Anthropology

Anthropology is defined as the comparative study of human civilization. The "comparative" here comes from comparing it the *comparatively* natural world and its relationship with human settlement. Human history leads a dynamic relationship with the environment it takes place in by altering conditions for its own use. While the Caribou Bog has sparse documentation of specific human history, anthropogenic factors can be seen and understood today. It is important to realize the past and current land use of the bog to be able to interpret the future.

The Caribou Bog has little documented or apparent land use history. It is likely that it did, though, see much passive interactions as early as 15,000 years ago. The first documented evidence of human interaction happens in more recent history, but nevertheless, the general anthropology of Maine is extremely important to understand the future.

This tundra would've been the typical environment for most of Maine. As the climate warmed, it gave way to spruce-fir forests which in turn further diversified with the climate.

Image Courtesy: terragalleria.com

The Penobscot settlements were equidistant from Caribou Bog. It is likely each settlement's people gathered sphagnum moss and peat.

Image Courtesy: Google Earth

The excavation of a shell midden. Note the depth and distance these deposits can take up.

Image Courtesy: Maine.gov

The Pioneer, a 2-2-0 wood burning locomotive from the Bangor & Piscataquis Canal and Rail Road (predecessor of the Old Town Railway); built in England and sent to Maine in 1833-36. It is likely to have been the first locomotive in the state. The Pioneer was 18 feet long, weighed 7.5 tons and operated at 12mph. It wasn't uncommon for locomotives like these to cause forest fires and derailments due to experimental technology.

Image Courtesy: Mainememory.net and Bangor Public Library

The Bicycle Path shown on this 1902 topographic map of Orono is the former right-of-way of the Old Town Railway Company. The roads pictured are Stillwater Avenue (parallel to the right), Kelley Road (going southeast) and Forest Avenue (going east-west).

Image Courtesy: Historicaerials.com

The border of Bangor and Orono is mildly defined by a 6 foot-wide demarcation across the fen. The bog is shared unevenly with Bangor, Old Town and Orono, with the latter having the lion's share.

The First Nations

It is generally understood that the nomadic Paleo-Indians settled central Maine about 13,000 years ago from the northwest when the effects of the last ice age were still in affect. Central Maine then was the southern limit of the tundra and had primarily conifers dotting it, with megafauna like the woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius). Over the course of about 10,000 years the climate warmed and the tundra gave way to the first stand of spruce-fir forests, which ended the era of the woolly mammoth and gave way to a seasonally colder interior woodland.

By 5,000 BCE, the mysterious Red Paint People (named so for their unique way of painting their deceased in red ochre) completed an anthropogenic shift from the interior to Coastal Maine in pursuit of the natural resources from the Gulf of Maine and its watershed. These seafarers lead a comparably sedentary lifestyle, only moving inland during warmer months for large game like moose and elk. On the coast, the Red Paint People harvested clams, scallops and oysters and fished for salmon, sturgeon, eels and alewives and hunted seals, sea lions and the now-extinct sea mink (Neovison macrodon), a large mustelid (weasel) with aquatic adaptations. An artifact of the Red Paint People's settlements are shell middens, which are waste piles of shells, bones, pottery and clothes, the wastes of sedentary lifestyles; such artifacts have been excavated on the coast.

One coastal settlement that grew in importance was Pannawambskek ("where the ledges spread out"), a Red Paint People settlement that eventually became the hearth of the Penobscot Nation sometime around 3,000 BCE. Located on an island in the Penobscot River, its namesake 'ledges' are the gentle rapids on the west side of the island. People of Pannawambskek had ample access to a still water tributary on the east side as well as the head of the ocean tides about 5 miles south.

4 miles to the west from Pannawambskek lies the Caribou Bog. The Penobscot People probably frequented the Caribou Bog to hunt for elk, fish in the ecologically connected Pushaw Lake, gather bog cranberry, sphagnum moss and peat. Another Penobscot settlement existed about 8 miles northwest of Pannawambskek at the confluence of the Dead and Pushaw Streams. It is likely both settlements, probably totaling less than 1,000 people, had land use history with the Caribou Bog, considering the Pushaw site is located near the bog's northern reach. Small-scale disturbance is likely to have occurred from any Native American land use from occasional peat harvesting and cranberry gathering.

European Settlement & Forestry

Initial explorations in the 1500's and the 1604 settlement of St. Croix Isle by Samuel De Champlain eventually resulted in a Catholic mission being established at Pannawambskek in 1680 by the French. Eventually, the Penobscot moved to Indian Isle and the Old Indian Town became the City of Old Town and the island it was on became Marsh Island. The outcome of Great Britain's victory in the French & Indian War awarded the superpower with control of Maine. Established settlements like Bangor and Portland came into economic power.

In 1806 the Town of Orono was founded with land ceded from Old Town. Orono's southern border with Bangor was demarcated to run through the Caribou Bog's fen which called for a 6 foot-wide clearing to be made on the length of the border. It is still marked today. By 1830 the City of Bangor became the world's leading exporter of lumber and by 1850 a majority of Maine's old-growth forests were intensively cleared. As for Caribou Bog, a majority of the white pines in the upland area are dated to be about 150-170 years old, assuring us that it was at this time the bog came under its first major anthropogenic disturbance in the form of intensive forestry.

Based on the general health of the Caribou Bog it is unlikely any large scale harvesting of peat occurred, as no trace of physical disturbance of that is visible. However, it is most reasonable to suppose settlers and later Americans visited the bog for sphagnum moss and peat like the Penobscot did.

Recent History

In 1833, the Old Town Railway Company was chartered and constructed by 1836, leaving Bangor in a northeast direction and crossing the northern reaches of the Caribou Bog toward Stillwater and Old Town. The company reorganized and changed ownership for 50 years until becoming part of the Maine Central Railroad in 1882. By 1902 the right of way was abandoned in favor MEC's more southerly route through downtown Orono. The right-of-way became a bicycle path.

These 50 years of rail transport probably imparted frequent disturbance on the Caribou Bog. Early locomotives were experimental by design and as such it was fairly common for them to derail, catch fire or spread fire along right-of-ways. As for pollution, a majority of early railroads favored horses and as horses phased out to locomotives, wood burning engines were the initial norm. Wood-burned smoke would've been the only pollutant until the mid 1870's when coal became the preferred fuel. This probably did not affect the Bog too much as the line saw only sporadic and short-lived action.

The Caribou Bog saw little other human interaction in the 20th century. The paving of Stillwater Avenue in the Bog's southern reaches presents one of the modern challenges wetlands have with anthropogenic sources of pollution. Bangor blazed trails to create the Bangor City Forest just beyond the fen of the bog and by 2000 Professor Ronald B. Davis from the University of Maine initiated the Orono Bog Walk project. More on this successful endeavor can be read here in the About section. It is reasonable to suppose that in our time the Caribou Bog has had more visitors than it has ever had in 15,000 years.

Why it Matters

While it doesn't seem too important, it is always worth noting the delicate dynamic of human activity in the environment. Human activities are volatile and often times can be irreversible in the short-term; remedies to human activities can take generations if not epochs! Such is the story of Caribou Bog. Everything from the First Nations harvesting cranberries to modern Mainers paving Stillwater Avenue can alter all different aspects of the bog.

Modern issues like eutrophication from fertilizer runoff, habitat fragmentation and altering of groundwater recharge from development, animal conflict, and the introduction of nonnative species produces consequences good and bad to the preservation of the bog. While not all these things can be easily prevented, it is not too difficult to at least mitigate the effects of human activity on the Bog.

Sources:

1. Coolidge, Austin J.; John B. Mansfield (1859). A History and Description of New England

2. Laverdiere, Andrew. "The Bangor and Piscataquis Canal and Rail Road." Abandonedrails.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Nov. 2016.

3. Dempsey, Jack. “Early America - time line 1.” http://ancientlights.org/tl1.html. n.d. Web. 11 Nov. 2016.

4. "Bangor & Piscataquis Canal and Rail Road." Maine Memory Network. Maine Memory Network, n.d. Web. 11 Nov. 2016.