Camden, Maine THE DOWN EAST ENTERPRISE July, 1962 First State License The Indian Shell Heaps In Maine For Fallout Shelter The basement of the Rangley Public Library is the first public fallout shel- ter in Maine to meet federal specifica- tions. A public fallout shelter license was delivered to Cmdr. Charles Urlass, USN, who is directing a federal shelter survey in Maine. The Rangeley shelter was originated by Oscar Riddle, town manager, accord- ing to State Civil Defense Director Les- lie H. Stanley. The building is one of 1800 potential public shelters already listed in Maine in the course of the pre- liminary survey. DAMARISCOTTA SHELL HEAPS as they appeared in the 1890s. The old dropped, forgotten or broken and photo gives an idea of the original size of some of the more substantial shell thrown away. The lime of the shells deposits. -Maine and its Scenic Gems, 1897 preserved the bone tools, as well as the No one knows just how many In- 15 feet in diameter and a foot or more bone teeth and antlers of animals dian shell heaps are scattered along in thickness, to an acre or two in extent, killed for food. the coast of Maine and the offshore several feet thick. These large heaps The largest shell heaps are those lin- islands. Some say 250; some say that had been occupied intermittently for ing the banks of the river just beyond 500 would be a conservative estimate. hundreds of years, as attested by the Damariscotta on U. S. 1. Here the The heaviest concentration of them OC- artifacts which have been found in the shells are predominantly oyster; the curs around Frenchman's and Penob- shells. heaps extend for more than 100 yards scot bays, and they feather out both to The shell heaps were the kitchen along the river banks and at one time the southward and the eastward. Around middens of the Indians, who made their were more than 30 feet thick. Penob- Passamaquoddy Bay they increase in summer homes on them. There is no scot Indian women came down from the number and size again, and there are orderly layering of shells within the villages at Pemaquid and elsewhere to some large, deep ones along the New middens. Wigwams were set up right dig out and dry the oysters at this spot Brunswick shores. on the heaps, and when a basketful of and along the river. They came here Shell heaps can be found along a clams had been shucked, the empty for many years; hence this great accu- sheltered cove or on a level point, but shells were dumped just outside the mulation of shells. seldom more than fifteen-feet above the walls of the dwellings. The shells al- Maine shell heaps have been investi- high-water mark. There is always a ready on the ground were kicked gated for nearly a century, both formal- clam flat offshore; and although it around, leveled off, trampled and ly by professional archeologists, and in- may no longer flow, there was a spring broken. formally by those who were merely curi- nearby at the time of Indian occupation It is thought that, since the shells' osity seekers. They have been leveled where good, clean water was readily sharp edges would have tended to cut by plows and, as in the case of the available. up moccasin leathers, the Indians Damariscotta shell heaps, "mined" for Most shell heaps are composed of spread a layer of fine beach gravel over shell. But there still are many which more than 90 percent clam shells, with the areas which were most used. There have remained untouched for the past occasional mussel, scallop, oyster or are such thin layers of fine gravel OC- 300 years, their white mounds still quahog shells scattered through them. curring here and there within some of showing above the grass just as the In- The size of the heaps varies from about the middens, and this seems a likely dians left them SO many years ago. supposition to explain their presence. Artifacts from the shell heaps in LOBSTERS If a clam bed ran out, then the site Maine are to be found in the collec- In Their Natural Salt Water would be abandoned for a few years to tions of local people who are interested Maine's Best allow the bed to rejuvenate, and a thin in Indian relics, historical society col- LOBSTER POUND Specializing in layer of topsoil would accumulate. lections, and scattered throughout the Banquets & Outings "Sand clams" also would add to the ac- museums of coastal New England. Waterville-Tel. TR 2-6715 "Central Maine's Largest Lobster Dealer' cumulation of dirt, as would the coals -Natalie B. Stoddard and ashes of the cooking fires. Mixed in with the shells, gravel and Visit the new HOOKED RUGS FOR SALE black dirt from the fires are to be found All wool, hand hooked. Open JAGGER Tues. for sales only, other- the cultural remains of the Indians who wise by appointment. Rug camped there. They occur all through FACTORY STORE hooking classes or private lessons. Mrs. Lawrence E. the shells, as well as on the basal lay- Maine's Outstanding Sports Higgins, 194 Main St., Ells- wear Knitting Yarns. worth, Maine. Tel. Norman- er of ground on which the first camp Main Street Sanford, Maine dy 7-2085. was made. Tools were buried, lost, Jesup Memorial Library 75 34 Mt. Desert Bar Harbour, ME 04609