Speaker Series: Joseph Hall

“What If the Morse Mountain Was Not at the End of a Road but at the Intersection of Two?”

Bates College Associate Professor of History and Environmental Department Chair Joe Hall, will speak to the contrast between the Native view and use of the land and marshes surrounding Morse Mountain with that of the European settlers. The Bates Morse Mountain Conservation Area is near the end of a long access road which is itself at the end of the state highway that winds from Bath through Phippsburg. But what if we thought of this place as at the intersection of this overland roads and a much older portage that connects Atkins Bay to Small Point Harbor by way of the Morse and Sprague Rivers? Considering this question raises new questions about the continuing presence of Wabanakis in Phippsburg and other parts of Midcoast Maine.