the "Home of wild Atlantic Salmon".
The city has five different residential areas, including the "west side", a historic neighborhood north of the state capitol complex, and the "east side", which is situated on the opposite side of the Kennebec. The city's northwest quadrant includes both a retail center and neighborhoods.
Augusta State Airport serves the city, offering both commercial service and general aviation. Although the airport is owned by the State of Maine, it is managed and operated by the city. Interstate 95 passes by the western outskirts of Augusta, and both U.S. 202 and U.S. 201 run through the city.
History
The area was first explored by the English of the short-lived Popham Colony in September 1607. Twenty-one years later, English settlers from the Plymouth Colony settled in the area in 1628 as part of a trading post on the Kennebec River. The settlement was known by its Native American name Cushnoc (or Coussinoc or Koussinoc), meaning "head of the tide". Fur trading was at first profitable, but because of Native uprisings and declining revenues, Plymouth Colony sold the Kennebec Patent in 1661. Cushnoc would remain unoccupied for the next 75 years.
The area around Cushnoc was inhabited by the Kennebec, a band of the larger Abenaki nation. During the 17th century, they were on friendly terms with the English settlers in the region.
A hotbed of Abenaki hostility toward British settlements was located further up the Kennebec at Norridgewock. In 1722, the tribe and its allies attacked Fort Richmond (now Richmond) and destroyed Brunswick. In response, English forces sacked Norridgewock in 1724 during Dummer's War, when the English gained tentative control of the Kennebec.
During the height of the French and Indian War, in 1754, the English colonists built a blockhouse named Fort Western at Cushnoc on the eastern bank of the Kennebec River. It was intended as a supply depot for Fort Halifax upriver, as well as a regional defense from French attack. Later, during the American Revolutionary War, Benedict Arnold and his 1,100 troops would use Fort Western as a staging area before continuing their journey up the Kennebec to the Battle of Quebec.
Cushnoc was incorporated as part of Hallowell in 1771. Known as "the Fort", it was set off and incorporated by the Massachusetts General Court in February 1797 as Harrington. In August, however, the name was changed to Augusta after Pamela Augusta Dearborn, daughter of Henry Dearborn. In 1799, it was designated as the county seat for the newly created Kennebec County.