Back نهر ساكو Arabic نهر ساكو ARZ Saco River CEB Сако (юханшыв) CV Saco River German Rivière Saco French Saco (fiume) Italian Сако (река) Russian Сако (річка) Ukrainian
| Saco River | |
|---|---|
 The Saco River in Conway, New Hampshire | |
    | |
| Location | |
| Country | United States |
| States | New Hampshire, Maine |
| Counties | Coos, NH, Carroll, NH, Oxford, ME, Cumberland, ME, York, ME |
| Towns and cities | Conway, NH, Fryeburg, ME, Saco, ME, Biddeford, ME |
| Physical characteristics | |
| Source | Saco Lake |
| • location | Crawford Notch, White Mountains, NH |
| • coordinates | 44°12′58″N 71°24′31″W / 44.21611°N 71.40861°W |
| • elevation | 1,887 ft (575 m) |
| Mouth | Saco Bay, Gulf of Maine, Atlantic Ocean |
• location | Biddeford/Saco, ME |
• coordinates | 43°27′42″N 70°21′20″W / 43.46167°N 70.35556°W |
• elevation | 0 ft (0 m) |
| Length | 136 mi (219 km) |
| Basin size | 1,703 sq mi (4,410 km2) |
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The Saco River (/ˈsɑːkoʊ/ SAH-koh, Abenaki: Sαkóhki) is a river in northeastern New Hampshire and southwestern Maine in the United States. It drains a rural area of 1,703 square miles (4,410 km2) of forests and farmlands west and southwest of Portland, emptying into the Atlantic Ocean at Saco Bay, 136 miles (219 km) from its source.[1] It supplies drinking water to roughly 250,000 people in thirty-five towns; and historically provided transportation and water power encouraging development of the cities of Biddeford and Saco and the towns of Fryeburg and Hiram.[2]
Samuel de Champlain sailed a portion of the river in 1605 and referred to it as Chouacoet, which he said was the name used by the Almouchiquois people.[3] Various sources also give their name as "Sokoki" (a term also used for the Missiquoi people of western New England) and as being either the ancestors or close relatives of the Pequawket who lived along the river near present-day Fryeburg.[4][5][6] William O. Bright attributed the origin of "Saco" to an Eastern Abenaki language word meaning "land where the river comes out", which he connected to similar place names like Saugus, said to come from the Pawtucket word for "outlet".[7][8]
- ^ U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline data. The National Map, accessed June 30, 2011
- ^ DeLorme Mapping Company The Maine Atlas and Gazetteer (13th edition) (1988) ISBN 0-89933-035-5 maps 2,3&4
- ^ Library, McArthur (July 11, 2021). "Champlain's Biddeford-Saco". The Backblog. Retrieved April 20, 2023.
- ^ "Biddeford History & Heritage Project - I. Headwaters of a community: Sowacatuck, Chouacoet, and the sea". biddeford.mainememory.net. Retrieved April 20, 2023.
- ^ McLaughlin, Tom. "The story of the Saco River Canal". The Conway Daily Sun. Retrieved April 20, 2023.
- ^ Chapman, Andy O'Brien and Will (December 12, 2021). "Radical Mainers: From Race War to Class War on the Saco River". Mainer. Retrieved April 20, 2023.
- ^ Bright, William (2004). Native American placenames of the United States. University of Oklahoma Press. p. 413. ISBN 978-0-8061-3598-4. Retrieved April 14, 2011.
- ^ Douglas-Lithgow, R.A. (1909). Dictionary of American-Indian Place and Proper Names in New England. Salem, Massachusetts: Salem Press. p. 157.