SOWANGEN, Swan Island of Eagles in the Kennebec

Swan Island (formerly named Garden Island) is approximately 4 miles long and .5 miles in width, sitting in the Kennebec River between Richmond and Dresden, Maine. It was purchased by the State of Maine as a wildlife refuge in the 1950’s, providing ferry service for visitors until 2022. Personal watercraft can be used to access the island’s hiking trails; the campground offers lean-tos with benches inside, grills, firepits, and has a hand pump for fresh water in the field. Restrooms are provided near the Dumaresque house, adjacent to the campground. A classroom filled with artifacts is fitted with long benches, and the Game Warden during 2000-2022 enjoyed providing lectures to anxious students. L.L. Bean hosted workshops for hunting and fishing, stocking one of the ponds there and provided fishing poles for catch-and-release fun for kids. Lobster feasts were held next to the long roof covering several picnic tables, used until 2022, when the ferry was discontinued. Little Swan Island (formerly named Calf Island) sits across a small but treacherous tidal waterway that has claimed several lives of island residents. That island is approximately 42 acres in size, with an island just about the size of a big rock to the north of it, named Spaulding Island, after an English lady who once had a small cabin there. The Bashaba or Chief of an Abenaki gen or tribe lived there in a stone fortress. The Abenaki named the two islands: SOWANGEN, Sowan-gen, meaning island of eagles, of which there are many we can watch circling the island today.A peaceful place with a lookout tower about halfway down the one island road, lovingly named the Perkins Highway for the name of the village there, incorporated by Thomas Handasyde Perkins, who was also a benefactor of the Perkins School for the Blind.The ice harvesting trade kept the island’s residents and locals employed during the 1800’s, along with several boatyards where sailing ships were built. One could watch men working in large ice warehouses loading clear ice blocks using horses on the river, and many hard-working men, near wharves where tall ships tied up to load. A brickyard, shipbuilding, wood cutting, a wooden box factory, and house building were other trades for residents who were not the large ice-harvesting investors. A few of the women fortunate enough to own brick ovens or looms invited neighbors in for baking, weaving, and spinning, or corn-husking and quilting bees. A few of the resident men worked in either Dresden or Richmond.Homes and cottages built on Swan Island in the 1800’s were extravagantly furnished just as a ship captain might outfit his quarters on the ship. Many architectural details and fine woods were used to design these homes, where wives would await the return of their Captain, with silks, china, and porcelain, spices, and molasses from faraway places.