Journeys into the Past at UNE

The University of New England (UNE) is located near the mouth of the Saco River in Biddeford, Maine. It is certainly a beautiful location, but it turns out that it’s much more than that. French explorer Samuel de Champlain visited the area in 1605. He drew a map and described the native people living on what is now the UNE campus, the earliest written account of the Wabanaki people. A few years later, with many believing that the climate in southern Maine was too much for Europeans to survive, de Champlain hired Richard Vines to spend the winter of 1616/17 on the banks of Biddeford Pool (then called Winter Harbor). If we count this as “settlement,” it means that Biddeford was settled before Plymouth. The experiment was successful, paving the way for European colonization in northern New England. Within a few years, the campus area was settled by a growing number of farmer/fishermen who made their living logging, farming, and fishing, alternating their activities seasonally. This was downtown Biddeford beginning in the seventeenth century and it remained such until the advent of lumbering, shipbuilding, and textile production at the waterfalls several miles upstream. As the economic focus moved, the people still living near the mouth of the river had to look for new ways to earn a living. They found jobs in the mills, engaged in construction, and pursued work in the growing tourism industry among other things. Some sold up and moved, paving the way for a group of Franciscans from Quebec to establish a high school, turned college, that initially catered to French-Canadian immigrants and that eventually became the University of New England. This podcast is about the area surrounding the UNE campus and those who lived there, stretching from the popular tourism center that is Old Orchard Beach to the north to the scenic port town of Kennebunkport to the south. It details the lives of ordinary people, the changes that took place, and the transformation of the land to match evolving human needs. All stories are researched and told by UNE students. New podcasts will be added as they are completed, generally in December and May so stay tuned for more!