History:

The name Kennebunk means "long cut bank," probably in reference to Great Hill at the mouth of the Mousam River, which would have been an important landmark to native Americans coming along the coast in their ocean-going canoes.1

The first Europeans to visit the shores of southern Maine probably were sixteenth-century fishermen. Although it is well known that these fishing parties put ashore along the coast of Maine, whether any landed on Kennebunk's beaches is not part of the present historical record. At that time the native population followed a pattern of seasonal migration, living near the coast during the warmer months of the year, moving inland during the colder months. The presence of native Americans in Kennebunk was even then an ancient tradition. Because of recent archaeological excavations it is known that 11,000 years ago PaleoIndian hunters traveled seasonally to the Kennebunk Plains from throughout the Northeast to trap and kill bison and caribou.

The early seventeenth century brought a period of English and French exploration. In 1602 Bartholomew Gosnold, seeking a northern route to what would become the English settlement of Jamestown, Virginia, made landfall on the coast of Maine2. In 1603 Martin Pring, utilizing the services of the same pilot who had guided Gosnold, made his own voyage. Pring explored a short distance up the Kennebunk River, finding no natives but signs of fires where they had been. In 1604 Samuel de Champlain explored the coast of Maine and visited Cape Porpoise harbor, naming it "Le Port aux Isles" (Island Harbor). Cape Porpoise is clearly marked on the 1610 Simancus Map which is thought to have been prepared by Robert Tyndall, a surveyor employed by London's Virginia Company, who was sent over for the express purpose of mapping the coastline of the new world.

The first permanent settlement by Europeans in the Kennebunks probably occurred in the 1620s, and was along the coast and the shores of the Kennebunk and Mousam Rivers. By the 1640s coastal as well as inland farm grants were being made to settlers in Kennebunk, which was then a part of Wells.

By 1690 Indian uprisings and depredations had driven most settlers temporarily out of Kennebunk, as well as most of southern Maine. The struggle with native Americans continued until 1760. During the Indian wars, settlement was retarded, but not stopped. By 1750 centers had been established on the Mousam River at the site of the Larrabee family's garrison and at Mousam Village (today's village), and on the Kennebunk River at Kennebunk Landing and Lower Village. The demand for farmland was leading to the development of the Alewive Pond farming community, as well as at the Plains and inland on the Mousam River. Until the turn of the eighteenth century these settlements were commonly referred to as "the Kennebunk grants." "I have been over to the Kennebunk grants" was a common expression of those who visited this section of Wells